crimsonace1

Curious how this gets enforced, if it's clear the repeated fouls are intentional. Warnings/ejections or can you simply award a TD (or safety, depending on the circumstances)?

New Palestine has ONE starter on the roster who didn't attend New Palestine as a freshman, and that was because of a family move as the family business had more opportunities in the Indianapolis area, found a home in the New Palestine district. That was *very* well-documented in the Muncie paper. Family moves for job opportunities happen *all the time*. Like Mt. Vernon, Whiteland, Fishers, Brownsburg, Carmel, Center Grove, Avon, Plainfield, Zionsville ... New Palestine is in a *very* rapidly-growing area that borders Indianapolis and is experiencing growth. People are going to move into the district - many more for non-sports reasons than for sports.

Pendleton Heights and Mt. Vernon hired coaches from the MIC the last couple of years. To say they don't have that level of commitment to football is laughable. Delta has an incredible commitment to football. All of those programs are well-coached and have solid traditions and communities. New Palestine's players and coaches have created a special culture. But to hurl that level of invective against some solid, well-coached, well-run programs is really unfair.

Another incredibly uninformed, throw-a-dumb-idea-against-the-wall take from Driven Dakich. First off, there have been dominant teams in the HHC in the past - Delta & Mt. Vernon in the late 1990s/early 2000s, most notably. While some of the conference teams have been on down cycles, Pendleton Heights, Mt. Vernon and Delta are all trending toward being at that level of being teams who could make a deep run. The HHC sponsors 20 sports. There are dominant teams in a few of them. Should Yorktown & New Castle be kicked out because of their volleyball prowess? Delta has won 20+ tennis titles in the conference. Should they be kicked out, too? The bottom line is, the Hoosier Heritage Conference is a solid group of eight schools who are geographically compact and roughly the same size. One could argue the football team isn't even the most dominant team at New Palestine, given the softball team has won six state championships since 2004. Over time, as HoosierFB_JG noted, Mt. Vernon, New Palestine and Pendleton Heights could significantly outgrow the more rural schools in the conference and that might cause some realignment. Greenfield-Central will experience some growth, but probably not to the level of those three, who are closer to the growth explosion in Indy and Fishers/Noblesville. But that's not happening anytime soon. New Palestine is a member in good standing in the HHC, which has more sports than football, and has state championship-level teams in several of them (the HHC had *four* IHSAA championship teams last year - New Castle & Yorktown volleyball, New Palestine football & softball ... and Yorktown was the state runner-up to NP in softball).

Brett Law had a ton of two-point conversions, but Spegal now also needs 92 points (16 more touchdowns, or 15 TDs and a conversion) with at least four games left in his career to break Law's record of 952 career points.

It is a known fact that those who participate in extracurricular activities are more likely to stay in school, graduate, et al. Football provides opportunities for some students that might not be available to them in other areas. A kid who might be an offensive lineman is probably not playing soccer or running cross country. Denying them the opportunity to perform in front of their friends and family, learn teamwork, because of some nebulous "goal" might seem like a good thing, but in reality, it's making things worse. You're not going to improve things by denying people opportunities to participate in an activity where participation is paramount. Football is still THE flagship sport and thus the primary extracurricular activity at just about every school.

Both schools were trying to do the best thing for their student-athletes by finding more competitive games that week, but any schedule change was contingent on both teams finding an opponent. Unfortunately, both teams were unable to find opponents and one school jumped the gun on announcing a game. All of the ADs involved were conversing. The discussions about motivation and spite is false. The Indy Star summed it up - it's a non-story, and the motivations of the schools was the proper one.

I still don't believe we allow someone to use this forum as a tool to state that reducing opportunities for student-athletes is somehow going to make football better. This isn't the NFL. Reducing from 32 to 28 teams isn't going to cull out the worst 200 players. This isn't college - players aren't just going to transfer if their school's program disbands. Some will, but many won't. DT has this delusional view that HSFB is like college, and that people choose their schools and will flock to programs. Instead, the number of programs we want to target in INHSFB should be 400+ - the number of IHSAA schools - not some arbitrary number that one message board poster has decided is "good." Contraction won't help many, but it will hurt the vulnerable kids in rural schools for whom football is an outlet and for many, a lifeline. This is education-based athletics, not big-time college sports. Opportunity is what matters. What happens from 3-5 p.m. every day on the 100-yard classroom matters. You can learn a lot of life lessons as a JV player on an 0-10 team that you'll NEVER learn by going home and playing video games all day because football was taken away. Not every program is going to be Center Grove. You're going to have a few who struggle, and that's OK. In the case of Shelbyville ... they have great alumni support, good admin/community support, have never canceled a game, and they've been largely competitive for the last 20 years and are going through a down cycle. Some of that might be due to demographic changes, younger players choosing other sports, et al, but that's a good, traditional community that loves its sports. Football will *always* be a part of their athletic menu.

They're struggling thanks to a few years of a down feeder system, but are rebuilding at the elementary level and their numbers are up at the junior high. A large 4A school in a legacy community with a proud tradition IS NOT CONTRACTING despite DT's wishes to see fewer opportunities for Indiana high school football players.

Postseason, it wouldn't be allowed for the player to play, as a team has to submit its entry list before the tournament and cannot make changes to it. But as long as the IHSAA approves the transfer, the student is immediately eligible.

