NLCTigerFan07

2 minutes ago, DT said:

Most expected the run to end against Leo, and then even New Prairie was favored to win. Mt Vernon manhandled them in the title game.

Yet - they somehow found a way to get it done. And part of that was due to their offense finding an identify and becoming more consistent, which is the point I was making for this upcoming year's "predictions" for the conference race.

21 hours ago, DT said:

Are you an advocate for them remaining in the NLC, given Warsaw's stated goal of becoming a contender in 6A football at the state level?  

Considering there are 6 other teams not named Warsaw or Wawasee in the NLC? Yes, the Warriors should remain in the NLC. I do not believe Warsaw needs to change their conference affiliation whatsoever. Bart Ball offense is all about repetition and perfecting that repetition. It doesn't matter if it's run against Wawasee or Warren Central. If the Tigers are ever to make a deep tournament run in 6A football, it will be due to their execution of that offense, not because Wawasee left the NLC.

16 hours ago, Crusty said:

Who is the preseason favorite in the NLC this year?

I would say Warsaw and Mishawaka are co-favorites. The Tigers bring back plenty of experience, no more so important than their QB. In Bart Ball offense, that is key. Similarly, the Cavemen will have a junior QB who gained plenty of experience last season as a sophomore filling in for his injured brother.

Northridge will be right there IMO. They have a good defensive scheme and unit, and I believe their tournament run last year helped them gain a little bit of confidence and identity on the offensive side of things that went ghost mode at times during the regular season.

Concord is the defending conference champs, and are always in the equation. However, I believe they lost quite a bit from last season. Still dangerous though and wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see them up at the top.

NorthWood has seemingly lost their edge after their State Championship Runner-Up finish now six seasons ago. They are .500 over the last two years, and I am honestly not sure what to expect from the Panthers. They could surprise due to their offense, but the Black Crunch defense will need to show up this season.

Goshen will come around over the next few years under Coach Wogomon, but I do not expect any sort of magic wand to be waved in his first season for the Redhawks. Would love to see them challenging again in the NLC.

Wawasee and Plymouth will be at the bottom again. Based off the last few years, I'll give the slight edge to the Warriors over the Rockies, if only due to the fact that Plymouth is going through a significant coaching change. Coach Barron leaving painted a pretty rough portrait of what is going on in the land of blueberries. As well, I don't know Coach Handley, but it's not like he turned Wabash around during his four season there. I wish him nothing but the best.

16 hours ago, Bobref said:

I know many of the people on the forum now joined after Tim passed, and they know him only by the occasional references on here. Perhaps others who knew him might share some of their recollections of this very good man.

The son of a coaches kid - I remember getting on the GID often on Friday nights and Saturday mornings in the early 2000s. As well, getting the new edition of the yearly Indiana Football Digest to comb through season after season. My only time meeting TA was that late spring before my senior year when he came to Warsaw to get pictures and interviews, stats, etc for next seasons digest. Growing up, I couldn't wait to get my name and picture included. I will always remember meeting him that day.

https://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/news media/2021-22/062322.BasketballFormat.pdf

The Committee approved modified restrictions on Indiana schools competing against schools from beyond the 300-mile travel limit. IHSAA schools will now be able to participate against out-of-state schools from beyond the 300-mile limit as long as they are in good standing with their state association, the venue is within the 300 mile limit, is and is sanctioned by the NFHS and IHSAA. Also, Indiana schools may now host out-of-state schools in Indiana from beyond the 300-mile limit as long as they are a member in good standing with their own state association and the event is sanctioned by the NFHS and IHSAA.

17 hours ago, DT said:

3A Wawasee should leave the NLC and join the Three Rivers Conference, replacing 1A North Miami.

Wawasee is 4A for what it's worth and about 150 students above the largest 3A school. There are 18 schools in 4A with a smaller enrollment than the Warriors.

Warsaw Boys and Warsaw Girls win the 2021-2022 All Sports Trophies

Some interesting notes

Ooooof - Wawasee athletics program as a whole. Both boys and girls finished in last place overall. For their boys programs, they were last in the NLC in 4 of the 10 sports.

Goshen was a nice surprise in 2nd place on the Boys side. I guess I don't know how previous years have gone, but I know it is usually Warsaw, Northridge and Concord that seem to battle it out for the top spot. Goshen was the outright Cross Country champ and had Co-Champ status in Tennis and Baseball.

Mishawaka struggled in the "country club" sports of Tennis, Golf and Swimming in both their boys and girls programs. Just interesting to see both struggle in the same sports.

