XStar

I'm by no means an insider but I went there and also follow the program from afar also. Historically, the program has had cycles where they were competitive at a state-championship level. For whatever reason, they seemed stronger at the end of most decades as they won state in 1988, lost at state in 1998, and won state again in 2008. They were also pretty good in seasons around those runs like 1989, 1997, and obviously 2019-2020. So while they have not been competing for state titles every year, they have had intermittent success historically. They have had some really talented classes come through lately to win the three straight titles but from what I hear the cupboard isn't bare moving forward. 3A will certainly be another level. Western Boone has played 3A before but hasn't won so much as a sectional. I think maybe they were in 3A for 6 or 8 seasons prior to the last 4. Unfortunately, even when they were good, they were often in a sectional with Chatard, West Lafayette, or another state finalist like Hamilton Heights or Tri-West. I don't know the plans of the coach. His dad coached for a long time at Speedway so hopefully he has similar plans at Western Boone but I can't claim any inside knowledge there. I will say that there are things at Western Boone that other coaches spend years trying to build up in other communities. It's a rural, farming community and many of the kids that have played in the program stick around as adults/parents and care about the program. Parent participation in the youth program is littered with former players that now have kids coming up and those parents are willing to put tremendous time and effort into it. You don't find that everywhere. Going forward, they will need to be their best to make deep runs in 3A. Much will depend on the sectional they are assigned. At least they can be sure there is no Chatard this time so they have that going for them. But they will likely find teams like Danville, Tri-West, West Lafayette, and/or Guerin Catholic in their sectional so they will still have to be really good to come out on top. I think in 2019 they could've beaten almost anyone in 3A outside of Chatard by the end of the season but that was probably the best football team in school history in my opinion. I don't know if they have state-level talent for 3A coming up or not but I know they started many underclassmen this past year so I think they should remain competitive at least. I don't know if that translates to success at the 3A level of not. Will be interesting to see. @1st_and_10 and @1st and Goal might have better perspective than me.

Looks like Penn-Mishawaka is back starting in 2023. Good to see. https://twitter.com/cavemensports/status/1351938511440654343?s=20

How many of these exist? I wouldn't think there is much value to be in a conference for just football. If you want to do that, just go independent and schedule who you want in football.

Saturdays belong to college football, particularly in this area of the state. Don't think there would be too much interest in the local community if it's competing against a Notre Dame game. Friday night? Completely different story.

Would the Fort Wayne schools be for breaking up the Summit? The current 10 team league looks too big to me but I know there is much history there.

If I'm the NLC, I'm not interested in expanding further. 8 is about a perfect number (for football) in my opinion because it allows you to play every conference opponent yet retain the flexibility to schedule 2 non-conference games. If I'm an NLC member, I like where we're at right now. When you go above 8, you lose non-conference opportunities or, if you go above 10, you end up with a messed up conference like the NIC currently is. I think the NIC should focus on trying to form a conference that makes some sense and has some common ties that binds at least some of the schools. Right now it just feels like a group of those 4 different types of schools kind of just coexisting because nobody has something better for them at this point. I'd like to see it evolve into something better but I don't think that happens until Penn and Elkhart decide to do something else.

That's an interesting way to look at it. The only thing I see as certain here is that the "Big Boys" and the "Northern Star Group" really have no business being in the same conference. I think the best way to fix the conference would be for Penn and Elkhart to either leave for another conference or go independent. The remaining 10 schools would span from 2A to 4A. I'm not sure what alternatives these schools would have in realignment. 8 is a pretty good number for a conference. A few of the schools might fit in the NLC but I would think the NLC looks pretty set where they are at. Bremen might fit in the Hoosier North but again they are at 8 and I would think Bremen prefers where they are at to that. What really would work best is forming an 8 or 9 team conference out of those 10 schools. I've heard people talk about consolidating Clay with the other South Bend high schools and that seems to make sense to me. So, I guess long-term I'd like to see Penn and Elkhart seek alternatives, South Bend to eliminate Clay, and the remaining schools to form a new NIC of Adams, Bremen, Glenn, Jimtown, Marian, New Prairie, Riley, St. Joe, and Washington. Maybe if Jimtown would go to the NLC and Bremen to the Hoosier North, the new conference could be called the St. Joe County Conference.

Thanks. It looks like they are limiting in-person attendance to immediate family members so this will be the way I watch.

Any Mishawaka fans know if they allow fans for wrestling tomorrow?

Lame. If you were only half as bright as you thought......

Having a losing record to a smaller program they should never lose to over any period of time absolutely is an indicator. Just because you don't like how the fact was presented does not change a thing regarding it's validity or it's relevancy. When you use the word "troll", you should be looking in the mirror kid.

