tango

Yes, a well-deserved honor.

I would be shocked. If there was a time to retire it would have been after the state title in 2022.

That seems about right. They started playing a few years before we came into existence, and have played twice in the same year more than a few times.

Memorial should have its best team since the 2017-2019 era. It will be very interesting to see how the IHSAA sets up the 3A sectionals down here. Mooresville and Martinsville are pretty good 4A programs who are probably both itching to see what they can do without EC standing in their way.

Ev. Memorial has played city rivals Bosse and Central 107 times, and Reitz 102 times. Of the city schools, Reitz and Central have probably played each other the most, but I don't know exact number of times.

AAU also seemed to be an issue of concern

Yes, our consultants recommend not providing financial enticements until the student-athletes reach 7th grade.

To the contrary, I think if the single parent said "my child needs the discipline, structure and accountability your school requires and I am willing to support the administrators, faculty and staff" then that to me is the exact kind of kid we can set on a higher trajectory. Right or wrong, the ease at which most families can become voucher eligible makes lack of financial resources an non-issue.

I enjoy the discussion. I have no problem admitting that overall, our student population at Memorial has a much higher percentage of motivated students than the typical public school our size. But the larger percentage of those motivated kids participate in extra-curriculars other than football too. I think we had 23 on the freshman team this season. We usually have decent retention from year to year, so a combined V/JV roster of 60 or so is about the norm. To me, the difference between a Chatard and others is that Chatard has a deep football culture. Much in the way Mater Dei has a deep wrestling culture. I have no problem with a system that could accurately account for the differences between public and p/p schools, but I have little confidence it can be done objectively and accurately, and even less confidence it could be implemented by the IHSAA. I can't speak for any other areas of the state, but Memorial and MD are not pulling kids from a large geographic area. Most of our kids are products of the feeder schools, with a few kids sprinkled in whose parents want more than what our neighboring public schools can provide and the voucher makes it attainable. But it isn't a big number.

Then your email was apparently more clear than your post. For whatever reason, this reminds me of a funny incident I had with a fellow parent the summer before my oldest son's freshman year (2009). The wrestling coaches were running a camp or workouts and a kid who had attended a public school was there. He was a pretty good wrestler, but nothing too special. The dads were all in the back of the room and the kid's dad was letting everyone know his son had "been given a scholarship" to attend Memorial (this was pre-voucher era). I was on the school's Board of Trustees at that time and knew damn good and well there was no such thing as an athletic scholarship. The other dads had been in feeder program and we all knew this guy was blowing smoke. So, I said "Wow! Congratulations! How much?" and then asked the head coach (who is a good friend) why that guy's son was getting a scholarship and my kid wasn't. The coach, very quickly, said "Sir, if you go around telling lies like that, you and your son won't be around here very long." And he was right, they weren't.

Well, did you say you wanted to transfer him for athletic purposes, or that you wanted to better prepare him for college? Those are two entirely different things. If this was our AD, then I would say he handled it exactly as we would want - put the prospective family in touch with the Enrollment Director.

The stated rationale for the voucher was to give parents who live in districts with poorly performing public schools the financial means to choose an alternative school. Obviously, in rural areas where there is no alternative school the voucher is not going to be of any benefit. Personally, I think having a choice is a good thing, but the income qualification standards need to be lowered from their present levels.

I don't think a multiplier based on kids traveling in from outside a feeder zone would impact us much either. To my knowledge, in the last 5-6 years we've had 2 kids who lived in Gibson County, but St. James could be considered a feeder school as it is part of the Evansville diocese. Our most famous St. James alum is none other than HC John Hurley.

For the most part, in the smaller classes there is little correlation to success in football with success in basketball, and vice versa.

We've been pretty good and haven't seen any kids from outside what would be a reasonable zone from our feeders. Certainly less distance than what GS had a couple of healthy OLinemen travel from in 2021....

The best explanation I've ever seen and accurately describes what Memorial and Mater Dei experience here in Evansville. Our enrollment declined during the time we were appearing at Lucas Oil.

My wife would kill for hair like that. Go with the flo, you've got to pump it up, Ringer is Mr. Football.

For what its worth, I enjoyed meeting a few EC fans over the past few years. Seemed like good people to me..

BINGO. We would love to have the 850 kids our building can hold instead of just the 600 we have.

My guess is the IHSAA won't ever make that move. Using a rolling 2 year cycle is an immediate band-aid fix when a school has a special class (or two) and is lucky enough to make deep runs in back to back seasons.

Not so fast my friend....

Yep, lotta BS in recent days..

Congrats to EC on a fine season and title.

Next year...

I'm just surprised it wasn't mentioned in the press release.... https://www.ihsaa.org/sites/default/files/documents/062223.pdf