foxbat

Sectional of Death with Brebeuf, Guerin, and Chatard ... and, until recently, honorary Catholic public school, West Lafayette.

Don't the schools still provide tickets sales in the week of the game? Been a while since I went to LOS for state championships, but I thought in the past I'd purchased them from the school ... and it was just face-value cost.

Noticed that too?

Didn't change my thoughts. Would have voted the same either way as, even if a team gets a single win in post season that wasn't per-ordained or expected, it adds a little spice. Given that LCC and Pioneer have often ended each others' seasons in the past in sectionals/regionals, and often when both ranked #1 / #2, I always kind of wished for ways to separate on opposite side of the state. Opposite sides of the bracket will suffice though.

That was a given for LCC. Those were the years when the program was strongest and it was somewhat tied to a perfect storm between classes, numbers, and coach. Unfortunately when GID crashed, it took the older archive discussions away, but you can see in the years right before SF came onto the scene that @LCCAlumand I were talking specifically about LCC's 2A dominance predictions being quite premature and tied very heavily to classes and that those first two 2A seasons back in 2013/2014 might have likely been LCC's best chances to pick up big success in 2A as the classes were decreasing. Mind you, it's not all doom and gloom and LCC's in a pretty competitive position, but those 4-peat years were something special and, while most folks tend to overlook it, it took LCC around a half century of so to get to that point, so it wasn't something inherent in the make-up.

Kind of depends on the year and class. The first year LCC was in 2A, they we about 30 seconds short of winning a sectional and likely going to LOS in 2A. The second year, they were within a field goal of taking RCHS's place at LOS ... and RCHS took a 45-21 blue ring over Mater Dei that year. The next year, 2015, LCC dropped down to 1A and picked up a blue ring going undefeated through 1A and the Hoosier Conference. In 2016, they fell by a missed extra point to state-runner up Pioneer. The next year, in 1A, they were handled by Pioneer 48-20 and didn't get out of 1A sectional. The next season, 2018, they were completely mauled by Pioneer 70-7, at home, and again didn't make it out of the sectional. 2019 saw three losses to three 3A schools, but a thrilling 1A blue ring in a 29-28 come-from-behind-win against Lutheran. 2020 saw a complete drubbing at the hands of South Adams in 1A 42-9 who ended up getting a red ring at LOS that year after losing a 41-40 decision. SF bumped LCC to 2A in 2021 where they secured a sectional before being bounced by old 1A foe Scecina 34-13 and ending with an 8-5 record. This year, they picked up another 2A sectional before succumbing to Andrean 30-12 and ending the season at 9-4. In the five seasons before LCC ended up in 2A for a second time, they faced three different 1A for their last game of the season. In they won one of those file games and that was by one point. They lost one by one point. And lost the other three games, to a pair of public schools, by an average differential of over 40 points. Again, kind of depends on the class and season. In 2009 there was conjecture that LCC could have taken 3A. In 2017 and 2018, they couldn't get out of sectionals in 1A. In 2020 they kind of limped into semis and came out on crutches. LCC will stay in 2A with its two sectionals and will play wherever the IHSAA sends them, but I think they are likely to probably end up seeing the bare minimum to stay in 2A for a few seasons to come with maybe a regional thrown in. It will likely be a while before there's talk of LCC at the top of 2A like the potential that was there in 2013 and 2014. Incidentally, Calpreps says this year LCC would be a 21-point underdog to AC, a 1-point underdog to North Decatur, a 1-point underdog to NJSP, and 25-point underdog to Lutheran.

Nice job to the players and coaches keeping the flame going after many thought it had gone out. Didn't wallow in the past and kept looking forward and making things happen with a chance given. Good stuff to build on in the off-season to get geared up for next season. Pass on to the team that we enjoyed being along for the extended ride!

Yeah, but it holds up!

Yep, saw this one first-hand too. My son kicked a far-side sky-kick and no one from the receiving team was near it. Unfortunately, the gunner caught the ball in the air before it hit the ground. Everyone in stands was going wild and I'd just shook my head as I knew what call was coming ... I'd actually talked with my son about that rule before he left to go get on the bus and head out. Maybe I should have talked to the gunner? 🙂

On the plus side though, you don't need HandWarmers for your cajones. Lord, I apologize for that there.

LuHi's pretty much played TPC since for the past half decade and bounced around on the second open-game. That second bouncing game might be worth a look.

I'm surprised that Indy Lutheran and Corcordia don't meet up just for the heck of it during the season. Probably generalizing here, but my son played soccer for a Lutheran school a couple of seasons a few years back. There was a Lutheran soccer tournament ... matter of fact the last one he played in about four years ago was actually at LuHi. There was a certain "chippyness" amongst the various Lutheran programs that I had not quite seen between other religious teams squaring off and there was one team that you would have thought was the Catholic school among public schools the way the other teams all gave them the "sideways glance" when they passed by. 😃

3 Point Games Hamilton Southeastern @ Carroll Center Grove @ Cathedral 4 Point Games New Prairie @ Kokomo Roncalli @ East Central Chatard @ West Lafayette Luers @ Andrean Linton @ Mater Dei Adams Central @ North Judson

I was talking about the 1A teams that get thrust up with those 3A teams. The 1A that you propose, the bottom 32, would be likely be traded back and forth between Lutheran, Triton, and possibly Traders Point. It's that upper range of 1A where things could be a bit dicier. There are definitely some contenders that could survive ... have survived ... a 2A/3A mix like Pioneer, LCC, and possibly NJSP who has visited 2A before in the past and possibly Adams Central too.