Final note - did not realize Gymnastics was not an official conference sport apparently. It is recognized by the IHSAA, but I'm assuming not every NLC school has a team or something?

44 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

I think the Success Factor should be moved from a 2 year cycle to a 4 year cycle. Accrue anything less than 4 points and you bump back to your original class, accrue anywhere from 4 to 6 points you remain in your current class and anything over 7 you're bumped another class.  

I believe initially it was a 4 year cycle for Success Factor, but then it was changed to the 2 year cycle. I believe the 2 year cycle is better. Imagine a small 1A school that isn't private school has an amazing class of athletes that win a sectional (1pt), regional (2pts) then State title (4pts). That's 7 points now accumulated.

But then they graduate.

The 4 classes behind them have to play up a class their entire high school careers because of a once in a lifetime run from their small community.

2 year cycle has been a better change in my opinion.

I actually don't 100% disagree with you when it comes to the fact that some schools probably should look at contracting their football programs, or at least look to moving to the new 6-man/8-man football (can't remember which it is) that is coming to Indiana.

However - it's just a little tired at this point. Serious question, how many threads have you started concerning this topic? Like, we get it. Those who will agree with you, agree. Those who do not, disagree. I don't think anyone's mind is getting changed at this point because it's been discussed ad nauseum.

2 hours ago, DT said:

Recent trend has not been good at these schools.  Are the right people and programs in place to get things turned around? 

Goshen (9-39 last 5 seasons)

Former Wawasee Coach Tom Wogomon was hired to try and fix this broken program.  Numbers have been low for several years.  Is the Goshen Football Culture gone for good?

More recently, the former NORTHRIDGE coach from 2013-2020 after coaching Wawasee from 2007-2012.

Another side note - Coach Wogomon is a Goshen alumnus. Best of luck to him turning things around for the Redskins Redhawks

8 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

IF****

IF high enrollment and low ses WERE the two primary factors for having a successful program you wouldn't see so many 6A schools with 3000+ kids and low SES numbers having programs as bad as they are. Clearly they aren't the two primary factors.

Re-read what I said and that get back to me on who is being dense. 

You're hopeless. There is no sense going round and round with you here. You win? lol

5 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

I’ve acknowledged all this years ago and yet nobody can answer why schools like Noblesville, Lake Central, etc have such poor football programs? If enrollment and SES were the two primary factors those two schools would be head over heels better than they are and Carmel would win the state title every single year. 

You must be extremely dense. You literally said it yourself. They are the two PRIMARY factors, not ONLY factors. Those two factors, enrollment and SES, are the foundation of potential success for a football program at the high school level in Indiana. It does not guarantee success if a school finds itself in a good spot with both, nor does it guarantee failure if a school finds itself in a bad spot with both.

@Footballking16 Geezus Chryst who peed in your Cheerios this morning? All I did was provide some context and stats around this discussion that has been had time and time again on this thread. You need to lighten up Francis.

But since you asked, my point would be that both enrollment and SES or F/R lunch statistics are the two biggest indicators of whether or not a school can field a successful program. Obviously they are not THE ONLY things in play (as @temptation has stated also), but you are doing everything you can to try and dismiss them entirely it seems.

My opinion is that being in the top half of enrollment a school's class is the first major indicator of whether or not that school can have a successful football program. It is an automatic advantage if this is the case. The next indicator is SES of the school. Do you have a small or large portion of F/R lunch? If your SES indicators are on the lower end, that is the next step in the right direction for being set up to have a successful football program. Then there are many other factors after those two that make an impact that can also help overcome shortfalls in either of those two indicators initially.

This conversation has been had many times before. Look up the thread "Unsuccessful Programs" . Here's some data I provided previously:

On 2/17/2022 at 6:07 PM, NLCTigerFan07 said:

I have gotten through 4A, 5A and 6A based on the 21-22 DOE Enrollment Data that was posted here on the GID as well as Free/Reduced Lunch % for the high school's based on this website https://www.in.gov/doe/files/2021-school-fr-data.pdf.

Here are the schools that fit your criteria of bottom half of their class by enrollment and over 50% free/reduced lunch.

Everyone - feel free to debate if any of these schools have had "long-term success".

