foxbat

Is the Cathedral/Jeff game next year a one-off, home-and-home, or possibly something longer? Carmel's still showing three of the MIC on their schedule. I'm not sure, given the way the break-up occurred, that will last much longer.

Would like to see Harrison add them as a non-con opponent.

Yes, it was @itiswhatitis who passed away this last year after his fight with cancer. I think @kingtut is still going and may be closer to that centenarian mark.

@kingtutand @Miner_Pride are probably going to be your go-to guys on this!

I was going to say Thunderdome, but I see you have that covered in #8. For the undercard, you should get the most obnoxious fan on each team who always tells the refs how wrong their calls are to fight to the death and the winner gets to be a guest commentator at the 6A state championship game at LOS.

NCC has a situation where they have 10 in the conference, play a single-league, 7-game conference schedule with a pair of non-conference games, and it ends up with a less-than-perfect way of crowning the champion. They basically go by the best record of conference games even though each team in the conference will only play seven out of the nine remaining teams in any given season; leaving teams to likely have less than equal conference schedules in the season.

I think a couple of things to remember with that database is that 1) it's historical in nature and thus based on what was ALREADY PAID to the person in the period and 2) the number you see, even historically, could vary from year to year, up and down, based on something like you've mentioned. I know that, from year to year, my number in that database jumps up and down depending on whether I'm teaching during the summer, whether I'm teaching overload during an academic year, whether I've received internal grant money, etc. My contract is just a 9-month contract, so summers are extra activity for me. The other issue with that database is that it doesn't necessarily provide the DETAILS of the monies. By that, I mean you might look at that amount and see a situation where someone it looks like someone's salary went down from the year before, but in actuality what happened is the person only worked 50% load or perhaps had a semester of short-term/long-term disability which they would still be paid under contract, but at a reduced rate. In that case, their base salary, for administrative reasons, would still be the same; however, the total compensation number would actually show up as less than their traditional base salary for that year. With that said, it would seem consistent, that if that proposed stipend fluctuation that you mentioned was paid out by school funds, it would show up in that total compensation number. Where it wouldn't, and where it could potentially cause some issue, is if it's received from non-school/district funds ... e.g., if there is a community "booster" group that makes that amount that you mentioned available as opposed to being part of the school's contract with the instructor/coach. I'm not sure if that even doable/legal for Indiana or not and I'm just conjecturing and not suggesting that someone is doing this. That, however, would be a situation where incoming monies WOULD NOT potentially show up in that total compensation number in that database.

There are certainly some rural areas that look a lot like some urban areas too with regards issues tied to impoverishment. Crime might be different, to an extent ... although not always, but employment issues, lack of general opportunities, lack of area resources and support, being "locked in" to a bad situation around you, etc. can also impact rural areas too. This was especially true in areas of Texas when I lived there and even today.

In this database, this compensation shows my base salary as well as outside items such as overload teaching or summer activity beyond my contract, etc. so it appears to show total compensation. Item 3 on page 2 of the following link seems to indicate that the stipends are likely included in the amount posted: https://gateway.ifionline.org/guides/about/LearnMore100R.pdf. With this said, this is likely only to reflect monies from state resources. For example, let's say a coach teaches in the classroom and they also pay them an extra 20% of that teaching salary to be the baseball coach too. That amount is what we see in the database. Let's assume that he's recognized as the Powerade Power Coach of the Season and receives a $5,000 award from Powerade. That will not likely be reflected in this database ... unless the award goes through the school district to be presented to the coach.

His composite was around .76 or so. What's interesting about that 2-star rating is that he was a threat across three different sports and across different skill areas, so it wasn't like he was a punt returner and a sprinter. I'm wondering how much having Richard close by, along with Vlahogeorge on the same field, so a competition of local QBs, had a "blunting" impact on Keller's star rating. The thing about Keller is that he was progressive and adaptable. If he hadn't had that knee/leg injury, I really think he would have had much more than a decent NFL career as the years went on. He's the kind of guy that learned and grew. He was also fairly grounded too.

