Bonecrusher

I couldn't agree more with this post. Neither the so-called peaceful protesting of the spring/summer or what happened in DC is right. Neither should have taken place in civilized society. The law breakers in both camps should have been/should be arrested and prosecuted. The villifying/condemning of one group and endorsement/acceptance of another, who by and large were doing the same thing, by the media shows just how extremely biased they really are.

The youth league mine played in was flag for K-1st-2nd, start pads in 3rd. Junior fb 3rd-4th, senior fb 5th-6th. There is another league in town, and I believe they were/are the same. These days, I could almost see waiting until 5th for pads. Use K thru 4th to teach good technique/fundamentals, then two years in pads before junior high.

I stand corrected. There are indeed a few P/P schools competing with the publics. Saw a few in 1A and 3A-6A. Nothing in 2A, strangely enough.

I admit I may not be understanding your reply correctly, so keep that in mind when you read this. If you are saying that breaking the classifications down into Div. 1/Div. 2 (large/small) doesn't happen until playoff time, that is incorrect. Breaking them down (ex. 3A-D1 & 3A-D2) is a set grouping they do at the start of every realignment. There are enrollment ranges for each of the classes broken down by division, and your school stays there until the next realignment. 6A is the only exception; there is no D1/D2 in that classification. Top four teams from 3A-D1 District "X" go to their D1 playoff bracket for two years, top four from 3A-D2 District "Y" go to their D2 bracket. See the attached screen shot. It's from the 2020-2022 realignment cycle. Anyway, this isn't about the Texas system. I was just thinking since there's such a wide range of enrollment ranges in some of these classes, if you essentially break each one in half (like they do in TX), it may even things out a little more.

Talking about the broad range of enrollments in these classes being too wide - maybe we need to break the classes down a little further? Texas has 1A - 6A, Division1 and Division 2. Break each class down into two division (i.e. big 2A and small 2A). Essentially you have 12 classifications instead of six, so the enrollments are significantly closer together within each class. One problem solved, two (coaching & socioeconomic) to go. I realize this may not be possible due to the smaller size of Indiana vs. Texas. I don't know less teams per class, maybe justifies keeping the all-in?

There are other states that do something similar now. TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) is the organization that administers athletic/musical/academic competitions for the P/P's. They are allowed to compete with public schools, within limitations. Example, my kid's school has played a Catholic school football team in pre-district for many years. They are a very good team that competes well with public 2A programs (they are a 2A sized school), and more often than not goes deep in the TAPPS post season. To the best of my knowledge a TAPPS state championship does not seem to have the same "prestige" as a UIL (UIL = IHSAA) state championship. Not saying that's right or wrong for it to be that way, just how it is. And it's too bad, because there are some excellent P/P programs down here, a handful that could put a whoopin' on some of the good public schools. The prestige, or lack of, could be an issue if a separate class is made just for P/P's. A lot of public school folk here sort of look down their noses at TAPPS schools, and that's very unfortunate. That may not be the case up north in my home state, seeing the quality of football played by a lot of the P/P's. However, if they compete in their own "bubble", it could be an unintended consequence down the road, maybe?

Agree 100% with your post. It's also possible the decision makers might be trying to send a message that this kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable. Aside from whatever might have been going on with the player, this could be a culture/discipline issue within the team, or maybe the athletic program as a whole. Can't say for sure, but the player should have been monitored better on the sidelines. I've seen some pretty enraged high school and college players ejected, and I wouldn't trust some of them unsupervised on the sidelines - or anywhere until they cool off.

Agreed.

Anyone, (news media, kid's family, SJW's, etc.) that would honestly say the ref is ruining the kids life if he does file charges or other is kidding themselves. The player did that the minute he chose to leave the sidelines and rush the ref. He has to accept the consequences of his actions - a concept that is largely lost on kids in our society today.

This is the latest info from just the last several minutes on a Texas football forum - so take it for what it's worth. Got folk down here stirred up big time. Charges have been filed - class A misdemeanor. Player is supposedly in jail with $10K cash bond. Player is suspended from school for the remainder of the year. US31 is correct, the school board met with district (conference) officials and they have removed the school from the playoffs. The UIL (Texas' version of IHSAA) used to require an ejected player to leave the sidelines (i.e. go to locker room), but changed it allowing them to stay on sidelines, just can't play. This might make them re-think that one.

