Chicagoland

Girls Catholic Athletic Conference celebrates 35 years

By Daniel P. Smith | Contributor
Sunday, February 28, 2010

It seems foreign these days to talk about girls sports as an afterthought, an absent piece of the American high school landscape. Yet, that’s precisely what it was in 1974.

As a physical education teacher at Academy of the Sacred Heart on Sheridan Road, Mickey Smith was among a group of teachers seeking formal athletic opportunities for female students, a rare idea in the early 1970s.

“[Illinois] was only starting with female competition at this time, but there was real momentum there for girls’ sports,” Smith said. “With a conference, we thought there would be more organization for everyone, more opportunity for the girls and certainly less headache.”

Determined, Smith and her colleagues spearheaded the creation of the Girls Catholic Athletic Conference (GCAC) — no easy feat given the need for bylaws and procedures that would appease the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) and legitimize the conference’s interscholastic activities.

Successful in their efforts, the GCAC began operating in 1974 with 11 schools participating in volleyball and basketball. Today, with 19 schools and 10 sports, the GCAC stands tall as the state’s largest collection of Catholic girls’ athletic competition.

Staying together

On March 21, the GCAC will celebrate its 35th anniversary as well as the induction of its 12th GCAC Hall of Fame class at Monastero’s Ristorante and Banquets, 3955 W. Devon Ave.

“It’s thrilling to see that we’ve stayed together all these years even though some have come and some have gone,” said Smith, who remains the conference’s treasurer and an active voice in female athletics.

June VerSchave, the athletics director at Mount Assisi Academy in Lemont, said the anniversary and banquet provides the conference a chance “to celebrate all the opportunities we’ve been able to give our girls.”

From its 1974 inception to the present day, the GCAC’s mission has remained singularly focused on the female student athlete. The league’s constitution reads: “To promote interscholastic girls’ athletics and maintain high ideals of sportsmanship and a friendly understanding among members schools.”

“Parents send their girls to Catholic high schools for a variety of reasons, including the intrinsic values found in athletics,” said GCAC president Darlene Graf, the athletics director at Queen of Peace High School in Burbank.

“Our girls learn about fair play, leadership, budgeting time and discipline, skills that not only help them become a better athlete but are applicable to the real world. Athletics fit nicely into the mission our Catholic schools have, which is to help the entire person develop.”

All over Chicago area

Participating GCAC schools blanket the Chicago area, from Wilmette’s Regina Dominican and Loyola Academy in the north to Mount Assisi Academy (Lemont) in the west and Seton Academy (South Holland) to the south. The conference has fielded state championship teams in basketball, volleyball, golf and water polo.

The GCAC Hall of Fame, originated in 1999, will recognize nine individuals and two teams at the March event.

“The Hall of Fame affords us the additional opportunity to recognize the athletes, coaches, principals, athletic directors and friends who have made significant contributions to this conference,” Smith said.

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