Frozen Tundra

Here’s a scenario. Just spitballing here. Three non-conference games to be played weeks 1-3. Four divisional games to be played weeks 4-7 (2 home and 2 away). Week 8 is the SAC championship with the other teams playing their counterparts. One division hosts the other (Division B hosts odd-numbered years. Division A hosts even-numbered years.) Week 9 is cross-divisional games based on the divisional standings. Division A champ vs Division B runner-up Division A runner-up vs Division B champ Division A 3rd place vs Division B 4th place Division A 4th place vs Division B 5th place Division A 5th place vs Division B 3rd place Whichever division hosted the week 8 games now goes on the road for the week 9 games. Other ideas for week 9 could just be that you play a cross-divisional game against a predetermined opponent. Example below. Division A: Snider, Dwenger, Luers, Northrop, Concordia Division B: Carroll, Homestead, North Side, South Side, Wayne Each team is given a pre-determined list of three teams each for a potential week 9 opponent. The opponents are listed in order of priority. Highest priority is the team listed first and the lowest priority is the team listed last. Snider - Homestead, Carroll, North Side Dwenger - Carroll, Homestead, Wayne Luers - South Side, Wayne, Homestead Northrop - North Side, South Side, Carroll Concordia - Wayne, North Side, South Side Carroll - Dwenger, Snider, Northrop Homestead - Snider, Dwenger, Luers North Side - Northrop, Concordia, Snider South Side - Luers, Northrop, Concordia Wayne - Concordia, Luers, Dwenger Let’s say the division standings are as follows after week 7: Division A 1. Dwenger 2. Luers 3. Snider 4. Northrop 5. Concordia Division B 1. Carroll 2. Homestead 3. North Side 4. South Side 5. Wayne Therefore, in week 8, you have the following games: Dwenger at Carroll for the SAC title Luers at Homestead (2nd place teams) Snider at North Side (3rd place teams) Northrop at South Side (4th place teams) Concordia at Wayne (last place teams) Then, for week 9, you schedule match-ups from each team’s pre-determined opponent list that avoids a repeat match-up from week 8. Carroll was listed first (top priority) for Dwenger but Dwenger played them in week 8. Therefore, you go with the #2 priority team for Dwenger which is Homestead. Because Homestead is playing Dwenger in week 9, Snider is scheduled their #2 priority team which is Carroll. Luers played their #3 priority team (Homestead) in week 8. However, they can’t play their #1 priority team (South Side) because Northrop would have to play North Side which leaves Concordia with Wayne (who they already played in week 8). Or Luers playing South Side would mean Concordia plays North Side but that also doesn’t work because Northrop’s three pre-determined opponents are already schedule. So Luers would have to be scheduled their #2 priority opponent (Wayne) to make the rest of the schedule work. Northrop gets North Side (#1 priority opponent) and Concordia gets South Side (#3 priority opponent). Week 8 gave us Division A at Division B so week 9 gives us Division B at Division A. Homestead at Dwenger Carroll at Snider Wayne at Luers North Side at Northrop South Side at Concordia

I’d love to see the divisions split as evenly as possible and having the two division champs play for the SAC championship in week 9. That way one team gets the bell. Have the other teams in the conference play their counterpart in the opposite division so that it’s 2nd place vs 2nd place, 3rd vs 3rd, 4th vs 4th, and 5th vs 5th.

Just out of curiosity but are the eight teams in this conference solidly committed or have there been talks or rumors about potential defections? With realignment being a big thing in recent years, I wasn’t sure if the EIAC would be able to avoid it.

I’m really interested to see how this conference plays out over the last three weeks. What the heck happens if three teams or more finish with the best record? Who possesses the bell and for how long?

