region

Westfield @ Merrillville Merrillville struggled to beat Elkhart. Gimme the Rocks. Valpo @ Zionsville Burbee is a beast RB for Valpo, but they’re probably too 1 dimensional to beat Zionsville. Hope I’m wrong. No matter who wins, they’re sacrificial lambs for Cathedral. Marion @ Hobart Honestly, feel like the Region can very easily go 0-3 this Friday. Hobart was not overly impressive beating Lowell or Logan. Don’t get me wrong, I’m rooting for the Bricks and I’ll pick them to win, but I really would not be shocked to see the Giants playing at LOS. Hobart has to fight the demons of post-Coach Howell dissapointments and choking away last year’s semi-state loss to East Noble. It’d be cool to see this historically great program get back to the mountaintop.

6A: Jeff @ Merrillville Chesterton @ Elkhart 5A: Valpo @ La Porte 4A: Lowell @ Hobart 3A: Calumet @ Hanover Central 2A: Rensselaer @ Andrean Some decent games on paper. I’m most excited for the Jeff/Mville game. Good for the 3A game where one program will win their first sectional title. Really rooting for Calumet and Coach Good in that one.

I bet they’ll charge for each game. They’re charging for both boys and girls sessions of cross country state and that is usually a one ticket event. I really hope they don’t though. Coming from Lake County would suck to only go to one game. I’m not spending 45 bucks to watch 3 games either

Why not just separate the top 2 and ping pong the remaining spots? Best of both.

The Whiting school board foolishly decided to follow Hammond as only the second school district in the state to cancel all fall sports. You can’t expect much or be too critical of your Oilers when it was a decision by the top to start their season 3 months late.

Give me Chatard. Hoping the Pirates can compete. With all their talent, they should. Should be interesting. Seldom we get Region-Indy matchups.

1. Highland will go sub .500 again this year like they have the last several and likely 1-4 in the NCC. Your Trojans are probably not going to ever beat Hobart and are just as unlikely to beat Lowell and Andrean this year. Ceiling is 2-3 in the NCC this season and Sectional runner-up with the right draw. 2. Slim. Too much mismanagement in Hammond. Kids wanted to play - school board says no. One of the only districts in the state to suspend athletics. Give the consolidation era a couple years to see if things improve across the board (cumulative improvement/competativeness in athletic programs at Morton and Hammond High (not just in football basketball), stability at AD, community support, numbers in programs to provide full freshman and JV teams, things of that nature) and maybe then they’ll get an invite. 3. Griffith is in for a long year. Hear the sideline wasn’t too deep against Lowell Friday. They’ll be down for a while and will struggle to pick up many wins in the GSSC this year. Bad time for Gtown. But it’s a pandemic 4. They’ve already returned to full varsity. Probably have more kids in the program than Griffith. Hopefully BNI can get a win this week against a very down Boone Grove. 5. Munster will get back eventually. Shows how impressive a job Leroy did keeping the Mustangs competive for all those years. 6. No. They did that in the past from 07-12 and had Penn on the schedule for 4 seasons after that. Merrillville-Hobart is a premier Region rivalry renewed that I doubt either side is looking to get rid of any time soon. Andrean rivalry went 5-5 last decade. Andrean is 2A enrollment, but 5A in spirit. Niners won’t leave the schedule so long that school is on 5959 broadway a mile north. The inevitable move south could change things. 7. Probably a little bit. 10. Good class of talent in DeMotte-field this year. That’s part of their success. Another part is a weak non-conf. schedule that should set them up to be at least 2-1 to start every year. 11. Nope 12. EC deserves to be independent. Pretty difficult district to work with. School board runs the show and that hurts the athletic department. Program will be fine. It’s a pandemic and they’re as urban and poverty stricken as you can get. They’ll be back post-pandemic to a full schedule. EC would be more likely to receive an invite to the GSSC before any other conference in NWI. No shot they’d get in the NCC, and the world will burn before they ever receive interest from Duneland again. appreciate the Region discussion, DT

Yes it does

Make it 7. They just cancelled week 3 against Munster. The Mustangs will now play South Bend Clay as a replacement game at Munster. Good game for a couple struggling programs.

That’d be impossible since Illinois doesn’t start playing until week 2 in Indiana. And no. The series went 5-5 over the last decade. Classic rivalry that won’t end any time soon.

Merrillville has 4 : Dick Demaree, Ken Haupt, Frank O’Shea and Jeff Yelton Hammond High 3: Karl Huffine, Bernie Krueger, George Hall Hobart 3 : Russ Deal, The Don, Charlie Boston I’m sure there are others. Also, the Highland board ran off a ton of great admins, coaches and teachers in the early 2000s. Crazy Rick Volbrecht led the way on the board. Not BS. Why do you think Brad Smith left as the AD? Declining enrollment is a large factor, but after the 2003/2004 school board shenanigans, Trojan athletics really hit the dumps and has yet to fully recover.

