Boilernation

In one thread you've stated you have a kid at Portage, Lake Central and Merrillville.

The 6A North runs through Hamilton County every year as long as they are sent North. A Fort Wayne Carroll, Homestead, Penn, Crown Point, Lafayette Jeff, etc. 6A North win would only be an exception to the rule.

That's a lot of off the top of your head knowledge for someone whose kids play for both Lake Central and Portage, lol. How abou tyou look amount the amount of D1 recruits out of the SAC in the past few years while researching Valpo and Crown Point?Not only will you see you're wrong, but you're also trying to compare guys who went MAC or lower to guys starting on Power Conference Rosters. By the way, IF Merrillville ever finds their way into 6A again, why are you so sure they're going to win State? Guys like JoJo Johnson and Kenneth grant don't come around often and Merrillville was still clobbered by Westfield 2 years straight. Throw in Chatard as well. Merrillville, with their plethora of D1 recruits, hasn't actually proven they can win a high stakes game outside of NWI opponents. Besides, the Pirates are no longer the dominant NWI team. Wait until they get back to that level before resorting back to the empty promises of the Pirates winning a State Title. Right now, those convos are only for your friends at 5959 Broadway and in Valpo.

LOL... 1. On the first page of this thread you said your kid plays for Portage 2. It's clear the hype surrounding Crown Point and VAlpo winning state has really rubbed you the wrong way, which is what I would expect from Parkhurst. As well as flipping losses into moral victories making outlandish claims such as the Merrillville Regional game will be the State Championship and that Michigan City, under a new coach, is going to take Valpo out. You be you man. Please don't ever change.

I'm more so talking about the future. They seem to be in an area that is growing and has the potential for more growth. Would the MSC still want them if they elevated up to the 5A Level in Footballa and 4A in football? Of course, I have no idea if that type of growth will come to fruition.

At this point it's safe to say the top team in the Mid-State would be a contender in 5A. I don't follow the Mid-State enough to know what everyone has returning. Why are you predicting a down year for the Conference?

The Gary and Hammond pipeline into Merrillville appears to have have been closed. It'll be interesting to see what Seiss can do without a well defined athletic advantage.

lol...I was thinking the same. Plus, we're talking about the Station Champion who return 19 starters. Yeah, I think they've kind of proven if they look great it's not just because the comp sucked.

Pure domination. Prior to last year I believe you would have to go back to the '70's for the last time a current Duneland member beat an Indy team in the playoffs.

Georgia Michigan Southern Cal Clemson

Nice. Wasn't he just a 3 star recruit that was kind of a late bloomer? Credit to the Michigan staff for developing him.

Man, he was a very special running back that Senior Year. Carried LaPorte to the State Champtionship game. I'm not discounting the success he had at LaPorte; however, he would have looked incredible running behind a dominant Indy OL. He had a very successful career at Marian. NAIA All American. I have a feeling Calumet is the start of many great achievements for the young man.

Copy. Is it fair to say from a males sport big 3 that they're ready for the Hoosier Hills in basketball and baseball?

Agree with most of this. As a Portage homer I want to say Richards will instantly elevate the Indians, but time will tell if that's the case. Great call on Lake Central. Xavier Williams is a beast and headed to Iowa. LC has the defense and workhorse on offense to grind out some wins. Regarding LaPorte, I noticed Charles Salary is next in line to use Calumet as a stepping stone for a DAC position. Could the former Slicer be destined to eventually give LaPorte a long term option at HC? I'm not sure how long he stayed in Central Indiana after starring at RB for Marian. Perhaps he rather had back to Indy if he succeeds at Calumet. IMO, the spotlight is on French and Seiss. French is inheriting a lot of talent included a Syracuse committ at RB. The way he left Calumet showed some character flaws that need to be corrected. His tenure at City will be off to a very rocky start if the Wolves take a major step back post Phil Mason. Merrillville appears to now have a shortage of talent. Can Seiss keep the Pirates in the run for the DAC when he doesn't have a plethora of talent to throw out on the field?

You say you're not Parkhurst but this was something he mentioned a lot. Can any City fans on here validate this comment? It seems outrageous anyone in City would have complained about Mason. Who else has taken them to a Semi-State? Nobody!

True, but at a place like Northwestern I'll give them the benefit of the doubt that the Boosters actually care about their reputation. I would seriously quesion whether we would even here this story if it happened to Ohio State, Alabama, Florida, LSU, etc. I doubt the student run newspapers at those schools would be allowed to run a story that seriously damages an athletic program.

