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Got any pictures of you in your costume and makeup? Would love to see those.

So not many Band & Choir students on free lunches??

A good, sustained youth program takes A LOT more than most people on the outside imagine ... especially beyond the stuff on the field.

I'm assuming this means that you'll go back in a few weeks/months after pronouncing you were no longer affiliated and leaving?

You know absolutely nothing about the perches I have sat on in my career. Very ignorant statement. I do have a couple of big fat rings from lofty perches but I have also been among the worst teams in the state. Football is good for kids in high school. Even bad programs. I have no clue why you keep bringing it up. What a horrible way to look at life.... you aren't good so quit trying. Maybe you played once upon a time but you seem to have missed the point of high school athletics. I usually scroll past your nonsense but I think its important to speak out toward nonsense from time to time. If you quit posting today about your lunatic proposal that ADs across the state should stand up an listen no one would miss them. Its a dumb idea you made up.

The dream is still alive in Omaha!

There’s some truth to your prediction. I would hope that they could notch wins against Central and North, unlike close losses to those teams last year. The turnaround has to come from at least competing against (and hopefully beating) Memorial, Jasper, and Castle. That might not happen this season but…it’s something to use as motivation on the way back to respectability in the City/SIAC wars. The past two seasons Reitz has won the first two games out of the chute, then dropped 5 straight. I don’t want that to become a negative mindset once we get to W3 against Jasper. By the way, I welcome the Wildcats and what they bring to the SIAC. A quality athletics program in all sports. Castle is just as solid, and as I stated earlier, Memorial is probably the front-runner in the City/SIAC. Go crazy for your teams…that’s what it’s all about! As for me, I am a proud Reitz man, whose Great Uncle, Edgar Engel (my Grandpa John Engel’s brother), was a star Halfback on the 1927 Reitz football Tiny Ten Champions. Oh, and he’s also the Dr. Engel who delivered half of Evansville in the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s before retiring. Even in his 90’s he enjoyed talking about his playing days on the Hill! You see, friends, Reitz football was in his blood…and it’s in mine as well. So looking forward to seeing what results my Reitz Panthers can achieve this season!

Ok so I know that DT/HHF brings up contraction every chance he gets. In very, very few cases I believe he makes some good points. But there is another "C" word that I believe would be more of a beneficial talk, consolidation. I know in the southeastern part of the state there are quite a few football programs that would benefit from this. Now I know school corporations make decisions based on a thousand other things then athletic programs but some of these smaller schools that are still out there I think would benefit from either consolidating with other small schools or a big school. I think a great example of this would be the schools in Decatur County. Currently those include Greensburg, North Decatur & South Decatur. These are three schools that are all within a 20 minute drive of each other (Greensburg & North Decatur are literally on the opposite sides of 74). According to the last enrollment numbers if all three of these schools combined they would have a student population of 1,278. This would make "Decatur County High School" a lot more competitive as a 4A school, maybe even a good team to play with Greensburg conference opponent East Central. In recent years South Decatur has had number issues and both North & South have had conference issues. Other schools in southeastern Indiana that could benefit from this: Milan + South Ripley + Jac-Cen-Del = "Ripley County High School" with 950 kids (South Ripley & Jac-Cen-Del do not have football teams) Madison + Southwestern Hanover = "Jefferson County High School" with 1,114 kids (Southwestern Hanover doesn't have a football team) Connersville + Union County = "Fayette-Union High School" with 1,374 kids Switzerland County + Rising Sun = "Switz-Ohio High School" with 657 kids (Rising Sun doesn't have a football team) Personally I think consolidation has a lot of benefits when it comes to the actual classroom and educational experience a student has. Small school generally means small resources. But when it comes to all the problems DT/HHF talks about I think this could be an answer. It creates schools with large enough enrollments to field football teams and gives even more kids opportunity to play football. I don't have enough knowledge about other parts of the state but I'm sure there are similar situations across the state.

Wait till he finds out that not every kid who attends private school has parents who drive a Bentley or own a Fortune 500 company.

Yes, assistant role....they are glad to have him back. Guy at work from Ferdinand (Forest Park) told me today, with a wink, that Bob Clayton was applying for the Forest Park job. LOL....I told him if that happened FP would probably decide they couldn't play football anymore. Not sure kids today would handle getting kicked in the rear (physically HARD!) when they didn't get off the ball fast enough or having a clipboard broken over their head. But hey, don't knock it, such things make great football teams. BTW....saw Coach Clayton last Friday night at the Chateau....looks pretty good for an old guy. Wasn't terrifying at all....

