FlyingHigh

I’d expect North Judson to be the top of the conference with Triton and Pioneer fighting for 2nd. Triton returns about everyone from last year, including some guys with 2 years of varsity experience already. I know I’ve seen some Pioneer people comment about how the team may not be super strong this year, but I have a hard time believing their tradition and coaching won’t carry them to a solid season.

Adams Central at Norwell tomorrow night right out of moratorium!

I know that you’re doing a lot to drive conversation in the off-season on GID and I appreciate that overall, but using Bellmont as an argument for the NE8’s status as an “elite” conference is laughable. It wreaks of desperation. There are much more legitimate topics to be discussed.

Bellmont doesn’t even want to compete at AC’s level (considering they dropped them from their schedule) so no, I don’t think they want to play Leo and East Noble every year. I don’t think Norwell would want to change conferences, which is why I said I didn’t think it would ever happen. In terms of football, Norwell would take a step back from facing 2 big time big school programs every year if they moved out of the NE8. If we’re just talking football, the NE8 isn’t an elite conference. They have 2 perennially strong teams (the “strongest” of which hasn’t won a sectional championship in 11 years) and will push 3 with Norwell. They are, by definition, top heavy with an enormous drop off. Don’t take this analysis as me saying the ACAC is elite by any means. In fact, the conference is incredibly weak in football. Possibly one of the worst in the state. My desire to bring Norwell into the ACAC is purely selfish. I’d love to have a consistently competitive conference game.

It would make sense if Jay County wanted to jump ship from the ACAC, especially if others you mentioned (Marion, Ole Miss, Muncie Central, Delta and Yorktown) wanted out of their respective conferences. If that were to happen, I’d honestly like to see Southern Wells go independent due to competitive issues in several sports. I’d then like to see Norwell and Bellmont join the ACAC. I don’t think this will ever happen. Bellmont may not like this proposal considering they don’t want to play AC anymore on football (dropped them from schedule starting in 2022) but Norwell and Bellmont fit fairly well in the ACAC considering all sports and geography.

This is a bit of a ridiculous statement. Luers had some amazing players, but Eastside was the better team. This was clear to anyone who watched that game with unbiased eyes. SAC fans need to swallow their pride and accept the fact that there are non-SAC teams in NE Indiana that could compete with the top teams in their conference. The non-SAC schools that could compete with Luers, etc. change from year to year, but they're out there each year. SAC is definitely the best conference in the NE corner, but Eastside was the better overall team last year - not just the night they played - last year, period. They also beat them in 2019 and took Luers to the wire in 2020. To say Luers should have won state is also crazy because they would've had to go through Eastbrook and Andrean just to get to LOS. All of that being said, great preview of the conference! I appreciate people sharing as much info as you did about each program.

I can only comment on what I saw last year on the field at the varsity and JV levels and nothing would’ve indicated last year that they would be able to challenge the Adams County schools this year. A lot can happen in the off-season as far as player development and getting more kids to come out. I really hope the program, along with others in the ACAC, improves to increase the level of competition on Friday nights.

AC is definitely the favorites coming into the season. They return a large nucleus of the state runner up team from 2021. A lot of people will see that Heyerly, Currie and Newy are gone (90% or so of their offensive production) and assume they’ll take a huge step back. The fact is that AC had a 2nd string backfield last year that was the next best backfield in the ACAC after their own 1’s. Those guys are back and Black took a huge step forward as a leader and runner as QB last year. He’ll need to take further strides this year if they want to repeat last year’s success. AC’s front 7 will be about as solid as it gets in 1A with returning LBs Keegan Bluhm (over 200 tackles as he enters his junior season) and Ryan Tester. Zac Wurm (6’4” 280lb) returns up front along with some other solid players. The secondary will be the biggest question mark, but the pressure from the front 7 will help alleviate pressure on the DBs. SA is the front runner for 2nd place and I’m sure some from Berne will argue they’ll contend for the top spot, but I don’t see it. Owen Wanner will be the best passing QB in the conference for the next 2 years, but will he have time to throw against quality opponents? I think Heritage will be the next best team based on their numbers from last year and it seemed like their kids were buying into Coach Kolkmann’s program. The rest is a bit of a crapshoot. Southern Wells will struggle to score against any varsity defense. I’d say the rest of the standings will be Jay County, Woodlan, Bluffton and then Southern Wells.

They're not streamed/broadcasted, but scrimmages are open to the public. Off-season scrimmages are helmets and shoulder pads only.

AC travels to Busco tonight, Norwell July 11 and Winchester/Eastbrook later in the month.

Adams Central travels to Churubusco tomorrow night in a scrimmage that likely never would’ve happened if Busco didn’t move up to 2A.

All of the backs, TE and QB will play both ways. There won’t be a ton of depth unless the younger kids really step up. I think the team that plays in week 10 will be much better than the team week 1 assuming they stay healthy.

@Oldschool Currie & Heyerly aren't playing college football to my knowledge. @Basementbias I think we'll have some solid runners, but none of them have had more than a handful of carries over the last two years. The coaches have a lot of work to do to get some of these guys to be the 2-way studs that Heyerly, Currie and Newy were. I don't think there's as much quality depth at any position this year.

