LaSalle Lions 1976

here is an article on the only coed state volleyball champion back in 1976.  Interesting how they were treated

Adams High School co-ed volleyball players showed grace under fire in 1976 _ Local _ southbendtribune.com.html

1 hour ago, FarmerFran said:

Back to the volleyball comment mentioned above. Since the IHSAA does not have organized men's volleyball can men join the volleyball team? Women can play football but for most other sports there is a gendered split (basketball, golf, etc.) 

There are some schools playing boys volleyball up in the region, small schools that don't have football.

And I know there is boys club volleyball in the Muncie area.

1 minute ago, Obi-Wan said:

This question still show the inequality in sports. Take the question that you just asked and make it any girls sports. You will get an astounding 100% NO and with merit because how would this be fair to young women athletes? To answer your question the PC answer is yes they can all play no matter their gender, but if that is the case what is stopping our teenage boys from playing girls sports without being transgender? 

Back in the 1970s (my high school days) Some of the South Bend schools had boys on their volleyball team (one was state champs and one was runner up).

There was a lot of backlash back then.  I know there was a South Bend Tribune article on that.  

By 1980, no boys were playing volleyball as far as I know.

Let's bring it back to football for a moment.

A female is allowed to play football.

A female to male trans can't play football

A male to female trans can't play football

Is this correct?

12 hours ago, temptation said:

You asked for it.  You placed it on a tee for people.

No, I haven’t had the pleasure of coming across a female coach or official in my time as a fan of the sport...but if I do?

GREAT.  AWESOME.  AMAZING.  A damn cool thing.

Probably not the answer you were “hoping for” though huh?

Quite the contrary, I believe we need good coaches and officials period.  It was just with the first female official in the super bowl, I was curious where Indiana stands.

Continuing with the theme, I was coaching a high school basketball game and one of the officials made some calls against our team.  Our head coach get pretty upset and let the ref have it.

He was wondering why he didn't respond to him at all (he wanted to get in his ear about a couple of things).  We discovered he was deaf.

Good on the official.  May not need as thick of skin.

and we have gone off the rails

I'm wondering is there are any female high school coaching or any  female high school officials in Indiana.

I don't know of any so please let's give them some recognition

15 minutes ago, DanteEstonia said:

That school was SB St. Joseph's, correct?

It was

I miss talking about the old cluster system...a important time in Indiana High School Football.

When you can be undefeated and still not make the playoffs.

Where one school decided to file a lawsuit.

The current days are boring compared to that

I was looking at a website that talks about the evolution of college team colors.  For example, Syracuse University colors were pink and green, until they decided on orange.

Are there any high schools in Indiana that had the same evolution.  I'm not talking about schools consolidating.  Did any high school starts with one set of school colors then change sometime in their history.

Inquiring minds want to know

17 minutes ago, DT said:

Consolidation is a shortcut to success

Elkhart and Hammond have chosen this route.

No reason SB cant do the same. Too many fiefdoms and no leadership  They need someone to Unite the Clans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2oJhWi5SQ4

 

South Bend had a review of their facilities and were told they should cut down by 5 to 8 school buildings.  They will begin discussions on what to do with that recommendation.

Right now, no one knows what buildings will be on the chopping block.  My high school recommendation is listed earlier in the blog.

South Bend should cut to three high school...all about 1600 students.

Our superintendent is a rising star in education.  Hard to see him doing something safe about this.

The school board is pretty much a rubber stamp for his ideas.

Just now, PDB26 said:

Agree. To some extent at least.

Disagree. Impossible. Mishawaka's toughness is immutable. 

I'd be curious to hear from @LaSalle Lions 1976 on this. The disfunction, at least from the outside, has always seemed to be at a corporation level on top of any disfunction within the athletic department at the corporation level. Not sure how the interplay between the corporation's department and the schools' departments works out.

Yes, the issue is more on the top than be bottom.  Like other big town schools, most of the best athletes are either not interested or not eligible.  I would also say that about one third of all high school students attend all four high school by the end of their high school years.

Back to this issue at the top...they have had a lot of turnover with the corporation AD...this is his first year and doesn't seem to have a plan to improve athletics.

