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Friends, are you among the many who are turned off by the rank commercialization of Christmas? Don’t really understand what Hanukah is all about? Can’t really get behind Kwanza? Well, don’t despair. You can still join in the holiday spirit … by celebrating Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us! Yes, today is Festivus. Each year at this time we recall the story of Festivus. How Festivus has been around for a long time, but burst into public consciousness during the 1997 episode of Seinfeld “The Strike.” There, Frank Costanza (George’s father) explained the origin of Festivus, as depicted in this video clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbfMmCf5-ds I’ve pulled the Festivus Pole out of the crawl space and shined it up. Mine is aircraft grade aluminum, with a very high strength to weight ratio. And you don’t have to bother with any decorations on the Festivus pole, as tinsel is distracting. Tonight, we celebrate with the traditional Festivus dinner of meat loaf and mashed potatoes, preceded by the Airing of Grievances, where we all berate those who have disappointed us in the past year. I’ve got a lot of problems with you people! Then we move on to my favorite part: the Feats of Strength! Festivus is not ended until someone bests the master of the house in a Feat of Strength. So, I declare Festivus will continue until someone manages to pin @temptation! I nominate @IndianaWrestlingGuy Let’s get ready to rumble! Finally, let me close with a heartfelt plea that I hope reaches you at this special time of year when we must consider those less fortunate. I do hope you will find it in your hearts this year to make a donation to the Human Fund in honor of Festivus. After all, it’s money … for people. May you all have the Festivus you deserve. That will truly be a Festivus Miracle! Happy Festivus!

