Please check your inbox for your confirmation. At Wendell Phillips Academy High School in Bronzeville, a short bit of music plays just before the bell rings: a snippet of the 1920s jazz standard ...

You have to finish what you start," said Michael Mancini, English and Special Education teacher at Wendell Phillips Academy High School. Four times a week, Mancini trains for a marathon.

"We do everything together," Phillips Academy receiver/safety Quayvon Skanes says. "We're basically family." It's a focused and determined family. Undefeated Wendell Phillips is only the second ...