South Bend usually has a couple of good basketball teams, Riley in boys swimming, and cross country.

In football, there are some big problems...most school don't have the depth of talent at the coaching level, especially in the junior high.  There is no direct feeder from any junior high to high school.  There is no formal little league program.  So most kid don't even start formal tackle football until 6th grade.

That is a thumbnail of the issues.  It will be a long climb back for all school.  Until then, there will be the occasional great team, but not much more.

2 hours ago, MICFan34 said:

How do the three small schools (Bremen, John Glenn, and Jimtown) compete in other sports besides football? 

In Basketball this year, Glenn is second and New Prairie is third the conference.  In Boys swimming, Riley and Penn dominate.  In Softball, Bremen is the reigning state champ.

As of now for the all sports championship...the South Bend boys are the bottom four and the South Bend girls are in the bottom five.

My intent was not to talk about Elkhart and Penn (which had it's own thread) but my first two points and new conference possibility for the other schools besides Elkhart and Penn.  

Does this indicate that other schools aren't relevant, the NIC (the oldest conference in Indiana), or St. Joe Valley high school football?

If that is the case...it's a sad day.

1 hour ago, psaboy said:

That is not bad idea, that Snider/Carroll & Dwenger trip to Merrillville and vice versa trip would be a Loooooong 2.5 hours, even Valpo travel would be a bear. Maybe play those games on Saturday??

Besides that...Valpo and Merrillville are on Central Time...gonna have to start those games early.  Will the central time teams be able to leave early from school to play.

I agree with you Johnny, but football is the main moneymaker for most schools.  South Bend does not travel well.  That hurts for all sports.  Penn still travels better than any South Bend school does.  I think that is a problem for most multi high school corporations, especially in the North.

X...I agree that the Northern Stars school aren't a good fit.  I was thinking more Jimtown and New Prairie to the NLC and Glenn and Bremen to the Hoosier North.  

With South Bend...there are 4287 in the 4 high schools    Adams 1913, Clay 988, Riley 1148, and Washington 778.  If you combine Washington and Clay and move them to LaSalle...that school would have 1766.  Move 400 from Adams to Riley and you have two 1500 schools...all three would be in 5A for football.

As for the Catholics...they can stay put or possible go to the NLC as well...but that may make the conference too big/

  The NIC is made up of 4 distinct groups:  The Big Boys (Elkhart and Penn) The Northern Star Group (New Prairie, Glenn, Jimtown, Bremen), The Catholics (St. Joe and Marian, and South Bend.

1. How happy are the non South Bend Schools with the conference in terms of competitiveness.

2. How financially feasible is it to schedule South Bend Schools.

3. Any ideas for realignment?  It seems that everyone can have a destination but the South Bend Schools.

Thoughts?

Now is the time for a sincere response.

There were some ideas that we got from the pandemic that should remains.  Gates should be cashless.  Pre purchase tickets online and get a QP code to be scanned at the games. Possibly the same with concessions.

I don't know if there is a set price for football tickets throughout the state.  Maybe reduce the price by a buck or two and get people in the seats.

Be nice to see how creative school with get with promotions.

Was doing a little history check and found this interesting:

South Bend Washington started in 1938, expanding South Bend into a three high school corporation.

It "won" the mythical state title in 1939.  I think Covenant was a little slow on their start.

2 hours ago, gbjemler said:

My Dad, a long time School City educator and Caveman fan of all sports said back in the 90's, "the best thing the NIC should do is disband and re-form without Penn in it."  At that time as you can remember, Penn was on that streak of not losing in football to the NIC schools. He was getting tired of hearing all about Penn Penn Penn.  LOL Well, my theory to him was "get better or get used to it," even though I somewhat secretly agreed.   Mishawaka's move to the NLC was good based on future revenues (post-Covid of course).  I think as an earlier poster mentioned, how much does anybody know about the SB schools and their future?  When the NIC grew to its newest configuration, all of the schools were smaller than MHS. Most NLC schools travel well. Some NIC schools travel well. Not enough though.   Football revenue has to be better with larger schools coming to Steele Stadium.  I would think the home basketball gates of NLC schools coming to MHS for a game are better as well.  Please do not view this as a negative post about the smaller schools in the NIC and their fan base. Some of those schools have rabid (in a good way) fan bases. Athletically,  Jimtown wrestling can match up with MHS and Penn. Marian matches up in FB and BB among other sports. St Joe Soccer? SB Adams BB/SB Riley BB?   My thinking is due to more revenue being generated by a larger visiting fan base.  It would be interesting to find an old article when the move was being considered and then finalized what the reasoning School City of Mish had for the move. I just don't remember what the discussion was at the time.   It would also be interesting to see the breakdown of ticket/concessions revenue after the move compared to previous NIC scheduling.   Of course it could not be done this year due to Covid restrictions for seating capacity.  😞  Am I crazy thinking this was about revenue as much as about competition?  

