foxbat

McCutcheon's fairly well-situated in 5A ... kind of in the middle of the pack with regard to size. They are roughly 250-300 students above 4A cutoff and about 250-300 below 6A. McCutcheon also plays Guerin fairly regularly and also plays against WL annually. Of course, they also face off against Harrison and Jeff regularly too as part of the NCC. I think @HoopsCoach is correct in that, since Harrison and McCutcheon are the two high schools of TSC, with Harrison on the north side of the county and McCutcheon on the south side, they tend to be more of a package deal.

There are two open dates. In the coming season, LCC, e.g., opens their season against Tri-West and Guerin ... neither of which is in the Hoosier Conference. West Lafayette will play McCutcheon and Jeff. RCHS will play KV and NorthNewton. Tipton is playing Frankton and Elwood. The HC schedule allows for within division, crossover, crossover championship, and a couple of open dates to allow teams to maintain more historical rivalries, such as LCC and Guerin or RCHS and KV or Tipton and Elwood. In the past, Benton Central has typically played against Delphi/North Montgomery and Seeger. HH typically plays North Montgomery and someone else like Mount Vernon. Cass typically plays Pioneer and someone else. A couple of the schools, like Twin Lakes, Northwestern, and Western, try to schedule everything within conference, but even Western and Northwestern normally pick up at least one outside of the conference. Only seven of the nine games is REQUIRED infra-conference and, as I pointed out and you did too, the last game of the season is like a "bowl game" where there is division-against-division crossover based on records. If the conference ever ends up as an odd-number league, that crossover championship game will either require someone to get blocked out of playing or one more flexible date added to the schedule. I'm not sure that long intra-state travel is an artifact of open-conferences. I've seen it much more as opportunities for experimentation, growth, new experiences, etc. Having the open dates provides opportunities for a team to take on a new challenge or to do something a bit different to shake things up. An argument might be made that being an independent might put you more in the position of having to make longer treks to fill in the gaps of a season, but I'm just not seeing the issue for most open conferences. Do some make that trek? Certainly. Do they HAVE to because they are in an open-conference? Again, I'm not seeing that as a result of the open-conference.

Actually, COVID would be more likely to encourage more open conference schedules if it actually has any real impact at all on conferences ... and I'm not convinced that it does. More open schedules provide for more options should there be an issue with COVID; especially if you are talking cross-county. If you look at most of the COVID-cancelled matches and who filled in those cancellations to allow games to continue on, it was teams that were outside of the conferences and, often, outside of the county. As for 10-team conferences, I'm not specifically seeing the correlation between the number 10 and a closed conference. Yes, 10 ALLOWS you to do a closed schedule, but there are 10-team conferences that still have open schedules ... e.g., the Hoosier Conference is a 10-team conference that plays seven games in-conference ... four within division, two cross-division, and an end-of-season crossover match-up based on standings ... and two games open.

He was a math teacher when he was at LCC.

Agreed. This is similar to the numbers that you will see for all state university employees too when you look at the various databases. Those include overload and extra grants, etc. and are also not likely recurring. For example, there was one year where I taught a single overload in one semester, a double overload in the next semester, and then taught two class in the summer even though I only have a 9/10-month assignment ... so summer is overload. If you looked at that year, "salary" looked outrageous as I work about 183% of a normal year's load, but the database gives no indication of loads, effort, number of jobs, etc. I've also had other years where I've received a grant, but those aren't recurring. You really need several years worth of data as well many of the other "behind-the-scenes" stuff to understand exactly what's happening ... as you've indicated, it's a number, but it's an imperfect number other than for the number itself.

Bite your tongue. From a selfish perspective, I'd like to see how far he can take the program. He's got a strong freshman class that played Westfield's freshman to a 28-21 loss. Word on the street is that Westfield's stock is going to be improving in the coming years, so I think that bodes well for Harrison in comparison. Lafayette area's already lost a good coach to the MIC when Kevin O'Shea left LCC for North Central. I'd hate to see the area lose another good coach.

Lord, I apologize for that.

I thought that West Lafayette, like Brebeuf was "in danger" of growing into 4A. With Chatard moving up and Brebeuf probably going up, it would seem like the IHSAA, just based on tradition, would move Guerin and West Lafayette up to 4A on principal and put them in the same sectional ... the Sectional of Death would move to 4A.

Looks like LCC's going to have roughly the same schedule as this year although I think they'd be better-served playing Western as the cross-division rival as opposed to Northwestern. Moving up to 2A getting 4A Western would help more for post-season. Maybe they'll get them in the conference crossover championships in Week 9.

Then why try to knock it down or lessen it or cheapen it if it is so rare? Folks seem really excited about playing "The Monsters Are On Maple Street." I believe that, in 1A, there are only three programs to have made four visits to state championships in a five-year period. Sheridan LCC Pioneer If CC gets to that level, then by all means, let's hand out the pitchfork and torches, but until then how about we take a bit of a breather and realize just how rare the accomplishment is and how much it should be celebrated across the board.

