DACNUT

We discussed this a few months back, and years with Penn, I believe they have always had an open invitation to the conference, but now with Elkhart only having one school, it might be worth another look for Penn to join and the DAC offer Elkhart. Otherwise I agree with some of the comments on what is the incentive for those two to join. The school administration, not just the AD's, are thinking of all sports for this discussion and except for football, Elkhart and Penn are playing the DAC in all sports except for gymnastics, don't know if Penn has it, but I believe Elkhart did. Lake Central and Crown Point just need to get better, Crown Point has demonstrated they are all in, starting with the superintendent and community on down, Lake Central not so much. Both schools do great in girl sports for what it's worth. While Valpo and Merrillville which are much smaller dominate those two, heck even MC which is way smaller?

This is not the year for Valpo. They have been dominant no doubt and will always be solid, but they had some high quality talent during this run, especially the last two, that they will not have this year. Chesterton, LaPorte, and Michigan City bring back more talent and contributors than Valpo. With Chesterton not being in 5A, I don't think Valpo can get past who ever wins sectional 10 to even have to worry about the Ft. Wayne rep or Zionsville.

I guess I could correct it and switch MC and LaPorte based on winning pct, but I'll leave it alone since LaPorte has taken the last two meetings if you include the sectional last year, both wins were in MC.

DT, for sure Crown Point has some work to do, I would say they are solid in most girls sports. But for tiers in the DAC, while Merrillville has been solid the past two years, no one should put them or any other DAC on the same level with Valpo. Valpo is clearly number one if you look over the past six years, it's not even close. The past six years 1. Valparaiso 34-5 2. Merrillville 26-15 3. LaPorte 23-18 4. Michigan City 22-17 5. Chesterton 18-23 6. Portage 17-25 7. Lake Central 10-32 So there is a clear top and a clear bottom if you look at how they have performed in conference. I do think LaPorte and Chesterton will be solid this year, not sure about MC and Merrillville. Merrillville has a lot more holes to fill.

You are correct here DT, going back to the creation of 6A, LaPorte, Michigan City, and now Valpo have been strong in the north but have hit a wall either at Semi-State or the actual state game. I still see stiff competition in the North from the Ft. Wayne rep. I assume Columbus East will come back down to 5A, but just like the big DAC schools need to get better in the Region, 5A DAC will face stiff competition from Snider or Dwenger, I am sure they are thinking the same.

The crazy thing is 24 years later and with all the dust settling in the DAC, Janis is still running the show.

Is Wells coming back to Indiana to coach only? As mentioned, Merrillville benefited the last two years with awesome transfers. They will always have solid players with size and speed, but Seiss has been the? Merrillville is still top 2 with Valpo this fall even though both teams lost a ton of talent. From a systems standpoint, Valpo is in a better position to hold the top spot. Not sure what Crown Point has coming up through their middle school programs and at least for next year, they will be middle to the bottom of DAC. Notice, the largest schools in the conference are at the bottom. 1. Valpo 2. Merrillville 3. Michigan City 4. Chesterton 5. LaPorte 6. Crown Point 7. Portage 8. Lake Central

Meant Dash Shaw, not Dana Evans transferred from Westside.

They already are, how quickly we forget that Dana Evans played basketball there after transferring from Westside. I see students moving past Merrillville and just traveling a few minutes south to go to Crown Point. They might not have the elite level athletes now that Buz has at HF, but they will if he brings that staff with him from HF. Merrillville is not in a good place with this hire as Buz has demonstrated from his Portage days he can get parents to buy in and bring a certain level of electricity that the current Merrillville staff doesn't have.

Lot of questions about this one, but I will say this is a wow as the rumors have been running rampant the last couple of weeks that he was returning to coach in the region since he never moved. He is getting one community that wants a good football team, but he will not have the physical, human, or dollars in Crown Point that he had at Homewood Flossmoor so security must be important in this move. No doubt that all of the head coaches in the DAC had a WT*!! moment with this confirmation. No doubt who won the battle of best new coach in the DAC and this doesn't matter even if Buz doesn't bring his staff with him.

Higher ceiling yes, but Crown Point just didn't get big, they have been a larger DAC for the past 10 years. I will say once again, I want to see them consistently beat LaPorte or Michigan City before they should worry about the MIC, let alone the HCC. We all saw what Zionsville and Westfield did to the two best DAC teams, wasn't pretty last year. Center Grove or any other MIC school, let's slow that down.

Crown Point has always been tough, physical, but why are we shooting for them, like Lake Central, to take on challenges with the MIC, when they have demonstrated they can't consistently be 1-2 in the DAC. Would anyone who knows the DAC say that Crown Point is even top 3 team in the conference? in the last 3-5 years. They just graduated a 3 year starter at QB and were mediocre at best. Top teams in the DAC have done miserable against HCC competition and has been a push with the Summit, minus Valpo beating Dwenger. DAC schools tried to play Southwest Suburban Conference (large school conference across the border) schools recently and went 0-3, so for right now, get better playing Penn, Elkhart, and Warsaw before thinking about MIC schools.

