crimsonace1

It's a rolling 2-year cycle now. But when you move up to a new class, your points reset at zero. NP has 8 points the last two years, but four are from 4A (which helped to bump them up to 5A), but when they moved to 5A, the points reset at zero (they had 0 points in 5A). They now have four 5A points, so they need two more to bump up in 2027.

Lots of good people in Marauderville. They have a very good culture that supports its teams and school.

When I first came to Hancock County in 1998, I went to Mt. Vernon to cover a football scrimmage on a Saturday afternoon. I'm on the sidelines shooting photos - mesmerized by this incredible old-school offense MV was running - and their larger-than-life coach approached me and growls "who are you?" I told him I was the new sportswriter with the local newspaper. He reached out and shook my hand - engulfing it in his gigantic right palm - welcoming me to the community. The first few times we talked, he was very measured with his answers to my questions, but we quickly formed a very good professional relationship, which quickly became a friendship, and those brief interviews became a lot of long conversations about football, education and life. Listening to him tell stories of coaching with Lee Corso in the USFL, bringing the WIng-T to Indiana when nobody had seen it, and his days playing at EHHS and IU, were a lot of fun. We talked often about faith, football, education, family, or anything else. When I decided to pursue a teaching career, our conversations often encompassed teaching philosophy. His football program at MV felt like a family, and I was always welcomed in even though I was a reporter and then a broadcaster, and I became friends not just with Coach P, but with several of his staff members and former players. His DC, Tim Adams (who founded the GID), and I became fast friends and began broadcasting games together when we both moved on professionally - he retiring from coaching, me moving on from newspapers to become a teacher. Another of his former assistants has remained a friend since those days, and we had the great fortune to teach and work together at New Palestine. Prayers to Desa, his children and the extended football family he built. There are no better people I've worked with in my three decades of covering high school sports than Doug Peacock. He was a giant of a person and a giant of a coach. He will be greatly missed.

From a different thread, but here are the Success Factor bumps/stay-ups/move-downs from 2025 Going up: Adams Central: 2A champ last year; regional this year. Going to 3A for 2026/27 Andrean: 2A regional last year, state title this year. Will go up to 3A for 2026/27. FW Luers: 3A semistate in 2025/26. Will move up to 4A for 2026/27 South Putnam: 1A regional last year, state title this year. Will move up to 2A for 2026/27 Currently success-factored teams staying in their class: Decatur Central: 1st year in 6A; will stay up through 2027 season if they win a *regional* next year Cathedral: 1st year in 5A. Will stay in 5A through 2027 season with a semistate win in 2026. If not, will go back to 4A in 2027. New Pal: 1st year in 5A. Will stay up through 2027 season due to their state title (4 points). Will move up to 6A in 2027 with a *regional* win next year. Heritage Hills: 1st year in 4A. Has 2 points. If they win a sectional in 2026, will remain in 4A in 2027. If they win *state* next year, they'll move up to 5A. Lutheran: Staying in 2A next year (3 points during 2 years), will need to win a regional next year to stay up in 2027. Merrillville wasn't success factored, but it would've gone to 6A with a state title this year, but its loss last night will keep the Pirates in 5A. Teams going down Chatard: Back to 3A next year (1 point during 2 years in 4A) East Central: Back to 4A next year (2 points during 2 years in 5A) LCC: Back to 1A next year (1 point during 2 years in 2A) FW Snider: Back to 5A next year (0 points during 2 years in 6A)

Had a special class, and the talent dropped WAY off afterwards. That was not unexpected - their younger classes were very uncompetitive in junior high/elementary all-star tourneys and those began to matriculate to the high school. When Kirschner was at MV, they got a lot of transfers, those appear to have dried up a bit, too. They'll be back. The community athletic culture at MV is very good, they have a growing community and a good administration.

Basically, the "3 points to stay in your class" ONLY applies to teams already playing up 1+ classes due to the Success Factor. So Knox's 4 points are irrelevant because they were playing in 3A due to enrollment. They would bump up to 4A had they achieved 6 points, but they would move down to 2A due to enrollment if their enrollment places them there. However, New Pal will remain 5A for two more years due to its 4 points achieved this year, because it's a 4A school that's been bumped up.