6A

21	Southport	2379	69.22%
22	Perry Meridian	2373	58.50%
23	Portage	2269	55.92%
24	Lawrence Central	2245	64.11%
27	Lafayette Jefferson	2153	61.71%
28	Indianapolis Arsenal Tech	2111	67.18%

5A

49	Hammond Morton	1729	53.46%
56	Mishawaka	1584	51.21%
61	Michigan City	1526	71.01%
62	Fort Wayne North Side	1513	55.72%

4A

99	Marion	1036	69.33%
105	Connersville	981	50.77%
106	Beech Grove	968	58.01%
112	Indianapolis Washington	906	63.82%
119	Western	838	51.23%
121	Mississinewa	808	53.01%
123	South Bend Washington	801	67.34%
128	South Bend Clay	778	53.60%

Just looking at it, Mishawaka (4 sectional titles in 5A since 2015), Mississinewa (3 sectional titles since 2017) and Michigan City (3 sectional titles since 2017) are the only ones who I would classify as successful. Marion had a good run with two Regional Championships in 2018 and 2020. Lafayette Jefferson has struggled in their sectionals with tough matchups usually including either Carmel or Merrillville.

On 2/18/2022 at 12:26 PM, NLCTigerFan07 said:

Follow up to my previous post. Here are the schools that fit the @temptation criteria in 1A, 2A and 3A

3A

161	Calumet	622	65.02%
184	West Vigo	525	53.96%
190	River Forest	511	68.66%

2A

227	Switzerland County	428	50.12%
236	Elwood	410	56.38%
244	Lake Station Edison	388	70.23%
245	LaVille	388	53.28%
246	North Knox	388	54.81%

1A

289	North White	272	73.68%
295	Culver	255	51.02%
298	Union City	246	55.22%

Of these schools, the only ones you could even give remote consideration to as being "long-term successful" in the last decade would be:
LaVille (2 Sectional Championships since 2017 with 4 other Sectional Championship appearances and a 70-31 record since Coach Hostrawser took over) 
Calumet (Sectional title in 2020, winning record last 4 seasons)

You'd have STRETCH argument for North Knox (no postseason championships, but doesn't help being in the sectionals they've been in).

https://www.wane.com/high-school-sports/northrop-hires-bowen-as-head-football-coach/

I know I could probably just Google it... but who was hired? Why not post the name or a link to the new hire?

Obviously biased here - but the Michigan City at Warsaw game should be a good one to start the season after it has been moved up from the second week slot. This is the 4th game of the series, with the Wolves holding a 2-1 edge. 

Michigan City will look to start strong in their follow up to a semi-state run in 5A last year, while Warsaw has high expectations going into this season bringing back a lot of experience on both sides of the ball, including their QB, which is vital in the Bart Ball offense.

32 minutes ago, BTF said:

It's a shame they moved up to 6A. Does that mean there isn't an Indy presence in 5A this year? 

Decatur Central, Plainfield and Whiteland are about as close as you can get. You can throw in Franklin as well, but that is starting to stretching it

If it hasn't been made clear already, Northridge without a doubt is the school that will continue to push Warsaw athletically across all sports. For at least a decade or more now, the Raiders and Tigers have been the two schools battling it out for the All-Conference trophy, and there is no reason to think it won't continue to be those two schools moving forward. Two pieces of amazing news for the Northridge and Middlebury community! Outstanding!

23 minutes ago, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

I am not as tech savvy as most on here, but there is a great youtube video by coach Frank Martin (then of South Carolina) about referees and coaches.  It is worth a listen.

I gotchu
 

Looking at the new lineups for Class 6A, here are my thoughts on who are the "favorites" this season. Feel free to add your own inputs and opinions!

Sectional 1 - Lafayette Jeff has to be ecstatic to no longer see Merrillville in their sectional. The Bronchos have had their past 3 seasons ended by the Pirates, and with Merrillville dropping to 5A, Jeff immediately becomes the favorite in the sectional. However, Crown Point has high expectations in Coach Buzea's second year at the helm and are right behind Jeff.

Sectional 2 - This is truly a crapshoot this year in my opinion. Carroll was tremendous last season, but losing a 3-year starting QB who was a STUD. Warsaw's loses quite a bit of production from all-purpose player Julius Jones, but bringing back a returning QB in the Bart Ball offense is extremely beneficial. The Kingsmen have been a .500 program the last 3 seasons (with no disrespect to their strong out of conference schedule), but their helmets still say Penn. And Elkhart followed up their sophomore year after consolidation going .500 and seeing Coach Shattuck leave the program. Coach Saint-Louis did a heck of a job turning around Peru the last 4 seasons, but who knows what to expect from the Lions this year. I will stick with Carroll as the favorite... but truly this sectional could be a toss-up between all 4 of these programs at this point. We'll know more come late September/early October obviously.