The DOE released enrollment data earlier this month from the fall count day for the 22-23 school year. Here are the enrollments for each school for grades 9-12. I made a tentative split for each class just to give an idea where they could be, but this is not a realignment year. The fall ‘23 count day will be used for the next realignment. Schools with an * did not report their data to the DOE, so their enrollments are listed as the same as the number they gave the IHSAA last year. I included Indianapolis Irvington and Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian since both are planning to move to 11 man football and they are tournament eligible schools. I put Cathedral in 6A since they already have enough success factor points to stay up in the next cycle. 6A Enrollment 1 Carmel 5192 2 Ben Davis 4699 3 Warren Central 3788 4 Fishers 3674 5 North Central (Indpls.) 3628 6 Hamilton Southeastern 3449 7 Penn 3401 8 Avon 3342 9 Elkhart 3302 10 Franklin Central 3298 11 Pike 3287 12 Noblesville 3209 13 Brownsburg 3161 14 Lake Central 3066 15 Crown Point 2929 16 Center Grove 2851 17 Lawrence North 2849 18 Westfield 2652 19 Carroll (Fort Wayne) 2540 20 Homestead 2470 21 Indianapolis Arsenal Tech 2351 22 Southport 2349 23 Perry Meridian 2345 24 Lawrence Central 2306 25 Zionsville 2247 26 Portage 2238 27 Columbus North 2224 28 Fort Wayne Northrop 2136 29 Harrison (West Lafayette) 2136 30 Jeffersonville 2130 31 Lafayette Jefferson 2113 32 Indianapolis Cathedral 1132 5A Enrollment 1 Warsaw 2096 2 Valparaiso 2087 3 Merrillville 2042 4 Decatur Central 2031 5 Goshen 1981 6 Chesterton 1977 7 South Bend Adams 1976 8 Castle 1955 9 Fort Wayne Snider 1899 10 Floyd Central 1873 11 Whiteland 1868 12 Hammond Central 1863 13 LaPorte 1834 14 McCutcheon 1825 15 New Albany 1812 16 Anderson 1790 17 Concord 1775 18 Plainfield 1774 19 Seymour 1684 20 Evansville North 1674 21 Bloomington South 1639 22 Franklin Community 1610 23 Terre Haute South 1610 24 Hammond Morton 1609 25 Bloomington North 1584 26 Munster 1554 27 Michigan City 1547 28 Columbus East 1535 29 Terre Haute North 1507 30 Kokomo 1497 31 Fort Wayne North Side 1474 32 Mishawaka 1463 4A Enrollment 1 Greenfield-Central 1462 2 Mt Vernon (Fortville) 1431 3 Fort Wayne South Side 1423 4 Huntington North 1423 5 Fort Wayne Wayne 1419 6 Mooresville 1404 7 Northridge 1389 8 Pendleton Heights 1357 9 Muncie Central 1326 10 Richmond 1317 11 Martinsville 1308 12 Bedford-North Lawrence 1296 13 East Central 1286 14 Hobart 1282 15 Evansville Reitz 1280 16 Logansport 1214 17 New Palestine 1188 18 Jennings County 1184 19 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks 1178 20 New Haven 1164 21 Greenwood 1163 22 Evansville Harrison 1158 23 Columbia City 1138 24 Shelbyville 1101 25 Indianapolis Shortridge 1082 26 East Chicago Central 1077 27 Plymouth 1076 28 Kankakee Valley 1074 29 DeKalb 1069 30 Indianapolis Roncalli 1064 31 East Noble 1044 32 Marion 1041 33 Jasper 1040 34 Evansville Central 1037 35 Lowell 1033 36 Lebanon 1027 37 Gary West Side 1011 38 South Bend Riley 992 39 Highland 985 40 New Prairie 978 41 Connersville 966 42 Northview 943 43 Silver Creek 929 44 Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger 927 45 Beech Grove 918 46 Leo 917 47 Northwood 917 48 Wawasee 906 49 Frankfort 895 50 Boonville 876 51 Madison 847 52 New Castle 836 53 South Bend Washington 834 54 Culver Academies 832* 55 Brebeuf Jesuit 824 56 Evansville Bosse 819 57 South Bend Saint Joseph 819 58 Western 819 59 Edgewood 817 60 Jay County 805 61 Mississinewa 791 62 Yorktown 791 63 Charlestown 788 64 Norwell 788 3A Enrollment 1 Delta 786 2 Angola 785 3 Hanover Central 782 4 Danville 778 5 Washington 778 6 Guerin Catholic 774 7 Vincennes Lincoln 765 8 Corydon Central 749 9 Indianapolis Washington 749 10 Lawrenceburg 737 11 West Lafayette 730 12 Gibson Southern 723 13 Scottsburg 717 14 Batesville 713 15 Franklin County 713 16 Hamilton Heights 710 17 Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 703 18 Mishawaka Marian 698 19 West Noble 693 20 Crawfordsville 689 21 Twin Lakes 674 22 South Dearborn 672 23 Greensburg 671 24 Owen Valley 671 25 Rushville 648 26 Heritage Hills 641 27 Bellmont 640 28 North Harrison 631 29 South Bend Clay 628 30 John Glenn 625 31 Indian Creek 624 32 Calumet 619 33 Princeton 618 34 Mt Vernon (Posey) 616 35 Tri-West 613 36 Fort Wayne Concordia 610* 37 Peru 608 38 Griffith 602 39 Maconaquah 594 40 Evansville Memorial 589 41 Northwestern 580 42 Garrett 572 43 Heritage 570 44 Knox 570 45 Purdue Polytechnic 569 46 Speedway 564 47 Southridge 562 48 Fairfield 560 49 Lakeland 558 50 Western Boone 556 51 Hammond Bishop Noll (?) 548 52 Tippecanoe Valley 545 53 Jimtown 541 54 West Vigo 534 55 River Forest 532 56 Oak Hill 531 57 Centerville 529 58 Monrovia 528 59 Woodlan 520 60 North Montgomery 516 61 Salem 515 62 Cascade 513 2A Enrollment 1 Brown County 509 2 Eastbrook 509 3 Benton Central 508 4 Frankton 508 5 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 504 6 Evansville Mater Dei 501 7 Greencastle 498 8 Heritage Christian 498 9 Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter 498 10 Sullivan 498 11 Alexandria 488 12 Rochester 485 13 Blackford 484 14 South Vermillion 478 15 Wabash 478 16 Southmont 477 17 Boone Grove 476 18 Brownstown Central 475 19 Pike Central 475 20 Bremen 472 21 Indianapolis Scecina 469 22 Bluffton 468 23 Rensselaer Central 468 24 Lapel 466 25 Andrean 465 26 Eastern (Greentown) 464 27 Manchester 463 28 Triton Central 457 29 Northeastern 443 30 Whiting 441 31 Tipton 439 32 North Putnam 436 33 Switzerland County 435 34 Mitchell 434 35 Wheeler 434 36 North Posey 428 37 Prairie Heights 416 38 Tell City 416 39 Winchester 414 40 Elwood 413 41 Shenandoah 410 42 Delphi 405 43 Perry Central 403 44 Christel House Manual 401 45 Lewis Cass 401 46 Seeger 397 47 Central Noble 395 48 Eastern (Pekin) 389 49 LaVille 387 50 Linton-Stockton 386 51 Union County 386 52 Eastside 384 53 Churubusco 383 54 Lake Station Edison 382 55 Whitko 382 56 Crawford County 381 57 Paoli 381 58 Clarksville 380 59 Park Tudor 378* 60 Eastern Hancock 377 61 Adams Central 374 62 Covenant Christian (Indpls.) 374 63 South Putnam 374 64 Winamac 374 1A Enrollment 1 Taylor 373 2 North Knox 371 3 Forest Park 364 4 South Spencer 357 5 Clinton Prairie 347 6 Madison-Grant 347 7 Carroll (Flora) 346 8 Hagerstown 346 9 Milan 346 10 Providence 346 11 North Newton 343 12 Indianapolis Irvington 342 13 Parke Heritage 341 14 South Adams 335 15 Eastern Greene 334 16 North Judson 332 17 Sheridan 324 18 Knightstown 323 19 North Decatur 317 20 South Central (Union Mills) 317 21 North Daviess 309 22 Pioneer 296 23 Lafayette Central Catholic 294 24 Fremont 292 25 Monroe Central 287 26 Covington 284 27 Tecumseh 284 28 Cloverdale 279 29 Riverton Parke 279 30 North Miami 278 31 Triton 278 32 Bowman Academy 277 33 West Washington 274 34 Anderson Prep Academy 270 35 Clinton Central 268 36 Springs Valley 267 37 North White 266 38 Northfield 266 39 Tri 265 40 Fountain Central 262 41 Indiana Deaf 261 42 Union City 261 43 North Central (Farmersburg) 259 44 Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian 258 45 South Decatur 255 46 Southwood 253 47 Southern Wells 249 48 Culver 246 49 Wes-Del 246 50 Indianapolis Lutheran 245 51 South Newton 242 52 Cambridge City Lincoln 240 53 Caston 239 54 Tri Central 236 55 Edinburgh 231 56 Tri-County 225 57 Indianapolis Tindley 223 58 North Vermillion 213 59 West Central 203 60 Frontier 198 61 Dugger Union 185 62 Attica 169 63 Traders Point Christian 100

