Much has been made of the decline of De La Salle, who used to be a solid program, even going so far as to defeat Mt. Carmel in 2017. However, I'm equally curious about their neighbor four blocks to thw south. In 2017, they opened the season with a shocking upset over Loyola, and they went on to dominate the remainder of their schedule on the way to the 5A championship. Since then, they haven't done much. Their last meaningful wins were in 2021, when they won a couple playoff games. This year, they're winless and have been outscored 359-24 against far below average competition. I haven't watched them play, but based on the numbers I'm seeing, this appears to be one of the worst teams in the state. What went wrong here?
What Happened to Phillips?
- Thread starter DirtySixThirty
- Start date
Coach left, funding disappeared from the Charter program they were apart of.
Interesting. During the general shift toward private schools in the past six years, were they hurt by their proximity to the south side Catholic schools?
Nothing to do with it. Solorio went from being competitive to an after thought to. They're was a very good youth league tied to their charter organization schools that funneled players to both schools. Phillips also figured out how to get the best kids at second tier CPS schools to transfer in and eventually started picking off kids from MC to. CPS took back over 5 years ago and downhill since.
Last edited:
I was wondering about this the other day... Good Post!!! What became of their coach?
Am I remembering correctly that he's at Homewood-Flossmoor now?
Troy McAllister was head coach. Figured out a way to take advantage (within the rules) of the schools enrollment policies and get the horses. Also managed to poach a few CCL kids in Phillips’ prime. He moved on to Sandburg and now HF with limited success.
Charter had different rules for admission. Charter had different compensation models for coaches. Charter had money for feeder programs for both Phillips and Solario. Charter was kicked out of CPS. Coaches left. Money dried up. Feeder programs died. Kids either graduated or changed schools. It's a super CPL thing, really. Find something that is successful, then screw it up. I know the argument is that the Charter wasn't a great organization, but a lot of those kids would've not been in school if it weren't for football. Obviously, McAllister was a good coach. Coaches matter everywhere, but so much more in the CPL.