That'll wear you down more than any mileage can.

That's a whole lot of *ss-kicking for some 1A schools. That would potentially pit schools like Clinton Prairie against schools like Tri-West or Concordia. While West Lafayette vs. Merrillville and Chatard vs. Whiteland certainly sounds intriguing, Peru vs. Snider sounds downright dangerous. Convince me.

Good catch for the application letter.😀

Perhaps that might be the case, but I'm not sure if it's a mic drop just yet. Is there data that suggests even spread of team strengths, or adjustments, in the datapoints or at least an analysis of whether that's a factor. For example, Indy Lutheran travels on the road this week to North Decatur. Lutheran is just under 90 Sagarin and North Decatur is just under 64. Lutheran will have roughly a 45-minute trip to North Decatur. Lutheran could make that trip via Lafayette, over three hours in the misdirection, and still end up with a win. Or, conversely, North Decatur could make the trip to Lutheran, about 45 minutes, and pretty likely not come away with a win. Similarly, Valpo's taking a trip to Fort Wayne this weekend to play Snider. Snider's got a 92+ Sagarin and Valpo's got 78+ Sagarin. Realistically, Snider could likely head to Valpo, again via Lafayette ... an almost four-hour misdirection ... and still be favored to win whereas Valpo's slightly more than 2 hour trip to Snider is likely to result in a loss. It may turn out that the datapoints evenly distribute the strength items, so that you can dismiss the distance, but I would not be surprised to see that RELATIVE strength plays a part in the equation that can be amplified by distance traveled.

Harrison's front line was pretty good sized and Harrison had success going up the gut. Fullback carried 11 times for an average of 5 yards a carry. For some reason, Harrison moved to trying to get on the outsides with speed back and putting the ball in the air. Resulted in a fumble and two picks.

Kind of like me trying to explain to my wife why she shouldn't be making so much noise when she's having contractions.

If we're proposing some semi-state games on Saturday, then state championships would be the following Saturday.

I think folks are OK giving up one Saturday of college football for the state championships, but I wonder how two consecutive Saturdays would be met ... and this weekend before Thanksgiving definitely contains some of the make-or-break games in the college conferences and sometimes for the playoff considerations.

Can this be done while allowing for both? Would seem that seeding the sectionals takes care of making the season count for something and also sets up the scenario of "the unworthy" exiting in the first round while still allowing for the "one team per decade" to make their run against the odds. Coming from Texas, I definitely remember that coin-flip situation to determine who would be in and who would be out. There was nothing about that event that said competition. I don't have an issue with a compromise component, I think there's a way to reach what both side are looking for with compromise. Given what we have in Indiana, I think we are selling players/coaches short if we truly believe that our teams are just waiting in the wings until post season. I just went to the Harrison football recognition event and watched them not talk so much about the conference championship and the overall record, although they did, but I was struck by the discussion of the fact that the boys had committed 200+ days during the year to that sport through running, lifting, strapping on the pads, film review, and it was in the rain, in the heat, in the cold, when they were hurting and tired, while they were still students first. I know what my son and his teammates and coaches put in on a daily basis and again, maybe this is why I'm so adamant about just using a number to write off half of them. I know that they take their games, week after week seriously, and having coached for almost two decades, albeit in youth, I've been around lots of kids and coaches from lots of programs and, in all honesty, I don't think my boy or his team is any more special when it comes to the other teams in terms of giving their heart to the game. Are some up against odds where they can't perform the way that others do? Sure. But again, I think we sell our kids, coaches, and our state short if we believe that we need to cut half of them out to "force" people to act competitively.

All definitely true ... to an extent, but in your arguments, you set it all up as it doesn't happen and, if it does, the only people who survive, don't actually survive, they just feed off the other dead. Monrovia has shown that argument didn't happen in their case. As a general exercise, remove PolyTech from the mix ... let's just say they got COVID and couldn't play Monrovia in the first round. How does that alter the fact that Monrovia beat the #19, #25, and #12 ranked teams en route to a sectional and regional title. Unless you are going to claim that PolyTech stole Coach Klein's special plays notebook for Speedway, Danville, and Owen Valley, then it's a non-sequitur. As @Bobref pointed out, bad timing on your arguments because, with the initial bluster and guaranteed future stuff that isn't actually guaranteed and the idea that everyone else just didn't see it, it makes for a somewhat compelling argument until someone shows that it isn't necessarily 100% guaranteed. Like I've said before, I see merit in the argument of seeding the teams or at placing top teams on opposite sides of the bracket and let nature take its course. I see little downside in playing an all-in tournament. And, before you tell me that I'm part of the problem if I don't see it, I would contend that the argument that Indiana needs to "threat" to teams to make them perform during the season might be true of a few teams, but I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of coaches and players strap on the gear every week with the intention of going out there and playing all out. Perhaps there's a statistical anomaly of teams that don't, by to use your reasoning, why have a system for a statistical anomaly ... and the case of cutting half the teams out, you are catching a lot of teams that aren't a statistical anomaly.