US31

I don't think football was the reason that most of these schools said "no" to CG....travel time in other sports with many weeknight events was the reason I heard more often. Remember it wasn't too long ago that all of the big 3 Lafayette schools were in the HCC. Travel time/cost was the reason they were given the boot. I think most of the HCC schools would welcome the competition (and the gate money) from a CG regular season game.

Could we find more HCC teams than MIC teams on the regular season schedule for CG in a few years?

I'll say two things.... One I don't see any way there would ever be a 2nd Carmel High School....it would be very difficult for them to find room to build it at this point, and I don't see the evidence that Carmel will continue to increase in student enrollment much more. I also have never gotten the impression there is a desire in the community to build a second high school. Two (and this is from my personal opinion on school "quality of life" ....not from an athletics/finance perspective). I've come to believe the "sweet spot" for high school size is right around 2,000 kids. Or maybe a range of a few hundred over or under that. A large enough school you have enough resources to offer a variety of quality programs to your students and community, but not so large that it becomes impossible to still participate in some of the traditional experiences of "high school life". We used to joke about how many trophies you could win with the last 5 kids cut from Carmel's basketball team, or the 2nd best swimmers in every event for Carmel girls swimming, etc, etc. When a school becomes massive...a lot more kids are locked out of those opportunities. There are only so many spots on the teams....so many characters in the play....so many seats on the student council. My 2 cents....likely worth as much.👍

Not arguing with your premise.....but Elkhart is a bad example. The discussion is about school corporations. Elkhart was always one corporation...in the 70s they split into two highschools. They recently combinded Memorial and Central back into Elkhart High School (which had previously existed). It would be similar to Fishers and HSE combining back into HSE (not that it would every happen in anyone's lifetime).

No real disagreement....I'd just prefer the "cycle" to be longer...maybe 3-4 years, along with being a "rolling cycle". I think that is the bigger issue....a longer, "rolling" cycle is a better metric, even beyond the point requirement (tweak those however you want). I would also require a state title in that rolling cycle to trigger a bump up.

It would be smarter for IHSAA to spread them all out to different sectionals. How many points to stay up these days?????😜

This is a joke….right?

I beleive the issue at Goshen is actually recruiting your own kids to come out/or to not move elsewhere. But to answer your question, not likely. In the Indy metro area, kids are switching schools so often you'd think there is a transfer portal in high school sports.

This is a home game for CP, correct? I don't see this being a thing....no differnet to CP than any of the other Northern IN teams that play teams from Chicago, Michican, or NW Ohio. Now...do I see much merit in an Indiana team traveling several hours for a non-con game? Not under any "normal" circumstances.

I agree with this. Further, I would argue the issues with Goshen football have not been the "quality" of the last two coaches. The recent issues with Goshen football run way deeper than their past two HC hires. I'm hopeful that the hiring of Coach Heck is an indicator of a change at Goshen High School. Because the big issue is that a lot of people, for right or wrong, just don't want their kids to go to Goshen High School anymore. Especially when more desireable options are right nearby. Coach Wogoman & Coach Park are both good football coaches. Coach Wogoman had success at Wawasee, and put Northridge football on the map. Coach Park was an excellent offensive coach for a long time at Zionsville, and those were very good Zionsville teams.

That's how I remember it in the Early/Mid 90's. In the old days in Indy, it was Varsity Friday, and JV & Frosh played on Monday's. I hated this as a coach, and glad is has changed for the most part. In Indy metro (especially HCC), this has become the most common... Friday = Varsity Saturday AM = JV & Frosh (JV is opposite location as Varsity, Frosh is same location as Varsity). Extra bonus if both teams have enough common sense to just have JV kids wear the same color Uni's as varsity did the night before...you don't have to do an additional uniform handout Saturday AM. I like having the entire "week" over on Saturday, the whole program is done with that opponent and ready to move on to next week's team by about noon on Saturday. Only minus is having the ability for your higher perfroming frosh play two quareters with Varsity. Back in the 90's a lot of NLC schools would let a few of the "better" frosh play one or two quarters on Saturday with the JV (since the Frosh had played Thursday).

This is very common. And keep in mind, because of IHSAA rules, even though they stay out for practice...they may not be able to dress for the games. If you have a deep playoff run this can give your Frosh almost an extra half season of practice.

Somewhat off topic....but how many NLC teams fielded a true Freshman team last fall?

When different p/p's still monopolize their enrollment advantages Thanksgiving weekend (particulary 1A-3A) I'd strongly disagree. The Yo-Yo factor of different p/p's taking advantage when another is SF'd up is, at best, and unforeseen, consequence of fixing the issue with ONLY the current SF system. Trading one school with the p/p enrollment advantage for another is not (IMHO) the same as saying "mission accomplished". I would remove ALL p/p's from 1A at a minimum.

From the outside looking in...this is an incredible hire for Goshen.

My reply was just to the statement that the p/p advantages evaporate at 4A enrollement. 25 years of games, 18 times included one of those three, 3 times it was two of them. I agree that, thus far, only IC has been able to have sustained success beyond that.

A quick look at John Harrell.....These three OWNED 4A as soon as IC and RC moved up from 3A in the mid 90's

Agreed. There is no logical way Indiana should be on the same time as Maine. “God’s time” would actually be Central time. If Bill Laimbeer was running for Governor of Indiana on the sole platform of moving us to Central time…he’d have my vote.🤣

Just out of curiosity, I checked John Harrell....last season they ranked 24th in 6A and 33rd overall. Not a whole lot of room to drop unfortunaltely. As a Northern Indiana guy I feel Indiana HS football is better when Penn is relavent. If I'm Penn, I'd try and schedule 3-4 of these teams each year Snider, Carroll, Homestead, Crown Point, Carmel, Cathedral, Chicago power, Ohio power, Michigan power.

Its still the same games.....unless the point is to just not give out a trophy week 2 of tournament? Apologies if I'm reading that different than you intended.

Don’t necessarily disagree with this at all…at least from the perspective of those three programs. But why would Coach Thacker want to leave a place where he can build a 3A winner in a competitive conference? Fairfield is definitely on the way up in all sorts of ways. Can’t say that for Goshen and Elkhart…not sure about Wawasee.

Not trying to be a smart @%%, I'm honestly asking...isn't Mishawaka their biggest rival? At least for last many years? I get that Wawasee and Warsaw are the two K-County schools....but outside looking in I assumed its the "Bart Ball" game that is the biggest deal.

None of which are what I've pointed to in any of my posts.....I agree with you these issues now extend across to most schools in Indiana. I also understand that p/p's want as large an enrollment as they can accommodate. But, whether some will admit it or not, the fact that p/p enrollment is SELECTIVE rather than MANDATORY is the difference. Public school enrollementy is mandatory, every kid in their district is an enrollee regardless of any other factors.

Now email the private school guy and tell him your kid is habitually truant…fails most his classes….doesn’t do any sports or extracurriculars….and was suspended twice last year for discipline issues…and you have so little money you can barely keep the lights on at home as a single parent. I bet my house you won’t get the same response from the p/p that a public school is REQUIRED BY LAW to give.

It’s shocking a person can type this and still claim there is no difference in the student population between p/p and public schools.