HoopsCoach

The boundary between EACS and FWCS on the southeast side of Fort Wayne is S Anthony Blvd. Harding’s location on Wayne Trace is at the eastern edge of the city, so the vast majority of their students came from the neighborhoods west of the school between Wayne Trace and Anthony Blvd south of Paulding Road. Those same neighborhoods are definitely closer to Wayne and South Side than New Haven and Heritage.

Harding was in the East Allen County Schools district, so they had to distribute the students within the district to New Haven, Heritage, and Woodlan. North Side, Wayne, South Side, and Snider are all part of the Fort Wayne Community Schools district. It is not really an issue now with open enrollment, but transportation probably prevents many students from going to one of the FWCS schools.

SF points do not accumulate across multiple classes when a team moves up/down. The points reset when a team changes classes, so New Pal is on a 2 year cycle for the 2025 and 2026 seasons in 5A. The points they accumulate from the 2025 and 2026 seasons will determine whether they move up to 6A, stay in 5A, or return to 4A in 2027. Enrollment classifications will happen in the spring of 2026 for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 cycle. New Pal will stay in 5A for at least the first year of that cycle due to success factor.

As Jerry said to Elaine and David Puddy, “Clearly, no one else can stand to be with either one of you.”

Yes, the old Kokomo HS downtown is Central Middle School.

Elkhart utilized existing facilities. Anderson and Muncie did the same. Hammond built a new high school (Central) when they downsized from 4 high schools to 2. They already had Morton and shifted their internal district boundary to try to split students somewhat evenly between Central and Morton. I don’t think building a new campus saves Terre Haute/Vigo County Schools much money. If the properties they close and sell have any value, maybe they come out ahead, but as others have said, Terre Haute is not growing and those properties will probably sit empty. Their superintendent has a history of getting run out of other districts for poor decision-making. He will probably be retired or moved on before any of this plan actually happens.

West Noble?

No turf at West Lafayette.

The change to success factor to become a rolling 2-year cycle was made to prevent the rule from being applied differently based upon when a team has 2 years of success. Under the previous rule, one team could win two consecutive championships during the two years of an alignment cycle and have to move up, while another team could win two consecutive championships during the second year of one cycle and the first year of the next cycle and not have to move up. Some teams benefitted from the timing of their success and avoided the application of the rule. The change to the rule eliminated that issue. Now it is 6 points or more in any 2 consecutive years. The part that gets confusing for fans is that they may not know the history of a team’s success factor points accumulation and bumps to a higher class. Adams Central had already accumulated 6 SF points from playing in the 1A state finals in 22-23 and 23-24, which was a 2-year alignment cycle. This meant that no matter what their enrollment was, they would be in 2A for the 24-25 and 25-26 cycle. They did move up to 2A by enrollment for the 24-25 and 25-26 alignment cycle, but they would be in 2A for the same 2 years due to SF anyway. They are guaranteed to stay in 2A for the next alignment cycle (26-27 and 27-28) even if their enrollment decreases enough to be classified in 1A again because they have already accumulated at least 3 points during the 2-year period they are bumped up by SF. If they win at least a regional in 25-26, they will bump up to 3A. Decatur Central accumulated 6 or more points from the 23-24 and 24-25 seasons. That means they will play in 6A for at least the 25-26 and 26-27 seasons, even though 26-27 will be the start of a new 2-year alignment cycle. When ALL schools are realigned for the 26-27 and 27-28 cycle, DC will be aligned to 6A and stay there for at least the first year of the cycle. If their enrollment is below the 6A level and they don’t earn at least 3 points in the next two years, they can move back to 5A in 27-28.

I think they would need to make the co-op rule for all sports, not specific to football. Football would probably see the largest number of co-op programs, but other sports could form co-op teams as well. I agree with the requirement that co-op teams can only be formed by two schools that do not already have a sport, or reduce the total number of students at each school to less than 300. What schools do you think may have an interest in a co-op football team?

Hammond Central has a home field, and it has turf. South Putnam got a turf field in 2024.

Jay County got a turf field prior to the 2024 season. You have them listed in both sectional 20 and sectional 28. Boone Grove also got turf before the 2024 season. I don’t think Blackhawk Christian has a home field. I wish this site would let you edit your posts. It would be nice to be able to update your original post instead of having to scroll through multiple different versions.

