23andCounting

Great write up, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the "CP is the team to beat from the North" banter...........which I'm guilty of in the past and will probably participate some this season. Tons of respect for the Merrillville and Valpo programs. Would love to see Merrillville get their shot at a state title as long as it's not at the expense of FW North. Valpo will always be good. It seems like every 4 or 5 years, they have a team can compete with the states best. Time will tell.

Makes sense. Harding still reminds me of Warren Central, just seven times smaller. I think the Warriors have 11 state titles, almost half of those by the same coach. And to win consistently, you have to have a large staff and some guys underneath you who know what they're doing. It's more than the head coach, it's building a program. Look no further than Adams Central. I'm looking forward to seeing what New Haven does this year with an amped up coaching staff.

That's not an opinion, that's a fact. I think kids will always move from district to district based on that alone. I just read a good article regarding the PAL and Metro trending down while school leagues forming at 1st grade are trending up. Loyalty to a program might be a little stronger when you start in that school's system in the 1st grade. PAL and Metro are more of a free for all when kids graduate from those programs. So yes, that system might work somewhat. Someone from Indy might be able to better answer that question, this type of system isn't new to programs down there.

You'll have a few of those. Fort Wayne apparently has a system in place to encourage kids to stay within their district, but that won't stop the occasional kid wanting to transfer due to personality conflict with coach or overload at certain positions.

Per a respected source in Fort Wayne: Carroll picks up a QB from Leo. Former QB1 Sullivan was a transfer from Homestead. How come the Chargers aren't developing guys from within? Huntington North gets a QB from Concordia. Second year coach for the Vikings doesn't seem to be messing around. New Haven picks up a pretty good assistant coach named Sherwood Haydock. That pick-up alone guarantees New Haven at least four wins this year, up from one a year ago.

Good grief. The already strong get stronger? Or are good players bouncing from one good program to another. I was hoping transfers would close the gap in 6A, not widen it.

That's it?

There are some coaches who could have won 2A every year if they were at Harding.............just my opinion. I'm talking about a run that would have put Harding as the best dynasty the State of Indiana has ever seen. Think Kevin Wright's Warren Central teams, only at the 2A level. The only difference between Harding and WC was enrollment.

I do think Harding is a bit of an anomaly though. I would argue that they had more talent per capita than any school in the state.

That was his Junior season. His senior season they bowed out to Snider at Spuller Stadium.

I saw Smardzija one time. It was the last game of his high school career. He was held to zero catches by a feisty 5'7" defensive back. Certainly not the performance we came to know from him at Notre Dame.

He never really stood out to me the way some of those other guys did. Mainly because he played defense instead of offense. I might have seen him three or four times in person. I watched the Ritter game on television. Had I been there "in person," then he'd be on my list. He was showcased as a running back that game.............and it was brutal. All that being said, he could make a strong case for #2 all time out of Fort Wayne. The guys I mentioned, "in person," were OUTSTANDING high school football players. They just don't have the resume of a Rod Woodson, Jonney Bright, Jaylon Smith, Vaughn Dunbar, Lamar Smith, Jason Fabini, Jessie Bates, Tyler Eifort, or an Anthony Spencer.

Good stuff Irishman, keep it up!

I see the strong pulling from the weak, regardless of class...........per my example in Fort Wayne. No matter what school you go to in Fort Wayne, you're going to get seen. D1 kids are coming from every program. But does a D1 kid from a lessor program choose to go to a program that has a good chance of playing for a state title in the new transfer era landscape?

Well yeah, but having five kids who are going D1 is better than having two. There might be a D1 receiver who wants to hook up with a D1 quarterback. A D1 wideout will make any team better, regardless of enrollment.

I think the strong get stronger. Will a kid gravitate toward a great program like Westfield or Center Grove? Or will they seek a better opportunity to play at a smaller school? Northrop and North Side already seem to be able to garner interest from outside their programs. It probably strengthens those programs and makes it harder on South Side and Wayne. In Fort Wayne, there's still the issue of proving your legal address to be in the district you're transferring to. Time will tell.

Does this close the gap between the top and bottom of 6A or make it worse?

The only thing I remember about James Hardy is that his team ended the nations longest losing streak by defeating the defending 3A state state runner-up in Week 1 of the following season. Not sure I've ever seen him in person. The three players I mentioned were men among boys out there on the field. There are other players for sure, but those guys just stick out. Put the ball in their hands and it's lights out for the 11 guys trying to tackle them. 2002: Dwenger loses to Roncalli 24-21 for the state championship in a game that could have gone either way. Elmhurst ends the season on a 64 game losing streak and has a small article featuring them in USA Today. 2003: Dwenger opens up against Elmhurst and loses 27-23 shocking football fans everywhere.

Who's the team they couldn't beat?

No, but I did see John Goodman, Sewlyn Lymon, and Rod Smith. Arguably the three best I've ever seen in person. This "in person" question really comes down to which part of the state you reside.

To @US31's defense, he did say "in person."

Lmao, were you at the game?

Just because Snider lost to Valpo in a winter storm doesn't mean North Side would have. Not taking anything away from Snider or Valpo. I saw what I saw in that North Side team. They had a 50/50 shot of beating any of the top teams in 5A that year. They lost to Snider twice by a combined 6 points. Their only other loss was to the 6A runner-up by a touchdown. People can discount North Side all they want, but the fact of the matter is, they're only three years removed from having one of the better teams in the state. Meant to say the "might" have been state champions in the earlier post. Not sure how we got off the Merrillville topic. I'll start a North Side thread at some point before the season starts.

Johnson is entering his fifth year as a head coach. In year two, his Legends could have beaten any team in 5A on a given night. Year three was the dumpster fire before a decent rebound in year four. Maybe the program learned from it? I'm not throwing this coach and his team under the bus just yet. One of us will be right, the other wrong, but it may be a few years before we find out. In any event, the SAC is better when North Side's knocking on the door. Had Snider not been in their way in 2022, hell, they have been state champions.

Universities make decisions that are in their best interests. I don't think terms like "cowardly" accurately portrays a program when leaving a high profile rivalry like this one. Michigan said the same thing about Notre Dame. Notre Dame had their hands tied with their agreement with the ACC, and there's no way they were going to drop Navy or USC. The Wolverines had to go bye bye. Now the same thing is happening with the USC in the Big Ten. At the end of the day, with the brutal schedule they'll be tasked with, they might just be looking for a more winnable game. When it comes to making the playoffs, wins and losses seem to have a heavier weight than strength of schedule. It's hard to blame them.