Last winter, Corliss football coach Keith Brookshire was thinking about ways to boost his program.
The Trojans had been .500 or better in each of Brookshire’s four seasons and were coming off their first IHSA playoff appearance since 2016.
To help sustain that success and continue to grow, Brookshire didn’t need to look far for a solution. It was right inside the building.
So this season, Corliss and Butler — two schools that share a campus across the street from Gately Stadium on the Southeast Side — have formed one of the Public League’s nine football coops.
“I just looked at the numbers in both [schools] and was like, ‘It would be nice to have 50-60 kids as opposed to you guys have 25 and I have 25.” Brookshire said. “Then we can also have a JV and try to get a freshman team together.”
As enrollments continue to diverge among the schools under the Public League football umbrella — which includes both traditional Chicago Public Schools and charters — coops are seen as an increasingly viable way to help grow the sport.
Coop programs last two years and can be renewed. This year, there are nine in the Public League for football, though two are made up solely of a pair of charter networks: Perspectives and Urban Prep.
The rest include a mix of CPS and other charters. The Corliss/Butler and Bowen/Baker coops both feature CPS and Noble Network schools that are under the same roof.
Brookshire, who had been mulling the coop with Butler for a few years, had to wait until a coop between Noble members Butler and Baker expired after last season. Butler coach Dennis Stratton was immediately on board.
“He came over after Christmas break with open arms,” said Brookshire, who has a full coaching staff. “He was elated because he had been doing this by himself with one assistant for the last two or three years at Butler.”
The logistics of a coop can be challenging, especially in football because of the need to transport players from multiple schools to a common site for practices or weight-room workouts. But when everyone’s in the same building, it’s definitely easier.
“We don’t see those [Butler] kids every day,” Brookshire said. “However, we’re under the same roof so it makes the transition easier. They can come through a door and they’re right at weight training. We don’t have to wait, we don’t have to transport to another campus.”
There is an adjustment process as players from different schools come together.
“It was a rocky start,” said sophomore quarterback/receiver/cornerback Elliot Turner, a Corliss student. “But we just realized that we’re all here to do the same thing, We had the same goals and [Corliss players were] just coming out to play football and build chemistry and build a team. It was like a brotherhood.”
Junior defensive lineman Javarion Paxton is one of the Butler students on the team.
“When it first happened, I was suspicious about it,” he said. “When the season started going on I felt it was like a brotherhood. We argue, we fight but we’re still out here. I love them.”
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Corliss was IHSA playoff-eligible again. None of the other coops had reached that milestone — though the Marshall/Raby coop was 7-1 in the lower-tier Blue, whose members aren’t eligible for the state playoffs.
Deputy Director of Sports Administration Mickey Pruitt oversees the football coop process for the Public League. He can see the program expanding.
“Certain schools do need to coop, instead of having 15 to having 30-35 players out there,” he said. “The process starts with the IHSA. We will approve it if it makes sense.
“We want our students engaged in football and [to] keep them active in the sport they love.”
Brookshire is already seeing the benefits of having the influx of players from Butler.
“Practices are better,” he said. “You can actually scrimmage 11 on 11. And then you can have other guys down working on other things.”
The increased numbers also mean fewer players have to go both ways.
“We’re two-platoon almost,” said Brookshire, who was head coach at Harlan and also worked at Perspectives before coming to Corliss. “And I haven’t had the advantage to do that since I coached at Morgan Park.”
List of current Public League football coops
Host school (other schools in coop)
Bowen (Baker)
Chicago Academy (Kelvyn Park)
Clark (Austin, Douglass)
Collins (Manley)
Corliss (Butler)
Marshall (Raby)
Perspectives Leadership (Perspectives Math and Science, Perspectives Joslin)
Tilden (Air Force)
UP-Bronzeville (UP-Englewood)
