BLACKGOLD2007

What does Tippy Valley have coming back, they were a strong team going into the playoffs. 

26 minutes ago, Indiana Fan said:

Could you see a coach from the Indy area coming up to go after this position? Or do you think it’ll come from the northern part of the state?

There are promising coaches that have 3A, 4A and 5A offenses producing at college levels. I think there is a coach in the Indy area that would love take on this opportunity. 

Heck could there be a really promising assistant coach at one of our colleges that would even be interested in cutting his head coaching teeth.  Penn just has to be smart in their approach and consideration of these candidates. Just going with the ho-hum same old is not going to satisfy the boosters. 

1 hour ago, Gipper said:

I think Penn will continue to be Penn as they have the luxury of playing in a B or C level conference.    The schools in the South Bend aren't much to speak of, Elkhart is waffling, while Concord and Mishawaka are on the fence at best.   The northern half of 6A teams isn't exactly stacked either. with only Crown Point, a Ft. Wayne school, Lafayette Jeff (and/or Harrison), and Warsaw to contend with.

Right, we aren't arguing that... With a new person at the helm and a booster program that wants wholesale change an Exit of the NIC may be imminent. 

If Penn jumps to the DAC or goes Independent in football that will be the change the fans, boosters and players need to potentially be competitive in the grand scheme of 6A football.

Penn in the 90's was one of the dominant programs in 5A football, playing that B or C level schedule. the NIC then was no better than it is now. The only benefit of the schedule those teams had was playing Ben Davis almost yearly. The other benefit they had was Geesman. 

16 hours ago, PDB26 said:

Looks like Cory is retiring.

He is a great man, I think he accomplished many things during his time as a player, ast. coach and head coach. I wish we could have won one title game for him... we just couldn't ever get the job done. 

I hope he enjoys his retirement. 200+ wins in 20+ seasons that is an accomplishment. 

I hope we can get the community excited about the program again, bring back fans to the games....and for the love of everything that is good in this world run a competent offense that has more than one formation in it. 

18 hours ago, Coach Lou said:

Sad that 3-4 wins is all that is predicted for Elkhart.

 

I mean, I am entirely basing it off last year. I hope they do better, but just feels like the new HC has a bigger challenge on his hand then expected. 

18 hours ago, BTF said:

Carroll's off to a good start with Iowa QB commit Jimmy Sullivan. Don't know much about them other than that. Their program seems to be in a reloading phase. I wouldn't consider Carroll a lock against Penn. The Chargers were good last year with good outings against Hamilton Southeastern, Warren Central, and Snider. Then got wasted by Warsaw in the post season. Gotta hand it to Bart ball though, Snider almost suffered a similar fate in Mishawaka. Long story short.........Penn can beat Carroll. 

I don't see any SAC teams going undefeated, schedules are brutal.

Carroll's AD has a solid brass set. The non conference games he has this year is top notch. Plus the natural rivalries of Snider and Homestead and other Ft. Wayne schools. This team will be a tough out no matter who plays them. 

Penn went and got Gees from Ohio...Go external. There has to be someone who is young with a brilliant Offensive mind that wants to bring back this giant. 

We need someone who will go back and foster the development of future Kingsmen through our Rocket league to Middle School ball. 

Even if the HC isn't directly involved the OC and DC should be hands on with the approach the teams have in development and implementation of the base offense. 

10 hours ago, ASJCPUMA said:

Sort of a surprise but a decision is made what is best for the person

Honestly we expected this sooner.

Looking at your upcoming schedules what teams this year do you think have a good chance of going 9-0 this year.

Penn's schedule has been released, and after week 2 the schedule takes a tragic jump off the cliff. I expect Penn to be 9-0 at the end of the Regular season... With a battle tested Ft. Wayne Carroll in their sectional, Penn's season ends 9-1 or 10-1 this year. 

From the look of the schedule Warren is the big test again, Carroll I expect to be better than last season. If your D is as strong as last year I think Snider is one of a handful of undefeated teams going into the playoffs. 

Looks like most of the NIC schedules are set... Riley and St. Joe look to have one opening each in the NC and their game against one another is not set in stone yet. 

Penn v Riley week 3, we will get to see how much the Cats have actually improved since their last meeting...70-0.

Penn ends the year with Elkhart, NP and then St. Joe. Maybe the Penn St. Joe rivalry can heat up. Come on St. Joe get better....please.

NP will be undefeated rolling into the Penn game. 

I see Elkhart getting 3 maybe 4 wins this year....South Bend 3 and maybe Marian

Not including teams from surrounding states, is there an increase in top programs wanting to play Indiana based schools? I think the AZ game vs CP is interesting, but how many schools are getting these type of requests to play National games? Center Grove and Ben Davis...

I don't see Bosco calling any Indiana school to set up a game. Maybe I am missing the point.

On 1/23/2024 at 12:00 PM, Slobberknocker said:

A big problem with these types of games is finding games for JV and freshmen to play. Week 1 Center Grove is playing St. Fances (MD) and then schedule Warren Central for JV and Freshmen. But when they play Fri Sep 20 against Trotwood - Madison HS they have open dates for freshmen and JV.  I think I remember last year one game CG Fresh played a small school JV to have a game.

