MDAlum82

Always interesting to learn about the different ways fellow RHIT grads are influencing their communities. Best of luck, Coach Barker!

Do BTC fans still pull up the hay wagons & pick up trucks on the street overlooking the field behind the visitors stands and tail-gate the entire game? Crazy atmosphere...

Since the Indiana Dept. of Education moved to "School Choice" back in 2008, there has essentially been "open enrollment" among all high schools; public, private, parochial, charter, etc. The only caveat being that if a student is already enrolled in one high school, that school must approve their transfer to another high school in the same district. This is the primary reason why you see some students move btwn the different school systems in grade school. For some reason, there still seems to be a sense of "ownership" among some folks about kids that live in their district. On the "near" west side of Evansville, kids live in both the Reitz and Mater Dei "district". There are kids who attend catholic grade schools but end up at Reitz (as is the case with several children in my own extended family) and vice versa. Although, it is rare for a student who attended a west side public grade school to end up at Mater Dei. The same situation exists on the "far" west side btwn Mater Dei & North Posey, and, to a lesser extent, MD & Mt Vernon. Both St Wendel & St Philips grade schools feed into MD under the catholic school system. However, some families live closer to NP or Mt Vernon, so that is where they send their children. A similar situation exists btwn MD & Gibson Southern with St James, a catholic grade school in Haubstadt. However, it seems most STJ parents send their kids to Gibson Southern over Mater Dei, likely due to distance. There can be many reasons parents choose to send their children to one school over another. Some seem convinced that when a child moves from the public school system to the parochial school system, it is based on athletics. This inevitably stirs the "recruitment" accusations. Certainly athletics can be an important part of any child's high school experience, but I think it is incredibly small-minded for anyone to think these decisions are based on athletics. As a past member of the ECIHS Board - think "catholic school board", I was privy to the data & information used to market both MD & Memorial to prospective students. When you ask parents what their priorities are when choosing a high school, athletics comes in behind things like: 1) Religious based education - which is often code for "disciplined school environment", 2) high academic standards (college prep), 3) teacher engagement, 4) community involvement, followed by 5) "athletic opportunity". The reality is that for most parents who choose to make the financial commitment to send their children to a parochial school, (remember, even state vouchers do not pay the total cost to attend) they are thinking well beyond athletics to more important like college prep, etc. This is why I always chuckle a bit when folks toss out the accusations of "you recruit" at Mater Dei, especially when it comes to football. Size & speed are among the top 2-3 attributes of most good football players. Mater Dei rarely has what anyone would consider overwhelming size or blazing speed. Honestly, if we recruit, we aren't very good at it.

Neither team could stop the other in the 1st half and other than an opening TD for the Miners to make it 28-27, no one could move the ball much in the 2nd. Near constant rain made field very slippery, limiting both teams to minimal offense. No doubt the decision to go for it on 4th and 3 near end of the 1st half near midfield proved unwise. That score turned out to be the difference in a game that lived up to all the hype. Congrats to Miners on a great season. Cats survive and advance to play winner of NP vs NK...

MD leads 28 - 19 at the half. Linton has put some big plays on the Wildcats with a KO return for a TD, a long run, and deep pass. MD has put 4 scores on the Miner D with several dives of various lengths. It has been everything the fans thought it would be leading up to this game. Nether side can make a tackle from the DB position which has lead to many long plays. One key play may be the Miner's decision to go for it on 4th & a long 3 at MD 45. After originally lining up to punt, LS called TO and put their offense back on the field. This delighted the streaming crew and, one in particular , who had been very vocally unhappy about the potential punt, commenting: "It's the golden rule, if you are past the "L" you go for it". Well, MD stuffed the run and took over at midfield with around 1:20 to go in the half. The Wildcats used some efficient passing from Wunderlich to score in 6 plays to go up 28-19 with just over 12 seconds left. No doubt this is the exact scenario the LS coaching staff was thinking about when they originally lined up to punt. Scoring from midfield in 70 seconds is a MUCH EASIER than scoring from deep in your own territory. If Linton punts and puts the ball inside the MD 20, it is likely MD runs out the clock out and is content to go to locker room up 21 - 19. Field is in better than expected condition but seems to be getting worse as the game goes on. Radar shows rain in the vicinity so could get wetter in 2nd half

For those whose travel plans may be impacted by the weather, the Greene County Sports Network will be streaming the game: https://www.gcsn.rocks/broadcasts . They can also be found on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=greene county sports network Thanks to Miner Pride for the heads up.

Looks like steady rain most of the day tomorrow & Friday so field conditions will likely be less than ideal at the start of the game and deteriorate from there. Could be a mud bowl game before night’s end. No idea how well LS field drains or what condition grass is at this pt in season but likely not at its best after 10 wks of practice & games My admittedly biased prediction is MD finds a way to slow down LS offense just enough and pulls away in 2nd half for a 21- 14 victory. This is not intended to disrespect LS in any way… I am an admitted homer for MD and thus my prediction is slanted towards the desired outcome. This game could certainly go Linton’s way for all the same reasons. Now, I am going to step off this crazy train until after the game. I need to get back to the boardroom, we are discussing next year’s sponsorships. We only have $500k in the budget so we have to very discerning in who we select. If this doesn’t work, we may have to go with our back up plan. MD scientists are presently hard at work on a time portal we can use to send influential Mater Dei Alums back to when the top local football talent is born and influence them to come to MD. Bwaaa-haa-haa-haaaaa! Bwaaa-haa-haa-haaaaa! Bwaaa-haa-haa-haaaaa! (maniacal laugh track)

Wow, not certain if you are serious or if this is some thinly veiled attempt at sarcasm and/or humor. Either way, you may have watched too many movies during the COVID lock down. The west side of Evansville is not some “Friday Night Lights” town come to life with corporate boards investing in the community via bets on the futures of 14 year old kids. But, hey, I hope someone buys your script! SMH.