Sectional - The schools split profits evenly after the IHSAA gets 2%. Regional - Each school gets $600. That’s it. The rest of the gate money goes to the IHSAA. The host school also receives $100 for use of their facility. Tickets cost 8 bucks. After 150 people walk through the gate, the state gets the money from the hundreds if not thousands more fans. Semi-State - Each school gets $700 of the gate. Again, the rest goes to IHSAA. The host school also receives $100 for the use of their faculty. This time only 140 fans are going to the gate fund for the schools. Having some experience in an athletics department, there is very little gain in hosting. State gets a grand majority of the gate. Concessions at some schools are not a money maker. In NWI, at least a half dozen have outsourced. Also, even through the ticket takers and chain gang are being paid by the IHSAA, they’re receiving only about $35 (probably less than what most make during the regular season - differs from school to school). I see zero reason for a neutral sectional. Same goes for regional. You could maybe convince me for semi-state. I see no problem with how it is now though. Yeah, it sucks when you’re Hobart and Andrean and have to bus 3 hours to Kendalville or the outskirts of Marion, but it is what it is. The geography gets a little tricky if you want to find a neutral site that works year in and year out. States like Ohio and Texas are much larger than Indiana and warrant neutral sites. The bottom line for the IHSAA is what makes the most money. They would probably lose money making neutral site tournament games. There are casual fans that will only go if their school is playing at home. You’re asking the real fans of both schools to then travel instead of just 1 fanbase if you go neutral site. We should be more worried about seeding 1 & 2 in the sectional.

Exactly. You’re not going to find 24 neutral site schools to offer hosting the regional. Coordinating a Friday night home game is already a pain in the neck for most athletic directors. Doubtful that schools would line up to host a regional or semi-state for less money. You probably need at least 20 support staff to host such game. Even less incentive for your normal regular season workers to come back for a game where your school is not playing and they would likely be paid less money from the state. Hosting a basketball sectional/regional/semi-state is much more doable — and there is a historical source of pride in your gym hosting the state tournament. No such feeling for football.

You nominate yourself for the Hall. He is obviously a shoe-in, just hasn’t filled out the form to do it. I believe they discuss that in the interview. He mentioned that he felt there were assistant coaches that deserved to go in before him. Russ is just chasing Bud at this point. He’ll have a loaded gun to start his reign with the Redskins.

It could happen, but never will. They’re respected charter members of the NCC and have a great athletics department staff in John Gray and Bill Mueller. They are a good fit in the conference - even if it is a pain in the neck to bus down there for stuff sometimes. If the NCC is to expand north, I just see them and Lowell probably taking issue with it. I hope I’m wrong, because I think it would be best for the Hammonds to join.

Exactly. Wheatfield is no man’s land and only in the NCC since they don’t fit anywhere else. They wouldn’t ever be booted though. East Chicago doesn’t have a prayer to get in the NCC or the Duneland for that matter (which is even more of a pipe dream). Way too disfunctional of a school Corp.

I don’t think Griffith returning to the NCC is that farfetched. The move to the GSSC was orchestrated by the old superintendent. The only problem is they keep getting smaller. If the current Griffith brass applied to the NCC and brought Hanover with them, they’d get in before Hammond High and Morton. Griffith plays half the NCC already (Highland, Hobart and Lowell). With Coach Robinson at the helm, I suspect they’ll return to being competitive. Being 4A and playing GSSC competition weeks 5-9 doesn’t get them reading for the sectional. At least it hasn’t 3 years in.

Correct. That gets alleviated a little with football divisions though. Only have to travel super far in the week 9 crossover game.

I suspect that a big part of Hammond High and Morton getting in is who they hire for ADs. Doug Friend of Gavit would be the right fit at Morton since they’re getting a majority of Gavit’s kids. I am also guessing they’d have to apply before they are invited since the southern schools would be hesitant. I don’t think Hanover is quite there yet. Let them grow to the 900-1000 mark first. 0% chance RC wants to leave the Hoosier. They wouldn’t be a fit anyway. Munster, Highland, Andrean and Hobart hate driving to Wheatfield as it is.

I agree with you. I just don’t think that Lowell and more likely KV will allow it to happen. I think it would be a 4-2 vote and I believe expansion needs to be unanimous per NCC bylaws. We shall see.

It’s a sad situation. They used a branding firm out of Denver. The school board and SCH administration are inept. Erasing over 120 years of Hammond High history is a joke. They’re likely going to do the same to Morton. They’re going to have a beautiful new school, but no home football field. The construction has been fouled up and original plans that called for a field on the west side of the new school have been scrapped. Hammond High football is in shambles right now having gone 0-18 the last two years. The new school is going to be built and they won’t have anywhere to practice or play. That’s the last way you want to start a new program. The city has said land will be donated from the adjacent Civic Center, but driving up there this week and looking on Google maps, there is certainly not enough room for a field. I don’t know what they’re going to do. I assume they’ll be playing their games to start on Saturdays and available Fridays at Morton. I want to be positive, but the consolidation in the city is going to be a disaster. Next to no planning from the top on issues like personnel, organization and most importantly, communication. Teachers and coaches have no clue what’s going to happen. It’s assumed right now that everyone at the high and middle schools, closing or not, is going to have to reapply in 2021. I know this much, like I’ll never call fake Comisky “Guaranteed Rate Field,” you’ll never hear me call Hammond High “Hammond Central.” Same will go for when they inevitably rename Morton.

Good news. The old Region Sports message board is back up in running after a long hiatus. It’d be nice to get that place going again and talk Region football with a larger group of people. I know guys like DT and Tommy and Coach Nowlin used to post on there, so come on back. Folks like Gipper and Bobref will probably enjoy it as well. Coach E had already returned. Here’s the link - http://www.forums.regionsports.com/viewforum.php?f=4 Thanks!

Good news. The old Region Sports message board is back up in running after a long hiatus. It’d be nice to get that place going again. I know guys like DT and Tommy and Coach Nowlin used to post on there, so come on back. Folks like Gipper and Bobref will probably enjoy it as well. Coach E had already returned. Here’s the link - http://www.forums.regionsports.com/viewforum.php?f=4 Thanks!