2002 was an interesting year for the Lafayette area as Keller climbed into Indiana's Top 10 receivers for a season with his teammate, Vlahogeorge, clocking in at the all-time season passing record at #2 ... which he still holds. That same year, Clayton Richard, from McCutcheon, took the Mr. Football title and the following year finished his career as the #3 career passer although, since then, he has settled down around #6.

Actually, McCutcheon, along with Harrison, were among the founding members of the HCC in 2000. Jeff then joined in 2004.

Probably not accurate as Harrell's also has Carmel's schedule looking like the following with their games against Pike, NC, WC, and CG listed as MIC games.

Depends on how you are looking at it.

Jeff and Harrison would have more problems independent than staying in the NCC. The NCC at least gives them fairly stable scheduling and a little flexibility for a couple of non-con dates. It also provides them with a ... relatively ... home-heavy schedule every season. My son and I were talking about Harrison's schedule next season and they are basically out of the city area for just two games for the whole season ... Marion and Logansport. They are technically "away" at Jeff and West Lafayette, but that's basically across the river and down the road respectively. If Jeff and Harrison were to go independent, I don't think they yet have enough sway at this point to 1) get an easy full schedule that would 2) be much better than they have right now. If you are someone like Cathedral, then I think you can pull off that independent thing much better than Harrison/Jeff can. I think if Harrison/Jeff went independent, they would run into being able to solidly schedule about five opponents and then having to piece things together and probably wouldn't be much better off than their current schedule. The good news is that, at the JV and freshman levels, Harrison's attracting good competition ... albeit at some of the lower class levels. They played Chatard, Cathedral, and Lowell at the freshman level as well as playing Anderson's JV squad. Harrison's JV played Brebeuf, Chatard, and Tri-West as opposed to playing the JV teams from Kankakee Valley, Anderson, and Richmond. Harrison had also played against Roncalli in a quick COVID-adjustment game the season before, so there may be something toward some exploration of playing more P/P? I know McCutcheon has Guerin as part of their non-con schedule and, as mentioned above, Cathedral is going to be playing Jeff this year. That would be sweet if Harrison/Jeff could get something going with Cathedral and/or Roncalli on a more regular basis.

Yes, Michigan City will be a good step for Jeff in addition to adding Cathedral; however, and this is not a knock on Jeff, but more a realization, it will need a tougher schedule than just those opening couple of weeks. Here's their schedule for next season, but they will basically have about 3-4 opportunities to be highly-tested. Again, it's not typically the first couple of games that are issues for Harrison and Jeff, but the rest of the season that does them little favor for post-season ... especially for Harrison now moving up to 6A.

As a relatively new convert ... roughly the last five years or so ... I've been quite impressed with the various aspects that I've seen with the Harrison program. I've been aware of the program for the better part of two decades and peripherally involved from a youth perspective having coached against their youth teams in baseball and football for quite a while. My girls attend/attended Jeff, but were never really involved on the sports side, so I was less involved/aware there, but my boys have played Harrison football and baseball and tangentially soccer and I've been happy across the board with their activities and philosophy.

Jeff and Harrison used to play HCC, but got booted out. It was an interesting move and, perhaps maybe premature given when/where things could have progressed. McCutcheon was a fairly competitive baseball program in the HCC. The Mavs' girls just picked up a state title in volleyball and are probably expected to be in the top favorites to make that possible run again next season. Harrison's baseball picked up a regional semi-final win this year. Harrison's Cross Country teams, boys' and girls', have both picked up regional titles in the past couple of years. Boys' golf has picked up sectionals in roughly 10 of the last dozen years. Girls' golf picked up a sectional last year. Boys' and girls' soccer just both picked up sectional titles this year. Softball picked up a sectional last year. Wresting has picked up a regional title for the last 9 years in a row. Girls volleyball picked up a sectional this year. Football had a sectional a couple of seasons ago and has dropped the past two season to Zionsville in the tourney. For a long time, Jeff and Harrison struggled, but over the past 5-10 years have taken strides to build their programs. The problem for them at this point is that they have definitely stepped up their game from where they were, but have hit somewhat of a wall for getting to that next level. Short of an NCC shakeup or a major invite, I think they are probably landlocked from a conference perspective ... and tossing in that in the past, it used to be Harrison and McCutcheon joined at the hip because of the school corp, but now it's going to likely be Harrison and Jeff due to 6A status, that's going to make movements harder.

