All spring last year, ITW David Speer Academy and Butler College Prep were neck-to-neck to win the Noble League Cup, Noble Schools’ year-long athletics and extracurriculars competition. Speer was the reigning champion for three years straight, but they finally lost that crown last year when Butler marched in to win by just four points at the Noble League marching band championship in June.

The competition was serious. Athletic directors Anaise Hernandez (Speer) and Courtney Tarver (Butler) were doggedly tracking their points with their coaches every week in spring.

“It literally became like a math problem for us every week,” Hernandez said.

“We constantly talked about it in our coaches’ group chat,” Tarver said.

And that same energy followed them into this year. The Noble League Cup is still relatively new, but it’s picking up speed as Tarver, Hernandez, and coaches at other Noble schools aim to expand their programs and become more competitive. Butler is thinking about adding more arts and non-athletic programming. Speer is seeking to add a marching band and improve their arts programming.

“It’s definitely pushing us to think outside the box to create more opportunities for kids.” Jordan Kruger, principal at Speer, said.

Sparking the growth of sports and enrichment programs like this was exactly the hope Tony Largo, our assistant director of athletics, and Jason Ronai, our former senior director of athletics and student experience, had when they created the Cup.

The Noble League Cup was first established during the 2019-2020 school year. Largo and Ronai created it to encourage campuses to develop more robust extracurricular programming. They hoped to ramp up friendly competition between schools and provide students and coaches with an exciting new experience.

“I think competition brings out the best in students, coaches, and programs,” Largo said, “It generates excitement throughout the school year and helps campuses really take a look at their offerings.”

Hernandez agreed.

“I like the competition. I don’t want to win all the time— I’m not learning or gaining anything out of that. So, the fact that now we got schools pushing us to be better helps everybody. The kids at the end of the day are the ones who are benefiting from it.” She said.

We currently have 24 championships in the Noble League, but Largo and campus leaders are continually working to add more. Last year, they added marching band and esports championships. In addition to that, flag football wins in the Chicago Public Schools’ championships were counted as Cup points for the first time as girls flag football teams sprung up across our campuses. A few years ago, the Honors Music Festival and Visual Arts Festival were added for our student artists. Talks are happening to create a theatre and film arts competition as well.

Overall, the Cup is growing, and our campuses are growing along with it. But how exactly does the Cup work? How are points given? How do we adjust to make it fair across campuses with vastly different student enrollment sizes?

The schools that place in the top three for each Noble championship get points. This includes team and individual activities, from basketball to chess. Additional points are also awarded for reaching sectionals, regionals, and championships in CPS and IHSA tournaments, though the points given, aside from a state title (full 6 points), are less than those earned in a Noble championship. Each season, sportsmanship awards are given out to teams in each team sport, awarding an extra point toward the Noble Cup.

The equation to determine Noble Cup rankings also includes a multiplier to make it fair between schools of different sizes. For example, Butler’s enrollment last year was just under 700 students, and Speer’s was just above 1100. With the equation, Butler’s points get multiplied by 1.53 versus Speer’s multiplier of 1 to account for that size difference. This means even our smaller campuses can win the Noble Cup.

“The Cup can be anyone’s,” Tarver said, “So, my encouragement to smaller schools is that it is possible, but you do have to be strategic.”

Butler’s principal, Brian Riddick, also wants to see more schools dive in.

“I think if we all strive for the Cup and root it in this idea of driving student experience, it’ll just make our schools and our network so much stronger. I love the energy already around the competitiveness of it.” He said.

With all this year’s fall and winter championships completed, here’s where the Noble Cup rankings are:

You can bet Butler and Speer are keeping a close eye on these rankings. Principals Kruger and Riddick had just two words for each other and other campuses about this year’s competition:

“Good luck.”