foxbat

Here's a link from the site: https://www.wane.com/high-school-sports/2023-highlight-zone-preview-bishop-dwenger-saints/ From the article: Last year, Bishop Dwenger battled through injuries at key positions to finish with a 6-4 record. After spending a handful of years in Class 5A due to the IHSAA’s tournament success factor, the Saints are returning to 4A in 2023.

Sounds like he's considering seminary. That's what LCC's Thomas Haan did. Finished high school in the IHSAA's top 25 passers ... at the time ... went on to Purdue, but then felt called to enter the priesthood. https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/purdue/2015/10/10/sunday-morning-quarterback-walk--purdue-qb-turned-priest/72980258/ Hope this young man finds what he's looking for or being called to.

Just curious how much neck work is done nowadays? When I played ball back in the 70s, our daily warm-ups had four drills that focused on neck strength and, in the off-season with weight training, we had a couple stations that also worked the neck as well. In coaching here in Indiana, I didn't see a lot of neck-related work although I did implement some in our warm-up shortly before retiring from youth coaching.

Playing back in the 70s, the only time I recalled critique on tackling from coaches was when missing a tackle or letting someone pick up extra yards after contact. As a coach over almost 20 years of youth football coaching, I'm pretty sure I spent more time critiquing safety aspects of tackling than effectiveness in tackling over those years. And, as @btownqbcoach1 said, "sometimes adamantly." As @Impartial_Observer said, it's one thing that definitely changed since us old folks played ... and for the better!

Definitely sounds like a rebuilding year.

LCC in 2009? Graduated 18 seniors and went 15-0 the next season. Also, 2010 they graduated 13 seniors and went 15-0 the following season.

In think that ties in to @Impartial_Observer's statement above about better technique. I would hope that programs that use them just don't hand them out as "magic dust" and drive home the importance of technique as well as other safety tools.

Not sure I'd have LCC over Andrean and Luers this early.

Feels strange not seeing Pioneer in a Top 12 ranking for 1A.

Agree with this! Teaching kids how to reduce or take the head out of tackling certainly helps. It's not 100%, but it goes a long way from the head being the tip of the spear for tackling back in the day when I was coming up.

Realistically? From similar population? About 50% of what you already have on your team across all of the question areas. If I'm a coach and I've got 20 impact players and you tell me I can have another 10; I'll take them. If I have 30 impact players and you tell me I can have another 15; I'll take them. That gets me more depth as well as, statistically, the ability to improve on what I already have unless somehow or another I have already topped out at the fastest, strongest, smartest, quickest, most agile, kids in that district. It also gives me more mixes to work with. A detriment though to large schools is that, sometimes, even above-average players don't play on the team because of the shared time aspect or even second-string aspect. There are, and anyone who has coached knows this, kids that will not even come out for a team if there 1) isn't the probability that they will start and/or 2) the potential that they will have to share time with another talented person. We see it in college where kids transfer, especially now with the portal ... in high school, they sometimes just opt for another sport where they know they will start although they sometimes transfer albeit "for academic reasons." This also can have impact on big school pipelines too, depending on how many pipelines flow into that school. I'm interested in seeing how this plays out as Jeff and Harrison even out in enrollment and both end up 6A. Jeff has a single junior high, Tecumseh, that feeds the high school whereas Harrison has three middle schools, Klondkie, Battleground, and east Tipp, that feed it.

If I had 2,000 boys to choose from and created a pretty good team and then someone else said, "Hey, I've got another 1,000 boys that look like the 2,000-boy population you just created your team from," I'm pretty sure I would look through the additional 1,000 as opposed to waiving them off. Realistically, if someone said, "I've got another 20 boys," I'd probably waive it off as not necessarily worth the time/payoff, but for an additional 1,000, even if just 15% were interested in being part of the football team, the likelihood of improving on the original team from the 2,000-boy population is decent.

For small schools, if you are including Linton, Pioneer, and Lutheran, then LCC should be in that mix too. In last 10 seasons: State titles: 2 in 1A ... over Lutheran and Linton State appearances: 2 in 1A Regionals: 4 ... 3 in 1A and 1 in 2A Sectionals: 7 ... 4 in 1A and 3 in 2A And this is all since the four-peat state run in 1A, 2009-2012, which would tack on an additional 4 state titles, 4 appearances, 4 more regionals, and four more sectional titles.

