High School Athletic Programs in North Shore -- How do they compare? (Evanston: house, middle school)

[kschpak]

I'm specifically trying to find out how the athletic programs compare between Evanston High School, New Trier, Highland Park High School, and Lake Forest High School, with particular interest in Highland Park and Lake Forest, as that's the direction I'm leaning.

My husband would like a school that has very competitive and successful teams, baseball being the most important sport to him. He comes from a line of college scholarship athletes, and it's important to him to send his kids to a school that would also afford them good opportunities to follow in his footsteps.

From what I've been able to find out, New Trier is #1. But how do the others compare? Are they sorely lacking? Would it be unlikely to have a kid get an athletic scholarship from one of these other schools in baseball or another mainstream sport?

We are just starting our family and are house shopping, and I'm realizing this is an important factor for him in the community we choose. We're from the West Coast --forgive me for not having a clue about this!

[urbanlore]

The local papers generally have good coverage of high school athletics. You might search for more current info.

The recent history of any of these schools being a powerhouse on the national scene is pretty remote, though in that league Maine South probably has both a tradition of strong baseball teams and smaller enrollment than New Trier which makes participation / recognition somewhat more likely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centra...8since_1965.29

Standings

Lake Forest is probably the least likely to really produce "scholarship athletes" in the traditional sports but they are pretty strong in more "prep school" sports like lacrosse, ice hockey and field hockey:
Scouts Girl's Ice Hockey Home Page

Originally Posted by kschpak

I'm specifically trying to find out how the athletic programs compare between Evanston High School, New Trier, Highland Park High School, and Lake Forest High School, with particular interest in Highland Park and Lake Forest, as that's the direction I'm leaning.



My husband would like a school that has very competitive and successful teams, baseball being the most important sport to him. He comes from a line of college scholarship athletes, and it's important to him to send his kids to a school that would also afford them good opportunities to follow in his footsteps.



From what I've been able to find out, New Trier is #1. But how do the others compare? Are they sorely lacking? Would it be unlikely to have a kid get an athletic scholarship from one of these other schools in baseball or another mainstream sport?



We are just starting our family and are house shopping, and I'm realizing this is an important factor for him in the community we choose. We're from the West Coast --forgive me for not having a clue about this!

[kschpak]

Yes, I tried looking at the news clippings. They basically give game coverage, and not over-arching summaries of how competitive the programs are.

[847mom]

If you are most interested in baseball, then I would say New Trier or Evanston out of the ones on your list. They both have good high school baseball programs. Evanston has a fairly new and very nice baseball stadium. Both have very good quality coaching in their programs. I don't know much about the other mentioned school programs, but overall Highland Park is not really a sports powerhouse. Lake Forest is good at the country club sports like golf, tennis etc. I don't know much about their high school baseball, but their younger kids feeder programs are pretty good quality. I don't know the reason but in some areas there are very strong kids programs, but it does not always carry over to the high school level. Check around as I would not consider myself the authority of the baseball world, but I am a mom of a middle school full-time travel player in the North Shore area. Baseball is pretty competitive at New Trier, but so are most of the others. You have to be very top notch to make the Varsity level teams there for most of the sports. My nephew played full-time travel soccer for years and played 3 out of four years at New Trier. He couldn't make Varsity for his last year b/c of the amount of very high quality players they had for that year. It does vary according to the particular sport, but college scholarships are pretty hard to obtain, but kids do get them all over the suburbs.
Good luck with your decision.

[kschpak]

Thanks for that reply 847mom. That's helpful info.

[linicx]

There is a lot of information here about the school, its sports, and the Illinois School Report Card in the source references. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tr...ool#Activities

If you like what you read, the next step is to the visit the school.

[RC2216]

The Illinois High School Association(IHSA) is the governing body for all high school athletics in Illinois. Their website lists the season summaries for each school and program in the state.

School Directory | IHSA

Click on the school you want, then the season summaries link in the blue box. This will allow you to see see previous records and how the programs stack up against each other.

[kschpak]

rc2216, thanks for the link. That is perfect! Very helpful.

[edsg25]

New Trier has won more IHSA championships than any other school in the state (although it has somehow managed to miss winning the biggest prize of all: NT has never won a boys' basketball championship).

[Nrkaplan]

My name is Natalie Kaplan and I'm the Director of Communications for District 113, which includes Deerfield and Highland Park High Schools. I can tell you that Highland Park High School is in a very competitive athletic conference. We compete in 28 sports over the three seasons. We've had athletes from multiple programs receive college scholarships in their respected sports. If you'd like to know more about our athletic program at HPHS feel free to contact Athletic Director Matt Castle for more information at 224-765-2096. Good luck on the house hunt!