Maybe a temporary grouping of Bloomington South, Southport, Columbus North, and Center Grove could help with schedules until a more permanent home could be found. If Franklin Central leaves the HCC, I think Center Grove takes the 8th spot in that conference pretty quickly. I could see Franklin Central and Southport then joining the MIC to bring that conference back to 8 members. That leaves Bloomington South and Columbus North searching for somewhere to go, which could be the Hoosier Hills. That conference would fit them both well. I think New Castle may be leaving the Hoosier Heartland soon, and Delta would probably jump with them. Shelbyville is already leaving that conference, so the remaining 5 members (if Yorktown stays) might be looking for some schools to join them. Pendleton Heights, Mount Vernon, Greenfield-Central, and New Palestine are all growing, but the drive to Bloomington and Columbus is probably a deterrent to joining a conference with those schools. The move by the Terre Haute schools to the Sagamore Conference is probably a good choice. Competitively, it’s a pretty good fit. They will have some long drives to Lafayette, but it’s really not much longer than going to Columbus. Better to move to a conference by choice now than to stay where they are and eventually be left behind.

Coach Peebles did a really nice job at Harrison. I don’t think you can overlook the schedule difference between when the Raiders were in the Hoosier Crossroads under the previous coach and the schedule when he coached Harrison in the North Central Conference. The first year with Coach Peebles was also their first year in the NCC, which was definitely a competitive level change from the HCC. Don’t take that as a criticism of Coach Peebles. The changes to Harrison’s schedule starting next year probably put the difficulty way above playing in the NCC and a little below the HCC. That is probably right around where Harrison should be. It will be tough for the new coach to maintain the number of wins they’ve had in recent years, but it may prepare them a little more for a 6A sectional. Honestly, I don’t think it matters who they play in the regular season. They don’t have the Jimmy’s and Joe’s to hang with Westfield, Carmel, and Zionsville. It’s a stretch in my opinion to call the Sagamore a conference with only 4 schools, especially since Harrison and Danville (probably the 2 best teams) don’t even play.

The IHSAA already sent out an advisory to all schools a few weeks ago with a warning that schools were already being caught violating the undue influence rule. The question isn’t whether schools/coaches will do it, the question is what will the IHSAA do when they have clear evidence of a school/coach doing it. They’ve taken away the majority of the transfer rules. It’s critical that they strictly and harshly enforce the few they still have.

The hypothetical I gave a few years ago was to expand the Hoosier Crossroads to 12 members and split into north/south divisions. Maybe the move by Bloomington North to the Mid-State pushes a few schools (Southport, Columbus North) to at least consider suggesting an expansion like that. Just a thought of what it could look like with the addition of some available 6A schools: HCC North: Carmel 5239 Fishers 3590 Hamilton Southeastern 3504 Noblesville 3264 Westfield 2937 Zionsville 2329 HCC South: Avon 3518 Franklin Central 3423 Brownsburg 3331 Center Grove 2956 Southport 2419 Columbus North 2360

I would expect the remaining 5 members of Conference Indiana to scramble to find somewhere else to go since it doesn’t appear that anyone wants to join them to save their conference. Southport probably should consider trying to join the MIC. They would struggle to compete in several sports, but it’s probably the most practical place to go. That would bring the MIC up to 7 members. Maybe Bloomington South or Columbus North would be willing to come with them. Columbus North makes a lot of sense for the Hoosier Hills, but if their district truly prohibits them from being in the same conference as Columbus East, maybe they apply to the Hoosier Heritage to replace Shelbyville. They are much larger than most of the HHC schools and the trips to Delta and Yorktown would be long, so that would not be a good fit. I think it’s either the MIC, Hoosier Hills, or independence for North. Bloomington South could make sense for the Hoosier Hills as well. They would have many long trips, but they are a very good fit by enrollment and competitive level. If Columbus North is not allowed to join a conference with Columbus East, Bloomington South would be a good option to bring the Hoosier Hills back to 8 members. Terre Haute North and South should try to persuade the Western Indiana Conference to admit them, and potentially split into large and small divisions. The recent announcement that the WIC is adding Vincennes Lincoln could help their efforts. My suggestion would be Edgewood, Northview, Vincennes Lincoln, Terre Haute North, and Terre Haute South in the large school division. Then have Owen Valley, Sullivan, West Vigo, South Putnam, Cloverdale, and Brown County in the small school division. I think it would actually be better for Brown County to jump to the Mid-Hoosier Conference and become their 8th member. If that happened, the WIC would have an even 5 large schools and 5 small schools.

Correct. I don’t put those schools in the list of football schools because they are not included in the IHSAA alignments and do not participate in the 11-man football state tournaments.

