All Activity

I'm waiting on Jeff Sagarin's 2026 rankings to update the Predictor. He usually has them out by now. I might have to email John Harrell to see what's up.

Did you read or hear sound bites from Pompei's recent article? He spent an entire day with Johnson. Ben is a football psycho. And wants to score A LOT of points this year. I liked hearing that Ben ripped into Caleb and the rest of the offense in a meeting for having ONE crappy training camp practice.

Lol, thanks for sharing that. I've got that guy on "ignore." He has no business soliciting donations. In fact, he probably costs the GID money in the long run.

LOL..I think you'll get your wish in the Fall when the Illinois legislature is back in session. Once again an update with no specific timetable of when and where the ceremanial shovel will be put into the ground. Here's another boondoggle to twis your panties: Hammond already spent $33M on developing an industrial slag waste site into an environmental and recreation site, which is where Lost Marsh Golf Course sits. Lost Marsh is one of Indiana's top public courses. It would be a shame to lose it if Hammond really is the choice.

Saw that one coming. Fair take.

Bloomington South has 85 players in grades 10 through 12 that attended the first official practice which is down just a hair from last season when they had 93 players in those grades, so they have had pretty consistent numbers over the years.

Correct: that is my assessment as well. but maybe some industrial things come through our Corridor like it did for Lowell and Whitestown I know the big bad boogey man Data Center supposedly coming to Northern Jasper County, perhaps that increases families moving into our communities.

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nfl/2026/08/13/chicago-bears-update-new-stadium-plans-hammond-arlington-heights--live/91288540007/ Come on Illinois legislature, make the citizens you represent pay for this boondoggle and not Hoosiers.

Population loss is truly the issue, and it isn't going to get any better: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/09/nx-s1-5779627/birthrate-united-states-babies-immigration

Kids are playing up here...but it is watered down.

Not saying you're wrong by any means, but I haven't heard anything about American Legion baseball in years. Does it even still exist? We used to have Pate, Funkhauser, Newburgh, Kapperman, etc. down here in SW IN, but I can't recall hearing anything for years.

We won state title in 2014 , Our HC is in the HOF and has earned 200 plus wins and has been here since 1999 as HC, OC (me) and DC have been with him from jump. We have had rosters of 31-33 last few years, (41 this year) We have lost over 150 students in 10 years. 529 was the number in 2014, we finished the school year last year at like 404. That is the issue, not the lack of not winning a sectional in a few years

Might need a wellness check on old 23.

Salem is at Mitchell. Let’s get this season rollin’!

I think a small part of trouble with roster size is also program. Sheridan has seen a decline in roster size as well. It's easy to get kids to come out when your program is a perennial power and constantly competing for titles. However, if the program has never won anything, or at least has been YEARS since winning anything, the desire to be on that team naturally wanes. For instance, when I was growing up in Sheridan, my class witnessed a State title win. Our parents won titles. Then, we grew up and won three in a row. But now, the kids going through the school don't remember a state title. Sure, Sheridan has been a constant winner of Sectional titles, but in this community, we're a victim of our own success. Sectionals aren't really celebrated by anyone that isn't a current player or parent of a current player. Now, take that mindset and apply it to a school like Clinton Central. Small schools always struggle getting rosters together, but when you have a select few teams always winning, I think that is magnified.

Is today the day!?!?!?!?!?!? : https://abc7chicago.com/post/nfl-news-chicago-bears-expected-give-stadium-update-indiana-officials-express-confidence-hammond-site/19669629/

Agreed. And I find the ad system here on the GID especially obnoxious. It's well worth the $ I give every year to get rid of them.

This topic from the guy who hates people that ask members for donations.

It is getting more and more difficult for 2A teams to get 30+ guys on their roster, let alone 1A.

1. Lift weights in the morning 2. Work (if you need/choose to) throughout the day 3. Play legion baseball at night (couple times a week) That's what summer should look like. Play your organized sports during the school year...when you're finished with a season, take a week, recharge, and play the next thing (if you want to)...If not, lift more weights. Burnout is a real thing and we (adults, coaches, etc...) should know better.

Buy all Bears O

Frontier geographically has a nice pocket to pull from: like 10 mins from Harrison (6a) and their QB left from Tri County after his Soph year. Really no different from my neck of woods, there are families that will choose to go to Boone Grove instead of Crown Point: Takes 12 mins to get to BGHS, from Lake of 4 Seasons/Winfield area, where it takes 25 good minutes to get to CPHS school of 4000 and still growing

We choose in Rensselaer Football to not even worry or care about those limited practice times in spring. I personally know it's tough right now: Our Hoops and FB kids, start at like 3:30 in the summer and finished at 8 pm it seemed. Hoops did workouts until 5:30: then we had our practice set for 6-8 in the summer.. Plus our weight program in mornings.

Yes

The big issues a lot of the coaches at (I assume) smaller schools seem to be having is sharing. If there's an open period, you want your athletes practicing with you during that period. Most of the time at smaller schools, those athletes are already actively practicing for a in season sport. Every missed session is a wasted day in the football coaches mind. The kids get burnt out essentially playing three sports year round. Lose lose situation for everyone. Like a coach mentioned in the survey, lift weights all off season but don't pressure the kids to think they need to be playing football year round. Start ramping up in the summer. Obviously for the bigger schools where one sport specialization is more common this would probably actually hurt them more than it would help. It's hard for the IHSAA because the law you write for Hamilton Southeastern has to be followed by Sheridan and vice-versa. I feel like having less live periods would help 1A through 4A with turnout and burnout, but it would hurt 5A and 6A (and some 3a and 4a schools) where one sport specialization is more prevalent. And of course if only 1A-4A had less live periods it would leave them at an even larger disadvantage when playing those bigger schools simply due to less time spent together. I think they mean any sort of organized sport outside of the school. 7 on 7, AAU, travel baseball etc.