crimsonace1

My first reporting gig out of college two decades ago, the head girls tennis coach at South Putnam was also the assistant girls basketball coach at Greencastle.

You could be one of the top 15 teams in the state and be 0-7 in the MIC. It's *that* tough. Coach Mallory has done a fantastic job at LN and his teams are competitive. And yes, LN is an athletic powerhouse in a lot of sports, most notably basketball.

Sometimes, when a school splits, the "old" school gets eclipsed by the new one athletically OR there's a perception that it dilutes the talent pool enough that it prevents a school from being as good as it once was. For many years, the newer LN was far stronger athletically than the older LC, although the Bears have had the upper hand of late, with state titles in both football and baseball this century. Growing up in the 1980s & 1990s, LN was perceived as a really strong suburban school serving the very popular, rapidly-growing Castleton area and had a similar reputation as first-ring suburban schools (say, Carmel/HSE/Fishers/Brownsburg/Zionsville) have today. With regards to Carmel, they've been stockpiling swimming state championships. Their swim team often has people who could qualify for the State Finals who can't even crack the varsity roster because they're so deep. There are a LOT of really good athletes who could compete at a varsity level virtually anywhere in the state who can't even make the team there. If Carmel were to split, the new school would likely serve the western half of the district, which is the wealthier, more suburban part of the area. Not sure if that's the source of Carmel's best athletes, but some oldtimers in town wouldn't want the old school to be eclipsed by the new one.

A few message board posters doesn't reflect economic reality, and the admins do take donations from those who wish to chip in a few bucks to keep this thing running. There is a bit of a selection bias in who's posting and who isn't. The lurkers and occasional posters - who make up the majority of the people here - aren't chiming in and most aren't paying. Increase the price to the end user from zero to *anything* and you're going to lose a substantial amount of your traffic. Lose the traffic, and you lose your reason for existing. That's the Law of Demand in action, which you learn in the first month of any first-year econ course. Unlike the Indianapolis Star or other media that charge for content, we don't have a staff producing proprietary original content. It's not even close to an apples-to-apples comparison. This is a message board, it's a community, and if people can't get that here for free (which is well-moderated and has pretty good community guidelines), they'll get it somewhere else (like Harrell's board, like Facebook, Twitter, et al, which are much less moderated and can be unreadable). That's *exactly* what happened when Hickory Husker went pay-only. It also pretty much shuts down the possibility of new traffic, because as soon as the newbies see the paywall, they're gone. They haven't had the ability to develop the value in it. There are a lot of free online message boards and social media options that people will go to. The opportunity to make this a pay site was a dozen years ago. Tim refused to do so and refused to sell out to Rivals and 247 *because* he wanted to keep it free to use.

I just presented evidence that going paywall would kill our membership citing another board that is paywall-only and down to just a scant few posters. Going paywall, we would lose 90-95% of our members. DK & Jimmie have a pretty good model carrying on what TA started and keeping the community together, which is our strength, but a big part of that community is people can access it for nothing. I understand media economics pretty well. If you can't get people to spend $10 a month for their local newspaper, they're not going to do so for a stand-alone paywalled forum would become a ghost town. There are too many free alternatives - the Harrell board being one. Even without the "conference" threads, there would be places for discussio. The system of voluntary contributions makes people feel like they're a part of something and wanting to contribute to something, rather than the paywall (which is creating a barrier). Most won't contribute. I know your repeated attempts to compete with the GID and try to take this place over have failed and you keep on trying (and appointing yourself and your buddy who went to your failed alternate site Muda "the content leaders" here), but our strength is our community. When Tim spoke of the "power of The Gridiron Digest," it wasn't him he was referring to, it was the community that was created here. TA knew what he was doing and worked hard to keep this forum free. DK & Jimmie know what they're doing and are carrying this on as a trust.

That's what happened when Hickory Husker went pay-only. Everyone went to Harrell's board, which is a bit of a cesspool with no moderation, but that's what happened, and what would almost assuredly happen here.