Here’s that list. Their overall enrollment rank is listed in the first column. Evansville Signature and the Indiana School for the Blind are not included in this list because they are the only IHSAA member schools that do not play football or basketball. 101 Indianapolis Herron 981 166 Illiana Christian 608 205 South Bend Career Academy 481 220 Muncie Burris 446 223 Gary Lighthouse CPA 444 227 Austin 429 245 Indianapolis Riverside 388 249 Gary 21st Century 380 255 South Knox 368 262 South Ripley 356 266 Southwestern (Hanover) 350 268 Wapahani 349 267 KIPP Indy Legacy 349 269 University 348 276 Westview 337 285 Christian Academy 312 287 Hebron 307 291 Victory College Prep Academy 303 295 Henryville 299 298 Hammond Academy of Science & Tech 294 299 Marquette Catholic 292 305 Rossville 283 308 Hauser 279 309 Barr Reeve 278 315 Evansville Christian 271 314 Daleville 271 318 Jac-Cen-Del 267 319 Providence Cristo Rey 266 321 Westville 264 327 Morgan Township 250 329 Washington Twp 248 332 Fort Wayne Canterbury 241* 334 Northeast Dubois 239 335 Clay City 238 339 Orleans 235 341 Rising Sun 233 343 Purdue Polytechnic - Broad Ripple 229 346 Wood Memorial 226 345 Lanesville 226 347 Loogootee 225 349 Kouts 223 352 Borden 213 353 Shakamak 211 356 White River Valley 208 354 Bloomfield 208 357 Indiana Math & Science Academy 204 360 Shoals 201 359 Cowan 201 361 Blue River Valley 196 362 Indianapolis Metropolitan 194 363 Trinity Lutheran 189 364 Lakewood Park Christian 188 365 Elkhart Christian 186 366 New Washington 184 367 Dugger Union 181 368 Southwestern (Shelby) 181 370 South Central (Elizabeth) 176 371 Waldron 176 373 Argos 170 374 Morristown 168 376 Bethesda Christian 158 377 GEO Next Generation 158 378 Rock Creek Academy 152 379 Oregon-Davis 150 380 Oldenburg Academy 142 381 Randolph Southern 141 382 Shawe Memorial 133 383 DeMotte Christian 128 384 Bethany Christian 126 385 Indianapolis International 122 386 Trinity School at Greenlawn 119 387 Crothersville 117 388 Mooresville Christian 116 389 MTI School of Knowledge 112 390 Seven Oaks Classical 107 391 Lakeland Christian 104 392 Hamilton 102 393 Liberty Christian 98 394 Tri-Township 94 395 Vincennes Rivet 91 396 Eminence 90 397 Indiana Deaf 85 398 Seton Catholic 85 399 Bloomington Lighthouse Christian Academy 82 400 Union (Modoc) 81 401 Cannelton 69 402 Traders Point Christian 67 403 Medora 63 404 Evansville Day 59 405 Washington Catholic 58 406 Central Christian Academy 56 407 Smith Academy 29

The split between 3A/4A in basketball should be around the 80th/81st/82nd largest school. Kokomo would be safely in 4A at #67. New Pal is right on the line at #80.

