Lysander

Although I have mentioned this before, Covenant Christian who participates in every sport except Football (along with Heritage Christian, btw), is part of the Circle City Conference in every sport excepting football. With that, Covenant Christian (1A), Chatard (3A) and Roncalli (4A) are all playing for state berths this weekend. Heritage Christian (2A) lost last week. For the record, the NIC actually had 3 teams at LOS in 2011. Penn (6A), South Bend Washington (4A) and South Bend St. Joe (3A) at LOS in 2011. None won...but it was still quite an accomplishment.

I have to admit to being a LOT torn. Ordinarily, I would be all behind Roncalli (particularly after what what they have been through the last few years) but I am simply a huge fan of Mike Gillin and am amazed at what he has done at Mooresville in so short a time. Just hoping for an EPIC game.

Arguably, the battle for the “Best Team” (All Classes) in the North is between Chatard v Marian and Merrillville v. Westfield (assuming 6A is the direct measuring stick) - truth be told. If Merrillville (whom Chatard made relatively short work of) somehow defeats Westfield (or somehow plays closer than they did against Chatard) then just who is the best team All Classes in the North? If Marian beats Chatard in this scenario - which ABSOLUTELY could happen, then is Marian the best team in the North? I consider the Marian/Chatard game to actually favor Marian. Long drive, cold night, another away game for Chatard....2 years in a row. Great Marian team. I admit to using the transitive value but that is, ultimately, what analytics do X 100.

I’ve been filled in. After way too many years here the tea leaves usually tell the story. Didn’t realize they were buds, though.

Gotta love the Kaiju reference.

It’s been at least 10 years.

Just to clarify, if there might be some misunderstanding, I am aware that both Cathedral and Brebeuf are not Archdiocese schools. Also to clarify, it is my understanding that Cathedral never signed off, simply that they helped come up with them and then, in the end, decided not to sign....as is/was their right. That leaves Brebeuf as the sole non-Archdiocese school to sign off.

Is the Evansville HS where the Irish are having a meal and mass happen to be a school you might have some close familiarity with?

I heard the same story.

To my knowledge (and I’ve tried to keep my eye on it) only they and New Pal are the exceptions.

Awesome. I really enjoyed their coverage of the games I watched last year. Thanks!

Does anyone know if the WHME-46 folks will be doing the Chatard-Marian game for the IHSAA? I watched 2 games they did last year and think they do as good a job as anyone in the State....and this game is in their backyard.

No one actively will “poach”, but kids are free to go there from Indy just as kids are free to go to Chatard from Ritter feeders. It’s just that you can’t actively pursue them. I recall the late Eric Anderson when he was AD at Guerin making that clear when speaking with him at a Guerin fundraiser some years ago. So regardless whether Guerin has signed on, that’s been their policy and I have no reason to think it’s changed.

First, it won’t happen. These schools aren’t going to start chasing every kid across Central Indiana to accommodate your bizarre idea of equity. You can make them all 6A. They aren’t going to change their internal rules. Fundamentally, though, I’m confused....just why in God’s name do you want 5-6 more versions of Cathedral running around peering under every rock for athletes? Why aren’t you content with the restrictions these schools have placed on themselves.

The Archdiocese schools are effectively an extension of the church so breaking away is neither desirable nor possible. I think it’s important that everyone understands that it’s great that some of the schools might be pretty good at football but the Arccdiocese could care less....that isn’t their mission...or the schools’ mission.

I don’t know.

Roncalli operates under the restrictions imposed by the Archdiocese as regards reaching out to CYO student athletes. Like the other 3 Archdiocesan schools they are not allowed to directly contact those students/families individually to come play at their school. A HS coach can talk to a CYO team as a whole (as I understand it) but there is no individual reach out to kids or families specific to coming to play a certain sport. They certainly can’t reach out to athletes (in any way) outside of CYO. Brebeuf has agreed to that same set of rules. Cathedral, who initially helped draft those rules (about 10 or so years ago, now), later declined to sign onto them and does reach out to individual families/kids. It’s a free country, Cathedral can do what they want....but it’s NOT a free country for the Archdiocese schools (and Brebeuf). Given that, Roncalli (and none of the Archdiocesan schools along with Brebeuf) can even vaguely hope to match Cathedral in their ability to recruit even their OWN feeder schools let alone kids outside of them throughout Central Indiana as they would need to do to compete with Cathedral. So what you propose is never going to happen....it can’t so long as they are part of the Archdiocese. Literally, an Archdiocese head coach cannot talk directly and individually to a family or kid about playing their particular sport on the day they are signing up for classes.

Yep, basically. You may have some successful parochials who service financially distressed communities but this is mostly it.

Marian was never “bad” during that time while St. Joe was good (up through around 2015). In fact, they beat St. Joe as often as not and made deep runs in the playoffs as well during that time. St. Joe is arguably “bad” at this point....and have been for about 5 years.

6 pts over a 2 year “cycle”. Next year starts a new cycle.

Although it is expected that the IHSAA will make EVERY effort to put the Indy P/Ps in the same Sectionals, I question the wisdom of it when any one of those schools is bumped up since I am assuming that once a P/P is bumped up there is every incentive for the IHSAA to make sure they get the requisite 2 points to stay up. Putting a bumped up Roncalli in the same Sectional as Cathedral made it impossible to keep both programs in 5A. Somewhat like next year when they will inevitably put Chatard and Roncalli in the same Sectional. It might make everyone feel good to see that but it quite likely results in Chatard back in 3A in 2 years (particularly given all that I am hearing about the next 2 years at Roncalli). That said, though, most all the 4A South Sectionals have, at the moment, at least 1 really solid State Championship contender so there probably isn’t any good place to ship Chatard off to except with Roncalli.

Cathedral was playing up 2 classes in 6A a few short years ago. Currently, Columbus East is playing up 2 classes in 6A. They (Columbus East) had the good fortune of being on the receiving end of another Center Grove beat down a couple of weeks ago (Center Grove has been passing them out equally to most everyone) and took it with aplomb and grace.

It was just 9 years ago when St. Joe played in 2 State Championships in a row (2010 and 2011). When they moved to 4A, I thought they would rival Dwenger up North. Instead they, literally, have seemed to fall off of a cliff. They went from state contenders to consistently sub .500. Even with “soft” Norte Dame kids I’m not sure that covers it. Isn’t West Lafayette laden with a lot of Purdue kids but they perform at the highest level consistently....and they are far from “soft”.

It was.

Ideally the IHSAA should have treated the Zionsville “forfeit win” like a “bye” game is treated in Sectionals (the time with the “bye” always travels their next game).