I'm assuming that's more fans than players/coaches. While CG had an outstanding season last year, culminating in a blue ring, it would seem that the gaps in wins is getting noticeably tighter. In 2021, CG beat FC 35-7 in the sectional game. This past season, it was just 14-10 in sectional. A differential drop of over three TDs. In 2021, WC got dropped 38-14. That dropped to just 17-8 and 42-32 in regionals. A reduction of two TD differential in both games. In 2021, the divide with Carmel was almost four TDs. That dropped to a four-point differential in 2022. For BD, in 2021, it was over a three-TD differential and over a five-TD differential in semi-state. In 2022, that differential dropped to a single point. Granted, it's just a single-season comparison, albeit the most recent, but that seems like a lot of teams getting better.

All done. Thanks for all you guys do!

Unfortunately, more and more kids may be drawn to the idea that, they may never see a college field, but there's still options for exposure in other areas. While there's certainly the "next step" for talented players in college, realistically that number is limited. On the other hand, other outlets for "noticed" people, who have some talent but not enough for post high school, are growing ... and not in a good way. Need look no further than the "Cash me outside, how bow dah" girl who ended up with millions for being a brat. The image of being the "bad boy" or "the assassin" or "the thug" seems to have niche appeal in social media even if athletics can't be taken to that next level.

Those are the only three that I can think of. LCC probably came closest of those that didn't; dropping a 17-14 semi-state game on the road to eventual 2A champ RCHS back in 2014.

I would agree with this. Plainfield played some nice heads-up ball as the season progressed. They play best when they keep things tight to the end. If they keep it tight, they seem to be able to wait teams out to make a mistake at the end and then capitalize on it. Kind of like boxers taking it to the scorecards and winning it in the last two rounds.

This hasn't been all that much of an issue. Cathedral's pretty much the only program that moved up a class and kept someone from that new class from winning in their regular class level ... that would be in 5A. Also, there are teams that moved up via SF that ended up in the new class by enrollment anyway. Linton and Scecina both ended up in 2A by SF and both remain there because of enrollment. 1A Adams Central may well end up being SF'd, but realistically they are likely to hit enrollment to go to 2A at the same time. Lutheran would likely be the only 1A school to head to 2A that could, potentially, keep someone in 2A from winning that class. Chatard could also be in that same position, but last time they were in 4A, IHSAA put them up against Roncalli, so that pretty much made sure that Chatard wasn't going to keep a regular 4A school from taking 4A. You can certainly argue that Pioneer and LCC, both of whom were SF'd might have won 1A more if they hadn't been SF'd, but also realistically, while LCC has won a couple of state championships in 1A after having returned from 2A, they were also dropped four of six seasons in 1A as well by teams that ended up at LOS in 1A ... and only one of those was close as the rest were losses by four or more TDs including a 70-7 drumming at the hands of Pioneer and 42-9 at the hands of South Adams. Similarly, Pioneer's return to 1A was pretty anti-climatic with a 2-8 season record and an unceremonious first round bounce from the tourney by Triton 42-6.

And you said it to his [virtual] face too!

Could the IHSAA basically say that, should schools decide to form a co-op, said co-op is an all-sports co-op? That is, they would perform as a co-op across all sports instead of just football or just baseball? That would address that concern, although it would also likely have most schools decide if it's all or none, they'll take none.

Rumor has it that 1A Faith Christian in Lafayette, will finally start playing football, but will be playing 8-man ball. They've been around for about 25 years and were admitted into IHSAA about a decade or so ago, but never had football at the school until now.

Didn't HHC basically oust LCC? If not officially, then they were certainly helpful and showed up for the packing party when LCC departed for the HC.

Do we go nine again, or do we add another? If we add another, who: Is a good fit? Who is realistic? I would assume that bringing in another 3A/4A team helps in making things a bit more competitive for Western ... along with the recent addition of Logansport. Other than maybe Pioneer, I don't see anything in 1A to consider. Anything in 2A/3A, especially with the Sagamore Conference shakeup, make any sense? Tri-West perhaps? I'd see Lebanon as more of a "fit" maybe linking up with Harrison/McCutcheon if they form a new league, but Lebanon could be an interesting addition of strength on the upper-end of the HC compared to the departures. Might go a decent way to making sure that Western doesn't get cold feet.

It looks like West Lafayette has snagged TippValley to fill in their schedule for that opening too.