HoopsCoach

Take it a step further. 12 team HCC with north and south divisions. Play the 5 in your division plus a week 9 crossover game for conference placing. CG and Carmel moving out of the MIC would also make the MIC a 6 team conference. That leaves 3 weeks open to schedule non-conference games for all 18 teams in the HCC and MIC, which gives them an opportunity to keep some existing rivalries (CG-Warren, Carmel-Warren, Carmel-BD). HCC North Carmel, Fishers, HSE, Noblesville, Westfield, Zionsville HCC South Avon, Brownsburg, Center Grove, Columbus North, Franklin Central, Southport Week 9 championship and crossover games could see matchups like Carmel-Avon, CG-Fishers, Westfield-Southport, etc. I am sure during some years, Carmel-CG would be a championship game. An already established rivalry played for a conference championship to cap off the regular season.

If we can count on the IHSAA for anything, it is to make exceptions to their rules for the benefit of certain members or partners.

Sagarin rankings are a mathematical formula, not a poll. There are no votes cast to determine the rankings.

What was the fan turnout like?

The mid-80’s conference of Churubusco, Carroll, Leo, Woodlan, Heritage, Norwell, Southern Wells, and Adams Central. Those schools were all pretty similar at the time.

They do. I talked to someone that works at SW who mentioned they had single digits for some of their summer stuff. He said they may not have enough for a team unless more showed up for practices when they officially started. I haven’t heard anything more so I was just curious if anyone knew. Too much specialization (made that mistake myself) and a lot of capable students that prefer not to play.

Does SW have enough for a team this year?

Wholeheartedly agree. That is the #1 reason I left coaching.

I would expect us to have a 28th amendment to the Constitution before the IHSAA has a multiplier.

The same guy that was at Frankfort this year? And Tri-County before that? And Taylor before that? And Greencastle before that? And Blackford before that?

I understand the opposition to discussing rumors. I have no problem with discussions like “I think Coach .... would be a great hire for that job.” However, if a coach is really that concerned about their current employer finding out if they’ve applied for another job, they might want to be honest with their employer or consider whether they really want to jeopardize their current job if their employer would be upset to learn that they have applied somewhere else. If they are applying and don’t want their employer to find out, I think they have chosen to put themselves in that vulnerable position by doing so. If they apply and it gets back to their current employer, that is their own fault. They chose to apply without having the courtesy to tell their current employer that they have an interest in another position. Be honest and tell the admin where you currently work what you’re doing, and in most cases from my own experience, they will generally be supportive when a coach does what they think is best for their family and their own career. If they aren’t supportive, is that really a place a coach would want to stay? We can disagree, but in my opinion, I don’t see any reason why it would be wrong to discuss candidates if they have applied for a coaching position. If you are really that concerned about people finding out, maybe you shouldn’t apply.

Since it is already publicly known that he’s leaving Evansville Central, I would think it is ok to mention that he was one of the final 3 to interview for an AD/Football HC job in the Lafayette area. Note that saying that is not a confirmation that he was the candidate selected. Don’t want to break any of those rules some here are awfully sensitive about, but I don’t think there’s anything over the line about posting that since I left out the name of the school and didn’t confirm that a hire was made prior to board approval. If he is hired, it would be very unlikely that it is a pay raise.

Put the phone away. I wish the consequence for anyone under 18 who is caught texting and driving would be to lose their license for 1 year. I see it in our school parking lot every single day.

I can certainly understand the reason the IHSAA would move the combined Elkhart up. They must think it is an absolute certainty that they will have a 6A enrollment. Yet they are not classifying Indianapolis Riverside (which doesn’t have football yet) as a 3A school even though they currently have only grades 9 and 10. As they add 2 grades over the next 2 years, they will most likely have a 3A enrollment. So do they get moved up? To me, this is a bad move because it breaks with precedent and puts the IHSAA in a position where they have to start moving schools up mid-cycle. It doesn’t happen often, but if they don’t do it in another similar situation you can bet there will be a LAWSUIT. Probably in a Lake County Court (Griffith joke).

My mistake. I guess they are going to go down the path of reclassifying every year now.

