MOOSEHEART, IL – It wasn’t hard to spot Mooseheart’s coaching staff at Monday’s (Aug. 10) kick-off dinner at the Illinois Math and Science Academy for the newly-formed Northeastern Athletic Conference.

There, amidst a sea of coaches wearing blue – and Alden-Hebron in green, sat the Red Ramblers staff, proudly sporting the school’s bright red on their shirts. Mooseheart is the only NAC’s 13 members to have red as its primary color.

Those Red Ramblers coaches were smiling too, which was a common facial expression in the room as the NAC brought together coaches and administrators from each of its schools on the eve of its inaugural season.

“It’s nice to be part of a group,” Mooseheart Athletic Director Mark Johnson said. “It’s nice for scheduling. It’s nice for coaches, knowing who you’re going to play every year. It has added rivalries with other schools, which is nice.”

Mooseheart sponsors seven high school sports: Football and volleyball in the fall; boys basketball, girls basketball and wrestling in the winter and boys track and girls track in the spring. The school’s coaches were familiar with many in the room through past conference alignments and non-conference contests. But the entire sports program – with the exception of wrestling – is now part of one league. This especially benefits Red Ramblers teams in sports such as volleyball and girls basketball, which have never been involved in conference play. Last year, Mooseheart’s football, wrestling, and boys’ and girls’ track teams competed in the Indian Trails Conference -- while volleyball and boys’ and girls’ basketball competed as independents.

“We have a bigger goal to reach and not just play schools where they are just games that we play,” Mooseheart volleyball coach Kristin Shuman said. “We’re going to build some friendships and some rivalries along the way, and that’s going to be really good for us.”

All-sport members of the NAC include Alden-Hebron, Christian Liberty Academy, IMSA, Keith Country Day School, Luther North, Mooseheart, Rockford Christian, Rockford Christian Life and Westminster Christian. Kirkland-Hiawatha is a NAC member in football and girls soccer. Chicago Hope Academy is a NAC member for football in 2009 and joins as a full member in 2009-10. Chicago International Charter School (CICS)/Longwood is a NAC member for football only, as is North Shore Country Day.

Each of those schools was represented at Monday’s dinner, which featured Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Executive Director Marty Hickman as the keynote speaker.

“You can touch a lot of kids lives over the course of this year, and I know you understand that,” Hickman said.

Hickman said the first year will certainly be marked by some teething issues, a sequence of little things that he advised all in attendance to work to get past.

“If you can stay together as a conference, you are going to build rivalries and traditions and experiences for kids that aren’t easily duplicated,” Hickman said.

The NAC offers its volleyball teams a tournament-style atmosphere with its own conference tournament, which takes place this year Oct. 24 at IMSA.

“It’s a completely separate trophy and it’s one more chance to see everybody,” Shuman said. “Hopefully we’ll have a good day playing.”

In recent years, finding opponents when other conferences begin their league play has created problems for Mooseheart’s teams. Formation of the NAC has eased those worries significantly.

“It’s a great opportunity for our program,” Mooseheart girls basketball coach Bryan Miller said. “It’s a good sense of belonging for our program. It’s kind of a good chance for the athletes to get to know each other in competitive competition. I know our girls have grown close with other schools competitively, and this is going to bring that bond a lot closer.”

In a sense, all sports other than football have spent their regular seasons preparing for the postseason. In one way, this has devalued regular season games on which conference standings ever rode and raised the postseason to a higher level than at other schools, because it was the only measuring stick the Ramblers had.

“Another added bonus about being in a conference is that you’re not always shooting for the playoffs,” Miller said. “Now you can shoot for the conference championship. That’s going to be the first goal for most if not all of the teams in the conference, to win the conference. Anything above and beyond that will be gravy for us.”

Due to a lack of participating teams, at its inception the NAC will not offer conference competition in the following sports: wrestling, boys tennis, girls tennis, boys swimming, girls swimming, girls bowling and boys volleyball. Johnson, who coaches wrestling in addition to serving as Mooseheart’s athletic director, said the Ramblers will continue to wrestle Alden-Hebron and also schedule some of their old Indian Trails Conference foes.

“Even in the Indian Trails Conference, we didn’t have much of a wrestling program,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue with some of those relationships that we had.”

Founded in 1913, Mooseheart is supported completely through private donations - the great majority of which come from the 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, in more than 1,800 Lodges and 1,600 Chapters located throughout the U.S. , Canada , Great Britain and Bermuda . Moose International headquarters is located on the Mooseheart campus.

Since its founding, Mooseheart has operated a complete, accredited kindergarten-through-high-school academic program, plus art, music, vocational training and interscholastic sports. It is an extremely nurturing and student-tailored program, with an average student-teacher ratio of 12-1.

Mooseheart students who complete their studies with a 3.0 GPA or better (4.0=A) are eligible for up to five years of annually renewable scholarship funding, covering tuition, room and board in an amount comparable to that required for an in-state student at an Illinois public university.

Mooseheart is currently home to nearly 230 students, ranging in age from preschoolers to high school seniors. Applications for admission to Mooseheart are considered from any family whose children are, for whatever reason, lacking a stable home environment. Mooseheart boasts its own U.S. Post Office and a fully functioning branch of Fifth Third Bank.  

In addition to Mooseheart, Moose International also supports Moosehaven, a 70-acre retirement community near Jacksonville , FL founded in 1922; and conducts more than $90 million worth of community service programs annually.

Founded in 1888, the Moose organization has long offered its members an opportunity to do good for others while celebrating life, with family, social, and sporting activities. For more information on the Moose organization, visit the websites at www.mooseintl.org , www.mooseheart.org., www.moosehaven.org, or call 630-966-2229.

2009 Mooseheart Football Schedule
Mooseheart coach Gary Urwiler, 10th year. 2008 record: 2-7
(Urwiler career record: 42-42, all at Mooseheart).

2009 Mooseheart Volleyball Schedule
Mooseheart coach: Kristin Shuman, 2nd year. 2008 record: 7-13.