145 Fort Wayne Concordia 688 146 Crawfordsville 680 147 Hammond Bishop Noll 680 148 Scottsburg 677 149 Batesville 676 150 Griffith 657 151 Indian Creek 652 152 Greensburg 646 153 Evansville Memorial 640 154 Heritage Hills 634 155 John Glenn 629 156 Owen Valley 628 157 South Dearborn 625 158 Calumet 620 159 Twin Lakes 620 160 Rushville 618 161 North Harrison 616 162 Franklin County 614 163 Bellmont 613 164 Tri-West 610 165 Speedway 600 166 Fairfield 594 167 Heritage 581 168 Mount Vernon (Posey) 580 169 Princeton 580 170 Southridge 578 171 Purdue Polytechnic Downtown 578 172 Tippecanoe Valley 568 173 River Forest 565 174 Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 553 175 Garrett 553 176 Maconaquah 550 177 North Montgomery 547 178 Jimtown 545 179 Peru 542 180 Northwestern 541 181 Cascade 537 182 Evansville Mater Dei 537 183 Woodlan 533 184 West Vigo 531 185 Sullivan 528 186 Oak Hill 522 187 Eastbrook 520 188 Lakeland 519 189 Western Boone 519 190 Centerville 517 191 Benton Central 516 192 Heritage Christian 513 193 Frankton 511 194 Bluffton 507 195 Indianapolis Cardinal Ritter 505 196 Knox 498 197 Greencastle 497 198 Eastern (Greentown) 493 199 Salem 490 200 Monrovia 489 201 Andrean 482 202 Bremen 482 203 Southmont 476 204 Triton Central 471 205 Wabash 469 206 Brownstown Central 463 207 Lapel 462 208 Boone Grove 461 209 Christel House Manual 458 210 Indianapolis Scecina 455 211 Brown County 454 212 Switzerland County 454 213 North Posey 453 214 Blackford 452 215 Rochester 452 216 Pike Central 450 217 South Vermillion 446 218 Whiting 445 219 Elwood 441 220 Tipton 437 221 Alexandria 433 222 Prairie Heights 428 223 Rensselaer Central 428 224 Northeastern 426 225 Mitchell 423 226 Park Tudor 421* 227 Manchester 418 228 Providence 418 229 Tell City 416 230 Clarksville 412 231 Adams Central 411 232 Shenandoah 405 233 Winchester 399 234 Seeger 398 235 Delphi 397 236 North Putnam 397 237 Covenant Christian (Indpls.) 396 238 Eastern (Pekin) 392 239 Lewis Cass 387 240 Wheeler 387 241 Hagerstown 383 242 Linton-Stockton 377 243 Eastside 375 244 Paoli 372 245 Eastern Hancock 370 246 Crawford County 369 247 LaVille 367 248 Lake Station Edison 363 249 Central Noble 362 250 Forest Park 362 251 Perry Central 360 252 Eastern Greene 358 253 South Putnam 354 254 Churubusco 351 255 South Spencer 350 256 Winamac 345 257 Sheridan 343 258 Taylor 343 259 South Adams 339 260 Whitko 338 261 Union County 337 262 Parke Heritage 335 263 Clinton Prairie 334 264 North Newton 332 265 Riverton Parke 328 266 Indianapolis Irvington 326 267 Knightstown 318 268 North Knox 317 269 Milan 314 270 South Central (Union Mills) 310 271 North Decatur 305 272 Carroll (Flora) 303 273 Monroe Central 303 274 Fremont 302 275 Lafayette Central Catholic 300 276 Cloverdale 299 277 Northfield 296 278 North Judson 295 279 Fountain Central 290 280 North Daviess 290 281 Anderson Prep Academy 289 282 Pioneer 289 283 Madison-Grant 288 284 Fort Wayne Blackhawk Christian 280 285 Tecumseh 280 286 Covington 278 287 Indianapolis Lutheran 274 288 Faith Christian 272 289 North White 272 290 West Washington 271 291 Triton 270 292 Springs Valley 264 293 North Miami 256 294 Tri 256 295 Caston 254 296 Southwood 251 297 Bowman Academy 250 298 Clinton Central 249 299 South Decatur 245 300 Southern Wells 243 301 North Central (Farmersburg) 240 302 Union City 238 303 Wes-Del 237 304 North Vermillion 235 305 Greenwood Christian 233 306 Edinburgh 230 307 Culver 227 308 South Newton 225 309 Tri Central 218 310 Tri-County 216 311 Cambridge City Lincoln 208 312 West Central 203 313 Indianapolis Tindley 178 314 Frontier 171 315 Attica 158

