foxbat

Unless someone sends the IHSAA an anonymous note stating that Breman is indeed named for Pope Breman VI ... hence the 'B' that looks like a '6' on the helmets. When that happens you shall mysteriously be cast into the Sectional of Death in 3A. 🙂

While there has been discussion on GID about larger Hispanic populations causing issues with football, I'm not sure that I buy it in whole. Demographic shifts are coming in broader swaths now. The country's recent numbers, at least as of 2020, show that, by national average, Whites are no longer the majority for public schools. They clock in at a tad under 46%. Hispanics check in at around 28%, with Blacks at around 15%. Asians, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and those that identify as two or more races complete the pie with a bit more than 11% combined. While Indiana is still below average with regard to URMs and way above the average in terms of Whites ... at just a bit under 66% ... there's still a shift in play. Going back to the idea that Hispanic students have a potential impact on the strength of football in an area because "obviously they play soccer and not American football," of note is that the states that have large Hispanic populations in their public schools, as a percentage, actually tend to be known for their football. Among the states with more Hispanics than the national average in their public schools are football power states California, Florida, and Texas with roughly 55%, 35%, and 53% Hispanic students respectively. At the same time, Nevada has around 43% Hispanic and New Mexico has roughly a whopping 63% and neither would likely be tagged as the strongest football schools in the sate. Someone could certainly pick New Mexico and say, "See the more Hispanics you have, the more irrelevant your program would be because no one talks about football and New Mexico in the same breath." On the other hand, the large numbers of Hispanics, as percentage, in powerhouse states says that we just can't flat-out assume a linear impact on football when there's larger presence of Hispanic students. While the idea of demographic shifts certainly provide challenges, I think there's plenty of data out there as well as trends that show that the trend toward increased Hispanic populations isn't specifically a death knell for football in an area/state. There's also a big issue that folks need to consider in that Hispanics are not as monolithic as they are often assumed to be ... folks who live in Florida can attest to this first-hand. There's also the issue of FRL that people toss in there as well, but there's also data that points to that being less than definitive in football success than the linear presumption than is sometimes assumed. Back in 2015/16, the national average for FRL was around 50%. California, Texas, and Florida clocked in around 59% on FRL. Note that in that year, Indiana's percentage was just a bit below the national average at around 48%. The interesting thing though is that Mississippi clocked in at right around 75% FRL. You might be asking, "Why would Mississippi matter?" Mississippi ranked 7th in 2015 in percentage of their players that went on to play FBS ball with scholarship. Incidentally, Florida was #1 in percentage and Texas and California ranked #12 and #11 respectively. Incidentally, last year, Mississippi also ranked #1 in D1 scholarships per million residents and also ranked #1. When the study broke down positions, that ranking was also #1 across QBs, line, DBs, and receivers. It was only a single study, but an interesting place to start. Caveat: With all that said, and given that various groups are not as monolithic and different specific areas/schools have very different cultures, coaching issues, communities, etc., this is very much high-level analysis. I'm not as directly versed with Hobart and/or Portage or many other Indiana schools, so my info above is more for thought as opposed to being directly applied to a specific school. Here are the various sources if folks want to delve into or churn the data a bit more: D1s per million ... https://thedatajocks.com/best-states-for-high-school-football/ FRL 2015/2016 ... https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_204.10.asp 2020 ethnicity public schools ... https://www.statista.com/statistics/236244/enrollment-in-public-schools-by-ethnicity-and-us-state/ 2020 blue chips by state ... https://www.bannersociety.com/2020/2/4/21111828/college-football-recruits-by-state 2015 state rankings by percentage pop FBS ... https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/sec-states-produce-tons-of-fbs-talent/

George Karlaftis from West Lafayette ... attends Purdue for college. David Bell from Warren Central .. attended Purdue for college.

To be fair, the monkeys have had millennia of evolution to get to the current state. The IHSSA has only been flinging *poop* for a century or so. Lord, I apologize for that there.

That 5A north line is going to stretch further north in a couple of years. Based on the latest numbers, and assuming Cathedral gets bumped to 6A via SF this time around, Harrison would be the largest 5A in the state at that point. The Harrison area is on a growth spurt that will likely have it surpass Jeff in 6A, which would leave McCutcheon as the lone 5A school in Lafayette by the 2024 season.

This is pretty cool. Thanks! BTW, if you look at the 5A map, there's an interesting phenomena compared to the 6A map. As might be expected, there are lots of schools in the Indy area at 6A, but if you look at 5A, look at that cluster of 5As at the top of the state. Haven't looked at the details yet, but wondering if there are any close to tipping points to 6A. Another interesting optic is to bring up the map where you can view most of the state on the screen, select just 5A, then select 6A in addition to 5A. That Indy area just blooms as soon as you click on that 6A. Interesting comparison between 5A and 6A densities.

Thought I saw a quote somewhere that said that KV had 10 coaches over the past 22 or so seasons. When you realize that Broyles, Stewart, and Peo occupied 4, 5, and 5 seasons respectively, that really means that in a four-year cycle, there were only about three classes out of 22 that didn't have at least two or more coaches during their high school football. That makes it really tough on a program ... and the kids.

LCC was 2A south this past season, so like you said, it's possible.

It'd be easier if they were P/P. They'd be in the same sectional with Cathedral.

Brad Stewart was at Lowell with Kennedy. He was HC at KV from 2011-2015.

Given that I was responding to the following post, I'm not seeing it as such.

Stats really only count, at best, past sectionals.

Always thought it was a good sport especially for youth players. My linemen, in particular, got a better awareness of how to control their bodies and, even better, to be able to "feel" and understand body shift movements of an opponent.

Maybe not every week, but I like the idea of out-of-state competition coming to play every once in a while.

Clocking in at a tad under 65%.

Bingo! (pun intended)

https://www.outsports.com/trans/2021/11/5/22764548/luc-esquivel-tennessee-golf-trans-athletes-aclu-lambda-legal

I admit I did. I thought they had changed that many years ago.

Have a question for you ... and I'm not trying to say/start anything. Just interested in your opinion. I've only recently become acquainted with Warsaw as my boys' travel baseball teams have competed in a Warsaw tournament for the past 4-5 years. It's the one tournament that all of the Harrison travel baseball teams have attended at the same time and they call it their Raider Invasion. From the outside looking in, I would consider Warsaw to be a program on the upswing and also successful. At the same time, it also has a fairly decent-sized FRL percentage, around 40%, and a non-White population pushing 30% ... and I suspect that's growing. It would also be in the lower half of 6A too with enrollment. Would you concur, at least in your opinion, that it's successful? To some extent, the term successful is up to all types of interpretation, but I often think that, first and foremost, the constituency would define successful as they see fit.

While I understand the shortsightedness in coaches who do this, I always thought this was nuts; especially given 1) what the sports numbers show and 2) what the medical info shows. If you look at folks that get drafted eventually, they tend to have been multi-sport athletes in high school. Also, when you look at how kids develop, if they are going to be an athlete in one sport, their body still needs the various muscle/body development afforded by multiple sports. I've been really happy that my sons' coaches have all supported/encouraged, when they were young and now that the oldest is in high school, playing more than one sport.

Is there a difference in the travel rule for national competitions/appearances vs. seasonal games? Also, is it cheer or dance? I know that, when my daughter was on the Jeff Dance Team, they traveled to Florida for Nationals. Does dance fall under IHSAA? Is cheer under IHSAA? I didn't see it listed under sports for their site.

Are there any true charter schools that play football in the state?

Especially if there was a cash bar! If not, there's always the KOC fish frys in the upcoming Lenten season to expand the stipend fund. Lord, I apologize for that there.