I guess the question is really whether we are talking areas or programs. In some threads, I hear that Ben Davis and Warren Central will never be as good as they ever were and are pretty much just waiting to shuffle off this mortal coil and that may have been accelerated by the recent departure of Carmel and Center Grove. If that's true and not clickbait hyperbole, then we are talking a couple of programs ... Carmel and Center Grove. So it's an issue that wouldn't be solved by an Indy vs. non-Indy type of approach. As you allude to, to some extent, conferences may have a play in things. Many conferences are more geographic than class or competitive. For all of the grief given to the MIC, there's something to be said for playing a lot of 6A ball all season long as a prelude to mid-fall. Ultimately, when you look at those four winners, they are all MIC teams. Districts would be an interesting step toward increasing that idea of "like play" throughout the season. Right now, schools like Jeff and Harrison are at a disadvantage in terms of ability to step up competition. They were in the HCC, but got booted. They are back in the NCC and are basically the largest fish in a medium-sized pond. They share 6A status with Tech, but that's about as far as that comparison goes. Harrison has played Roncalli before and at least played Westfield every year for the last two decades, but that will cease next season with the MIC/HCC shakeup. Harrison will pick up 3A West Lafayette, but would probably be better off squaring off against Westlake. Jeff will at least get 5A Cathedral next year, but outside of the Irish and Harrison, its only real competition is likely to be 5A Kokomo. I'm not sure where Jeff and Harrison could go in terms of picking up competition given that they aren't welcome in the HCC and only get two non-conference opponents are year based on the size of the NCC. Not sure if they would be welcome in the MIC and not sure who else "welcomes" them in that has substantial 6A bodies.

Half the teams from the last decade would have been Division II teams and, looking at who's likely moving up, Zionsville and Cathedral, that Division II group is not going to have a lot of slack come Thanksgiving weekend.

Just curious as to what it is that he's not getting? And please, something other than "common sense" or "if you can't see it ..." The last decade, the following teams have made it to LOS in 6A: Carmel Penn Snider Warren Central Ben Davis Center Grove Westfield Lawrence Central Using a Division I / Division II split: Carmel - Div I Penn - Div I Snider - Div II, but now 5A Warren Central - Div I Ben Davis - Div I Center Grove - Div II Westfield - Div II Lawrence Central - Div II Toss in Zionsville moving up to 6A as well as likely Cathedral on SF ... both of which would be Div II ... and I bet you are likely to see something like Center Grove, Westfield, Zionsville, Cathedral, and perhaps Lawrence Central doing the rotation in Div II on a regular basis. Of course the one thing that will likely grow is the number of post-season threads as there will be a least "plus one" discussing how Cathedral is unfairly "slumming" in 6A Div II. Also, the discussion of Center Grove's demise is likely to be less-accelerated if they don't have to worry about navigating Lawrence North, Warren Central, North Central, Ben Davis, Carmel, or Brownsburg in post-season. Similarly, Westfield has an easier post-season not having to navigate Hamilton Southeastern, Penn, and Fishers.

Brings a whole new meaning to making sure that you have your league insurance coverage renewed for the season.

Holy cr*p! Don't know if you saw that Marshall-Louisiana game about a week ago. It was a vicious hit, but at least you could see the guy move as he hits the ground. I got to imagine, in your case though, that's got to be the scariest feeling when you see that body go limp like that hit that you saw.

Was that something tied to the league or to the type of play in 8-man adult ball? I recall when I was first introduced to lacrosse, there seemed to be a LOT of incidental activity between, during, and after the action. You kind of had to take it with a grain of salt or it would get out of hand kind of quickly. After a while you get used to the extracurricular activity although getting checked in the concession stand line getting a hot dog and in the parking lot seemed to be a bit much. 🙂