I'm not going to go back and read 100+ pages to see if it's been discussed before, but I'm curious about Silver Creek. They seem to be located in a growing community and have a well rounded athletic program. Is the potential there for them to quickly outgrow the Mid-Southern and join the Hoosier Hills?

I listed to a lengthy interview with Mike Wilbon on Chicago's ESPN station yesterday. He's on NW's Board of Trustees and was in on a lot of the meetings that took place over the past several months while Northwestern held an internal investigation. Similiar to what you said, he said Northwestern had to raise the bar on their response and the status quo of retaining Fitz with a lengthly suspension wouldn't be good enough. He did say that the new President acted on his own when first suspending Fitz and then firing him. It wasn't a group decision. Regarding the letter from the team, per Wilbon, they had enough corrobarative witnesses to know it was happening and it was known on campus that it was happening. He quickly dismissed the letter. Another comment of his I found interesting is that he talked about the number of high profile NW Alums there are in the Sports industry (Agents, Execs, Journalists) and mentioned he heard from a lot of upset Alums that were going to hold back on the checks they write if Fitz was retained.

This story is wild for various reasons: Northwestern tried sliding the story through with a Friday newsdump and announced he would be getting a brief suspension. The Northwestern Student ran newspaper then runs a story over the weekend shedding light on what actually happened. Were the leaders at NW completely unaware of this soon to be released report? They now look incredibly foolish. What was Fitz thinking!?! The guy had it made. The bar is set so low there that 2 crappy seasons in a row didn't even come close to putting him on the hot seat. It's 2023. You can't get away with barbaric hazing rituals nowadays. It will always get leaked.

I would be surprised if Fitz coaches another game for Northwestern. Not sure how he can survive this one.

I would say Roncalli, Dwenger and Snider all over Hobart as the Brickies couldn't sustain their success past Howell. Though, credit to the Bricks for one heckuva run during the '80's and '90's. I know what it was like to be in the old Brickie Bowl during those years and it was a very special time. Time will tell if Osika can have just a small fraction of the success Howell had.

Did Crown Point hit the transfer portal? I see D1 recruit Patrick Clacks (WR: Andrean) and Junior QB Noah Ehrlich (Hobart) who supposedly holds a Miami(OH) offer are both listed as playing for Crown Point in 247Sports. Either the Fort Wayne schools beat Crown Point to the punch in scheduling Central Indiana schools or the 'Dogs settled on not testing themselves in the OOC schedule. I get that Lowell is a very old south Lake County rivalry game that's not going anywhere, but scheduling a mediocre Chicago Public School program like Taft is a headscratcher. The 'Dogs ran the table in The Region last year and fell to Lafayette Jeff in the Sectional Championship. They're going to try running it back this year without a litmus test from Central Indiana. Penn, Lafayette Jeff, and the Fort Wayne 6A schools will all face tougher OOC comp in the regular season. Seems like a disadvantage for Crown Point.

One thing Valpo really has going for them is they are built to win in November. As mentioned above, they killed Snider and Whiteland by continuing to run off tackle over, and over, and over again with a power running game. It'll be the same story this year with a presumably healthy 6'0 220 Travis Davis at RB and a huge OL anchored by 6'6 270 Toledo committ Matt Hofer at Tackle.

Well, it appears I'm relatively clueless when it comes to Logansport athletics. No offense to the HC when I say this, but I just assumed Logansport as an Athletic Department played at a level above the HC. Guess I'm wrong. It still makes zero sense to me that Jeff and Kokomo wouldn't want to side with Harrison and McCutcheon. The irony in that NCC meeting that resulted in Harrison/McCutcheon getting the boot is the remaining members go from seeing Harrison dominate to it now being Jeff or Kokomo.

Eh, I saw Heights in person twice last year and Central Catholic once. I think Logansport could have taken them. But, I wasn't just referring to football. Considering all sports, wouldn't Loganstport dominate most of the current HC? Maybe I'm completely wrong. Your last line is why I think there needs to be some teaming up. McCutcheon and Harrison don't want to be on Independant island. Kokomo and Jeff should be seriously thinking about why they're holding onto the old glory of NCC basketball. Move on for the benefit of your entire athletic departments. Logansport seemingly left the NCC because Harrrison and McCutcheon were booted. I'm assuming they would much rather join up with Lafayette schools and Kokomo than the HC. West Lafayette? IDK. They pretty much dominate the HC in football. Is that not the case in most of the other sports? Maybe Western and/or Northwestern was a reach.