Ben Davis is larger than Warren.

I normally dont do this, but just wondering where your getting numbers of 1A schools with Multi-Million dollar facilities are? I can tell you Lutheran doesn't. Until they scraped enough money together to turf their field, their facilities are nothing to really bat an eye at. They dont have visitor stands, they dont have an updated locker room. I haven't anything like million dollar stuff at Convenant either. Are they good at football. NOW they are, its not like anyone in 1A except for LCC has really DOMINATED 1A. 1A 2000 Adams Central Attica 29-21 Rick Minnich 12-3 David McDonald 14-1 Josh Smith, Attica RCA Dome 1A 2001 Southern Wells Perry Central 30- 7 Mark Lefebvre 14-1 Mike Spencer 14-1 Peter Wagner, Southern Wells RCA Dome 1A 2002 Southwood South Putnam 17-14 Terry Siddall 13-1 Mark Wildman 12-3 Kole Ames, South Putnam RCA Dome 1A 2003 Indianapolis Ritter Seeger 28- 0 Jim Boswell 12-2 Brian Moore 14-1 Thomas Marshall, Seeger RCA Dome 1A 2004 Seeger Indianapolis Ritter 20- 7 Brian Moore 15-0 Jim Boswell 10-5 Spencer King, Ritter RCA Dome 1A 2005 Sheridan Knightstown 21- 7 Larry Wright 13-2 Don Willard 14-1 Matt Cox, Knightstown RCA Dome 1A 2006 Sheridan Indianapolis Ritter ot 34-28 Larry Wright 15-0 Ty Hunt 13-2 Taylor Scott, Sheridan RCA Dome 1A 2007 Sheridan Rockville 34-28 Larry Wright 15-0 Herb King 14-1 Zachary Clapp, Rockville RCA Dome 1A 2008 Indianapolis Ritter Sheridan 34-27 Ty Hunt 15-0 Larry Wright 13-2 Brent Hume, Sheridan Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2009 Lafayette Central Catholic Fountain Central 52- 0 Kevin O'Shea 15-0 Rick Malone 14-1 Greg Burns, Central Catholic Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2010 Lafayette Central Catholic Fountain Central 31- 6 Kevin O'Shea 15-0 Rick Malone 13-2 Cody Christopher, Central Catholic Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2011 Lafayette Central Catholic Indianapolis Scecina 38- 7 Kevin O'Shea 15-0 Ott Hurrle 11-4 John Schrader, Central Catholic Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2012 Lafayette Central Catholic Indianapolis Scecina 14- 0 Kevin O'Shea 14-1 Ott Hurrle 11-4 Jimmy Mills, Central Catholic Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2013 Tri-Central Eastern Hancock 20-10 George Gilbert 14-1 Pat Echeverria 14-1 Sam Carlton, Eastern Hancock Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2014 North Vermillion Pioneer 27-26 Brian Crabtree 15-0 Mike Johnson 13-2 Parker Englert, Pioneer Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2015 Lafayette Central Catholic Linton-Stockton 34- 7 Kevin O'Shea 15-0 Brian Oliver 13-2 Dylan Morris, Linton-Stockton Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2016 Linton-Stockton Pioneer 34-20 Brian Oliver 15-0 Adam Berry 14-1 Austin Harmon, Pioneer Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2017 Pioneer Eastern Greene 42-14 Adam Berry 15-0 Joey Paridaen 11-4 Garrett Schroder, Pioneer Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2018 Pioneer North Vermillion 60- 0 Adam Berry 15-0 Brian Crabtree 13-2 Dustin Sparks, Pioneer Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2019 Lafayette Central Catholic Indianapolis Lutheran 29-28 Brian Nay 12-3 Dave Pasch 13-1 Kyle Onken, Central Catholic Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2020 Covenant Christian South Adams 41-40 Shawn Lyons 15-0 Grant Moser 13-1 James Arnold, South Adams Lucas Oil Stadium 1A 2021 Indianapolis Lutheran Adams Central 34-28 Dave Pasch 15-0 Michael Mosser 13-2 Blake Heyerly, Adams Central Lucas Oil Stadium I would say, 1A public schools have the best shot TBH, its not like the State Title games were blowouts by these supposed MULTI MILLION DOLLAR facilitied schools. You are reaching a little bit on this one I believe

