slice60

Frankly, I'm not even sure if you are referring to Moore or Sharp. If it's referring to Brock Moore, the Indystar article noted that he transferred (I am not sure which school he previously attended) for academic reasons & then stayed behind 1 grade for academic reasons. Makes perfect sense if a student is struggling academically, dealing with his mother's serious illniess, etc. This change has obviously been very good for him both in the classroom & on the baseball field too. After the transfer, it appears that he was allowed to participate in athletics immediately. For IHSAA member schools, each student-athlete is eligible for 8 semesters of high school sports. Based upon the ruling of the IHSAA Review Committee, Moore had used up his 8 semesters of eligibility at the end of the 2017-18 school year. Please let me know if any of those facts are incorrect. As you suggested, I did some more research & found that the connections leading up to the Reese Sharp transfer is pretty darn interesting. Lots of facts below. Chris Estep has been the Head Baseball Coach at University HS for 11 years. Estep is not a teacher, he is the founder (1993) & owner of the Roundtripper Sports Academy in Westfield. According to his bio on the Roundtripper website, "Chris is currently the Head of Player Training and Development for the Indiana Mustangs baseball organization, while also serving as a coach." Also from that same website, "RoundTripper Sports Academy is home to several local sports teams in Westfield, IN. These teams include the Indiana Mustangs organization, the University High School baseball and softball teams, the Colts Baseball Club, the San Francisco Giants Scout Team, and PBR’s Team Indiana." Roundtripper's facilities include a 40,000 sq ft indoor facility, youth baseball & softball fields & a regulation high school baseball field. The University baseball team practices & plays its home games at Roundtripper. (Opinion here-- I bet that no other 1A baseball program enjoys those kinds of facilities...in fact, maybe no other team in the entire state.) All Mustang players are provided with a Roundtripper Academy membership that includes unlimited cage use, mound use, and indoor field use. Mustangs players will also have access to some of the finest baseball instructors in the midwest. Reese Sharp has been a member of the Indiana Mustangs Elite Travel baseball club for at least 7 years. I found this May 2016 article when Sharp was a varsity pitcher for Noblesville HS as a freshman: https://millermedianow.org/3123/sports/pitching-the-way-to-varsity/ From that article, "In Sharp’s seven years of playing baseball, a moment that has stuck with him took place during a travel game for the Indiana Mustangs, the only other team Sharp has played for besides Noblesville." https://www.mustangsnation.com/alumni - Sharp is listed as a Mustangs alumni who has committed to play at IU. From MaxPreps, here are Sharp's stats during his 3 years playing varsity at Noblesville. (Hmmm...only 14 innings on the mound as a Junior) https://www.maxpreps.com/athlete/reese-sharp/_VjrL0AiEeW-8KA2nzwbTA/gendersport/baseball-stats.htm Lots & lots of facts there. Unfortunately, I can't confirm that as a fact but, at the state title game, I overheard a University parent say that Sharp had a falling out with the Noblesville Coach. So, based upon those facts & a bit of spy-work, my conclusion is this-- after the 2018 season, Reese Sharp wasn't happy in his role at Noblesville. Based upon many years of training at Estep's Roundtripper Academy & playing elite travel ball for Estep's Indiana Mustangs, Sharp already had a good relationship with Chris Estep which eventually led to a discussion about transferring to University for his Senior year. With a solid squad returning after being 1A runner-ups in 2018, it was a great fit for both the student-athlete & the baseball program. Obviously, it would have worked out even better if Noblesville had signed off on the transfer or the IHSAA gave their approval so that he could have played the whole season. But he was still able to practice every day at Estep's first-class facility until the 365-day ineligibility ended plus he had already committed to play at IU. Based on being drafted in the 28th round, professional scouts surely stopped by to watch him workout too. After University clobbered each Sectional opponent, he became eligible to play starting with the Regionals-- Sharp started on the mound in all 4 of their remaining tournament games, he was the winning pitcher in 3 games, threw 21 2/3 innings (out of 28) & allowed just 2 runs total. As you correctly pointed out, there are personal & family issues which I am completely unaware of. In your first post, you mentioned gun violence. Are you referring to the May 2018 shooting at the Noblesville Middle School? Assuming those personal & family issues were pertinent to their athletic eligibility review, the student's family & legal counsel certainly submitted that information on their transfer application & to the IHSAA Review Committee. In both cases, the Committee ruled against the transfer applicants-- because facts often outweigh feelings.

How can I "research" any of that? I do not know which family you are talking about but I don't recall any reference to an unsafe environment &/or family deaths in either IndyStar article about Sharp or Moore. If it was in those articles, please point it out to me.

How do you figure? The change from 3 Points to 2 had an impact on several schools (both public & private) in a number of sports. Does Bobby Cox also "dislike" Gibson Southern softball? And Marquette boys basketball?

https://www.elkharttruth.com/sports/high_school/an-open-letter-to-ihsaa-commissioner-bobby-cox/article_841397d2-7b3c-5682-880d-c3a3017a275e.html Here's an article that backs up your point that the bigger schools are dominating 4A & those other sports like tennis, track&field, cross country, soccer, etc. *** Here are my own thoughts on why Football has more than 4 classes. 1) Fewer schools play football. 320 currently, compared to over 400 in Boys Basketball. By placing no more than 64 teams in each class for football, state finalists play no more than 6 tournament games & the tournament always takes 6 weeks. With 9 regular season games, nobody plays more than 15 games. Conversely, all other team sports can play multiple games during the same week or even 2 games in the same day sometimes. And it's no big deal for a team to play 7 or more tournament games in those other sports. 2) In general, enrollment is more important to Football than other sports. Smaller schools with 3 or 4 very talented basketball players or even just 1 super-phenom pitcher can compete with anybody. In Football, you need depth to compete in the higher classes-- teams with a solid 22 almost always beat a team that has a lot of players playing Off & Def plus injuries wreak havoc as the season goes on. When the IHSAA looked closely at who was having success in 5A Football from 1985-2012, they realized that the larger enrollment schools were completely dominating. And that's why they added 6A. Check out the 5A results from 1997-2012 - it's almost all 6A names here.