Of note, there WILL be adjustments to these. These are not final numbers and don't count anything as official until the IHSAA announces the classes. But they are instructive to see which schools will be on the bubble to go up/down. Don't be surprised to see some of the "small" 4As in this count end up in 3A, or vice-versa, or any other bubble schools. Correct. You start at zero when you bump up. Last year was NP's first in 5A, so the Dragons have 4 points and need to win a regional to move up to 6A.

Still gotta win a regional to get to 6A next year. One of the finest people I've been able to work with. He's successful not just because of football, but he understands football is a vehicle to build young men and teach life lessons about dedication, competition, hard work and dealing with adversity. It's been a pleasure to be in the catbird seat to watch almost all of those games. The level of physicality, soundness, speed and execution they play with is really something to watch. Early on, the cry was "they don't play anybody," which was and is BS. Since Coach took over at NP, every single nonconference opponent they've scheduled (except Richmond, which stayed on the schedule for a few years because of the level of respect he had for Matt Holeva) has been to Lucas Oil Stadium on Thanksgiving weekend in the last decade. They've played Westfield, Decatur Central, Center Grove, played Brebeuf the year they went to 3A state ... and are picking up East Central and Roncalli next year.

Lebanon has played PH annually since 2022. Lebanon was in a league with two Lafayette schools (45-minute drives) and two Terre Haute schools (90-100-minute drives), so the travel won't be much different in the HHC. Yorktown is a 1:15 drive, everyone else is 50-60 minutes. They were on an island with no place to go - the Monon conference basically exists because the Sagamore's smaller schools wanted to boot Lebanon, Danville and Tri-West, but couldn't do so per the conference bylaws, so they just left and formed their own league. Lebanon is in a weird position - there aren't many big 4A/small 5A public schools in the Indy area anymore, and the ones that are (Plainfield, Mooresville) are already in conferences. But those big 4A/small 5A schools that do exist are east of Indy, which has grown, but not at the explosive levels of Brownsburg/Avon/Fishers/Center Grove/Carmel. And, much like in a Sagamore situation, a gulf in school size and perceived competitiveness was beginning to widen between the suburban HHC schools and the ones that weren't seeing as much (or any) growth, so the smaller schools were leaving the league. It's a marriage of convenience, but you had a five-team HHC that needed a new member (and for them, Lebanon effectively replaces New Castle and Delta, which was a comparable drive) and Lebanon that needed a conference, and all six schools share a similar school profile and population and competitive level. It's a good fit. They'd likely be driving an hour to find volleyball and soccer matches anyway. The one sport that will really feel it is baseball, where the HHC plays a double-round robin (teams play a home-and-home Tuesday and Wednesday of each week, meaning Lebanon is making six long drives in six consecutive weeks), but the conference could revisit the way it once did baseball, which was to play its conference games as doubleheaders on Friday nights. And in individual sports like swimming, wrestling, cross country, golf and track, there is one conference meet, so that affects one night per sport a year, and Lebanon would likely be traveling to Terre Haute or Lafayette for those, so it's not a huge change to drive to Mt. Vernon for track, Pendleton Heights for wrestling, Yorktown for golf, or New Pal for swimming (especially since all of those except track are on Saturdays).

Game's not over until the clock hits :00. DON'T REMOVE YOUR HELMET ON THE FIELD.

I don't see this happening, because the Monon Conference was basically formed because the Sagamore members wanted to stay together, but couldn't kick larger/growing schools Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville out of the league, so they formed their own. The Sagamore, unfortunately, is going to end up like Conference Indiana. It's been a marriage-of-convenience conference after the Monon split much like Conference Indiana was for many years, but when members begin to find other homes, the league falls apart.

A couple of years ago, following a FB thread, one person was surmising on how to get business leaders from a community to pay parents of promising athletes to move to town to bolster their football and basketball teams (this particular school hasn't had a ton of tournament success in either, but has a really intense fanbase). Honestly, that's been happening in some communities for decades (it was very common for a promising young kid at a rural school just happen to see his dad get a really good job in the county seat, and a connection with a real estate agent to get a good deal on a house), but it's going to be more out in the open.