Haha. The single-gif reply. That's when you just can't admit you were wrong.

LOL. So you quote the word "fact" as if to imply that it's not or, if you quote it, it makes it less of a fact. I'm going to make this as simple as I possibly can. If you can name a year from 2013 to 2020 where Penn defeated Marian in football, then it is not a fact. If you can't, then it is a fact. No amount of your twisting, turning, rationalizing, crying, or whining will change it. If you think I am a troll, feel free to block me or whatever you can do on here. I clearly have nothing to gain by reading what you post so I won't miss anything.

Again, fact are facts. I'm sorry you do not like facts. If there's an L to take, it's yours in comprehension. Penn is down and the last 3 years demonstrate that. They are winless against Marian over that period of time. The fact that they lost to Marian once doesn't necessarily mean they are down by itself. But when you look at it with all the other things I presented (you copied the whole paragraph btw) and compare it to their program history, I think any rationale person would conclude that they are down. I doubt many Penn fans and/or former players would debate that. I don't think current players or coaches would tell you that the results of the past three years are up their standards. But you keep fighting that battle. You may even convince yourself.

Where's West Lafayette? I thought Manual looked like 2A from the numbers presented earlier.

I never said that Marian beat Penn x number of times since 2012. You're assuming something about what I said and I can't make your assumptions for you.

The truth is a terrible take? Uh.....ok.....

What you say is true. But that doesn't make what I said untrue. The last time Penn beat Marian was 2012. The conditions of the 2020 loss highlight my point though. Penn never used to lose games like that. Especially against smaller, local opponents. For decades, they were rarely challenged locally and I think went 30-some years without losing an NIC game. That is clearly not the case right now. And your point about going to state in 2017 is also true, but we are 3 years past that and they have not won as much as a sectional in those 3 years. The last time they went three years without winning a sectional was the early 90's. I don't know how you can not consider that "down" for Penn's program. It's not just the Indy MIC teams they are losing to. It's local and regional teams now. I think they need to re-establish themselves as THE power in the northern part of the state before worrying about beating Carmel and Center Grove.

You don't think the football program is down?!? Penn's schedule isn't much different than it was in the mid-90's when they won state 3 times in a row. They don't need to go independent to compete against the top Indy programs. They need to get better. They've lost to Valpo 3 straight times. They haven't beaten Mishawaka Marian since 2012. They dropped a very competitive series against Mishawaka. They are winless against the new Elkhart High School. They were beaten handily by Bart Curtis and Warsaw in 2019, and then they failed to even advance that far in 2020. I just don't think Penn, in the community or the administration, cares much anymore about being a state power in football. They are big enough where they will still be good every so often. Yeoman has taken them to state 4 times in 17 years I think. But I never thought I'd see the day where they would go 5-5.

No problem man it's all entertainment. We all have our opinions and then we see how they hold up and adjust them over time. I think my 2A prediction before the playoffs started, had I been so bold to offer one up here, would've been Pioneer and Triton Central. I honestly hadn't seen much of Luers over the past few years until they beat Eastside. They look like a 2A favorite next season though. That passing attack will be tough to stop.

That's fair. I might defend my prediction by saying that they were up big until they lost one of their most important players and I've never been good at predicting injuries. But you're right. Luers won and my prediction ended up being wrong.

I don't know that I submitted any ID but they should know who I am since I'm a multi-year Booster and they should be able to tell from my payment info. As for the down votes, that's the pot calling the kettle black. You throw a mini tantrum (like you are here) anytime someone doesn't go out of their way to praise your team or agree with you. Aside from that, the votes mean almost nothing. I don't think they even accumulate in a reputation score like they used to. You could also rectify that problem by agreeing with me more often.

Clearly.

Western Boone will be in 3A so 2A south should be wide open anyway. In fact, every team that has represented the south in 2A should be gone going back to 2014 when MD was there. Webo (18, 19, 20), Southridge (17), Ritter (16), and Monrovia (15) I think all should be in 3A.

I am with you. They certainly will be very tough to stop and they'd be my pick right now but they had issues on defense throughout the tournament and I think they lose both Rectanus and Doughty which looked to me to be their toughest players to block when they were on the field (Rectanus in particular because I think Doughty played every down on defense). I can't imagine the 2A team that will be able to stop their passing attack but if they can't stop the other team, then all it takes is a couple of bad throws, a game in bad weather, or a few penalties to kill a couple drives to give the other team a chance to win. And like you said, injuries could always factor in too. Have to admit that Luers grew on me in how they handled a very tough loss. Nothing but class from the coach or the players I heard interviewed after the game. Refreshing after hearing Eastbrook fans for a couple of years. I'll be pulling for them next season.