crimsonace1

Neither program was particularly strong in the years before the consolidation and Anderson's population has been in steady decline for years, but basketball rules the roost in Anderson. And while they were both pretty strong basketball schools, football took a back seat (although Highland had a couple of decent teams in its last years). However, a lot of Highland athletes went to Pendleton Heights and Yorktown rather than Anderson.

The reason why urban schools are closing is because people have been moving to suburban schools for 50 years. Suburbanization has been the cause of urban schools closing, not the effect. A closure of a school might accelerate some suburbanization - as, especially in places like Anderson and Muncie, people had emotional ties to the closing school (Highland, South Side) and thus moved their kids to suburban schools (I noticed this a lot when Anderson Highland closed and a number of Highland kids ended up at Pendleton Heights and Yorktown), but that was a special situation with a very, very deep-seated rivalry that made the IU-Purdue rivalry look friendly. Hamilton Southeastern's enrollment is very, very close to that of Indianapolis Public Schools (HSE 22K, IPS 25K) and will probably exceed it soon. HSE was a 1A-2A school 35 years ago.

You can go run your own site, since you are never going to run this one.

Why are you so strident in your nonstop belittling of the accomplishments of a high school student, which has been full of inaccuracies and speculation based on a tiny sample size and a "I have to be right so I'm going to drill my point until you all agree with me" desire to argue. Two things: D1 is more than P5. It's actually even more than FBS. Also, learn how to spell the kid's name if you're going to spend nine pages trying to tear him down and question his decision-making. "Wear and tear." Spegal was getting, maybe, 20 carries a game most nights. The people who ACTUALLY WATCHED HIS GAMES (which you clearly have not) can tell you this. Age? Why would a teenaged high school football player whose age is not abnormal for a high school senior scare off recruiters? If you're the "content creator" you seem to think you are, you'd at least do a little bit of research and get your facts straight rather than believing wild rumors. If anything, the lack of P5 offers likely has to do with measurables - he's 5'11 and doesn't have 4.5 speed and thus got pigeonholed as fullback, but he's a football player. He has tremendous sense, he's incredibly strong, has tremendous vision, is hard to tackle and he'll be a solid player for IU. I would be shocked if he doesn't earn a scholarship during his time at IU. I'm confident most readers understand where you're coming from: that your opinions are based in nothing close to facts, and that anything you write here should be taken about as seriously as people who call into sports talk radio. But "content" or something. It's content in the way Cheez-Wiz is food. Sure, it's content, but it's not quality and you feel worse for having consumed it.

It's easier when you realize that you can really only use a grass football game field about 10-15x a year for games (5-8 varsity games, 4-5 JV games, 4-5 frosh games), which requires maintenance of a separate practice field. Maybe the band uses it once a week. At New Pal, maintenance of our grass field was very costly, as we had to regularly re-sod and re-patch, even with use only on game days. With turf, the field is in use almost every day - the baseball/softball teams use it for cold-weather practices, the varsity football team practices on it every day (which allowed conversion of one of our football practice fields to a grass soccer practice field, which allowed for both soccer teams and the V/JV and F football teams to practice simultaneously), the youth football league has its championship games there (as well as some youth all-star games), the junior high team also plays at least one game a year there, it hosts soccer games and practices, et al. Also provides opportunities for revenue generation as travel soccer teams rent the facility for practices & games. Because of turf, the stadium has become a multi-use facility that is used 250+ days a year. One interesting thing of note - a decade ago, it was rare to play a game on turf. This year, all 14 New Palestine games were played on turf (8 home games on turf + away games at Kokomo, Center Grove, Greenfield-Central, Delta, Whiteland and Lucas Oil Stadium).

This was precisely the circumstance I was noting ... I asked Jason Wille about this as it happened, and he said the success factor one-class-at-a-time rule superseded the enrollment drop, therefore Andrean went from 4A to 3A ... and would have stayed in 3A with 3 points (then, now the cutoff is 2).