 

 

 

Excellent post.  In terms of football only, I don't know how the other schools traveled, I know South Bend schools usually don't travel well.  I also know other teams don't travel well to South Bend, except Penn.  For basketball, South Bend schools traveled well within South Bend and probably Mishawaka, but not anywhere else (Maybe to Michigan City).  Didn't get a lot of travel from out of town teams.

Mishawaka will thrive in the NLC.  The future of the NIC is for another thread.

Mishawaka is an excellent fit for the NLC.  They will be competitive in most sports.  They are a one high school corporation.  They have an exclusive radio contract with WSBT.  Plus, they are always looking to improve their facilities.

The NIC is down to one original school again.

19 hours ago, temptation said:

Not “my scenario” by any means.  I’ve just heard a lot of this rhetoric in the past and I think it would actually do the reverse of its intent.

Carmel Clay schools would go 1-2 in boys/girls swimming, golf and cross country most years, would have half of the final four in football, soccer and basketball more often than not and that would take even more opportunities away from other schools.

Don't know about boys swimming.  Maybe 1-3

8 minutes ago, DT said:

CC did something that no public school can do.

It decided to start a football program from scratch, zero, nothing, and in 5 years won a state championship.  CC does not need to recruit in the traditional sense, its mere existence is a recruuting tool for families who are looking for a different type of educational/athletic experience for their children. And the fact that those student athletes are drawn to the institution from a very broad area give it a huge avdanatage over a boundaried public school.

CC is really just a smaller version of Cathedral.  Both are PP football magnets.  One Catholic, one Christian.  One big, one small.  

 

But Cathedral has also won championships in basketball and baseball.  Until CC wins basketball and baseball championships, all this is bogus.  And CC is no Trinity at Greenlawn .

7 hours ago, oldtimeqb said:

T-Ball. I was approached by another parent when my youngest son was 4, asking if I wanted to join their travel T-Ball team for a weekend tournament in Indy. (In hindsight, it was probably the big place in Wesfield.)  I laughed before I realized he was serious.  Driving from Evansville to Westfield for a 4/5 year old T-ball tournament wasn't my idea of a good time. 

 

Bryce Harper did that his entire travel ball career...was a "free agent.  

1 hour ago, SBFootball1 said:

This is what worries me about starting too young. I am sure I will get some flak for this, and I am not making a blanket statement about youth coaches, but are there enough good coaches teaching proper fundamentals and safety techniques? It is hard enough to fill high school staffs with people who are willing to put in the time to learn and then teach all of this correctly while still making it enjoyable for the KIDS.  I love getting kids involved in the sport, especially properly.  I worry that having 8 year olds having to travel from South Bend to Orlando to play for a championship gets away from the fundamentals/teaching process and exerts an emphasis on winning way too early. Maybe I am wrong, but I would think youth football programs at that age are our sport's equivalent to t-ball and I don't think we have t-ball tourneys/national championships...at least I hope not!

I agree 100%.

Kids today have no time just to go out and play without adult control.  I think many of us remember the time where we met at the park, chose up sides and just played ball.  Your technique may have been poor, but you learned how to get along with each other and problem solved issues.

Doing this, I began a love for sports that kept me out of trouble.  I did play organized sports as well, but there I just did what the coach said to do.  I didn't have to think on my own. 

Having kids play unorganized sports gives them independence and sense of accomplishment.

And most of all  NO PARENT INTERFERENCE, except to call them home for dinner.