Jump to content
Head Coach Openings 2024 ×
  • Current Donation Goals

    • Raised $2,716 of $3,600 target

2022 Northwest Crossroads Conference Thread (NCC)


Guest

Recommended Posts

 

Northwest Crossroads Conference   Overall   Class
W-L Pct.   W-L Pct.   Sectional
Andrean 4-1 0.800   12-3 0.800   2A 33
Hobart 4-1 0.800   8-4 0.667   4A 17
Lowell 4-1 0.800   9-4 0.692   4A 17
Highland 2-3 0.400   4-6 0.400   4A 17
Kankakee Valley 1-4 0.200   4-7 0.364   4A 17
Munster 0-5 0.000   3-8 0.273   5A 9

 

This conference has 3 contenders and 3 chasers.  Will any of that change this year?  Can Kirk Kennedy finally get the ball rolling at KV?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Bobref said:

I will be interested to see if Munster, who showed incremental improvement last season by winning 3 games after going 3-27 the previous 3 seasons, can continue the long climb back to football relevance.

Coach Grunewald is commited to the flexbone offense at Munster, and lower level numbers have improved significantly.  might be a few years but Munster hopefully will be back in the thick of the NCC race before too long.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just gonna give this thread a bump and share my thoughts and things I've heard. People are saying Hobart is very young but from what I've heard they've been having a solid scrimmage circuit this summer. Their backfield battery of Ehrlich + Gibson is the best in the region outside of Bush + Hart at City. I think they'll be solid, with the potential to make a run in the playoffs, but the sectional is a lot deeper with New Prairie and Culver Academy in it now. Lowell lost quite a bit but they return their QB and they're always tough. I think they take a step back from last year's sectional title, however. Andrean lost 2 really good receivers, the entire D-Line, and some other 3 year starters, but still returns a lot of talent. I know they're bringing back a lot of o-linemen with experience so I'm sure they'll be shuffling guys around offense and defense. I know they scrimmaged Chesterton but I'm not sure how it went. The first three games of the year are a meat grinder with Ville, CP, and Illinois 6A Crete-Monee. I honestly love that Skinner has loaded up the non-conference schedule in recent years with large schools. Combined with the conference schedule, this really pays dividends come tournament time. The sectional overall did get harder with Bremen and LaVille replacing the Niner's previous only competition in Rensselaer. The rest of the teams I don't see as major threats in the conference, let alone the tournament. The most intriguing of the rest is obviously KV, we'll see how they do this year under Kennedy. I think a lot of people are very excited about this hire but I'm still a little skeptical. It hasn't been exactly smooth sailing for KK since he left the friendly confines of the Inferno, and RDP has moved right along without him. I don't think anyone is expecting them to light the world on fire year 1 but seeing a different energy and competitiveness around the program would be a positive. Highland is stuck in mediocrity or worse and has been for quite some time. Not sure they'll ever get out of it. Koulianos has had 4 wins every year of his tenure and they'll probably max out at 5 this year. That seems to be their ceiling. And there's no way Munster should be even close to as bad as they are. Not even a decade ago they were still a solid program that competed for the conference title every year. Honestly, Grunewald seems like a good guy, but I really think they need a new coach. Someone not from the Marsh line, maybe not even a Munster guy at all. Someone to come in there and take the reins of the program and move it in a new direction. The past 5 years have been an unmitigated disaster and I don't think they're going to get better soon with the current direction the program is heading. I'm glad their numbers are up in the lower levels, but will those kids play into high school if the high school team continues to be this bad? Just some food for thought. 

Anyway, Final Standings Predictions:

1. Andrean

2. Hobart

3. Lowell

4. KV

5. Highland 

6. Munster 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, scarab527 said:

Just gonna give this thread a bump and share my thoughts and things I've heard. People are saying Hobart is very young but from what I've heard they've been having a solid scrimmage circuit this summer. Their backfield battery of Ehrlich + Gibson is the best in the region outside of Bush + Hart at City. I think they'll be solid, with the potential to make a run in the playoffs, but the sectional is a lot deeper with New Prairie and Culver Academy in it now. Lowell lost quite a bit but they return their QB and they're always tough. I think they take a step back from last year's sectional title, however. Andrean lost 2 really good receivers, the entire D-Line, and some other 3 year starters, but still returns a lot of talent. I know they're bringing back a lot of o-linemen with experience so I'm sure they'll be shuffling guys around offense and defense. I know they scrimmaged Chesterton but I'm not sure how it went. The first three games of the year are a meat grinder with Ville, CP, and Illinois 6A Crete-Monee. I honestly love that Skinner has loaded up the non-conference schedule in recent years with large schools. Combined with the conference schedule, this really pays dividends come tournament time. The sectional overall did get harder with Bremen and LaVille replacing the Niner's previous only competition in Rensselaer. The rest of the teams I don't see as major threats in the conference, let alone the tournament. The most intriguing of the rest is obviously KV, we'll see how they do this year under Kennedy. I think a lot of people are very excited about this hire but I'm still a little skeptical. It hasn't been exactly smooth sailing for KK since he left the friendly confines of the Inferno, and RDP has moved right along without him. I don't think anyone is expecting them to light the world on fire year 1 but seeing a different energy and competitiveness around the program would be a positive. Highland is stuck in mediocrity or worse and has been for quite some time. Not sure they'll ever get out of it. Koulianos has had 4 wins every year of his tenure and they'll probably max out at 5 this year. That seems to be their ceiling. And there's no way Munster should be even close to as bad as they are. Not even a decade ago they were still a solid program that competed for the conference title every year. Honestly, Grunewald seems like a good guy, but I really think they need a new coach. Someone not from the Marsh line, maybe not even a Munster guy at all. Someone to come in there and take the reins of the program and move it in a new direction. The past 5 years have been an unmitigated disaster and I don't think they're going to get better soon with the current direction the program is heading. I'm glad their numbers are up in the lower levels, but will those kids play into high school if the high school team continues to be this bad? Just some food for thought. 

Anyway, Final Standings Predictions:

1. Andrean

2. Hobart

3. Lowell

4. KV

5. Highland 

6. Munster 

Thanks for the overview.  Moving this over to the facebook page as well.https://www.facebook.com/GridironDigest

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...