Based on how they have been getting spanked the past 3-4 years, the worst team within the conference, they should be more worried about the DAC vs other schools outside the region.

I don't think Saturday football for high school is the way to go, especially up north. There have been DAC games over the years played on Saturday due to weather, and I have yet to see one of those games have large crowds. What you end up with are a crowd full of parents. Saturday high school football has too much competition with a lot of things beyond the fact, what coaches want to be at school another afternoon or evening in the Fall if they don't have too. Come in maybe for film or JV game and you are done by 1 on Saturday to be with family and friends. On occasion, for a special event, Saturday's yes, but for regular conference games, too much else happening.

Maybe 20-30 years ago coaches were core academic teachers, meaning they were teaching classes in which state or district mandated testing was in place. I am sure that most big school head coaches, especially in the DAC, have an assistant AD, Dean, student services, or strength and conditioning coach position in which they are tied to their football programs more than half the day. I can't imagine a social studies, science, math, or English teacher having the energy to teach 5-6 periods a day and run a program, which also includes over seeing a middle school program. Another item to consider if you are a head coach at a big school is how many of your coaches can come with you, how many teaching positions will the district create for you, and the level of cooperation from the youth football program you have.

I would ask all of you to go to the Indiana Gateway if you are interested in how much your schools value head coaches by looking up these publicly funded salaries. I will also say, being from the region, we have known for years that whatever our coaches, teachers, administrators make in salary pales in comparison to the salaries they could make with a simple 5-10-20 or even 40 minute drive into Illinois to do the same job. If a school district really wants to retain or bring in a high profile coach, they will find money at the highest pay rate and add in a bunch of strength and conditioning or extra curricular positions to jack up their coaching stipend. I would like to compare what the head coaches and ADs from our big schools make in each conference and from there you can tell how committed a district is to winning. I am willing to bet my kids lunch money that we have people if not close to, over 6 figures as head coaches.

Lake Central, which has been unbelievably bad these past few seasons and played Lincoln Way Central a few times and of course got whipped. Yes it would be much easier for the DAC to play teams in the south and southwest suburbs than it would be to go to Elkhart, Lafayette, and for sure Ft. Wayne. The southwest suburban conference is somewhat similar to the MIC in terms of the diversity of the schools within the conference.

I agree with at least two out of conference games a year. I do believe that a couple DAC schools will be extending their out of conference geography to include schools outside of the Region, specifically Lafayette, not sure about the HCC yet. I do like this plan with the pairing of key rivals. My first thought was Merrillville and Crown Point are true border rivals, but then, Portage and Merrillville are longtime members and rivals so it makes sense to pair them together and then the most recent schools in Lake Central and Crown Point together.

Don't they do that now? Parents all over the Region to LaPorte, South Bend, and Elkhart who commute to the city for work on a daily basis. They also just do not play conference foes during the week, these teams travel all over during the regular season, especially for basketball. Also on the parent side, there is no reason the DAC could not start sponsoring their live feeds to ensure all of the conference varsity events were live streamed if they add Elkhart and Penn. Now you have all the largest schools stretched across the north.

Move them in for everything, not just for football. These schools play each other at a high level in many sports, mainly Penn, but I'm sure Elkhart soon, at the regional levels and it only makes sense to do more than football. As for East West, Michigan City and LaPorte were long time members of the NIC with Penn and Elkhart before the DAC was formed.

Ask any longtime DAC folks, Penn has had a standing invitation to the conference for at least the last 20 plus years. The only hiccup has been Elkhart, but now that there is only one school, I think the DAC principals and AD's would probably be ok with adding those two. This would be a win for the DAC as both schools would be able to field and participate in all sports, like gymnastics.

Do you watch Big 12 football? For the last 5 years there has been zero defense played in that league. I have seen better hitting at the HS level than on Saturday and Sunday's, thankfully the refs don't blow their whistle in HS if there is a big hit that is questionable as much as on Saturday and especially Sunday football. There is no such thing as a DB, that form tackles on Sunday's and many LB's are now just chase and drag versus form and thumpers. In the next 15-20 years, we will only have have HS flag football.

They have been for years, it's only a matter of if Whiting can manage a larger influx of students.

I am in agreement with crimsonace. Even with the consolidation, there is too much proof to show that when urban schools close, people move to the nearest suburban school. Now Hammond will be a little different in that they are building a new school, but many of those Clark students will not go to the new HS. I easily see as many as possible trying to get into Whiting, or maybe taking their taxpayer/voucher money to Noll. If I am Noll, I'm doing some major recruiting right now. I can't see the people who live in Robertsdale going to the new Hammond High. Same thing in South Bend, these districts are at a disadvantage in comparison to larger suburban and rural districts in sports, especially in football, because they have weak feeder programs. It will take a committed administration and coaching staff several years to build a strong program.

It's 3300, as 490 of those students in that 3800 are students Grade 12 plus (Students with IEP generally make up this number as they can stay in school with supports until age 21), which the IHSAA doesn't include in their count.