foxbat

I was watching the Harrison undercards when my son played in those teams from his freshman year on. My son's freshman year, 2020, the freshman squad played Westfield tight, losing 28-21, while the varsity fell 34-10 that year. The JV, the next season, 2021, lost to Westfield on a last-minute 40+ field goal, 23-22, while varsity lost 33-11. I was really looking forward to that JV game in 2022 to see if there was a continued trending for the undercard vs. Westfield, but that was the year that Westfield dropped Harrison from their schedule, so connecting the dots was not to be seen. The undercards did see Harrison reaching out to the Catholic schools more recently and adding Chatard, Roncalli, and Brebeuf. It looks like that will potentially continue into the varsity schedule too.

The cost of a Coke and a burrito changed? Lord, I apologize for that there.

Sounds like a mean-spirited dig because the coach turned down a request for an interview. The issues that Frankfort has aren't at all tied to a "social media savvy coach" and for that to be insinuated is just plain silly ... and kind of points to the intent behind that post.

They have a salve for that now.

Right now, being the new kid to 6A and switching conferences, they are going to have some struggles getting some of the other 6As to pull them in for, at least, a home-and-home for a few years, much less a regular seasonal schedule-mate. I'm hoping that they will be able to gain some foundation as they get past these transitions and become more desirable as an opponent for other 6As and upper 5As. Just about a decade ago, this was a program that posted three 0-10 seasons in a row and hadn't seen a winning season since 1996 until Coach Peeples showed up in 2014, so getting on track is certainly doable. The ping pong balls are going to be problematic for Harrison in the near future as they have former-nemesis Westfield in Sectional 3 along with really large school, Carmel.

Not necessarily "upgrades" per se, but some steps in the right direction until things get more on track. Harrison was finally starting to get some traction in 5A, then slipped into the lower part of 6A. Then toss in that the coach that was getting them to progress, departed. Of course, being booted from their conference added to all of the instability, but to be honest there wasn't much in the NCC for them to really get them ready for post-season outside of Jeff and occasionally Kokomo. With that said, their schedule has some challenges to it this year. While argument can be that they are playing outside of their class, which is likely to be the case for most 6A schools without a conference, it's not a bad start to working toward getting some stabilization. They kickoff with West Lafayette and Plainfield as they have in the last couple of seasons. Plainfield and Harrison were fairly evenly matched over the last three seasons. West Lafayette is West Lafayette and is typically a strong contender in their class. Harrison will also be playing Brebeuf, Roncalli, and Chatard which will be a much better mix that playing Richmond, Anderson, and Marion. Incidentally, Harrison has been playing Chatard and Brebeuf over the years in freshman and JV games, so this isn't necessarily a new twist to the relationships. They still will play sister school McCutcheon and cross-river rival, now 5A, Jeff. They will add Lebanon, who will be a new conference partner, and a 6A team, North Central. Again, not a phenomenal schedule, but one that at least goes in the right direction, especially accounting for all of recent changes to their situation.

Here's the official one:

Tri-West is a nice "tool sharpening" program for just about any class and even for JV/freshman levels. They always bring a serious game with them.

@LilUrb It's been a while! Good to see you back. Forget the password to your old GID account?

Have not yet found a corresponding set of data for 2024-2025, but here's the info for 2023-2024 in terms of candidates and winners. From the data points below, a couple things pop out: In some areas/classes, it may be possible that only one or two teams appeared to represent the entire state of 300+ teams and, at least 32 teams in class. It seems less likely that the advantages of p/p won the award vs. the mere fact that p/p schools possibly applied or were nominated at a higher rate. For example, in 1A, out of 64 plus teams, less than 10% of the schools applied or were nominated and half of those were p/p. In 2A, out of some 63 teams, a little more than 3% applied or were nominated ... i.e., 2 teams ... and one was p/p. In 5A, only a single team applied. Note that 3A had no p/p schools that applied or were nominated. As you dig into the details further, it appears that nominations did not all necessarily adhere to / fit the guidelines in the way that one might expect at quick review of the guidelines and only focusing on the winners. Not to disparage, but two of the six teams in the 1A candidates, both public schools, had records of 6-4 and 4-6. One of the p/p schools had a record of 5-4 and all of their wins came over teams with losing seasons. Frankly, it came down to three teams: one with a 13-0 record, one with a 12-1 record, and one with an 8-3 record. The 12-1 record team won the award. Yes, successful season is in the eye of the beholder and there can be many measures, but unless you are talking about extreme adversity, it's hard to say that a 4-6 or even a 6-4 team had a more successful season than a 13-0, 12-1, or even an 8-3 team. In 2A, you have an 8-2 team that didn't make it out of the first sectional game vs. a 7-4 team that made it to the second round of sectionals. Roughly a coin-flip, out of two teams, for "successful season." Odd man out, in 4A was Brebeuf. 6-5 hardly seems successful, until you realize they were playing up a class and made it to third round of sectionals. The other teams? 6-5, made it to second round of sectionals. 12-3, made it to state. 9-4, made it to regionals. 7-4, made it to regionals. In 4A, at first blush, you'd probably say 12-3 and made it to state was successful; and I would certainly not disagree. If you are digging further and, without seeing their packet, I would expect it would definitely mention that they are playing up a class. Given that, it's probably a dead-heat with the other three teams. 6a ... did I mention that the team that won it is playing up two classes and hasn't played in its enrollment class in over a decade? 8-4 and made it to a regional ... two classes up. The other teams? 13-1 and made it to state. 11-2 and made it to semi-state. Playing two classes up, and again, I didn't see the application packet, and being out of enrollment class for a decade should be in that packet. That makes an impression on detatched judges most likely ... right, wrong, or otherwise. In essence, the idea of conspiracy theory diminishes somewhat when you get the data points, at east from last year's contest. If anyone finds this year's finalists, I'd be happy to take a look. Here's the link for the info below: https://rrsn.com/indiana-team-national-finalists-for-the-2023-24-nff-national-hs-academic-excellence/ The Indiana Football Coaches Association congratulates our Indiana Team National Finalists for the 2023-24 NFF National HS Academic Excellence Award presented by @RoseBowlLegacy 1A Greenwood Christian Indianapolis Lutheran Park Tudor Covington West Central Fountain Central 2A Heritage Christian Alexandria 3A Hamilton Heights West Lafayette Danville Fairfield 4A Columbia City Northwood Evansville Reitz Memorial Indianapolis Brebeuf Martinsville 5A Lafayette Harrison 6A Indianapolis Cathedral Westfield Crown Point ——————————————– The following are State Champions and are eligible to be a National Champion: 1A – Indianapolis Park Tudor 2A – Heritage Christian 3A – West Lafayette 4A – Indianapolis Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory 5A – Lafayette William Henry Harrison 6A – Indianapolis Cathedral

Mishawaka Marian tried to move from 1A to 3A back in the 70s, but the IHSAA only let them bump up one class on their own in the year they applied for a two-class bump. Scecina was 2A and remained in 2A despite having 1A enrollment for a while, but eventually moved down to 1A before being SF'd into 2A and then getting enough enrollment to remain in 2A. I think Mishawaka also did something similar to Scecina [edit: I think it was around 2015/2016] in that they were in 5A, had a chance to move down to 4A by enrollment, and elected to remain in 5A at the time.

It's like the folks you catch with academic misconduct. They put more effort into cheating, working to not get caught, and then working to provide denial when they get caught, that if they'd just expended the same energy on the assignment, they would have gotten an A.

Thanks for posting this. It helps to remind us that, while the vast majority of these kids will not go on to play football at a higher level, they are certainly poised to be good members of the community at higher levels.