Titan32

Forest Park has a big senior class this year. https://www.14news.com/2024/07/26/rangers-football-leaning-experience-with-17-man-senior-class/

Brady Allen article. You have to be a subscriber for this one. https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/2024/07/22/quarterback-brady-allen-talks-patience-with-louisville-football/74398448007/

Any team that no longer has Memorial in their playoff path shows up at church Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to give thanks. (extended eye roll)

Just a maybe at this point...89.1 the Bash.

You all MIGHT hear me on the radio on Friday nights...who would LOVE that???

Impressive....the stories he can tell I would imagine. You can probably play a drinking game called 6 Degrees from Danny Bacon.

Lindauer was Ev. Memorial

Danny Tieken pays homage to Jack Jewell for his start in coaching: Danny Tieken, FBHS Class of 1972 graduate, reflects on career in football By PETE SWANSON For The South Gibson Star-Times Jul 4, 2024 What started with a Jewell has been capped with two jewels. That’s the football career of Danny Tieken, an All-Pocket Conference defensive lineman on the 1972 Fort Branch High School team coached by the late-Jack Jewell, who went on to become the Gibson Southern Head Football Coach and Athletic Director and is in the Indiana Football Hall of Fame. Tieken has two jewels to celebrate as he nears his 69th birthday July 15. He was inducted into the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame June 21 at the Terre Haute Convention Center, and a night later coached the Gold team to victory over the Black in the association’s All-Star Game. These jewels a few months after he retired from a 44-year coaching career. “It all started with the late Jack Jewell. He’s probably the reason I got into coaching,” said the son of Sylvester, a Korean War veteran known as ‘Sly’, and Mary Tieken. “Dad grew up in Haubstadt and mom was an Evansville West-side girl. For a while we lived in Haubstadt, but when Dad got a job at Emge’s we moved to Fort Branch. He worked there 28 or 29 years. “I fell in love with football during my junior high school years in Fort Branch. I enjoyed the camaraderie and just being around the game. “I then played four years for Coach Jewell, before the Fort Branch, Haubstadt and Owensville high schools merged into Gibson Southern to start the 1974-75 school year. “He was one of the best coaches I’ve ever known. He had the bright idea of how to handle kids and make them work. With Coach Jewell you worked — no doubt about it! “The late Paul Osborne, who went on to become the head football coach at Tecumseh and Princeton (Community), assisted Coach Jewell at Fort Branch. They both made kids work hard at the game, yet they were fun to be around. “I was just 5’ 8” and 152 pounds back then, yet I had some quickness and the disposition for the game. As a defensive lineman I wasn’t afraid to mix it up with much bigger kids. “Our team went unbeaten and untied in nine games and gave up just 18 points all season. Our quarterback, Grant Blackman, could run — he went on to become the IHSAA State Pole Vault Champion. I remember chasing him all day during practices. “I was blessed to make the All-Pocket Athletic Conference Team — back then the PAC had a lot of the teams it has now — Heritage Hills, Southridge, South Spencer, Pike Central and Tecumseh. “Coach Jewell and Coach Osborne were fun to be around.” Tieken soon got his start in coaching. “Princeton Community Middle School was starting a feeder program for the high school team. I coached fifth and sixth graders there for three years. “For two years I went to Vincennes University, and then I transferred to Indiana State University Southeast, commonly called ISUE, before it became the University of Southern Indiana, also known as USI. After graduating there in 1984, I stayed in football by coaching for three years in the Evansville Reitz Memorial Feeder League. Our players there included Terry Knier, who went on to become an all-state linebacker in high school. “It happened that one day in our Sunday church service, the priest announced that the football feeder program was looking for an assistant coach. I contacted Coach Ron Weinzapfel, then Memorial’s head coach. I coached St. Teresa fifth-and-sixth graders, working mostly with receivers. “My last couple years there, besides coaching football, I was working 40 hours a week for A&H Truck Lines. I was a ‘gofer,’ sent on various missions. I also student taught at Memorial.” After graduating from USI in 1984, Tieken learned about an opening at Evansville Mater Dei and applied. “Frank Will was Mater Dei’s head coach. It was Mike Goebel’s first year as the offensive coordinator, quite a few years before he became oh-so-successful as a head coach. I taught English in my two years at Mater Dei, mostly, and most of my coaching was with what we called the ‘prep team’.” Career ambition had already entered Tieken’s mind. “I wanted to become a head coach, and I heard that the Union Dugger High School job was open. So I sent a résumé, interviewed and got the job. “Had I looked at history, I probably would have gone back to Evansville. I knew I had to change the football culture at Union Dugger. They hadn’t won very much. In fact, I inherited a 15-or 17-game losing streak. “We won our first game, against Sullivan, to stop that losing streak. That convinced the kids that we could win. I think we went something like 20 and 9 from 1987 through 1989. “Then I went to Mitchell as head coach and did okay in four years there, but I think we just had something like 14 wins in four years. I guess, early in my career, my mind said to go someplace where they hadn’t won. One school board member at Mitchell didn’t like me, though, so I was afraid I’d get fired. That told me I had to get going.” Lo, “I got a phone call from Jim Kasmarek, New Albany’s head coach. He had spoken with Mike Goebel and Frank Will, and he hired me as an assistant coach. I stayed there for six years.” Tieken’s reputation was growing more than he realized. “Then I got a call from Randy Barrett, the Brown County High School principal. Their head coach had left, and Randy noted that I had coached his son at Mitchell. “He then said, ‘I’m looking for a coach and I want you.’ The next day I interviewed and signed a contract. “When I got there and first opened the door to the football equipment room, all the equipment fell on me. I worked all day cleaning it up. Brown County football had been on a losing streak — it was said that some kids didn’t know how to put their pants on. It took two years to get a win, but we won seven or eight games in 1992 and again in 1993 and got to the sectional final in those two years. “We built the football program to 80 kids, but the next year we had just four wins. Even though we had the community buy-in to the program and I’d been an English teacher all those years, I got fired.” There was to be no extended worry, though. “I got a phone call from Scott Bless, who has just taken the Bloomington North Head Coaching job after leaving Oregon. Scott said, ‘I need an offensive coordinator and you are highly recommended,’ so I took went to Bloomington North and coached there for nine years. “After one win our first year there, we won seven-or-eight in the second and won the sectional and regional. We beat Castle in the regional final. “During those nine years at Bloomington North, I was still teaching English at Brown County. That was an interesting combination and I didn’t mind the travel. Soon after that, “I got hooked up with Joey Paridaen. After playing for Gibson Southern and serving as the head coach at Wood Memorial, he had become head coach at Eastern Greene. Joey mentioned that Jason Beeler, one of his assistant coaches, had played for me at Mitchell. Joey and I hit it off immediately and he asked if I’d join his staff. “We were there together for three years — 2015 through 2017, and we got to the Class 1A State Championship Game in 2017. You remember the kids who got you that far, and coaching with Joey was a real pleasure for me. “Joey runs a program so efficiently. He reminds me a lot of John Hart, who has won every place he’s been, including state championships at Evansville (F.J.) Reitz and Indianapolis Warren Central.” After rebuilding Eastern Greene’s program, Paridaen took the Evansville North reins in 2018 and still holds them. “A year later I called Joey and asked if he needed any help. He said yes and took me on. I coached his H-backs — fullbacks and tight ends — in 2019 and 2020. Each of those years I drove 82 miles daily to Evansville, and another 82 miles back home. “North’s Stadium (Bundrant Stadium) is a great facility. I liked the coaches, players and the school — I always enjoyed being there.” “Travis Wray, who succeeded Joey as Eastern Greene head coach, said he needed an offensive coordinator and asked me to come back there and help him, so I went back to Eastern Greene. Joey understood me wanting to cut my mileage way down. I told him I’d do it one year at a time. Living in Dugger, I had to drive just 34 or 35 miles each way. “We won three games in the first year and five in the second. By then I had a problem with my feet. It hurt to stand all the time during practices and games. I felt ready to retire, but I stayed at Eastern Greene. I then assisted at North Central (Farmersburg) in 2021, coaching mostly running backs and cornerbacks — we won a Class 1A Sectional.” That marked the final coaching season for the brother of Mark Tieken and Susan Spradley, a longtime Evansville resident. “It’s hard to walk away, especially when you have a passion for the game and the kids.” One cherished interruption during retirement. “Brian Oliver, the Linton-Stockton Head Coach, called and asked if I’d like to coach during the Wabash Valley Coaches Association All-Star Game at Rose-Hulman. I said yes and coached the Gold running backs in our win. “Coach Barrett, now at South Vermillion, also called. He’s the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association president, and told me, ‘You’ve been elected to the Wabash Valley Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame!’ “I was shocked! I stood up and then sat down on the sofa. When I told Brian that this is a great honor, he said: ‘Anyone who coaches 44 years deserves that recognition.’ ” Tieken and Herb King, who coached at Fountain Central, were inducted together at the Terre Haute Convention Center. Coach Barrett’s brother is the association president.” Wife Nikki and grandson Carter attended the induction banquet. With his first wife, he had three sons. “Josh coached with me at Bloomington North when we went to Semi-State. Jake quarterbacked our Semi-State team. Nate, our youngest boy, was a Bloomington North ball boy for four years. He coached with me at Bloomington North when we went to semi-state, and was also a team manager of a North-South All-Star game. Tai, our daughter, was Evansville North team manager when the Huskies went to the (IHSAA Class 5A) state finals in 1995 — now she has been teaching about 20 years at a magnet school in Indianapolis.” Danny notes that brother Mark, who lives in Brownsburg, “built an addition on Coach John Hart’s house and lives just one block from the Brownsburg football stadium.” Susan Spradley, sister of Danny and Mark, is retired and living in Evansville. Son Josh coached for a few years. “John Hart has coached for generations and is a great coach. Kids like him. His son Nick, who has coached Gibson Southern since 2012, won a (Class 3A) state championship in 2021 and now is also the athletic director (at GSHS), might be the best young coach in the state.” Through Nikki, Danny has two stepchildren — nurse Conner and coal miner Mason. Upcoming plans with Nikki will keep Danny from missing football in the coming season. “We’re going on a cruise to the southern Caribbean’s ABC islands — Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao,” he said. “Looking back on my 44 years in coaching, I’ve been blessed with great kids and great fellow coaches. Great people all-around. I’ve really been honored. It all goes back to Jack Jewell. I’m comfortable with these memories and in retirement.”

It won't be for long.

The Titans look solid on Offense. QB Foster can really spin it. Solid receiving crew with some experience. No big home run threat but nice looking athletes who move the chains. They will platoon at RB and roll in some defensive guys to help further into the season/tournament.

I hear that Reitz was unable to score on the GS defense and that Klem and Campbell on the GS D line are going to be a real problem for the PAC Big Conference all season.

Just wait till da region has a 6A team....then it's game on!

3A and 4A football in Indiana is the most entertaining....don't @ me.

We too run our Friday night stuff at these events.....many teams do not.