FW Snider won their Sectional in 6A in each of the past 2 years. They seem to be pretty competitive to me. Marquette boys basketball has won the 2A Sectional for 4 years straight. If the Minimum Points were still at 3, they would have dropped back down to 1A. To me, that's the best example of why the change to 2 Points make a whole lot of sense.

Good point-- Cathedral won the 6A Sectional in 2015 & 2016 but then dropped to 5A. We will never know how they would have fared in 6A during the 2017 & 2018 tournaments.

New Pal is right where they should be. Winner of Cathedral / Decatur Central will be a challenging Regional matchup. I don't know the far south very well but Castle is a possible Semistate opponent. And 6A battle-tested Valpo could be the representative from the north. If you're saying that New Pal (enrollment 1,175) should choose to join the 6A tournament in order to face schools with 3, 4 & 5 times their enrollment just to challenge themselves, then you're just being silly. But the Dragons may earn the 6+ points to get all the way up there in 2 years, just like Columbus East did.

Cathedral & Snider forced to stay in higher class...& as a special treat, Carmel must go thru the South Semistate in 2020. Not so happy about my Slicers being in the same Sectional as Valpo & Michigan City starting this fall.

Waiting impatiently for the IHSAA to release the new & improved Football Sectional assignments. And the Baseball & Softball Sectional assignments too, of course.

https://www.indystar.com/get-access/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indystar.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fhigh-school%2F2019%2F06%2F18%2Fihsaa-baseball-university-teddy-bear-pitcher-becomes-teams-cheerleader%2F1484687001%2F I wonder if the University HS baseball program has booked a permanent meeting date with the IHSAA Executive Committee going forward. Just this season, they appealed on behalf of Reese Sharp (transferred for athletic reasons after 3 varsity seasons at Noblesville-- IHSAA Ruled Limited Eligibility/Sharp had to sit out for 365 days & could not play in a game for University before May 28, 2019) & Brock Moore (according to the IndyStar article linked above, Moore transferred to University after his Sophomore year & then stayed back a grade for academic reasons-- IHSAA ruled that he had used all 8 semesters of eligibility ending in Spring 2018). http://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/documents/about ihsaa/minutes/2018-19/042919.Review.pdf IHSAA Review Committee April 29, 2019 Indianapolis, Indiana Present Hearing Officer Brian Strong, Stacy Adams, Victor Bush, Chad Gilbert, Patti McCormack, Dave Worland. A hearing was conducted to consider the appeal of Brock Moore, a student attending University High School, who had been declared ineligible under Rule 12‐2 (Eight Semester Rule). A hearing was requested in order to appeal the ruling. The student’s family and legal counsel for the IHSAA submitted findings of fact. Having analyzed all available data, the IHSAA Review Committee voted to uphold the decision of the commissioner. So congratulations again to the University Trailblazers for your Class 1A Baseball Championship and for proving that "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'" is the school motto. With the move up to 2A for the next 2 seasons, you'd better step up the recruiting efforts & fine a way to hide your talented transfers in the future. Although with your recent success, you should be able to recruit baseball players with great potential before their Freshman year like the others do.

How in the heck is every team gets the chance to go out & win or lose on the field "the most illogical system"??? Better yet, PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW THE INDIANA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT BECAME THE COUNTRY'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS & POPULAR H.S. TOURNAMENT FOR GENERATIONS EVEN THOUGH EVERY SCHOOL WAS IN THE TOURNAMENT.

You still haven't addressed why Football should be a "playoff format" while all of the other sports should remain as an all-in tournament. That's a PUNISHMENT against Football players. It's a lot easier for players & coaches to keep practicing hard near the end of the season when they still have Sectionals to prepare for. Do you think those teams sitting at 2-6 would still be just as excited about practices & games when they know their season ends at game #10? And if you teams have to qualify with a winning record, many would purposefully schedule non-conference cupcakes in order to bolster their record.

So for all of you who want to change the Football tournament & force teams to "qualify", are you going to do that in every sport? I sure hope so because it would be unfair to punish thousands of football players while giving every other student-athlete in Volleyball, Soccer, Baseball, BASKETBALL, etc the opportunity to win a Sectional/Regional/Semistate/State trophy for their school. And while you're at it, are you going to make all of the Wrestlers, Gymnasts, Track & Field athletes etc meet some sort of criteria in order to participate in their respective Sectionals??? It's only fair that you potentially take away the post-season opportunity from every athlete & not just Football.

We were totally neutral but sitting on the Southridge side. It was like seeing a terrible car crash. I couldn't even look any of their fans in the eye as they dejectedly left the ballpark. Can't imagine how bad the kids felt. This is a great article & the Head Coach is clearly a fantastic teacher & mentor. https://www.courierpress.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/06/18/southridges-state-title-dreams-slip-away-alexandria-wins-2-a/1494886001/

And that was a line-drive one-hopper to the Centerfielder so, if his throw was accurate, he may have nailed the runner at home to end the game.