Week 7 Picks BNL (5-1, 4-0 HHC) at 5A #10 Floyd Central (5-1, 3-0 HHC): After seeing Floyd Central in person last week, I have some concerns about their secondary. If the Highlanders don’t clean that up or don’t get pressure on the QB then they might have some trouble coming away with a win. The Stars have the #2 passing offense in the state and the Highlanders have a solid offense themselves so this game could be a shootout. I’ll take BNL in a close one. Floyd Central has won six of the last seven in the series and leads 31-24 overall. Jeffersonville (2-4, 1-2 HHC) at New Albany (0-6, 0-2 HHC): The Bulldogs were outscored 13-2 last week in the final 13:23 of the game and blew what was possibly their best shot at a win this season. Enter the Red Devils who had a much easier time putting up points against the one common opponent thus far, BNL. While New Albany seems to have improved over the last couple weeks offensively, I don’t think they have the capability defensively to get a win this week. Jeff gets the W. The history on this series looks to be incomplete but Almanac Sports has it deadlocked at 42-42-2. New Albany has won three of the last four. Last year, Jeff picked up their first win in the series in four years and their first regular season win in the series in five years. Seymour (0-6, 0-4 HHC) at Jennings County (3-3, 0-2 HHC): Seymour’s third straight game against a team from a community located on U.S. 50 looks to be the most winnable game of the season. While the Panthers will be celebrating senior night, the Owls are hopeful they’ll be able to secure their first win and get out of the HHC basement. If common opponents are any indication, Seymour shouldn’t have any problem here. The Owls score the victory. Seymour leads the series 49-10 and has won the last ten games. Columbus East (3-3) at Bloomington North (3-3): The Cougars play their second straight HHC opponent and their third of the season. Likewise, the Olympians play their third Conference Indiana opponent of the season. Don’t have much to say here except reiterate how much of a disappointment East has been. I don’t see Bloomington North struggling. The Cougars get the win to complete their 3-0 HHC sweep while East completes their 0-3 Conference Indiana shutout. By the way, it’s worth mentioning Ed Vogel is currently 0-17 against non-conference opponents as Columbus East’s head coach. Yikes! The Olympians lead the series 12-7 but the Cougars have won the last three.

I think that’s fair to say for Jeffersonville, New Albany, and Bedford North Lawrence. Columbus East is football-first. Floyd Central is country club sports-first. Jennings County had been wrestling-first for years although that may be shifting towards basketball due to the recent success of both the boys and girls teams. As for Seymour, I have no clue where their priorities are.

Having lived here for 12 years (and having family here for over 80 years), I still wouldn’t say basketball dominates the culture. It’s definitely the most successful of their big sports but, at least in my lifetime, Jennings County has always been known as a wrestling school. They’ve kind of fallen by the wayside though after the retirement of Howard Jones after the 2020-2021 school year.

Any variation of the word “tough” is definitely not an adjective I’d use to describe the Hoosier Hills Conference as it pertains to football. As for Jennings County, you’re talking about a program that’s only had six winning seasons since the high school opened in 1968. And five of those winning seasons were 6-4 or 5-4.

I wouldn’t say they all gravitated to East during the Gaddis years. North still landed some great players because of the mentality of some in Columbus that North is the premier school and that playing 6A football is more important than competing for a 5A state title. However, now that Gaddis is gone, it does seem almost all the talent is going to North. It also doesn’t help that the talent pool is drying up and numbers are dropping.

This is proof that, as much as we want it to, the HHC is never going to get better at football.

This just supports one of my previous posts about how high school football has taken a hit in this state. If Southport can’t even field a JV then there are problems.

Week 7 Schedule BNL (5-1, 4-0 HHC) at 5A #10 Floyd Central (5-1, 3-0 HHC) Jeffersonville (2-4, 1-2 HHC) at New Albany (0-6, 0-2 HHC) Seymour (0-6, 0-4 HHC) at Jennings County (3-3, 0-2 HHC) Columbus East (3-3) at Bloomington North (3-3)

I’ve heard Beech Grove used an academically ineligible player for the first three weeks of the regular season and had to forfeit those three wins as a result. Therefore, Jennings County is now 3-3 on the season. John Harrell hasn’t updated this yet and, surprisingly, Kyle Neddenriep hasn’t tweeted anything about it yet either. However, I saw a post about it on the Indiana High School Football Fans Facebook page and had it confirmed by an assistant football coach.

