CHICAGO (AP) – Unlike some resource-rich powerhouses that typically vie for Illinois’ high school football championships, the Phillips Academy Wildcats must lug their helmets and pads nearly a mile to a South Side Chicago city park to practice. They have no field of their own.
A former gang member-turned-star safety sleeps at the assistant coach’s house because he and six other teammates fit the school system’s technical definition of homeless.
The city’s first all-black high school already made history by becoming the first team from the embattled public school system to advance to the state finals in 32 years.
They are a sure underdog in Friday night’s game against the Rochester Rockets – a small central Illinois farming community for their fifth straight title. But an upset victory would make the Wildcats the first Chicago public school ever to lift a first-place football trophy.
Even if they lose, the Wildcats already have beaten tough odds – as a team and as individuals growing up in a place that can be exceedingly tough on its youth.