We've opened the voting for AlmanacSports.com's 7th Annual Southwestern Indiana Fans Choice All-Area Team! http://www.almanacsports.com/article.php?news_id=2022122301 Polls will be open for about a week. Congrats to all the finalists and good luck! Dan "Rudy" Engler

I think there is a swap of opponents for week 1 that would make sense. Adams Central and Garrett should trade with Eastbrook and Huntington North. AC should play Eastbrook and Garrett should play Huntington North. A few years ago some schools in my area made a swap like that. Lafayette Jeff was supposed to play Central Catholic and West Lafayette was scheduled to play Tri-West. After a year, they got together and swapped to have Jeff play West Side and Central Catholic played Tri-West. Games were close and competitive each year and I think the same would be true for this swap.

It would add one win to your schedule. Bellmont was 0-2 against the ACAC in 2022 and those weren’t competitive games. The only team besides Southern Wells that Bellmont might have beaten is Jay County (according to what I saw this season and Sagarin) and I highly doubt that would’ve happened. Bellmont people may say they think they’re “too good” for the ACAC, but what it is is they’d rather be embarrassingly awful in the NE8 than lose conference races to county rivals every year. The Decatur people always have excuses and don’t want to accept that they’re much much lower than the “redneck” smaller schools in the county. There have been years where many Bellmont fans and families have claimed they would’ve beaten AC had they played later in the football season…after losing by 40+ in week 1. That’s the type of people we’re dealing with. They will never join the ACAC no matter how much it might make sense. I’m glad Bellmont dropped AC from their schedule for a number of reasons (don’t have to deal with their idiotic, delusional community), but first and foremost because it allows AC to find someone that might actually make them work a little bit. Garrett doesn’t seem to be that solution but they were far better than Bellmont.

Here’s some info about the Immaculate Reception that most people don’t know. Can you imagine the controversy that would occur on social media, TV, podcasts, etc., if something like this happened today? https://www.referee.com/immaculate-reception/

I understand the actual 50 year anniversary is tomorrow. I was just paying tribute to the play at Franco's passing. I had been married a year when that play occurred. 😍

Just had a conversation with a friend about that very thing. Trying to keep the guys you have on the roster becomes a bigger deal as well.

Temptation I am with you. I was completely shocked that Hansen was not the Mr Football RB winner. I expected the overall award to be between Bowen and Hansen. I didn't even see it as close with anyone else. I am still shocked by it. Watching Roncalli literally run all over New Pal like no one had done all year, it wasn't all OL. They helped, but Hansen was a strong, fall forward RB. Best in the state in my opinion. Perfect example, we struggled not having our starting RB, Grayson Thomas, even with a great OL in front of our back up. But Grayson just brings sometime special for NP's running game. Roncalli wouldn't have been nearly as good without Hansen. I think his OL would agree.

https://www.southernliving.com/mike-leach-wtf-starkville-6979802 https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/2023-college-football-coaching-carousel-grades-matt-rhule-nabs-a-as-scott-satterfield-starts-with-c/