If the way the IHSAA has done things in the past holds, the combined school would remain in 5A for 2020 and then move up and be reclassified for 2021-22. After absorbing Muncie South mid-cycle, Muncie Central competed in 4A (football) and 3A (basketball) with 1,600 students for one year. I believe a bylaw change would have to take place for that to change, so keep an eye on the IHSAA board meeting. I wrote a proposal and submitted it to my principal to be considered (that a school that consolidates mid-cycle would be reclassified with its new enrollment), but I'm not sure if it was ever submitted to the IHSAA.

TA's vision was always to keep this a free forum and an open community and that will always be the case. This was, is and always will be his. Voluntary contributions are always better than mandatory contributions. In hoops, after Hickory Husker went pay-only for the forums, most have migrated to Harrell's free boards for basketball discussion. Likely would happen here, too. If you feel like you can do things better, start your own competing site. Wait, you tried that. It failed. You then came crawling back here and have repeatedly tried to take over this one.

This is the shortest retirement in history. DT tells us he's leaving and "passing a baton" he only held in his own mind, and now is back trying to appoint himself the content curator of the GID.

We've broadcast every NP game - audio only - for the last six years. They're also the best six years of attendance we've ever had. Every broadcast is a three-hour commercial for the school and the program and allows you to connect with those who otherwise might not be able to stay in contact with the program (those out of town, out of state, people thinking of moving into the community, et al).

My 6th-grader has the body, the athleticism and the aggressiveness to be a decent football player. But he has never enjoyed playing football in any organized manner (although my yard is the neighborhood football field and he organizes a pickup game almost every day during the summer/fall). I've always encouraged him to follow his passion - and he really enjoys playing soccer (which he plays like a football player) and hoops. He's tried football, soccer, tennis, basketball, hockey, pretty much anything with a ball. I'll keep encouraging him in whatever he chooses. Let the kids do and be what they want to be and encourage them regardless.

I have discussed it with ADs. On the other hand, live video is a two-hour commercial for your school and the game experience and allows people who are out of town to connect. Our biggest-attended games have also been the ones that are live-video streamed (we had IHSAAtv in for two games this year and Center Grove's video for one ... those were also our three biggest gates).

Live video has minimal impact on attendance.

They did not go through the process with the IHSAA for permission for a tournament game (which includes permission and a rights fee), which they obviously did not do because they were not listed as being an approved broadcaster. A lot of school-based broadcasters just set up and assume everything is OK because they never pay attention to the IHSAA's media rules (which are significant and get stricter by the day). That's a big, big no-no and can land the broadcaster in hot water with the IHSAA. We all have to pay significant rights fees to broadcast a tournament game.

ISC did it via tape delay. They sent a camera and added the commentary later. I think it wasn't available until Monday or Tuesday. The only live broadcast (at least IHSAA-approved) was our New Palestine audio webcast. We did have 800+ listeners that night, which is bonkers for a high school game. The weather and Zionsville being on fall break might have contributed to the turnout that evening, because that was one of the best games in the state.

The IHSAA will want to send as few schools north to the Region/Fort Wayne as possible. One thing that *might* bring Jeff into a pairing with Zionsville is the fact that both it and Zionsville are right on I-65 and they have often been paired in the past in other sports. I wouldn't be surprised to see Jeff sent north because it makes the northern half of the state much easier to group (it can be with the Lake County-area schools, thus creating a simple grouping of Penn and the southeastern Lake Michigan schools and then allows the three Fort Wayne-area schools to be joined by just one Hamilton County school). Lafayette sits halfway between Indy and the Region. It's going to have to travel, and the IHSAA will want to inconvenience as few teams as possible with long travel.

There wasn't a video broadcast of this year's NP-Zionsville game (or at least there wasn't a legal one - ours was the only approved broadcast by the IHSAA).