The DOE has released enrollment data from the fall count day for the 24-25 school year. Here are the enrollments for each school for grades 9-12. This year is the first of a two year alignment cycle, so these numbers will NOT be used for realignment. I am just sharing this data to give an idea of the enrollment trends. Note that there always seems to be a few schools that have slightly different numbers when the IHSAA releases their enrollments for classification in a realignment year. Schools with an * did not report their data to the DOE, so their enrollments are listed as the same as the number they gave the IHSAA in 2024. I am only listing the schools in order by enrollment and not including any projections for the split between classes. This data also does not reflect any potential success factor changes. 2025 School Enrollment 1 Carmel 5239 2 Ben Davis 4558 3 Warren Central 3713 4 North Central (Indpls.) 3682 5 Fishers 3590 6 Avon 3518 7 Hamilton Southeastern 3504 8 Franklin Central 3423 9 Penn 3423 10 Brownsburg 3331 11 Noblesville 3264 12 Pike 3188 13 Elkhart 3049 14 Crown Point 3013 15 Center Grove 2956 16 Westfield 2937 17 Lake Central 2926 18 Lawrence North 2791 19 Carroll (Fort Wayne) 2609 20 Lawrence Central 2512 21 Perry Meridian 2447 22 Southport 2419 23 Homestead 2382 24 Columbus North 2360 25 Indianapolis Arsenal Tech 2341 26 Zionsville 2329 27 Jeffersonville 2202 28 Harrison (West Lafayette) 2193 29 Portage 2159 30 Fort Wayne Northrop 2145 31 Whiteland 2135 32 Merrillville 2109 33 Valparaiso 2077 34 Warsaw 2068 35 Lafayette Jefferson 2042 36 Decatur Central 1967 37 South Bend Adams 1966 38 Castle 1948 39 Fort Wayne Snider 1927 40 Chesterton 1925 41 Plainfield 1836 42 McCutcheon 1835 43 New Albany 1821 44 Hammond Central 1814 45 Floyd Central 1785 46 LaPorte 1778 47 Anderson 1768 48 Concord 1723 49 Seymour 1717 50 Goshen 1691 51 Bloomington South 1676 52 Evansville North 1650 53 Terre Haute South 1544 54 Franklin Community 1531 55 Bloomington North 1517 56 Pendleton Heights 1502 57 Michigan City 1498 58 Terre Haute North 1486 59 Mt Vernon (Fortville) 1470 60 Munster 1466 61 Columbus East 1452 62 Hammond Morton 1446 63 Huntington North 1433 64 Greenfield-Central 1413 65 Fort Wayne South Side 1405 66 Fort Wayne Wayne 1398 67 Kokomo 1393 68 Fort Wayne North Side 1383 69 Mooresville 1372 70 Evansville Harrison 1332 71 Northridge 1324 72 Mishawaka 1313 73 Muncie Central 1307 74 Hobart 1294 75 Evansville Reitz 1293 76 Martinsville 1281 77 Indianapolis Crispus Attucks 1263 78 Bedford-North Lawrence 1262 79 Richmond 1259 80 New Palestine 1246 81 South Bend Riley 1238 82 Gary West Side 1227 83 Greenwood 1223 84 East Central 1218 85 Indianapolis Shortridge 1193 86 Columbia City 1191 87 Jennings County 1179 88 Logansport 1139 89 Indianapolis Cathedral 1136 90 Indianapolis Roncalli 1119 91 New Haven 1117 92 Jasper 1095 93 Shelbyville 1068 94 Lebanon 1067 95 East Chicago Central 1049 96 Marion 1049 97 Evansville Central 1037 98 Plymouth 1028 99 East Noble 1012 100 DeKalb 1002 101 Lowell 981 102 Silver Creek 973 103 Highland 969 104 Kankakee Valley 967 105 New Prairie 945 106 Frankfort 922 107 Beech Grove 914 108 Connersville 912 109 Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger 912 110 Leo 887 111 Boonville 885 112 South Bend Saint Joseph 885 113 NorthWood 869 114 Evansville Bosse 868 115 Northview 863 116 Charlestown 860 117 Hanover Central 857 118 Danville 848 119 Delta 847 120 Yorktown 836 121 Wawasee 833 122 Culver Academies 832* 123 Brebeuf Jesuit 829 124 New Castle 828 125 Washington 826 126 Western 799 127 South Bend Washington 795 128 Guerin Catholic 794 129 Edgewood 774 130 Madison 769 131 Indianapolis Bishop Chatard 762 132 Mishawaka Marian 760 133 Jay County 757 134 Mississinewa 754 135 Norwell 753 136 West Lafayette 752 137 Corydon Central 748 138 Gibson Southern 741 139 West Noble 732 140 Indianapolis Washington 720 141 Lawrenceburg 715 142 Angola 714 143 Hamilton Heights 709 144 Vincennes Lincoln 704

On December 5, John Skinner from Evansville North (Principal and Conference President) sent a message through the IHSAA to all member schools with the subject: Conference Expansion. It said the 10-member SIAC (listed all 10 including Vincennes Lincoln) is looking to expand their conference membership and asked any interested schools to contact him. I would assume they are either trying to get ahead of Lincoln’s departure and find a school to announce as their replacement when they make it known VL is leaving, or they are looking to expand with some smaller members to keep VL from leaving.

If East Central was about 45 minutes west of their actual location, they would be a very nice fit to replace Shelbyville in the Hoosier Heritage Conference. They would also be a pretty good fit to replace Greenwood in the Mid-State Conference. It’s a long haul for several schools in either of those conferences, so it is unlikely that they would get into either of them. The best fit for East Central is probably the Southwest Ohio Conference. It currently has just 4 members - Harrison, Talawanda, Mount Healthy, and Cincinnati Northwest. All of those schools are less than 45 minutes from East Central and have enrollments of 850-1100 students. Adding East Central as a 5th member helps those schools with a 4th conference football game and it leaves East Central with several weeks to schedule opponents from Indiana.

I think you could argue that the Hoosier Conference is no more stable than the NCC. Lewis Cass, Northwestern, and Rensselaer have all left or will soon leave, and it wasn’t that long ago that Delphi left the Hoosier. It doesn’t really seem like much of a reason to leave a school, but there is often a combination of factors that lead to a move like this.