HoopsCoach

This is probably true. From the 2020 fall count day, here were the bottom 10 of 6A (with 32 schools) and the top 10 of 5A. The numbers are close enough, especially among the schools that had 2000-2100, that there could be some shuffling if realignment actually happens. 23 Portage 2301 24 Lawrence Central 2268 25 Zionsville 2151 26 Jeffersonville 2134 27 Columbus North 2090 28 Indianapolis Arsenal Tech 2089 29 Chesterton 2081 30 Lafayette Jefferson 2066 31 Warsaw 2059 32 Harrison (West Lafayette) 2050 1 Fort Wayne Northrop 2046 2 Valparaiso 2035 3 Merrillville 2022 4 Whiteland 2007 5 Goshen 1973 6 South Bend Adams 1949 7 Castle 1884 8 Floyd Central 1867 9 New Albany 1859 10 Fort Wayne Snider 1830

The IHSAA already pays mileage for all of the schools that travel to play regional and semi-state games. They pay $6 per mile, round trip. It wouldn’t be much of a difference (or cost much more) to pay both schools mileage to go to a neutral site instead of paying one school mileage to drive all the way to their opponent’s school. Using Mount Vernon/Memorial as an example - they should pay Mount Vernon $2304 (384 miles) to go all the way to Memorial. If they played at Bloomington South for a neutral site game, the IHSAA would pay Mount Vernon $936 (156 miles) and Memorial $1416 (236 miles). That would be an additional $48 in mileage paid by the IHSAA. At $10 per ticket, I think they could sell 5 more tickets to offset that cost. If the IHSAA was really concerned about mileage reimbursement, they would make their alignment committees do a better job aligning the sectionals and which sectionals feed into certain regionals. In boys basketball, it’s possible for a school like South Adams or Adams Central to go to North Judson for regional, meanwhile North Newton, Rensselaer, or Winamac would have to go to all the way to Lapel.

They played at the township schools in Marion County (North Central, Warren Central, Lawrence Central, Lawrence North) until the Hoosier Dome opened. It hosted starting in ‘84.

Here is what I posted on the Moving Tournament Game Sites topic. Similar to the sites that you posted. One more time - hypothetical neutral sites for semi-state. 2 games at each site, played on Saturday, November 20th. Games at 1 and 6 (not necessarily in the order listed below), which allows time between games to present trophy, clear locker rooms, fans can tailgate or go grab a meal somewhere, and warmups for game 2. Nobody with a drive more than 2 hours. @Elkhart New Prairie/Northridge Andrean/Eastside @Warsaw Brebeuf/Marian North Judson/Adams Central @Lafayette Jeff Merrillville/Westfield Michigan City/Zionsville @Franklin Central Center Grove/Ben Davis Indy Lutheran/Tri @Bloomington South Mount Vernon/Evansville Memorial Scecina/Mater Dei @Bloomington North Cathedral/New Albany Tri-West/Gibson Southern

One more time - hypothetical neutral sites for semi-state. 2 games at each site, played on Saturday, November 20th. Games at 1 and 6 (not necessarily in the order listed below), which allows time between games to present trophy, clear locker rooms, fans can tailgate or go grab a meal somewhere, and warmups for game 2. Nobody with a drive more than 2 hours. @Elkhart New Prairie/Northridge Andrean/Eastside @Warsaw Brebeuf/Marian North Judson/Adams Central @Lafayette Jeff Merrillville/Westfield Michigan City/Zionsville @Franklin Central Center Grove/Ben Davis Indy Lutheran/Tri @Bloomington South Mount Vernon/Evansville Memorial Scecina/Mater Dei @Bloomington North Cathedral/New Albany Tri-West/Gibson Southern

It says “The Flying Jets are the better team, but South Adams has nothing to lose as the heavy underdog.” I don’t think he’s calling South Adams the favorite, he’s picking an upset.

Good suggestion and one that makes sense. I went with Cascade since it is a little more centrally located for Parke Heritage/Lutheran but it isn’t a significant difference.

