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This week the St. Joe community said good by to Fr. Cam a long time supporter of St Joe and who was on the sidelines for many years. He died at the age of 90 and was buried yesterday in his hometown of Cleveland. He touched many students and athletes lives while he was involved at SJ. Up until last year every game we talked before the beginning of the game whether it was home or away. It will be a little strange to look across the field and not see him there. RIP Fr Cam, you lived a good faithful life as a servant of Our Lord.

There's a growth explosion in Fort Wayne right now and most of it is up north in the Carroll district. Sitting at just over 2400 students currently, their enrollment will continue to climb. With a new 8 million dollar stadium and facilities and socioeconomics that could rival any in the state, it would be crazy to think that Carroll isn't trending up. But until they get that SAC title, they take a back seat to Snider, Dwenger, and Homestead.

Ev. Memorial is a 3A playing up in 4A, with less than 550 students, so being ranked at all is a surprise if you ask me.

I can comment RE #3. There is no more gap between Elkhart and Penn IMO. Gaps yes, but they more than equal out. Im not sure people understand the demographics and size of Elkhart and should start to think more along the lines of Warren Central when you think of the type of athletes Elkhart has at the skill positions. There isn't a skill position player that isn't a starter on a MIC team. Even prior to the consolidation, Shattuck had Central closing in on Penn. This is likely the last year where Penn will have a real shot at beating Elkhart as they are very young due to being SR dominated last year. Those SRs went 9-0 and lost a close one to Merrilville and this time last year most didn't know the plays. Imagine Covid in year 1 of a consolidation, couldn't have been worse timing but it worked out. Elkhart has serious talent as evidenced by 5 guys from the past 2 years playing D1 and numerous others D2. Why are they here? Shattuck is a great coach and leader and has great MIC level assistants. His system of offense is great for the athletes he has. He was very lucky to have such a great Sr class in year 1. Now those athletes have always been there, but there was never a thought around here of being as good as Penn from a program coaching perspective until he showed up, let alone thinking about winning or going to state. Then we get private donations for a turf field etc so facilities wise its getting better. The community up here is buying in. You wont see football kids who live in this district going to Penn or Concord or Northridge anymore. I believe 2 of Concords best Srs live in Elkhart district. I think the starting QB went to middle school in the Penn system and lived in ECS district. Where are they behind MIC schools? 1) strength/Size. Read Coach Shattuck's interview. No school for most really put that back. There is no shiny nice weight room and notably no strength and conditioning coach. Those things take time and $. Penn like the MIC has all of that and those kids have been in the weight room for years. They have the facilities and the people and that gap is real. Where that shows is upfront. There are a few DL/OL on the team that play in the MIC, but its 3-5 not 9. So you get some undersized kids playing in a spot they may not play in the MIC...not that they aren't good players/athletes just not of the size/strength of what a Penn or MIC would have. That will change over time as the young kids see whats happening and invest. 2) Player development They also dont have the district level investment. Your MIC and Penn's have coaching staffs (paid) in the 20s, I think Elkhart has 8. That hurts player development. That shows up in kids 16-30 on the roster. The Top 15 kids play anywhere in the state (not on any team per se but all would start in the MIC). The depth and having some kids that should be depth/role players starting is the difference today. Those challenges will go away as they build the program and that takes some time. Same with building youth football...its there but behind. Once those things catch up Penn wont have the athletes to compete most years. They will be very good this year, but most of the starters and best players are JRs and So and don't have the experience just yet. They also have a great incoming FR class. Having your best player and RB get hurt doesn't help as he maybe the best player in the state among non srs. He is a Power 5 player. Evidence of the athletes is that the kid who will likely end up starting will likely be all conference and possibly all state. Going to be a fun ride and DT is spot on.

IMHO, very minor IF any.

Wait until this plays out in the NFL, and someone has to forfeit a game because of COVID protocol originating with an unvaccinated player. All his teammates will lose their game check, too. How do you think that will go down in the locker room?

Would Texas forfeit their Longhorn Network since SEC has their own Network? https://texassports.com/sports/2013/7/28/GEN_0728134519.aspx Seems this would eliminate OU almost being automatic as a 12 team college playoff qualifier and make the road back for Texas much more difficult.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9818503/FORTY-percent-new-COVID-cases-Missouri-Texas-Florida.html Alabama Governor Kay Ivey hit out at Americans who have refused to get vaccinated on Thursday 'It's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down,' Ivey, a Republican, told reporters It came as cases have nearly tripled across the nation in the past three weeks as the Delta variant spreads Alabama and other states in the South have been hit hardest due to their lower vaccination rates Florida, Missouri and Texas accounted for 40 percent of active COVID-19 cases in the US as of Thursday In Florida, cases have increased by around 500 percent in the past two weeks White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Thursday said several states with the highest proportion of new cases are now seeing vaccination rates rise faster than the nation as a whole So now (according to the Alabama Governor) there are regular folks and there are unvaccinated folks........ Again - why in the world would someone who is vaccinated give a rat's patooty about someone who is not vaccinated? Why would they care? They've been vaccinated and are immune and "can't catch the virus" (according to the current President - look it up, he said it https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jul/22/joe-biden/biden-exaggerates-efficacy-covid-19-vaccines/ ) I say let em live with the consequences of their (in)actions if that's their choice. (Unless the vaccinated don't really trust the vaccine)