Crim: QND’s Connell says IHSA changes to address ‘competitive equity’ unfairly penalizes all private schools

Jenna Durst, left, and the girls basketball team at Quincy Notre Dame will play in Class 3A next season, but Robbie Reed and the boys basketball team at Quincy Notre Dame will play in Class 2A, per changes made by the Illinois High School Association with the success factor and the 1.65 multiplier applied to the classification enrollment of private or non-boundaried schools. | MRN file photos

QUINCY – The public-private debate is as old as high school athletics itself. It reached a fever pitch last fall in Illinois when private schools won seven of the eight state football championships. While insisting that was not the tipping point, the Illinois High School Association Board of Directors has since voted to implement three…

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Schuck on a Truck: Episode 1 with Bill Connell

Muddy River Sports editor Matt Schuckman and Quincy Notre Dame athletic director Bill Connell reunite on the tailgate of Schuckman’s pickup truck to reminisce about the origins of the post-practice tailgate interviews and discuss everything from Connell’s football coaching career to the impact COVID had on athletics over the past year to his son battling…

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