It happens more than you realize. Many years ago, our school had a volleyball coach who threatened to cut kids from the volleyball team if they played basketball, because basketball season conflicted with club volleyball season. She never followed through, but got a couple of kids (who would've helped our basketball team) to quit basketball and specialize. Our two-sport athletes would hide in the locker room until she left before going to basketball open gyms.

Purdue, Penn State, MSU, USC and UCLA. Northwestern's new field, I believe, will be turf.

Bloomington North has already taken the vacated Mid-State spot.

I saw a lot of Rod Woodson in college, but never saw him in HS. Finch was the best one *I* had seen in high school.

Town population is often a bit of a misnomer because A LOT of suburban growth happens outside of town limits. Good example is New Pal - town population is 3,600, but the school district population is about 20K. Brownsburg school district population is 54,335, Avon is 58,796 and Westfield is about 54K. So, they are somewhat comparable. Brownsburg is a community people move to because of the schools. I'm not sure how many transfers they're getting. (Wayne Township's population is about 147K, but a decent part of that population is in Speedway and IPS's districts). As far as public school transfers Brownsburg was +12 (256 outgoing, 268 incoming) (of the incoming, 68 from Avon, 27 from Tri-West, 40 from Wayne Twp.; outgoing 87 to Tri-West, 37 to Wayne Twp.) Avon was -523 (146 incoming, 669 outgoing) (of the incoming, 34 from Wayne Twp., 31 from Danville; outgoing: 183 to Plainfield, 108 to Wayne Twp., 100 to Danville) Westfield was -165 (73 incoming, 238 outgoing) (27 of the incoming from Noblesville; outgoing, 56 to Sheridan, 41 to Carmel) Given the relatively small number of incoming transfers, it would indicate that all three schools (which would all be in high demand) are very limited on how many transfers they allow, likely due to space concerns. If you want to transfer to an out-of-district school, they have to be willing to take you, and they can cap the number of transfers. FYI, Ben Davis/Wayne Township was +954 (1522 incoming, 568 outgoing). And a lot of BD's outgoing transfers were to IPS or to online charter schools. Plainfield got 50, Brownsburg 40, Avon 34.

Top 50 is the cream of the crop. Being All-State in your class is a big deal, but Top 50 is a REALLY big deal.

Jerimy Finch Sr. was the best high school DB I've ever seen. WC could play a 4-4-3 because he covered so much ground, he could play both safety positions simultaneously.

I found it really puzzling that one is employed as a coach for one school, and is sending her son to a different school in the same conference. To each their own, but if I were an AD or principal (or school board member) and one of my head coaches transferred their own kids to another school, I'd be having some conversations.

Those drive me batty. Thankfully, it's always been early in the season when it's sunny until after halftime, so those don't get washed out in the lights as easily.

One thing Illinois - which has a 1.65 multiplier for p/p and charter schools - does is have "multiplier waivers." Basically, it's a reverse success factor. If you haven't won a trophy in the tournament in that sport (or, in football, a tournament game) in two years, the multiplier is waived and your school is classed on your enrollment. Illinois also has a success factor, but it only applies to p/p/charter schools (you bump up if you win two State Finals trophies in a rolling three-year span).

Greenfield-Central's enrollment has been steady/shrinking in the last few years (about 20% of the kids who live in G-C's district go elsewhere - half to Eastern Hancock), but Mt. Vernon is likely to move up from 4A to 5A this cycle.

Yes. Two left Lawrence Central and two left Chatard's team.

They absolutely were. And given there was basically a 4:1 enrollment discrepancy between the top and bottom of the old 5A, they had a legitimate complaint. There hadn't been a state champ from the bottom half of 5A enrollments in years when the split happened in 2013. Easiest thing to do politically was split 6A into two. Because if we'd have done a 32-team 1A and a 64-team 5A, now, you'd have the top half of 4A in enrollment howling because they now had to compete with schools like Decatur Central, Valpo, Whiteland and (at the time) Westfield. Interestingly, the majority of the 5A champs since the split have been success-factored 4A schools (Cathedral 4x, New Pal 3x). Columbus East was there by enrollment (barely) in 2017 but had also been a success-factored 4A. Arguably the three best 5A teams this year were New Pal, Cathedral and East Central - and all are 4A enrollments.