slicer28

Griffith has had turf for a while...(I think 2014) Wheeler HS added turf in 2023 Hanover Central got turf in 2022

Same night, same county. 2006 Regional, Crown Point @ LaPorte. Game was delayed by lightning late in the 2nd quarter. I went home and completely changed clothes and came back. LP dominated the 1st half, CP dominated after the lightning delay (when the wind and rain stopped). LP dominated in OT for the win. Most miserable and memorable game I've ever been to.

I get that you are trying to remove what could become a judgement call for an official, but there is already an arbitrary requirement of a ball going out of bounds on a kickoff and a penalty being assessed. It's basically the same premise, if the ball touches the ground in the endzone it's dead and a touchback is called. Either way, it's just a suggestion to maintain the kickoff as part of the game.

Kickoffs are more dangerous from a concussion standpoint and rule changes at other levels have reduced the prevalence of concussions. There is research and data to back this up. https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2018/october/preventing-concussions-football I'm all in favor of rule changes that make kickoffs (and the game in general) safer, but still allow the ability of a receiving team to attempt a return or a kicking team to attempt an onside kick. I would suggest one tweak to the automatic touchback rule. If the receiving team catches the ball in the endzone on a kickoff they can return the kick (this at least preserves the ability to return in a late game situation). However, if the kicked ball touches the ground either in the endzone or it bounces into the endzone it is immediately a touchback. Just a thought.

One of the reasons most NW Indiana Pop Warner games are on Sundays.

LaPorte had a freshman team, as did all the DAC teams. LP's freshmen followed the same schedule as varsity did.

I'm not going to defend every aspect of Sharpe's power T. There are certainly valid criticisms of the system. However, his years at LaPorte were not "average". They were honestly pretty damn good apart from his last year there (which was a very tough year for him and the team for a number of reasons I'm not going to belabor here). If he called 52 passes last year that's probably double what he typically called at LaPorte, and the teams at LaPorte averaged nearly 30 points per game on offense (and there were lots of games where a pass was never attempted...). Everyone knew what was coming and they couldn't stop it. Run properly it is not a "grind it out offense" it can be high scoring and dynamic. Go look at the numbers. Those offenses at LaPorte were prolific scoring offenses. The 2016 team was the smallest school in 6A and I truly believe that they would have had a chance to make it to LOS had they been in 5A that year. They had good players who believed in the system and they were successful because of it. That "rugby" offense at LaPorte was often problematic in LaPorte because it scored too fast and kept putting the defense back on the field. It's not like Noblesville was a juggernaut when Sharpe showed up. They averaged 15.3 ppg last year. That was the highest ppg Noblesville has had since 2016. What did you expect? A messed up off season with a new coach and system would somehow take a program that has struggled offensively for the past 4 years and make them a prolific scoring machine? Give the guy a chance.

In defense of the process last time, I'm pretty confident that a long term solution was the goal. Coach Lowery was hired with that in mind, and I believe he felt the same way. 2020 has been a tough year on everyone for a lot of different reasons, and I take Coach Lowery at his word. This was a family decision for him and his family. There is no ill will from this Slicer fan or anyone else I've talked to. Disappointed? Of course. There are good people here and good players in the system. Over the past few years we have developed one of the largest and best performing youth programs in NW Indiana. I truly believe that the next coach here will have plenty of good things to work with. I believe Coach Lowery felt the same way. Circumstances just change sometimes.

"Mason said he has already spoken with Warren Central coach Jayson West about playing since the Warriors also have a week nine opening. While West expressed a definite interest, Warren Central can’t travel due to school corporation restrictions." This is directly from an article in the LaPorte County Herald Dispatch from this past Friday.

My understanding is that Warren Central cannot travel to Michigan City due to travel restrictions within the school district. Michigan City really want's another home game, and they aren't too thrilled about the idea of a long bus ride down to Indianapolis. Given those parameters I just don't see how it gets done. MC will still play their JV game next Saturday against Crown Point as I understand it so I would assume they will try to play everyone they can in that game to give them some action.

LaPorte has it. They've used it for about 5 years now for gameday replay/filming. We've had some issues here and there but those are mostly due to problems with cables. I just do the gameday stuff with the ipad from the press box (start/stop plays and tagging) so I don't know how the back end works, but the coaches seem to be happy with it. It is not used to live stream or broadcast games. I see that Edge is now selling a kit for live streaming. Looks like that kit would be a completely separate system from the gameday setup we've been using.

This 100%. Big tackles help, but the guards need to have good feet an be able to move. They also need to be smart.

Coach Sharpe was pretty darn successful in a pretty physical conference (DAC). I certainly wouldn't call the DAC the "rural leagues". The players here in LP loved him and the community did too. Give the guy a chance. Best of luck to Coach Sharpe. You have a bunch of fans in LaPorte who will be cheering you on from up north.

I've seen Valpo personally twice this year and watched a couple games via stream. They are the real deal. Personally I think they would have been a legitimate threat for the 6A title this year just like they were last year. They are loaded with talent and size on both sides of the ball. It will be quite the atmosphere in Valpo on Friday night.

I honestly don't think it's going to matter. Valpo by 14. I could certainly be wrong. Mishawaka is always a tough place to play, but Valpo is really, really good folks.