Forever. Milan has a sign and a water tower celebrating their 1954 boys basketball state championship. Wingate still has a sign up celebrating their 1913 and 1914 boys basketball state championships. Those towns will celebrate that forever and I have no problem if other cities or towns want to celebrate the accomplishments of their local high school(s) forever too.

Columbus East and Floyd Central are the only HHC schools with freshman teams. East beat you guys on Saturday and claimed an HHC freshman football championship despite only needing to go 1-0. It’s bizarre and sad only two of the seven schools can field a freshman team when there were eight freshman teams 10-15 years ago. And now you have Jennings County that couldn’t even field a JV team for a week due to a lack of depth.

I’m just discouraged with how many programs are struggling, especially in football. Seems like numbers and interest have really dwindled over the last 10-15 years and I think it’s hurting the sport overall. I also think there’s becoming a bigger separation between the haves and have-nots. I’d like to see more programs thrive even if they aren’t winning. Just stinks to see.

Which makes me wonder if the high school is small because the district is small or if the district is small because the high school is small. Regardless, they went from 464 students to 385 students in seven years. That’s the biggest drop of all high schools within Clark and Floyd counties in that timeframe.

Yes. Kids are able to attend schools out of district. That wasn’t the point of my question though. The question is why all of Clarksville doesn’t fall within Clarksville Community School Corporation. Why are some areas of the city within other school districts?

You had a Seymour address because the Seymour post office is the one that was assigned to deliver your mail. My address includes a city I live ten miles from. There are small towns with post offices that are closer to me. Nevertheless, my address is of the city instead. A buddy of mine that works for the USPS explained it to me awhile back. By the way, this is what I was referring to.

Yes I understand that. The point, though, is that a high school and school district are named for a city but not everyone in that city is districted to go to that high school. That’s like if everyone east of Main Street in Brownstown was part of the Seymour Community Schools district and was to attend Seymour High School despite being within Brownstown city limits.

Not the same as Columbus. North and East are part of the same school district and the entire city of Columbus is within that school district. Meanwhile, Clarksville High School is in its own school district but not everyone living within the Clarksville city limits is within the Clarksville Community School Corporation district. Some are within the Greater Clark County Schools district and some are within the Silver Creek School Corporation district.

Questions for those in the know. The topic of Clark County school districts has been mentioned before but I need a reminder. 1. Why did Silver Creek split from Borden and Henryville to create their own school district? 2. Why does Clarksville have its own school district? 3. Why doesn’t every kid living in Clarksville city limits attend Clarksville? I read some are in Jeffersonville district and some are in Silver Creek district. 4. Has there been any talk about consolidation? I’m not recommending it nor am I a proponent for it. However, with recent consolidations around the state, I’m curious if it has ever been mentioned for Clark County. Could Borden and Henryville be consolidated due to their district’s loss of students over the last decade? Could New Washington be consolidated with Charlestown due to New Washington’s loss of students over the last decade? Could any of the four districts be consolidated? Could any of these schools handle a couple hundred more students in the event of a consolidation or would it require expanding the school buildings?

Wouldn’t have mattered. Floyd Central is the better team and would’ve won regardless.

First place and last place are on the line next Friday. Looking forward to seeing where Columbus North actually ranks in the conference now that they’re finally playing the tougher teams. Also interested in seeing how many points Southport can score.

Just a heads up but I won’t be counting this week’s pick ‘em because there wasn’t enough time for everyone to get their picks in. I knew it was a long shot but only six of the eight remaining in the competition were able to submit theirs. 7-8 hours wasn’t enough time, especially given the site was down most of the week and those two might not have been aware it was back up. If, for any reason, those two miss a week going forward then I will go back and tabulate the week 6 picks as part of our scores.