Here’s what I posted in the thread on moving tournament game sites yesterday. Hypothetical neutral site games for regional: Merrillville/Penn @ LaPorte Carroll/Westfield @ Marion Brownsburg/Ben Davis @ Avon Lawrence North/Center Grove @ Franklin Central Valpo/Michigan City @ Chesterton Dwenger/Zionsville @ Anderson Cathedral/New Palestine @ Warren Central Bloomington South/New Albany @ Columbus North Lowell/New Prairie @ Hobart Northridge/Mississinewa @ Columbia City Mount Vernon/Roncalli @ Greenfield Central East Central/Evansville Memorial @ Martinsville Hanover Central/Mishawaka Marian @ Portage Norwell/Brebeuf @ Delta Tri-West/Owen Valley @ Mooresville Lawrenceburg/Gibson Southern @ Providence Andrean/LaVille @ SB St. Joe Eastside/Eastbrook @ Homestead Central Catholic/Scecina @ Lebanon Triton Central/Mater Dei @ Bloomington North North Judson/Carroll @ Logansport Adams Central/South Adams @ Bluffton Parke Heritage/Lutheran @ Cascade Tri/North Central @ Decatur Central

I agree, and that’s what I would do for semi-state. 2 games on Saturday at the same site. I think there are enough regional games that feature schools who aren’t that far apart that it would create some “out of the way” travel to pair up 2 neutral site games. Some of these regionals could definitely be paired up and played at the same site on Saturday. Merrillville/Penn and Valpo/Michigan City Carroll/Westfield and Dwenger/Zionsville Some combination of Lawrence North/Center Grove, Cathedral/New Pal, and Roncalli/Mount Vernon

Hypothetical neutral site games for regional: Merrillville/Penn @ LaPorte Carroll/Westfield @ Marion Brownsburg/Ben Davis @ Avon Lawrence North/Center Grove @ Franklin Central Valpo/Michigan City @ Chesterton Dwenger/Zionsville @ Anderson Cathedral/New Palestine @ Warren Central Bloomington South/New Albany @ Columbus North Lowell/New Prairie @ Hobart Northridge/Mississinewa @ Columbia City Mount Vernon/Roncalli @ Greenfield Central East Central/Evansville Memorial @ Martinsville Hanover Central/Mishawaka Marian @ Portage Norwell/Brebeuf @ Delta Tri-West/Owen Valley @ Mooresville Lawrenceburg/Gibson Southern @ Providence Andrean/LaVille @ SB St. Joe Eastside/Eastbrook @ Homestead Central Catholic/Scecina @ Lebanon Triton Central/Mater Dei @ Bloomington North North Judson/Carroll @ Logansport Adams Central/South Adams @ Bluffton Parke Heritage/Lutheran @ Cascade Tri/North Central @ Decatur Central

I’ll say it again - it can be done. The IHSAA and it’s member schools choose not to. Other states seem to manage those obstacles you identified. I can buy the idea that schools want to host their sectional to have a home court/field advantage. I don’t think that reason is as common for events after sectional. Greenfield-Central, Martinsville, and Frankfort all host 1A or 2A regionals in boys basketball. All 3 are in different classes and are only guaranteed to NOT have a home court advantage. Their team could also be playing elsewhere the same day/night. It’s been a while since a boys basketball team played in a semi-state they hosted. Many schools enjoy hosting tournament events, very few of which choose to because of a belief that they will have a home court/field advantage. Seymour, Huntington North, Lafayette Jeff, Washington, Southport, Logansport, Elkhart…not a criticism of their athletic teams, but not many are making deep tournament runs and playing at home. I do think the IHSAA needs to create a greater incentive for schools to host regional and semi-state events. If a fully neutral site hurts attendance from the IHSAA’s perspective, why do they play the state finals at Lucas Oil instead of letting schools play at home? They played the championship games at home sites from 1973-1976. Football is one of the few IHSAA tournaments that do not play regional and semi-state rounds at neutral sites. I would like to see that change now that more adequate facilities are available.