Attucks is grass. I've driven by their field many times en route to Riley.

Meanwhile, take a player like a Josiah Sears - who I've also watched from high school through college and beyond. Recruited as a fullback, doesn't have a lot of offers, takes a PWO at IU, starts as a senior, scores a TD in a bowl game for IU's best team in a decade, meets his wife, has a beautiful family, has spent years as a successful coach in D3 and now at IMG Academy. Would he have been "better off" at Central Michigan or Miami? I'm not sure, but things really worked out for him. Too many people want to treat athletes and football programs as pieces on a chess board they can move for the benefit of their entertainment (or their need to be "right" on their hot takes), but these all people and communities with unique needs, unique perspectives and unique desires. I firmly believe Charlie will work hard, find a spot and be successful at IU. He may not have the "measurables," but he's one of the most driven, hard-working football players I've ever seen, and he's very difficult to tackle in the open field. I'm excited for all of the NP seniors headed off to college and seeing them perform at the next level.

Incorrect. The Success Factor remains in effect even if enrollment pushes a team up. So, if a team's enrollment pushes them into 5A (from 4A), but it also got the six SF points to move up, it would *remain* in 5A two points, even if its enrollment pushes it back to 4A.

Because certain people around here have a need to have their factually inaccurate and off-the-wall hot takes proven "right," and will go to all ends - and step on as many toes as possible - to do so.

This reminds me a lot of Josiah Sears, who was recruited as a PWO and a fullback to play for IU in the early DiNardo years (DiNardo ran a pro-style West Coast scheme that used a fullback) and ended up being a key player on the 2007 Insight Bowl team, earning a scholarship. He told me, when Terry Hoeppner came in with a spread offense, "you've got to find a way to get on the field if you're a fullback in an offense that doesn't use one." He became a reliable third-down back and a key player for IU. Charlie's build is similar to Josiah's, but he's much stronger and harder to tackle and deceptively fast in the open field. He's a very hard worker and a football player - he was a linebacker at Delta, played some NT at New Pal last year, and will do anything he can to get on the field. He'll thrive with Michael Hart and the RB room. If there's a guy I want to give the rock to on third-and-2 and say "we need two yards," it's Charlie. He's also become a much-improved blocker at NP, running a similar spread offense to what Kalen DeBoer runs in Bloomington. Stevie Scott is a power back that's two years ahead of him, and Sampson James looks like he will have a similar power-back build, but I expect Charlie Spegal will find the field at IU. One thing we saw this year - especially in the Bucket game - is that you cannot have too many running backs. You're going to take a cheap shot at a high school student and lie about his age - spreading a false rumor that a few detractors have started - expect to be called out on it.

He's 5-11, but don't let facts get in the way of a bad hot take.

Not only is this a cheap shot, it's also completely inaccurate.

It was a creation of the legislature when they got the supermajority and went full-bore with the Mitch Daniels/Tony Bennett butcher knife reforms. If Daniels & Bennett had their way, every single public school would've been converted to a charter school (and it's even been written in the law that any public school can voluntarily convert to a charter at any time).

He's injury-prone, but his talent is insane. He threw a couple of picks against Ball State in his first career start, but other than that, has done a decent job of hanging onto the ball. He can make throws - and plays - that stretch the defense. IU's offense is *much* more dynamic with Penix behind center, although Ramsey has always been a solid game manager who gets the ball to the right places.

Penix is the most talented QB IU has had since Sudfeld, for sure, and possibly since ARE. Ramsey is a good game manager. Penix is a unique talent ... and has three years of eligibility remaining after this year (and he's already burned his redshirt year). CTA was very adamant that Penix was the starter and he only "lost" the job because of injury. Ramsey does well, but Penix is the better QB and should be the starter if he is healthy. Meanwhile, Tuttle has already transferred once (from Utah to Indiana).

Charlie Spegal was named Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana this morning. It's not Mr. Football, but it's pretty common for the recipient of this award to *also* be named Mr. Football.

