Tommy

Congratulations to your niece Emily and the Bulldogs on their state championship Saturday.  What an awesome team.  CP is going back to back in 2022.  You have to be one proud uncle.

5 minutes ago, Tommy said:

It is a running back by committee offense but Buck is featured as the chief of the committee.

https://youtu.be/P1kEH7Sf66w

3 hours ago, DT said:

Is Buck the featured back in their offense or is he more of a FB?

It is a running back by committee offense but Buck is featured as the chief of the committee.

35 minutes ago, DT said:

https://gvsulakers.com/sports/football/roster        Check out the dudes from Michigan City, as well as all the other Indiana talent on the Grand Valley State University roster.

Buck, Markice, TE Scott Cooper from La Porte, Kicker Josh Gorball from Concord, DB JT Webb from Elkhart Central from Concord, are all key returners for the Lakers next season.  They all played against each other in high school and now have become teammates in college.

BTW, I fully support the idea of the NCAA student athlete to be fully compensated for the use of their name, image, likeness and performance statistics.

On 2/25/2021 at 11:54 AM, DT said:

How are the boys doing Tommy?

Outstanding, all of D2 had their football season cancelled as a result they got a full free year of college education and they did take away any of their eligibility so they will be there the next 2 seasons.  Spring practice began 2 weeks ago. They are being taken care of really good up there.

I told Buck that they should put him on the cover of EA Sports NCAA Football K21.

As a season ticket holder I am very excited and looking forward to see Derrick Woods play at Grand Valley State.

11 minutes ago, DT said:

Those were the Radtke days.   Traditional county schools are much more spread out than NP

NP has good years when Bart Curtis was there.  He lived right in the heart of downtown New Carlisle.  During the summertime he would have the boys camping out at night on Amzie Miller Field.

44 minutes ago, DT said:

I was reading thru and commenting in the Jay County thread, when I began to think about the struggles and challenges that county schools must face.

When I think of an Indiana county school, I think first of the following :

* Vast stretches of farm land

* Dark 2 way roads.

* Long bus trips

* Scheduling challenges

* Logistics issues

* Poor practice attendance

The list goes on and on.  Without a city or town identity, is it difficult for these county schools to develop a sense of local school pride?

I may be way off here, but these are the thoughts that cross my mind, being a city/suburban dwellar.

Brown 

Crawford

Franklin

Jay

Switzerland

Tri

Union

New Prairie is a rural school.  Every time the Cougar's make a deep tournament run both the towns of New Carlisle and Rolling Prairie go all out.  There is never a single business that does not a show of support for the team displayed on their business marquee or store front window.  Many will take out full page ads in the newspaper.  Restuarnt owners often host the team for a meal or breakfast prior to going downstate on the road for their tournament games.  That is one of my favorite things to see concerning high school athletics.

When he was at Michigan City the players would call him "Big Papi".

Worst announcers I ever heard were the radio guys from WLQI in Rensselear, they were just god awful.  About 6 years ago they were the only media outlet covering the Michigan City Marquette girls regional championship game.  These guys couldn't even tell that Emma and Sophia Nolan were idenical twin sisters and Hannah Nolan was their older sister.  They were so bad that I felt that the IHSAA should have revoked their broadcating privilages.  After that Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Knezevich (my favorite high school sports announcer) from the Regional Radio Sports Network called all the Marquette Blazer girls games when they advanced deep into the tournament.

20 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

https://www.lpheralddispatch.com/sports/

 

 

The article in the paper said he has 3 sons in the program, so they took my advice and hired a players dad to do it.  
 

Little inside info, He is going to stick around awhile, Ortiz bought Mayor Tom Dermody’s old house on the outskirts of city limits a couple years ago because after mayor Demody left the state legislator he had to move into the city limits so he can run for mayor of Laporte.

Ortiz led the state in receiving in 1994, Nick Wellman was his quarterback. He went to college and played football at the former St. Joseph college.  He was also a member of coach Buzea, Eric Schrieber and Mike Karpinski’s staff at Michigan City before going to La Porte.

Michigan City is now the 4th lowest school in enrollment in the state in class 5A.  Would not be surprised to see the Wolves down in 4A in the future.