I believe one of Troy's sons is a student at Purdue. He's from New Castle, went from Owen Valley to Greenfield-Central to be closer to home, left there after winning a conference title in his first year, but then had a couple of down years. He had a *great* run at South Putnam. IIRC, he left coaching when his son was playing at Plainfield, then got back in after he graduated. Frontier, obviously, is a lot closer to Lafayette than Evansville. Some coaches really enjoy the 1A environment. Troy is a fantastic coach and a great guy.

Without a doubt ... that's likely on the host school AD.

I'm not sure it was an "official shortage" issue as much as it was "the contracted officials didn't show up" issue.

I think it's time to contract some posters who have nothing to add but ridiculous Dan Dakich-like takes from the GID, but that's just me.

Here's the record-breaking run. https://twitter.com/NPHSDragons/status/1170124551411425281

I'm not sure it still exists, but when I worked at the Greencastle newspaper in 1997, the four county schools had a traveling trophy called the "Putnam County Bucket." It was a wooden bucket that was painted in each of the four schools' colors, and would be held by the winning school until it was beaten by another county team. The trophy was unique in that it was both a football and basketball trophy - the holder of the bucket at the end of football season would then pass it over to the county champion in basketball (the county tourney starts the year), and then whoever held it after the regular season ended in basketball would be the holder at the start of football.

New Palestine & Mt. Vernon play for the Boundary Rail, a piece of the old interurban track that ran along U.S. 40, along the rough boundary between the two school districts (the actual township line is a couple few hundred feet north of U.S. 40). That trophy came about because of the GID. Tim Adams was MV's DC at the time, former MV player Josh Short had the rail, restored it and donated it, and I was the sports editor of the local newspaper and helped publicize it. Between us, the idea came about and some new traditions have developed (such as the winning team painting the rail in school colors when it changes hands ... now that both teams have turf, they'll have to be a bit more careful). Next week will be the 15th meeting for the Rail. Not long after, Eastern Hancock and Knightstown developed the Plow Share & Anvil Trophy for their rivalry.

If something went seriously wrong, it could come crashing down on the players and cause a significant injury (or worse if it fails over the stands). Better to simply prevent them, just as a safety issue. I'm not sure they give a significantly better angle than a high endzone camera and the existing sideline cam.

Charlie Spegal is 11 yards away from breaking Sammy Mireles' state rushing record of 8,110 yards, and so he's likely to break it Friday night vs. Yorktown. Mireles is going to be in attendance to honor Charlie during the game. Really first-class for him to be there and be a part of this occasion. They're the only two backs in IHSAA football history to rush for more than 8,000 yards.

John is a great guy. Very quiet, very reserved, very much a behind-the-scenes person when he was running the incredible Bloomington Herald-Times sports section. And he's done more for HS football (and hoops) than just about any.

Thanks. I needed the polls to finish the game notes I send out to local media each week.

Greg Rakestraw just posted the AP polls on his Twitter feed 1A AP FB poll: #1 Lutheran, #2 North Vermillion, #3 Adams Central, #4 South Adams, #5 Monroe Central, #6 Churubusco, #7 Parke Heritage, #8 Southwood, #9 West Washington, #10 Attica 2A AP FB poll: #1 Scecina, #2 Ev. Mater Dei, #3 Lewis Cass, #4 Triton Central, #5 Rensselaer Central, #6 Western Boone, #7 LaVille, #8 Pioneer, #9 Andrean, #10 Heritage Christian. 3A AP FB poll: #1 Chatard, #2 Gibson Southern, #3 Heritage Hills, #4 West Lafayette, #5 Guerin Catholic, #6 Mishawaka Marian, #7 Brownstown, #8 Brebeuf, #9 Southridge, T10 Knox/Yorktown. 4A AP FB poll: T1st East Central/Mooresville, #3 New Prairie, #4 Martinsville, #5 Mississinewa, #6 Marion, #7 Ev. Memorial, #8 East Noble, #9 NorthWood, #10 Delta 5A AP FB poll: #1 New Palestine, #2 Cathedral, T3 FW Dwenger/Valpo, #5 Concord, #6 TH South, #7 Elkhart Central, #8 Michigan City, #9 Plainfield, #10 TH North. AP 6A FB poll: #1 Avon, #2 Warren Central, #3 Carmel, #4 Lafayette Jeff, #5 Brownsburg, #6 FW Snider, #7 Fishers, #8 Lawrence North, #9 Center Grove, #10 Westfield.

Has anyone see the IFCA Week 3 poll as of yet? I haven't been able to find it.

Coach Gaddis was a teacher of mine at Pike. I didn't play football, but he saw talent and passion in me for this sport (and for sports) and encouraged me to pursue a path of sports journalism. I was considering it anyway, but that helped validate that career choice. We've had the chance to catch up when New Pal plays Columbus East, and he's absolutely a first-class coach and person. Those are both guys I'd run through a wall for. Two coaches who do things the right way. There's a TON of mutual respect between these two programs.

He runs the 100 meters for NP's track team. He combines speed with difficulty to take down and is a real treat to watch in the open field (his run at the end of the first half in last year's title game was one of the most impressive runs I've ever seen). I'd take Charlie Spegal on my team in a heartbeat.