Probably poorly worded on my part, but HSE/Fishers won't be split up, neither will LC/LN. The South will not remain the same from *this* cycle (it can't - schools have changed), but it would've remained the same from my original proposal. The fact that they're neighboring townships and each are two-school districts makes it easy to pair them, like it is with Carmel-North Central (which the IHSAA has paired in basketball in the past, sending NC north) and Pike-Ben Davis and Avon-Brownsburg. Noblesville is farther north than HSE and Fishers and is also close to I-69, which is why I would anticipate they be sent to Fort Wayne. Start at the bottom and work your way up Sectional 8 is the most cut-and-dried field there is: Only 3 schools south of Marion County (CG, CE, CN) and Franklin Central is the only southside school without a natural partner, so the Flashes join them Then you pair Southport/Perry. Only question is who they go with, but Tech and Warren Central form a natural pair, so they become a foursome for 7. Brownsburg/Avon are almost always paired together, as are the westside schools Pike/BD. In the last 40 years, Pike has been more tied to BD as a rival than its other neighbors North Central or Zionsville. It's an easy sectional with 4 school districts that neighbor each other. So that's 6. Then, you get to 5. LC/LN and who do you pair with them? Either Carmel and North Central or HSE/Fishers. Given Lawrence & White River Townships border each other and both have 2-district schools, it's easy to pair them. Two major questions in the north: Does Lafayette Jeff go to the Region or get paired with Zionsville? If it's the former, that causes the fewest travel problems (only one Hamilton County school has to go to Fort Wayne), so I wouldn't be surprised to see Jeff sent north to the Region and Zionsville/Carmel/Westfield/North Central being Sectional 4. That only requires one school to be paired with the FW schools (Noblesville), and then keeps Penn with schools along the Toll Road (Chesterton/Portage/Valpo) and thus the three northeastern Indiana schools together. There are going to be travel issues in 6A north, so my first proposal mitigates as many as possible and only really sends 2 schools on long trips while also doing what the IHSAA usually does in keeping rivals together as much as possible.

New Palestine & Columbus East met in back-to-back semistates in 2013/14 and then in the sectional in 2015/16. But not sure state finalists have ever met in the sectional.

Right away, you disqualify your own comment. Pat Echeverria was the DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR ON THAT STATE FINALIST TEAM ... and then coached his own team to the State Finals a couple years later. Zionsville was likely the second-best team in 5A this year and was the only team on New Pal's schedule (including Center Grove) where the game was in doubt in the fourth quarter. If you actually watch football, Zionsville is one of the better-coached, better-prepared teams around.

Most teams are assigned based on location of the school, although sometimes there's gerrymandering (Marion & Mississinewa's buses were passing each other on the way to basketball sectionals a few years back).

I would expect 33 to be placed in 5A in advance of the Elkhart consolidation and them to be placed in a 5-team sectional. That would bring BNL up into the equation. This is what I came up with 9: LaPorte, Munster, Michigan City, SB Adams 10: Elkhart Central/Memorial, Concord, Goshen, Mishawaka, 11: Dwenger, North, Northrop, Snider 12: Anderson, Harrison, Kokomo, McCutcheon 13: Decatur Central, Plainfield, New Palestine, Whiteland 14: BNL, Bloomington N/S, Franklin 15: Castle, Ev. North, THN, THS 16: Floyd Central, Jeff, New Albany, Seymour

The North can go a bunch of different ways. One idea 1: Crown Point, Lake Central, Merrillville, Lafayette Jeff 2: Chesterton, Penn, Portage, Valpo 3: Warsaw, Carroll, Homestead, Noblesville 4: Carmel, Westfield, Zionsville, North Central 5: HSE, FIshers, LC, LN 6: Pike, Ben Davis, Avon, Brownsburg 7: Warren Central, Tech, Southport, Perry Meridian 8: Center Grove, Columbus East/North, Franklin Central The north might go a few different ways depending on what the IHSAA does with Lafayette Jeff. Someone is going to have to go north. Another 1: Crown Point, Lake Central, Merrillville, Portage 2: Chesterton, Penn, Valpo, Warsaw 3: Homestead, Carroll, Noblesville, Westfield OR Lafayette Jeff 4: Carmel, Zionsville, North Central, Westfield OR Lafayette Jeff South stays the same. Pike/BD/Avon/Brownsburg and the Sectional 8 (FC/CN/CE/CG) are pretty much locked in. HSE/Fishers and LC/LN won't be split up so it makes sense to put them in the same sectional. And WC/Tech and the Perry Township schools make much sense. I expect if any Indy-area school goes north, it will be North Central.

Pike and Zionsville aren't in the same county, nor are they in the same school district. They are rarely in the same sectional in other sports. HSE/Fishers and LC/LN or Southport/Perry Meridian are all in the same school district. They are almost never split.

Asking DT to gather facts and knowledge before lobbing incendiary comments is like asking Earth to orbit the moon.