That's what were doing at LCC. I spent 18 years there and started before I even had boys. Many of the guys who coached with me stayed on with the youth program even after their boys had moved on to junior high, then high school, and even after they graduated. We had a guy who was a mainstay for a long time there, that had two girls and no boys, but spent over two decades coaching in the youth program. We also had LCC alums who stayed in the area and went to Purdue or Ivy Tech come out and help us coach while in college. If you can build that kind of culture, it's big. The interesting part at LCC was that, while the varsity coaches were always supportive of the youth program ... always lending players to come talk to the kids, coming out to watch the games, helping with the use of the varsity field for games, they always left the running of the youth program to the guys that had been doing it. As a courtesy, we'd always ask incoming coaches, if there's anything that they wanted us doing at that youth level and they all said, do what you've been doing, teach good/safe skills, and keep the kids engaged and having fun ... we'll teach them the plays when they get to varsity.

While he may have a lofty perch, you seem to have two perches? I’m so confused about the DT/HHF dynamic.

Schools can pretty much go wherever they want right now; just not under the IHSAA banner Private institution with its own set of rules and non-mandatory membership. Pretty much as long as they are violating discrimination laws with the activity, they can pretty much set the rule as they wish. If you want change on that rule, it's going to have to come from within. The issue that I think you'd see with this is that there just aren't enough schools REALLY impacted by the rule to get enough of a groundswell of support to overturn. I mean think about it, we couldn't enough groundswell to make a four-year window for Success Factor and that probably has more direct/indirect impact on teams than long-distance travel. Ain't that the truth. I used to complain about the fundraisers for football/baseball until my nieces got involve in orchestra.

The past 4 years have been hell…look to get back to a winning record again. Underclassmen gained valuable experience last season, albeit full of disappointing results, (see close losses to North and Central). If I see the Reitz D give up another first down on an opponent’s 4th and 20…leading to a last minute loss…well, let’s just say I hope we’ve turned the corner on that nasty trend. Memorial seems to be the dominant force in the SIAC now. I live on the FAR West Side (Phoenix in winter/Park City in summer), and I miss watching the games in person. Thank goodness for the audio/video livestreams! Just want Reitz to get back to competing for City/SIAC/Sectional Championships.

Easier said than done.

I’m glad schools apply this rule equally to marching bands, preventing then from performing at the Macy’s parade in NY and dance teams can’t go to Disney for competitions. Wait… nevermind. (And yes. I know they are not under IHSAA, but the heat is making me snarky. Lol)

Great hire by Northrop. From Panther to Bruin..........ouch! That being said, it's a great opportunity for Coach Bowen.

I don't disagree with that. Well heck, none of those schools play football...

Washington, Barr Reeve and Loogootee. WOW!

Really, really silly rule that holds Indiana back (among other things) yet in the event it was overturned there still wouldn't be a team in this state dumb enough to schedule IMG. IMG plays non-prep schools for two reasons; 1) to beat you by 50 points and 2) try and poach your states best players.

IMO, football blew past basketball in popularity many years ago.

Totally Agree with all points here.

Some of these coaches are pretty smart guys. What I don’t understand is how anyone with half a brain can’t see what sort of attitude this treatment breeds. Combine this with promises of NIL deals and you are making it very difficult for these impressionable 18 yr. olds to avoid an entitlement mentality. The result is that the concept of “team” is lost. Football is the most demanding sport in terms of teamwork leading to success. @temptation’s observation above expresses it succinctly. That attitude is absolute poison in a program. It’s a pretty tough sell to get a kid to embrace the attitude that he’s a cog in the big machine, when everything else you’re saying and doing tells the kid the opposite.

Well my grandpa always said never say never but there are many many variables to life and career (no matter what the job). From reading your posts over the years, I understand that you kind of take the position that for a young coach...the next bigger "thing" should be the main focus. For some perhaps but many times it is not, in fact in the Teaching and Coaching profession in our fine state you might be able to say that even MOST of the time it is not. Coaching in HS has a very complex set of variables maybe more than many other careers. I have laid these out multiple times and won't bore folks here with it again. Long story short, I think Coach Hart has found a great place to raise a young family and he isn't the first professional to make that decision about the South Gibson area.

Remember, you're getting reps for guys, too. A team that has a lot of mercy-rule games won't get a ton of Friday-night reps - and a struggling team needs those reps to get better (while a good team may need them to fine-tune some things). If you're going to invoke it in the first half, then the points threshold needs to be something like 42 or 49 points. The mercy rule basically means each team gets one possession (maybe two) once it's invoked. I'm fine with the way it's used. It provides an opportunity to get the games over quicker while still allowing players to get a reasonable number of snaps on each side of the ball.

A lot more to it then just showing up