That sounds like a "secret bar" up in the pressbox. 😀 I think @Coach Nowlinrefers to that as The Waterpark. 😀 Lord, I apologize for that.

We used to joke that there are way to many things that have to happen for a successful pass to happen at that age and you have better odds of winning the lottery. Conversely, there are plenty of things that can go wrong. Same goes for punts. Every season, I always had a kid on the team that would ask why we don't practice punts during the week. We'd get to a weekend game, our opponent would punt to us, and our returner would return it for major yardage or a TD. I'd call the kid who asked me about punting practice and I tell him, "Now you see why we don't practice punting" and we'd all get a kick out of that. It's a lot easier to laugh about it when it's not your team chasing that punt returner down the sideline. 😀

I think the key in all of it really needs to be commitment and safety. I've coached contact youth football here in Indiana for 18 years with grades 3rd - 6th. If you are doing contact football, technically at any level, half-*ssed, then it's not good for any one. You can also turn a kid off from the sport if you set them up to get hurt by not teaching them the proper ways to hit, take a hit, block, etc. The idea is doing a good job teaching them how to do it and instilling their confidence in themselves to do it. I've seen it done the right way and the wrong way. With that said, I don't have an issue if folks want to do flag football until later; but it just probably wouldn't be for my kids and for me. I've had folks that have come out of 1st and 2nd grade flag football programs who told me that they saw more contact and concussions in flag than in the time their kids played football into high school. Just like contact football, I think flag has to be done right as well. Some of the leagues are run-and-gun leagues that are all about "pitch-and-catch." Coaches that do a good job making sure that all the kids can do something in the middle of the action go a long way to getting kids involved. Also, and this is just something that I think made a world of difference in the games that I've coached, is that our league used varsity high school refs. Most of the refs that we had were great about not only keeping us coaches honest, but also teaching the kids and the coaches the game. They also sometimes added a newer ref to their crew on the weekends to pick up some extra reps and experience. I don't necessarily see it as an either/or kind of decision. I would HIGHLY suggest that parents go check out the leagues before getting their kids involved. I've invited folks with kids that are too young to play in the league to come out and watch a couple of games during the season and, if they want, to come watch a couple of practices too.

OOB or OOB2.0 please.

He was Hall of Fame before they moved the state games to LOS!

I think Pickerington played Plainfield back about a decade ago, but I don't think it was at LOS. I thought it was at a neutral site ... I don't think it was at Plainfield.

LCC has Paul J. LaRocca Field and LaRocca Plaza. Became head coach at LCC in 1960 and led the Knights to an undefeated season in 1969 and their first state title in 1976. Served as the LCC Assistant Principal and Athletic Director, and eventually the Regional Superintendent of all Lafayette Catholic Schools. Quote from Coach LaRocca that probably sums it up: “Good coaching means so much more than just winning on the court or on the field. Proper coaching always meant the teaching and application of proper techniques and procedures." ... “There’s no better way to instill these values and skills in players than to organize and oversee youth programs. I’ve treasured my contributions and efforts in CYO and those youth programs that emphasize the fundamentals of life, of religion, and of football.” Still supportive of LCSS, education, and coaching, even after leaving LCSS in 1986 to take on the role of Lafayette Bank and Trust (LBT) as Vice President in charge of Business Development and Marketing. https://www.lcss.org/news/knights-to-remember-paul-j-and-alice-a-larocca/

Not even this guy? Seriously though, both of my boys are classically-trained in ballet. One was a linebacker/fullback/DE when he played and danced at the same time. The other was a QB/safety while he danced. Was outstanding for their footwork; especially for the older one in soccer. In baseball, both are catchers and reserve pitchers. If time wasn't an issue, especially with travel baseball, they both would probably both still be dancing.

Yep. And may also be considered a HOME win even if the team was the visitor.

Looks like LCC took TPCS to penalty kicks. 😀

TPCS "won" their game over Clinton Prairie when CP withdrew due to COVID. The next week, LCC "won" their game when TPCS withdrew due to COVID.

Slight update. In 2015 and 2016, while Cathedral was bumped up to 6A, no PP was bumped up to 5A to occupy the space that Cathedral had held due to Success Factor. As such, even though the IHSAA had expanded to six classes, PPs have never been in more than five classes in any season. The numbers below reflect that.

Here's the spreadsheet with PP participation and wins at LOS since SF started:

What about 2017? Only two PP out of the whole group and they played each other in 3A. Also, you should rerun numbers from 2013 at the earliest because that's the first year of SF. 2010, 2011, and 2012 cloud the picture. Once you add in SF, the numbers drop down. I have a spreadsheet on that that I posted in another thread, but it's on a different computer. Will try to track it downn when I get home.

We'll probably have to wait for official numbers as there may be a couple of them at [severe] odds with those in @crimsonace1's originally posted document. If Park Tudor is at 377, that likely puts them back in 2A again in the upcoming cycle and may impact AC's possible move to 2A.