No, Valpo will not drop down to 5A mid-cycle. They are 6A for both years.

Wood Memorial is not classified, so they must have informed the IHSAA that they are not playing for the next 2 years. Bishop Noll is classified. That would explain why there are 33 teams in 5A. I would hope that whoever aligns 5A is smart enough to make the only 5 team sectional include both Elkhart schools.

Blow it all up. How about this: a football only conference with 3 divisions, 18 teams total. Each division with 6 teams. Everyone plays the 5 opponents in their division, and 1 opponent from each of the other 2 divisions for a total of 7 conference games. That leaves 2 open weeks (preferably in weeks 1 and 2) to schedule non-conference opponents or “non-conference” games against members that may not be the crossover opponent from the other divisions. That would allow some rivalries to be maintained. This requires snagging some schools from other conferences, but here’s one breakdown: “Red Division” Jasper Boonville Heritage Hills Southridge Gibson Southern Vincennes Lincoln “White Division” North Knox Pike Central Princeton Washington Linton-Stockton Sullivan “Blue Division” Mount Vernon Forest Park North Posey South Spencer Tell City Tecumseh

Grab them by the ...

They would have to change the bylaws to allow a mid-cycle change. Also, the IHSAA would have to consider the precedent they set by making that change. It may work out during this cycle because of the location of the schools that would be effected. But what if the logistics don’t work the next time soemthing like this happens? What if Columbus East wasn’t moving up and it was Jeffersonville instead of Valpo switching classes? The IHSAA would not want to be in a position where they have to say: Well we made the change last time because it was easy to switch a few schools from the same area. It doesn’t work this time, so we’re not doing it.

The closing of Southside was known in advance. However, there was no way to know what their combined enrollment would be. It’s not as simple as adding the 2 together. Central and Southside each had right at 900 students, but the consolidated Muncie Central ended up with around 1600. Many left to go to the surrounding county schools. The same could certainly happen for Elkhart. Adding the enrollments of Central and Memorial would put them at just under 3200. I would honestly be surprised if they even end up with 3000 when they merge.

They will probably have limited teaching openings to work with, especially if Mose does not find a job closer to home and ends up staying. If he leaves that would open a social studies position. SW has rarely hired a lay coach for football, boys basketball, or girls basketball. There are a few coaches I know of that teach social studies and might be a good fit if that is the teaching position they have to work with. I won’t speculate (I know, board rules), but there may be some interest from assistants (not necessarily social studies) at other schools. A couple have coached in the program before. They have pretty good gigs where they are now as assistants. The biggest challenge for whoever they hire will be to get the numbers built up so they can be competitive again.

He posted the following on Facebook: Southern Wells Community Members and supporters: I have decided to resign as Head Football Coach at Southern Wells. I would like to thank our administrators, staff members, community members, coaching staff and most importantly our players for the support throughout the last year. Being a Head Football Coach brought about a lot of challenges that I didn’t expect. At this time I feel that it would be best for a new leader to take over and lead this program. This was a extremely difficult decision to make but one that I think will be best both for myself and Southern Wells Football. I look forward to finishing the year off at Southern Wells as a teacher. In the future I would like to try to find employment closer to my family in Michigan as being away from them has been increasingly difficult. I would like to wish Southern Wells Football the best in the future. I will definitely always be rooting for the Raiders.

Just like the merger of Muncie Central and Southside, and the merger of Rockville and Turkey Run, the unified Elkhart High School will remain in the class the two separate schools are placed in for both years of the alignment cycle. The unified school will be in 5A for one year, then most likely move up to 6A in the next alignment cycle. The IHSAA won’t move them up because they have no way of knowing what the actual enrollment of the school will be until that school year (2020-21) begins. It’s too late to make a class change by that time, so they just keep schools in the class they are aligned to at the beginning of the cycle. If they did move them up, they would have to move the smallest 6A school down, which could require a shift in all of the sectionals in 5A and 6A.

Northrop is the 33rd largest school, which moves them down to 5A. FWCS enrollments are Northrop 2032, Snider 1860, North 1550, Wayne 1369, and South 1358.