fenderbender

This is a function of only having four classes. Same with basketball. If you look at softball classifcations, 4A has enrollments from Carmel/Warren Central size down to ~1100. 3A is 1100 to 509. I would guess there are some smaller schools that don't play football who are 1A softball, so our perception of school size is skewed. GS is a small 3A school (almost 2A) that was successful.

Coaching! Could say the same about the rise of New Pal before they got bumped up to 5A. Hurley at Evansville Memorial. Hart at Gibson Southern. (I know, 3A, but no one in the south took GS seriously before he was hired.) You can see the turn around in the opposite direction at other schools when a coach leaves. (Hobart, Franklin Central, Luers, I am sure there are others.) It will be interesting to see if West has quick success at FC.

Even if it is a Ft. Wayne Catholic?

How do you see the North half of the bracket? This preseason ranking focuses heavily on the south half of the bracket.

Roncalli will be better this year. 5-7 D1 lineman on that team, all in that 260+ range QB turned the corner mid season last year. just have to find someone to hand the football to. Chatard always seems to find their pieces so should be a great game Mooresville lost a lot besides the two big guys. Not sure the QB coming back can carry what is left. He is a nice player Mt Vernon looked overmatched vs Roncalli last year. Also won conference vs a very down New Pal. East Central was a very strong team, but lost some very solid seniors. Play at Roncalli in regular season, so will find out then.

No, they actually have a pretty nice stadium with turf.

When FC hired WC's basketball coach, I heard that some WC talent followed him. I also had heard that this started happening on the football team prior to the new coaching hire. Wonder if this will happen to a larger degree with the coaching change??

That area is a solid Center Grove and Roncalli area.

Looked up their enrollment using the basketball data on the IHSAA website. 144 That is a really small number for a football team. (Covenant Christian was 365 as a reference.)

I saw the Roncalli-GC game and Roncalli may just be a bad matchup for GC. (Roncalli is so big and GC so small on both lines.)

First thought is Brebeuf. GC was very small last year and not real impressive, but somehow they beat WL. That was kind of a head scratcher.

The success factor is a good middle ground. It keeps the group that wants to kick the P/P out of the IHSAA in the minority.

Over on the PAC thread they are discussing Castle losing another O-lineman to Gibson Southern. Said Castle is contesting this one.

Yes. Doesn't this just create an IMG opportunity to poach tallent?

Watched the broadcast, so I was not there. I was VERY impressed with Harrison's offense. Dixon was fast and a load to bring down. QB throws and runs well and I think he comes back this year. A few other nice skilled position players played very well and gave the Roncalli D a lot of problems. What was hard to tell was on D. Seemed like many of the best skilled players were on offense. I noted that they broght some of the Offensive players like Dixon into the game at times to play D. Maybe even a o-lineman or two. Roncalli line is huge, running back was great and this was about the time that the QB took his game to the next level. Roncalli did that point total to Mooresville (2 OL going to Purdue), so maybe Harrison just played against a really good offensive team. It was anyone's ball game until the end. I thought it was a great last minute pick up for Roncalli and the Harrison announcers seemed to say the same thing. Best of luck next year.

They cancelled their Roncalli game at the last minute, so I did not get to see them play, but they lost to Bloomington North team that I did see play. Was not impressed with Bloomington North. They also got run over by Castle in playoffs. So one would think the two move ins would have to be really good for them to improve enough to make a long run out of the South.

SIAC guys that still live there could probably fill in better than I, but looks like QB and RB were Sophmores. Courier and Press said they did have a lot coming back.

Castle lost one of their big O-lineman. Transfered to Gibson Southern to play with the PU recruit they have at QB.

Leaving out Columbus East? They come back to 5A and have always been a power, though they have to adjust to a new coach.

Center Grove and South Side schools don't count. 🤪 I throw them into the Indy Metro area for travel purposes.

Interesting problem if it were to be Castle that moves up: Castle and Columbus North would be the only 6A schools that are really in the southern half of the state. Makes for a long sectional drive.

So Castle has to challenge it?

If there was any year to change between those two schools, this would be the year. Chatard = 4A Memorial = 4A Southridge = Down from last year HH = Not as good as they were two years ago Lawrenceburg still has Yoon, but not sure how good they are. Castle has Cathedral waiting for them again at Semistate. (At least for another year)

Line don't like higher definition end zone cameras. We think they make our butts look big.

Thanks. Hmm, isn't Castle supposed to be really strong next year? Seems kind of odd.