Great, now we go from "recruiting" via Open Houses that every school - including North Posey - conducts to mysterious "sponsorships" to attend Feeder schools. "They could get sponsored potentially" - How exactly does one get one of these "sponsorships", Cappy? I would love to know so I can save the tuition!

Putting together a plan for Friday night & looking @ food options. Does Linton-Stockton have good concessions available or can someone recommend a decent place to grab a bite before the game? Something local would be great but any place with decent food - and a tolerance for the rowdy group of 13 year old boys accompanying me - would be just fine. Thanks in advance.

It is called "sarcasm" and in not an infrequent tool on these forums. 17 posts in and you are tossing out the "recruiters" trash. Weak. You are off to an inauspicious debut.

That is definitely the Achilles heal of the option offense. If you can get ahead and make them throw, and most option teams are in trouble. Grinding out yards and eating up the clock is great...as long as you have the lead. Get behind by a couple of TDs however, and playing catch up can be really difficult late in a game. I heard Jasper had 5 TOs, not many teams, regardless of the type of offense they run, can overcome that in a high school game and win.

Boom! Best of luck to both teams! Let's hope for good weather and an injury free game...and may all fans make it to the game and home again safe & sound! Ya gotta love high school football!

My intent was to do something beneficial for the GID since it needs the funds and we both obviously use it. Tell you what, let's go with $25. If MD wins, $ goes to GID. If Miners take it, you can PM me with where name & address of org. where you want the check to go. Miner Pride can verify receipt.

Globemster3 - I think we are both "Boosters" already but since we cannot meet over a sausage biscuit- "To the victor go the spoils!?", how about in the spirit of doing something good for someone else. we make our bet a donation to the GID? I will give you LS straight up, no pts, I will take MD. You set the amount. It's a win/win - at least for the GID! SR1 - any issues with this? If the loser doesn't pay up, you can lock us out of the GID for the rest of the year! 😎

Looks like most of the games in Sectional 40 will end up as predicted. Win & advance...

My thoughts exactly...

MD > FP: 35 - 14 LS > TC: 28-14 NK > SS: 28-21 NP > CC: 42-14

Not certain how CalPreps does their predictions but last I checked, LS was @ +3 with a 31-28 final score, which sounds far more reasonable than what Sagarin shows. Not much of a sausage biscuit guy but I've had worse, so you're on! I should be in the stands for this one. I'll look for you running down the field with the flag... Linton plays in grass, correct? Let's hope for no rain & good weather conditions so both teams can play their best. If MD's defense gives up 31, LS will certainly deserve the "W". I will go with MD 24-14 but I am an unabashed "homer" and an eternal optimist - just like Miner Pride! Peace. 🏈

We rarely have what anyone would consider "city speed". Perhaps the last time was back in the Patrick Mallory days (2000). However, this year in particular, our line tends to be pretty quick for their size, esp. James Ralph. IMO, MD will go only as far as our D will take us. The offense has been widely inconsistent this year and has generally under-performed the perhaps too lofty expectations coming into the season.

The issue with current Sagarin numbers is unique to how they compare schools using their algorithms. Essentially, if Team A plays Team B, and Team B plays Team C, they can use their formulas to make an "educated guess" how Team A would fare if it played Team C, even though they have not played. It has nothing to do with teams playing out of their Division; ie when a 2A team plays a 4A team. When a group of teams only plays within its group, as is the case with the SIAC, there is no way to compare them to the teams outside of that group. This will fix itself - for the most part - over the next couple of weeks as the SIAC teams begin to play teams outside the SIAC.

The SIAC plays only in-conference so no way for Sagarin to accurately compare any SIAC team with a non-SIAC team. Once the SIAC teams begin to play outside the conference, then Sagarin ratings will change. No way to know exactly how that will affect Sagarin's view of the Miners vs Wildcats but with several SIAC teams showing up in the top 10 of 5A, 4A, & 2A, it seems likely all SIAC teams will see a jump in their ratings once this occurs. Tp put it another way, the current Sagarin #s put LS as a 21 pt favorite over MD; 23 if you add 2 pts for home field. How much would you be willing to bet on that line 'cause I would gladly cover that for you...all day long. LOL.

From BobRef: If the intermission ends, and a team is not on the field, that is an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty charged to the head coach. 15 yds. If the team is out there, but can’t take the field because of, for example, the band show lasting too long, that is. 5 yd. delay of game penalty.

I was told it was Delay of game because the halftime clock hit 0:00 before MD made it back on the field. @BobRef might be a good source for more insight.

While there are a number of issues on both sides of the ball, most of our struggles come down to poor execution, IMO. On offense, line blocking has been poor as has WR blocking downfield. Lots of offensive players standing around, watching people get tackled. On D, while our line is stout, we are having issues with our blitz pkg putting pressure on the QB. If we don't stop the run at the LOS, we are having trouble wrapping up & finishing tackles which has resulted in a number of longer runs on plays that could have been stopped for little or no gain. Staring off the season with Central, Castle, Memorial & Jasper - teams that traditionally have more size, talent & athleticism, has not helped but most starters are Sr's and Jr's who played a lot last year so they should know what to expect. The next 4 weeks will be telling. Hopefully MD can turn it around and get some momentum heading into the playoffs.