Greg Werner (who is now an orthodontist on the east side of Indy), Mt. Vernon (Fortville)

NP exclusively runs spread and has traditionally thrown 20+ times a game under Coach Ralph, but went run-heavy as giving the rock to #32 was a pretty good offensive option.

... which is in the Zionsville school district (it's actually several miles north of Brownsburg and several miles east of the WeBo district line).

Any job is a possibility and I'm sure their AD will call, but he's got a pretty good situation where he is right now. At Fishers, you're likely dealing with some combo of Carmel, HSE, Westfield or any of the northside MIC schools every year in the sectional.

The Big Ten East has pretty much been OSU, MSU, UM & PSU in the top four, and IU/MD/RU fighting each other for fifth-sixth-seventh most years. The path to a bowl for those three teams is always going to be beat the other two, sweep the non-conference, and pick off one of the crossover games. IU this year went 3-0 in the non-conference, 2-0 against MD/RU and 3-0 in the crossover games (Nebraska, Northwestern, Purdue). Schiano may be well-known in the northeast, but Rutgers is an athletic department that has been in disarray for years. The benefit is, there's not a lot of P5 competition in the northeast for recruits (Syracuse, Penn State & Boston College are basically the only P5 teams in the northeast). But it's going to be a very slow build and Rutgers is budget-wise and facility-wise in the bottom tier of P5 schools. Right now, IU is the top of those three programs, but things are cyclical. What I like about IU is that most of the talent is frosh/sophs and Tom Allen is getting a lot of talent out of Florida and Georgia in addition to the recruiting base in the Midwest (especially IN/MI/OH). IU's recruiting under Tom Allen is as strong as it has ever been.

Anyone who doesn't vote for Spegal should just watch the TD run vs. Valpo and the one from last year's State Finals vs. Decatur Central on an endless loop.

Shelbyville will field a program next year, and for many, many, many years thereafter. In our area, Connersville, Greenfield-Central and New Castle have had years where they struggled, and have not only soldiered on, but have had some pretty good seasons mixed in. Shelby is three years removed from having consistent winning records. These things run in cycles. Programs DO NOT shut down due to results. They MIGHT shut down due to low numbers. No AD or school board member in his right mind goes "hey, we went 0-10 last year, might as well pack it up. Let 'em play soccer." An AD will say "look, we only have 15 players out for football, and that's not good for the health of our kids," but even then, they might suspend the program for a year or two and try to rebuild it by playing a JV schedule and investing in lower grades. 320 should be the magic number, not 280.

And, just to follow, how would Crawford losing football "make Indiana football better?" It would eliminate opportunities for about 25-30 kids, and Crawford is isolated enough that those players are likely not going anywhere else to "make a program better," and it's simply going to make a bunch of teams rearrange their schedules. This isn't college, where players live on campus, usually away from home, and can simply transfer to another school. For the vast majority of players outside of the largest metros (where football is pretty strong), transferring is not an option. It's eliminating and losing opportunities. The fact that Boone Grove, Forest Park, Hanover Central, Scottsburg, Oldenburg, Heritage Christian, Indy Lutheran, Attucks, Shortridge, et al, have added football in the last 20+ years (as well as a number of newer schools like Anderson Prep, Covenant Christian, Traders Point, Tindley) as well as Fishers splitting from HSE makes our game BETTER, not worse. Not all of those have been state-level programs - Lutheran and Heritage have played for state titles - but it creates new opportunities for people to play football. I was fortunate to watch a Forest Park QB run the show for Franklin and carry them into the D3 playoffs a few years back. The game grew to the point where it had to have six classes to accommodate the fact that 320+ schools were playing football. That's a *great* thing, and Indiana high school football has never been better. Eliminating opportunities in 40 programs like one poster here is openly advocating for would eliminate chances to play football for more than 1,000 players in our state (and that's not consolidation, as there would still be opportunities to play football at a consolidated school, but eliminating programs entirely).