Sectional 3 - Hamilton Southeastern has been getting a lot of chatter on the boards this offseason, and deservedly so after their season last year and what they have coming back. The Royals are definitely the favorite at this point, but it will be interesting to see what we get from Fishers and Homestead. The Tigers saw some improvement in year 2 under Coach Funk, can that be continued? And the Spartans were down record wise last year (6-4), but their regular season losses were by 3 points to FW Luers, 3 points to FW Snider, and 7 points to FW Carroll. Those 3 teams shared the SAC title last season, and had a few plays/calls went Homestead's way, they easily could have won the SAC for a 3rd consecutive year.

Sectional 4 - It's truly a disappointment that these 4 teams ended up together. It makes plenty of sense geographically, I know. At this point, I'm going with Carmel as the favorite for this reason only: In the 9 seasons since the creation of class 6A, Carmel has been included in 6A north in 7 of those seasons. In those 7 seasons, Carmel was the 6A North representative 5 times. While Westfield has been down there back to back years, neither time did they have to go through the mighty Greyhounds to do so (taking absolutely NOTHING away from the Shamrocks). It is without a doubt a 1-2 race between these two. But Zionsville (back to back 5A North champs) could have something to say when it's all said and done.

Sectional 5 - For now, I have to go with Ben Davis as the favorites, but Brownsburg is right there as well. The Bulldogs FINALLY got a sectional championship last season after many years of postseason heartbreak, and while their overall record over the last few years has been better than the Giants, Ben Davis has failed to win a sectional only 1 time in the last 6 seasons. That continuous postseason success vs. postseason heartbreak (until last year) has me leaning toward Ben Davis. Avon seems to have fallen back from both of these programs quite a bit, where at one time I would have easily seen this as a 3-horse race.

Sectional 6 - The newcomers to 6A are the favorites here for obvious reasons. Cathedral is head and shoulders above each program in the sectional. Plenty has been said for the Irish for this upcoming year. Lawrence North and North Central both have the talent to push them, but I do not see it happening this year.

Sectional 7 - Much like sectional 6, Warren Central is leaps and bounds better than each of the teams in this sectional. However, the Warriors have not exactly been themselves the last two seasons. Gains must be made in Coach Kirschner's second season, otherwise they could open the door for one of these other teams. My money would be on Tech as the best option, but I just still think a mediocre Warren Central team can sleep walk through this sectional.

Sectional 8 - Center Grove. There's literally nothing more to be said, but I will add that the Trojans have won a sectional title 11 straight seasons. They can sleepwalk to 13 straight over these next two seasons.

On 5/2/2022 at 2:21 PM, HHF said:

Reclassification - Winners and Losers

*****************************************

Losers

5. Pioneer

The Panthers drop to 1A after a few SF seasons in 2A. This is a highly successful and competitive program that probably doesn't need or want the demotion.

Pioneer is in Class 2A for the upcoming cycle. They are slotted in sectional 34 with Benton Central, Delphi, Lafayette Central Catholic, Lewis Cass, Rochester, Seeger, and Winamac

New NLC Sectional groupings:

Class 6A - Sectional 2: Carroll (Fort Wayne), Elkhart, Penn, Warsaw

Class 5A - Sectional 11: Concord, Goshen, Mishawaka, South Bend Adams

Class 4A - Sectional 18: Logansport, Northridge, NorthWood, Plymouth, South Bend Riley, South Bend St. Joseph, South Bend Washington, Wawasee

4 hours ago, WolvesOnTheProwl said:

Was there another really good Warsaw kicker a couple of years ago too or is this the same kid? Thought he went to Missouri maybe? 

Warsaw has been lucky to have a number of good kickers over the last two decades. The only other one to make it as far as Andrew at this point was Jake Rogers who graduated in 2006. He went to Cincinnati, became the Bearcats all time scoring leader, and kicked deep into the NFL preseason for 3 straight seasons, getting cut at the final cut each year.

I fully expect Andrew's brother Harrison (the current kicker at Missouri) to be drafted when he's done with his college playing days.

Added this in another thread, but for the NLCers

Andrew Mevis (K): Undrafted Free Agent: Jacksonville Jaguars via Iowa State and Fordham and Warsaw Community High School

Mevis finished his only season in Ames (as a graduate transfer from Fordham) 20-of-23 on field goals, including 2-for-2 on kicks of 50+ yards, and was perfect on PATs. Mevis was arguably the best kicker in the entire draft, and will presumably have a shot at taking the starting job since the Jaguars released longtime kicker Josh Lambo midway through the 2021 season.

His younger brother Harrison is the kicker at Missouri and will likely be a front-runner for the Groza award this season.