NRRaider2001

Elkhart lost another crucial player in our scrimmage, hoping for his sake it isn't a long term deal.

Good stuff, I'm very confident that Coach Eppley will continue our success and grow our program even further.

Good stuff as always, I'll try to leave all of my predictions tomorrow. Here's a couple of thoughts. I'm not as sold on Concord just yet but obviously could be wrong. They should have a chance week 1 with arguably Elkharts 2 best players out for significant time if not the season. I think Plymouth knocks Goshen/ Wawasee off this year as the worst record in the NLC. I think early favorites to win the conference should be Mishawaka/ Warsaw but I think Northridge may surprise a few people under our new guy this year.

St Joe also dropped due to no team, we're adding Marian in their place. Still looking for week 2 though.

Looking for a week 2 freshman opponent now as South Bend Adams will not have a freshman team.

Plymouth and Goshen do not have freshman teams this year and Northwood barely does. Northridge plays the following, in this order: Mishawaka SB Adams SB St Joseph Wawasee Fairfield Warsaw NorthWood Angola Concord

Sadly Elkhart will be without another key player for at least a little while after getting hurt in their scrimmage Friday night. Prayers for a speedy recovery.

Since I keep reading stories on here about the NLC schools dwindling in numbers for football, thought I'd share a picture from last night at Northridge. 300+ k-12 kids in our program showed up in force, and I know of a couple dozen off the top of my head that couldn't make it out last night. Some serious enthusiasm for football in Middlebury.

Elkhart at Northridge

NLC guy here, but was heartbroken for Jaiven Sharp last week, great kid and he's going to make a huge comeback at some point. Looking forward to our scrimmage with Elkhart coming up.

https://www.wfft.com/content/sports/2021-Countdown-to-Kickoff-Wawasee-Warriors-574933021.html WAWASEE, Ind. (WFFT) - Jon Reutebuch's Wawasee Warriors close out our coverage of the Northern Lakes Conference in this year's FOX 55 Countdown to Kickoff. It's been tough going for the Warriors as of late. They finished just 3-7 in 2020, and haven't had a .500 or better season since 2013 when they went 5-5. RELATED: 2021 Countdown to Kickoff: Warsaw Tigers However, in the first two years under Reutebuch, Wawasee has seen their win total increase each year. And they say they've adopted the mantra "the time is now" as they look to take the next step forward in 2021. Wawasee will open its season at home against Tippecanoe Valley on Aug. 20 at 7 p.m.

https://www.wfft.com/templates/AMP?contentID=574932971&__twitter_impression=true WARSAW, Ind. (WFFT) - The Warsaw Tigers kick off our 2021 FOX 55 Countdown to Kickoff as we get set for the 2021 Indiana High School football season. The Tigers went 8-3 in year three under Bart Curtis, winning the Northern Lakes Conference championship for the first time since 2001, and appeared in their second straight sectional championship game where they lost to Homestead 30-22. RELATED: 2021 Countdown to Kickoff: Wawasee Warriors In three seasons under Curtis, the Tigers are 24-9 with a conference and sectional championship. They graduate a good chunk of their production on offense, including their starting quarterback, tailback and fullback, but make no mistake, this team plans to keep on winning. Warsaw will open their season Aug. 20 at home against Dublin Coffman (OH) at 7:30 p.m.

I mean, Warsaw didn't even win the NLC outright last year, so might want to pump the brakes a bit. Yes, Bart has changed the Warsaw football culture in a couple of short years, but I don't see them bailing on the NLC 60 years of membership and all the rivalries/ relationships they have built with the rest of us member schools. Outside of Wawasee and Goshen, the rest of the schools may have had a down year or two, but in general are right there competing with any other conference in this part of the state in all sports. Even those two schools have a history of football success, Northwood isn't too far removed from a state title game, Northridge has a young new coach, some of the newest and best facilities in the state, Mishawaka shared the title last year and looks be just as good this year, Concord is almost always a contender in 5a North. Aside from all of those facts, there are more sports than just football, and while Warsaw is consistently competitive for the overall NLC All Sports Awards, Northridge has dominated this in recent years.

Warsaw had their media day with WANE out of Fort Wayne. Look for them to have another very successful season. https://youtu.be/PiB793uE1Q0

Northridge will be scrimmaging Elkhart, the week before the season opener against Adams.

So far I've been told Plymouth and Goshen will not have freshman teams this year, and Northwood is having to play a lot of underclassmen up to jv/ varsity this year. If anyone else has heard any news on the NLC Freshman front, I'd be interested in hearing numbers for sure, we will be looking to pick up a couple of teams to replace at least those 2.

Exciting times as football is right around the corner. Northridge is at Trine this week with scrimmages against Dekalb and New Haven. Crown Point and Angola are also there. I saw Coach Curtis said Warsaw had 97 kids show up at Lucerne Park this morning! I believe Concord scrimmages Laporte this week and Adams/Marian at Plymouth in a couple of weeks. Curious about what are other NLC members up to and how are numbers looking this year for NLC Freshman teams?

One of the best in our area no doubt, really like what he has done in Elkhart and was surrounded by some great assistants that have been rewarded this year by being given hc jobs themselves now. I hope they keep building on their success this last fall, adding Carmel is a good start!

Been good seeing Coach Wog out there with the kids still this off-season and watching our kids really buy in to Coach Eppley as the head of our program in Middlebury. I think we will finish a game or 2 over .500 this season, but the future is looking bright in the next few years. We have some good upper classmen but I'm most excited to see our youngsters grow and learn, a few studs to watch these next 4 years for sure.

I'm still here, but no longer have a job that I can spend hours online debating high school sports for hours on end. I'll probably be more active as travel baseball comes to an end down in Warsaw here in a few weeks and football starts ramping back up. Our freshman class this year, Coach Epp taking over the reins, and our new facilities all give reason for excitement in Middlebury for the future of our program. I see a similar varsity year as last year but we have some good pieces that could make things interesting this year. As for the less traffic, much of it has to do with social media being the primary method of online communication and the message board model being a dieing breed. Also seeing every thread become hijacked is a turn off for many, including myself.

Raiders got our guy!

Coach Wogomon retires at Northridge this morning. He brought our program from bottom feeders to real contenders year in and year out. Gonna be some huge shoes to fill, but should be an attractive opening with all new facilities in 2020.

Northridge HS Coach Tom Wogomon just announced his retirement, brand new Turf facilities just opened this past fall in Middlebury Indiana.

Absolutely made some penalties that we shouldn't have, but I don't know how they call that 4th down call at the end. Nothing but respect for Leo, very familiar with Leo fans from travel baseball and have nothing but respect for their kids and parents.