Center Grove Freshmen should be competitive against a small school JV squad. I think this not only benefits your Freshmen but also that small school as well. A program like Center Grove has that pipeline humming, it is well oiled and producing solid class after solid class. Your Freshmen probably execute the base offense of the Varsity team better than most 6A JV squads. 

On 1/31/2024 at 9:59 AM, Coach Lou said:

Elkhart High has an enrollment of over 3100 students and their combined football/basketball record is 4-23.

I thought combining Central and Memorial would bring about a more competitive athletic program.

 

The Elkhart schools have never lacked for talent. From my perspective it seems to be the coaching staffs that let the programs down. Similar to Penn in regards to 6A tournament football. Penn, prior to this past season, did not seem to be physically or mentally prepared to compete at the 6A level. 

On 1/25/2024 at 10:24 PM, PDB26 said:

Buffalo is bad.

Next fall Bison would be good.

Rams even better. 

 

I think if they wanted to keep it Native themed Bison would be the route to go. Rams are found throughout the old testament, so for a Catholic school that makes sense. 

On 1/21/2024 at 2:04 PM, ASJCPUMA said:

Nope.  There have been surveys with suggestions.  They brought it down to the top 20 then the final 3  They have had the students /and SJ family involved.  The favorite among those who were close to Fr. Bly is the Rams.  He had told people for years that if the Indians ever had to go it should be the Rams.  I hope not the Huskies since Hartford, Michigan which the tribe went after also, chose that one.  The only one close to the name was the Workermen after St. Joseph the Worker 

Change buffalo to Bison....that sounds good. 

Here come the St. Joseph Bison!...Touchdown Bison....

Kingsmen slay the Bison. 

Kingsmen slay the Huskies....sounds like pet abuse. 

Since Elkhart's inception, they went: 

2020: 9-1 beat Penn by 1, 20-19

2021: 5-5 lost to Penn twice by a combined 42.

2022: 7-3 lost to Penn by 1, 20-21

2023: 3-7 lost to Penn twice by a combined 56. 

They are going on their third coach in 5 years. 

On 1/19/2024 at 11:49 AM, temptation said:

I think that in part is due to their past glory as well as being the largest 6A school in their area.

Gimme Elkhart to surpass Penn sooner rather than later.

Elkhart has been trending backwards faster than Penn. Maybe this new coach can turn this trend around. 

Right now, Michiana is Penn's to win. Next year, I think Penn will be undefeated going into the playoffs. They will be over ranked and will either get beat by Carroll or drop in Regionals. 

But, I don't think Penn is relevant until they win a state title and then proceed to compete for state on a yearly basis as they did in the late 5A and early 6A years. 

On 1/13/2024 at 12:39 PM, psaboy said:

I know this the timeline is earlier, but thinking Penn had the best run ever in Indiana high school football. over 6 year period, 5 trips to title game winning 4 of them. Not sure who else has had a better run in top class??

The 90's were a time to be alive as a Kingsmen....A bygone era

Per this previous post Penn played (in state) two of the states best teams Nationally in 2011 and 2017... and Penn wasn't even ranked in the top 100 either season...no wonder they got smoked....

I mean set aside that those teams were just lightyears better than Penn....but we will just overlook that at the moment. lol

Of the 17 signed players to IU's upcoming freshmen class 5 come from Indiana.

Purdue managed to do worse, by signing 4 out of 25. 

Theses are two of the larger schools in this state, and we cannot even manage to keep some of the best talent at home? These young men grow up typically routing for IU, Purdue or Notre Dame...

I know Indiana is not a recruiting hot bed in Football, but these schools need to find a way to keep the better talent in state if they want to be competitive.

Congrats to every Hoosier football player that signed with a program at any level today! Your hard work has paid off. 

15 minutes ago, BDGiant93 said:

It was so unique.

If you look back at some of the games, a good handful came down to final drives. There was the heartbreaker at Penn, I think 4th and goal BD punched it in for the win. My Senior year at BD we were down by 21 or so, came back and forced overtime.

IDK if you still do it, but you guys would line up shoulder to shoulder along your sideline for the coin toss. I think it was supposed to intimidate us, but the guys always seemed ready for the challenge. 

11 of the games played were 1 score games.  15 games were played from 1996 - 2010. Penn only won 4 of those games. but each game was memorable in some way. 

10 hours ago, PHJIrish said:

Penn has played Cathedral the last four seasons.  I don't know the schedule for next season so I don't know if the contract is up.

Yes, Penn Cathedral series is over, however Penn was to pick up Carmel...but the Conference has imploded forcing 7 conference games and Penn is going along with it...making Penn pick between an upcoming series with Carmel or cross town rival Mishawaka. The Valpo game was not considered to be dropped to keep Carmel on the schedule. 

37 minutes ago, temptation said:

Does Penn dominate the NIC in most sports?

I assume so but wanted to ask.

For the most part yes. The big sports, Basketball, Baseball/softball and Soccer they are top of the conference, don't always win it. 

Just now, BDGiant93 said:

I remember running into Coach Geesman before BD and Penn played for the last time in the regular season at Lucas Oil. He was talking about how he told the NIC/ADs they needed to protect rivalries so that games like the BD game never fell off. 

It has been since 2010 since Penn has played BD yearly. Idc if we got walked, won or lost close. BD was always the game on our schedule. Also, the respect between the two programs, sharing meals after the game was an awesome sign of respect. 

I loved that rivalry....well it was lopsided but still a Rivalry to us.