Ditto

Wow! Yes, everything IS bigger in Texas lol. Houston area, IIRC?

I can't speak for the larger schools, but 2A thru 4A typically 6 or 7 teams per district, maybe one or two 8-team districts per class. Ideally your 10-game schedule is 5 non-district and 5 district games. The outliers will have less of one & more of the other. Between district parity is the one thing that still causes some grief here and there. Your example of that is spot on. Case-in-point, the 2A school my kids graduated from has a quarter-final game tomorrow night vs. another school from our own district. Each quarter, or "regional", is made up of four districts (with 4 teams/district) and teams are seeded. So, the top two teams in our region this year, among the total 16, are from the same district and were the 1st & 2nd place teams in that district. There was at least one district in this region, whose top team probably wouldn't have finished better than 4th in our district. The parity thing can be resolved in many districts/regions, but there has to be a concerted effort to do this, and because of geographical/socioeconomic/other factors, there always seem to be some outliers every cycle. Again 2A through 4A, most schools try to play up a class one or two games in non-district. We usually had two games vs. 3A opponents, two games vs. other real good 2A teams and one easy win.

They need to increase the number of reactions you can have in a day. Already reached my limit before making it to this thread! Well played, sir.

You haven't ever lived in Texas, have you lol? This is almost, to the letter, what they're doing - and I'd imagine other states with qualification-style playoffs are similar. Top 4 teams from each district make playoffs. Districts are normally 6 or 7 teams, so they're getting the top half to two-thirds from each district. There are a lot of folk down here that say 4 teams are too many. 10 game season, 4 or 5 non-district games to start with, then 5 or 6 district games - and those are what get you into the post season and determine seeding. Most of the "good" teams try to schedule a few really tough opponents for non-district. Toughen up the kids, learn a few things from some better competition, etc. Something I would think the Snider's/Homestead's/Carroll's would, or really should, do if that were an option. FWIW I don't think there will be an end to this debate. I'll admit there are legit arguments on both sides, but don't see people being swayed from one to the other.

You're right. Believe it or not, I think I can understand where the opposing view is coming from - just don't agree with it. Fortunately, we can agree to disagree.

I didn't say everyone literally gets a trophy, it's that mentality that opens up the playoffs to everyone instead of the better/best teams (i.e. "We don't want to leave anyone out"). IMHO playoffs are a reward for the best performing teams to show their stuff against other best performing teams (best performing = winning). Like I said previously, post-season should be a privilege, not a right. I'm tired of people not wanting anyone to get their feelings hurt, so "let's let them all in". Not a good life lesson there. If a 0-9, 1-8, etc. team rips through the playoffs, there's a problem with that sectional that needs addressed, or that team has a crazy hard schedule/conference that needs to be looked at. Sorry, that's how I feel and ain't no one changing my mind.

"All in" = Everyone gets a trophy mentality. Playoffs are a privilege, not a right IMHO.

You know, I think my mind's been changed. Consistent local media (TV, newspaper) coverage of a school could justify calling it a "XYZ"-area school. Had not considered that argument yet.

I'm late to the party, but.... I lived in Huntington for many years and don't ever recall the people there thinking of HNHS as a Fort Wayne area school. Yeah, they would say Huntington is 30-some miles southwest of FW, but only using FW as a point of reference, not considering HNHS under the FW "umbrella". Looked up WEBO on Google maps, and it looks about halfway between Indy and Lafayette; not sure if I'd consider them an Indy area school at first glance. Looks pretty rural to me and enough separation from Indy to be considered a "stand alone". Maybe once the suburban sprawl swallows them them up, OK, but that might be a while. Just my opinion, understand others will see it differently. Heartbreaker for Luers, I was pulling for them. Hopefully next year.

OK, you're quite a bit younger than my wife & I. She graduated in 1988. Had several nieces/nephews there off and on over the years, but I can't recall anyone being there in the same time frame as you. Quite a change in the program from those glory years to where they're at now. Hopefully they can bring it back some day.

Need to change your avatar. Keeps throwing me off regarding which team you support most of the time lol. What year? My wife graduated from there, too.

Give me SA by 14.

ACAC guys gotta stick together. We don't get much respect these days lol.

1A - SA by 14 points 2A - Luers by 9 points 3A - 5A Agree with all