I agree. They will likely lose to Heritage, but it'll feel better to the Bellmont community because they aren't losing to AC.

I like that idea, but I get the feeling that a lot of Bellmont/Decatur people would rather get spanked in the NE8 in football than have to play AC every year because it's embarrassing to lose to their smaller county rival. They dropped AC from their schedule for Heritage. They'd compete in the ACAC, as it's a weak conference, but they would still lose a few of those games. I just think that community has some odd competitive preferences when they can't come close to competing with other local schools. I'm sure that the coaching staff would gladly play the ACAC schedule, though. These decisions have to consider all sports - not just football. Bellmont would do very well in the ACAC all-around.

I agree with this 100%. If your teams at Taboro had a ton of talent and you weren't winning state championships (or sectional for that matter), you might have some thoughts about what you can do differently, though. "We've always done things this way" is fine if you're still churning out championships. Trust me, I'm not pounding the table for every program to move to the spread. I'm a fan of Adams Central and we run the ball 90% of the time out of the wing-t. We've also gone to semistate 4 out of the last 6 seasons and made a trip to LOS in 21. If we went 10 years without a sectional championship and we were averaging 11 pts/game in post season losses, I hope the staff would consider changes that can be made to get over the hump. What works for one program won't necessarily work for another. Staffs of talented rosters need to maximize their potential. Running the same system for 20 years is fantastic as long as it produces postseason championships, assuming that's how you define success. I think Leo is at the point where regular season success and NE8 championships just aren't enough to deem a season a success.

I haven't seen/heard the complaints about Leo's offense under Sauder, but I do understand the frustration with the lack postseason success. I'm assuming that Coach Sauder and his staff would trade most, if not all, of their conference championships for sectional & regional championships. I'm not saying that had they run a more modern offense they would've had more postseason success, but I do understand how people can draw that conclusion. Since Coach Sauder has taken over, Leo has averaged 11.6 points per game in their postseason losses. Many of those teams had expectations to make it out of sectional and only 2 of them did (0 since 2011). Most of those losses boasted some solid defensive performances as well. Like it or not, the game is changing and more importantly, the strengths and abilities of opponents are changing. There are more teams now, especially in the upper classes, that are equipped with size, strength and speed (opposed to simply being a bruising team or a speed team). Teams can definitely have postseason success running more "traditional" offensive systems, but the results of the Leo's last 10 postseasons are suggesting that what they're doing isn't enough. If anyone says that Leo's offensive system worked, that's fine. It won a ton of regular season games. But if you say that, you're also saying that Leo maximized their postseason potential the last 10 years and I'm not sure that's the case. I do think Coach Sauder was a fantastic coach and his win totals reflect that. I just think that Leo may have left some meat on the bone the last 10 years and their offensive system may have been a part of that.

I think you can argue that AC’s 2021 team wouldn't have gotten past Busco in round 1 of sectional without the lessons learned from the week 2 loss to Eastside. I’d love to go undefeated, but a loss early on can offer a lot of lessons if you’re willing to learn. I’m glad they picked up Covenant Christian week 3. That’ll be a fun one and will offer a lot of insight to the state in terms of comparing 1a teams from the north to south. Bellmont electing to drop us is a loss for the community, but good for our program overall. I’m not sure about the “ACAC is down” comment, though. It was already one of the worst conferences in the state.

I do think that the regional assignments allow for some potentially fun matchups - Park Tudor vs. North Judson/Pioneer/Triton and AC vs. Carroll Flora (not sure what they bring back from last year, so maybe they won't be the favorites in sectional 43???)

The north regionals are a little weird, especially with Park Tudor coming to the north and Monroe Central going to the south.

I was very surprised to see that whoever puts together the Hoosier High School Football page left North Judson out of the top 10. They return their main offensive producers from a semistate run and are probably favorites in the tough sectional 41. HHF releases some great content for HS football in Indiana (interviews, player/coach spotlights, etc.), but NJ should definitely be in the top 10.

I figured it was best to start a specific 1A thread since there were a decent amount of comments about it on the general sectional realignment threads. How do we think things look in 1A? Who are the favorites? Are there any up-and-coming teams that will surprise us? I can really only speak on the North. Sectional 41 is definitely the strongest in this half of the state. Whoever comes out of that (North Judson, Pioneer, Triton) will likely have to go through Park Tudor for a place in semistate. Adams Central loses the bulk of their offensive production, but there will be a strong core of returning incoming juniors that will be ready to pick up the slack on both sides of the ball. I think AC will be a tough out in sectional 44 and in the regional, although I'm not sure what Carroll returns. I'm assuming that Lutheran and Covenant Christian will be the favorites in the South. I look forward to a week 3 matchup between AC and Covenant Christian at Taylor University as a chance to compare the North & South.

LCC won sectional in 2021. In a normal 2-year reclassification period, would a single sectional championship keep a team up?

I'm assuming that the IHSAA just used 2021's performance for SF decisions for schools that were playing up. Again, it would just be nice if there was official clarification from the IHSAA, but I don't have much faith that we'll get that from them.

Sectional 41 is tough for all, including Pioneer. North Judson will have a talented group. Losing Benson and Frasure will be big, especially on defense. Triton returns basically everybody besides the really big fullback/DL. That will definitely be a physical sectional.