Seventh heaven? Phillips elects to play 7A football

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Chicago's Phillips Academy (4-0), who is currently state-ranked in Class 6A, will play this season and next in Class 7A according to the IHSA and its recently published IHSA State Playoff Weekly Outlook. The rundown was updated and released earlier Monday on the IHSA website

The Wildcats are the only football team in the state that has petitioned "up" to play in a higher class.

"The IHSA reached out to us a few weeks ago," Phillips head coach Troy McAllister said. "They planned to void our last year of petitioning up to play in 6A because of the district system that is coming. So we were given the option of staying and playing at our current enrollment level or reapplying to move up again for another two years. We feel that playing in 7A is where we want to be  as a program. We want to play in 7A for several reasons including playing in the 1-32 true seeding system and 7A also features several state powerhouse programs. We believe that's where we want to be as a football program. We just felt as a staff that the time to make this move is now."

Phillips, listed with an enrollment of 575 students on the IHSA website, is the only Chicago Public League team in the history of the IHSA state football playoff system schools to win a state football title. The Wildcats won a Class 4A title in 2015 and a 5A state title in 2017. They volunteered to play "up" in enrollment last season to Class 6A and lost to Cary-Grove in the 6A state quarterfinal round. 

A move up starting this season for the Wildcats from 6A to 7A would now put Phillips in the same class as defending 7A state champion Nazareth Academy along with state-ranked Mount Carmel, Batavia. Glenbard West and Brother Rice.
 

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