region

Crown Point, strictly red and white today, used to use a more maroon and powder blue color combo in the 80s.

Doubtful. If you live and Hammond and want to win, you’ll follow the winning, facility be damned

Exactly. As I’ve said many times over the months, Hammond Central currently doesn’t even have a football facility - the new school sits on Bernie Krueger field - and I can’t imagine Hammond will straighten things out enough in the next 8 months to have one ready by August. They’ll be playing at Gavit or something next season or Morton’s turf when the Govs are away.

Maybe guys like Hanover Central’s Brian Parker (a CP grad, I believe) or Rick Good of Calumet will be interested in these openings. Both good coaches at smaller schools. I think Mason would do well at LC. He wouldn’t fit in “culturally” per se at CP. LC has been broken since they got rid of Elmer 20 years ago. CP has the quicker upside. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Opportunity for both programs to things to the next level.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/sports/ct-ptb-spt-football-crown-point-kevin-enright-st-122020-20201218-czn2ylnsufhmnabgkgwwhxn6ce-story.html%3foutputType=amp Kevin Enright resigns at CP after 9 years and 3 sectional titles. 2 Duneland openings now along with Lake Central

Some NWI ones for ya. Thankfully there aren’t any corporate sponsorship names in Lake/Porter/LaPorte/Jasper counties. Merrillville - Dick Demaree Stadium- coach/program founder 1946-1975 Highland - Ken “Zip” Sypult Field - first Coach 1958-75 Munster - the field isn’t named, but the entire football/soccer/baseball complex is named for school’s first Coach and AD John Friend (1964-80). I would expect them to name the football field for recently retired coach Leroy Marsh (1980-2017), the program’s second coach, in the next few years. KV - Fred Jones Field - School’s first AD

One thing to keep in mind is that Illinois doesn’t start until week 2 in Indiana, so that limits opportunities to play suburban schools a little bit. As others have mentioned, there have been some attempts in recent years. Chesterton was supposed to play Chicago power St. Rita this year. I think I can be sold into the 10 team Duneland. I like the east-west idea. Fun hypothetical.

The LAC/Lake 10 was never a closed conference. They had football divisions (black and blue) that allowed for non conference games. Some schools scheduled cross divisional games, but there was never a 9 game conference schedule like with the SAC. Morton is a football school. That’s it. That’s their only sport. They’re terrible at both basketballs. Terrible. Haven’t won a boys sectional title in basketball since the bicentennial. That’s one of the longest droughts in the state. They won’t be getting much better adding Gavit kids. Not really competitive as a team in any other sport. Hammond

What we saw Friday was just another chapter in Hobart’s great tradition of losing the state championship game. I can’t imagine anyone has more runner-up finishes than the Bricks. Indianapolis and it’s suburbs are exploding in population. Rest of the state, especially the rust belt north, can’t catch up. Is what it is.

Hobart Brickies (11-2) Sagarin 75.63, 6th in 4A OA: 38.7 DA:10.2 12th state title game appearance, first in 24 years (1996). Roncalli Rebels (12-1) 94.18, 1st 4A OA: 41.3 DA: 16.3 13th appearance, first in 4 years. Gimme Roncalli big. Hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think the Bricks stand a chance. Maybe that can channel some 2005 Lowell magic. Thoughts? Analysis? Predictions?

2016

Buzea - 157k Larry Veracco - 171k

Closely connected in every way save enrollment. LC is twice the size. Unrelated issues. Munster’s case is that Marsh let things go downhill on the back half of his career, combined with a first time head coach taking over that has been unable to generate any program excitement or improvement. That leads them to 2-8, 0-10 and 1-9 the last 3 years. I can’t figure out Lake Central’s issue. It’s not a new one though. They had a decent run with St. Germain where they won a couple of sectionals, but mostly under 500 ball since they let Elmer go after 2000. 6 winning seasons and 14 losing

LC can’t match what HF pays or HF’s facility. Buz is making $157,000 across the state line. No one in the state can match that. Plus he already has a winning program at HF. They also have an indoor 30 yard turf practice field. I’d be shocked if he leaves, especially with his health ordeal this past year.

One problem with the middle school feeders is that for at least the last 4 maybe 5 years they’ve only fielded 2 teams out of 3. Grimmer and Clark have had a combined team because Grimmer apparently couldn’t field a whole team. Plenty of non-white athletes roaming the halls at LC, DT. 70% white, 16% Hispanic, 7.5% black. Remember Gelen Robinson? He wasn’t an outlier. A lot to fix at LC. Right guy can do it though. Just has to be the right guy. Beutiful facility. They’ll pay well. Plentiful enrollment. Should attract quality applicants. We’ll see what happens. Region football is better