The solution I would recommend is to play the 6A regional game (if it’s Carmel/BD) at North Central or Pike. Semi-state could then be held on Nov. 20th at Avon with 2 games. The 5A game potentially between Cathedral and Bloomington North/South at 1 followed by the 6A game potentially between Center Grove and Carmel/BD at 5 or 6. Time between games allows for the clearing of locker rooms and facility after the afternoon game and warm ups before the evening game.

I think the error was FW Carroll. Up until this year, they had natural grass. They built a new stadium that opened this year, which has turf.

It can be done. Took me about an hour to identify neutral sites with turf for every (likely) regional game. They could also select regional sites for each matchup prior to the start of the tournament, which would give host sites more time to plan ahead. There are enough schools now with turf that it could be done. Semi-state games at neutral sites are long overdue in my opinion. Do it like basketball and volleyball - 2 games on Saturday using 6 sites (3 north, 3 south).

Charlestown has a new turf field that would be a decent location to host that game. 1 hr 45 for East Central, 2 hrs for Mater Dei.

I think Monroe Central used 4 timeouts in the 2nd half. Then the officials completely botched the game time and play clock after the 4th timeout was granted.

It would eliminate a success factor point for winning a sectional. Doesn’t matter for 6A, but it could for a 5A team playing up in 6A. With the current format, a team like Snider (just for example, when they were playing up in 6A) could win 2 sectionals and no regionals, and stay in 6A. Without sectionals, they could win 0 regionals and go back to 5A.

Segregation might have been a related trend Alabama took a significant role in leading.

The nickname for Adams Central is the Jets. The Starfires are South Adams. SA played in the 1A state finals this year. AC won it in 2000 and has historically been more consistent than SA.

Probably not. I believe the plan was to re-align the boundaries within the district to try to balance the enrollments at Hammond Morton and the new Hammond Central. I don’t think it will be a true combination of 3 schools into only Hammond Central. 2 schools that somewhat evenly split around 3400 kids puts them in the neighborhood of 1700, which would be 5A.

This is why the IHSAA uses the DOE numbers. They know those numbers are tied directly to funding, which schools are likely to report accurately or on the high end of any uncertainty. If anything, schools wanted to count anyone and everyone they could this year knowing that some would transfer to a fully virtual school if their home district did not offer a virtual option. If a student is enrolled in a school, whether they are attending in person or virtually, they count as part of that school’s enrollment.

Correct - if a program earns 2-5 points in a cycle they “stay up”. 6 points and they move up another class (unless they are in the highest class already). 1 or 0 points and they move down a class.

I haven’t worked in the district so I am not familiar with the need for upgrades at either high school campus. Both have been operating since 1971 when consolidation occurred. I know the two buildings share the same design and they have probably had some upgrades over the years. Based upon the inclusion of money for upgrades and renovations in every concept that is proposed, I would say some improvements are needed. Wilson is a beautiful building on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s a pretty small footprint for the campus, so high school quality athletic facilities may need to be constructed at another location. Meadows Elementary is not far away and has a very large undeveloped area on the south side of the school. I’m not sure if VCS owns that whole property, but if they do it could be used for construction of those athletic facilities.

Vigo County Schools currently operate 5 middle schools. There are 4 that serve Terre Haute - Honey Creek and Sarah Scott, which feed into THS, Otter Creek and Woodrow Wilson, which feed into THN. The location of Wilson MS would be ideal for a 3rd high school in Terre Haute. It would need some facility upgrades for athletics, but it makes sense to do that rather than build another high school. Reducing the size of the 2 current high schools could enable them to become 7-12 buildings as you mentioned. Wilson might not be able to hold grades 7-12, so Sarah Scott MS could serve as a feeder school. The other 2 middle schools (Honey Creek and Otter Creek) could transition to serve grades K-6, and a few current elementary buildings could be closed and sold. VCS currently operates 19 elementary schools.

Roughly 1350 students at the 3 Adams County high schools. That would be in the upper half of 4A football, but not enough to be 5A. Also, Blackford is another school that has students from the entire county, and they are the only high school serving that county.