On 12/4/2020 at 11:11 AM, DT said:

Terre Haute is not an industrial town like the northern cities

It's a college town

Something else is amiss

 

Seems a lot like Elkhart where a consolidation might be in the future

Michigan City is now the 4th smallest school in enrollment in class 5A.

On 1/25/2021 at 11:51 AM, slicercoach said:

I was never offered the position. I was asked to be on the interview committee and I declined. My exact quote was "You guys did a pretty good job last time around. Find us another Dave Sharpe!"

Look more long term this time.  I don’t want La Porte to become another program that has the seek a new head coach every 3 or 4 seasons.  Maybe get one of the players dads to volunteer to do it, when son graduates, get another volunteer dad.

5 hours ago, Boilernation said:

I'll tell you, from the experience of playing for him in the mid '90's, he expects perfection at all times. There's no slacking in the weight room, off season conditioning, film room, practice field, etc. Very good players were benched or held completely out of key games if they weren't focused. He holds everyone accountable. Expect a very seasoned and intelligent coaching staff if he brings in one similiar to what he had in Michigan City and H-F. I look forward to seeing how this plays out. The Blue Ring has eluded him at Portage and H-F. He's not leaving a perennial 8A contender in Illinois to settle for Sectional and Regional Titles in Indiana.

I see lots of sectional titles in the future if 6A sectional 1 consists of Crown Point, Lake Central, Portage and one of the newly consolidated Hammond schools.

BUz with daughter Britney and wife Bard while bravely battling Leukemia in hospital.

Region Sports Network is reporting that Crown Point has hired Homewood-Floosmor and former Portage and Michigan City head coach as their new field general.  Crown Point will have their best coach since Brad Smith.

53 minutes ago, boilerfan87 said:

I'm not sure where Lowery is from originally, but prior to being the HC at LaPorte, he was HC at Paoli and was an assistant there for years before that. West Washington is about 25 minutes from Paoli, so it is a homecoming of sorts for him. Congrats to Coach Lowery.

Lowery graduated from Penn

5 minutes ago, oldtimeqb said:

I'm not familiar with northern Indiana, but isn't LaPorte a 5 or 6A school?  Not often do you see a coach both change corners of the state and school size to such a difference.    

La Porte is 5A.  Under Lowery La Porte pulled off sectional wins in the first round over Michigan City in 2019 then won over hapless Munster in 2020 but lost to Valpo both times in the sectional championship.  Actually played Valpo pretty good in the sectional title game this past season.  La Porte played a lot of sophomores the last two seasons.

The way I heard it explained when Dave Sharpe left the Slicers formed a search committee, the job was offered to Bob James who did not want it, it was then posted, a pool of applicants were received, the search committee the consulted with Paul Condry from the Indiana Football Digest and he narrowed the list down to 5 and Jeremy Lowery was at the top of the list.

Per Home Town News and 96-7 the Eagle Jeremy Lowery has stepped down at La Porte to take over at West Washington in southern Indiana.  Third coaching change in the DAC this season.

https://hometownnewsnow.com/local-news/551961?fbclid=IwAR0gQ0DoNzmx80yqw6qARgYjJgjWAGqjfUAvKnF1Fk4g2h1dhpE5EUnr26Y

2 hours ago, DT said:

She is a very sharp young lady.  She is at Marian University in Indy on softball scholarship.  

2 hours ago, DT said:

Really warms my heart.  That's my little brother Jim.   We almost lost him in April.  He was on a ventilator for 6 weeks.   Docs told him he had no business making it.   He is now back to work at US Steel.  Terrific kid.   I love him.  The girl on the far left is Caitlyns younger sister Emily.  She is a better athlete and should have a huge career ahead.   The boy is my nephew Joey.  They just moved to Lakes of the Four seasons.  Not sure if the kids changed schools.   

They are all very lucky to have you as their uncle and brother.

3 minutes ago, oldunclemark said:

Who is your niece, DT?   

Caitlyn Philips

New Prarie's Amzie Miller field was the school's principal and and executive committe member of the IHSAA. 

Hobart was known is Don Howell Field at Brickie Bowl. 

Michigan City Elston's Gill Field is named after Andy Gill coach for Elston (1919-1938) and member of the Indiana Football Hall of Fame.  Andy Gill's ashes were spread on the field. 

Abandoned Gilroy Stadium in Gary was named for John "Jack: Gilroy who was a gym teacher at Gary Emerson.