Frozen Tundra

With four Pac-12 teams headed to the Big Ten, does this open the door for Hobart, Lowell, East Chicago Central, and Munster to the HHC? Just wondering…

It would but, unfortunately, it wouldn’t work out scheduling-wise. Unless they give up their non-conference rivalry game with Seymour, the only week Brownstown has available is week 7 and that’s the week BNL plays Floyd Central.

What exactly will you be doing?

This year’s non-conference schedules for every HHC team. BNL: at Martinsville, at Bloomington North, Madison Columbus East: at Bloomington South, Columbus North, at Bloomington North Floyd Central: at Louisville St. Xavier, Terre Haute South, Silver Creek Jeffersonville: Whiteland, at Louisville Fern Creek, at Silver Creek Jennings County: South Dearborn, Brown County, Madison New Albany: at Franklin, Christian Academy (Louisville), Bloomington North Seymour: Greenwood, Brownstown Central, at Bloomington South Observations 1. BNL and Jennings County are the only teams to keep Madison on the schedule. Only difference is, Jennings County actually has a rivalry with Madison. I’m kind of surprised BNL has maintained Madison. 2. Bloomington North is the most common non-conference opponent for the HHC as BNL, Columbus East, and New Albany all play them. Is this just a coincidence or is this by Bloomington North’s design? Could this foreshadow a future move or am I just being a conspiracy theorist? Lol 3. Columbus East, by choice, is playing all of its sectional opponents during the regular season. This is a first. Obviously they already have to play Seymour but adding both Bloomington schools despite being in the same sectional with them is a shocker. East never even used to play non-conference sectional opponents during the regular season when Bob Gaddis was coach (except for the years when rival Columbus North was in the same sectional). 4. After playing all of their non-conference games on the road last season, Jennings County will play all of their non-conference games at home this season. 5. The U.S. 50 schools (BNL, Jennings County, and Seymour) are playing the exact same non-conference opponents that they played last year. 6. Columbus East is playing Bloomington South for the first time ever in the regular season. Their four previous match-ups all occurred during the postseason. 7. Floyd Central is playing both Louisville St. Xavier and Terre Haute South for the first time ever this year. 8. Jeffersonville is playing Whiteland for the second time ever. The last time was in 1972. They will play Louisville Fern Creek for the fourth time ever and the first time since 2019. 9. New Albany will play Christian Academy of Louisville for the first time ever. And, based on what I can tell, it looks like they’ll also be playing Franklin for the first time ever.

Can’t be any worse than the situation he inherited at Shelbyville prior to this

Thanks for correcting me on the name. Absolute brain fart on my part. Any other time I’d know his name. Not sure what the heck happened. Hopefully I’m not getting dementia or something. 34 is too young for that.

I noticed today that Kyle Bragg is the only current HHC coach that has a winning record as an HHC coach. That’s a pretty sad stat for our conference. 1. Kyle Bragg (29-24 in 5 years at Floyd Central) 2. Steve Cooley (84-86 in 16 years at Jeffersonville and New Albany) 3. Derrick Barker (10-11 in 2 years at BNL) 4. Tyson Moore (13-17 in 3 years at Seymour) 5. Eddie Vogel (8-12 in 2 years at Columbus East) 6. T.J. Newton (3-7 in 1 year at Jennings County) 7. Isaac Parker (8-21 in 3 years at Jeffersonville)

Can’t lie. I’d love to see this game now. Brownstown wouldn’t be the walk in the park some think they’d be.

Bloomington North has actively looked at leaving the conference. They tried to get into the Mid-State a few years back, along with Columbus East. However, Perry Meridian was chosen to fill that eighth and final spot. I know there were rumblings of Bloomington North returning to the HHC but I don’t know if it was ever anything serious. My attention is on the MIC. If they ever decide to return to eight teams then I have to think Southport would be in consideration. Personally, I think Conference Indiana is one move away from falling apart. Finding four non-conference opponents isn’t ideal but it is manageable. Having to find more than that will be an even bigger challenge. Columbus North may be able to make it work due to their great athletic brand (as much as I hate to admit it) but I’m not sure it would work well for other teams in the CI.

The problem with the EIAC is that it’s shrinking in student population size which allows East Central to be head and shoulders above everyone else. That 3A/4A split they had isn’t an accurate split anymore because Franklin County and South Dearborn fell to 3A. Aside from East Central, the only other 4A school is Connersville. If East Central is upgrading athletics across the board then I feel like they’re going to outgrow the EIAC. Unfortunately for them, they don’t really have a big school conference in that part of the state that would allow for respectable travel times. Therefore, due to their proximity to Cincinnati, I could see them going independent at some point. They keep their EIAC rivals on the schedule, as well as Roncalli and Harrison, and then add more Ohio teams if needed.

I’d love to have East Central but that’s not very likely to happen. The travel times would be pretty rough for them. I’d love to have Columbus North but they think they’re above the HHC. I guess they’d better hope Conference Indiana doesn’t finally fall through or they might actually have to tuck their tails between their legs and come knocking at the HHC’s door. A Bloomington North return to the conference would be kind of cool. It would give BNL a western rival and keep them from feeling like the outlier. Going along with that last one, I wouldn’t complain having Bloomington South either but they’re similar to Columbus North. I get the impression they have a high opinion of themselves. If Scottsburg ever grows then I think they’d have to be considered. I know they were 4A for a short time. I keep thinking one of those Louisville suburb schools (outside of the three already in the conference) will grow enough eventually. Maybe I’m wrong though. Outside of those schools, I’m not sure who else really falls within the geographic footprint that is 4A or bigger.

The 2012 team would like to have a word with you. Lol

Yeah I’m with @Impartial_Observer. I’m failing to see when Floyd Central ever blew out Silver Creek.

That’s fair. That 3A championship was in the largest class at the time which is obviously a big deal. I might be blinded by the fact it was ten years prior to my birth which is why I went with 2013. Aside from that championship game, I never saw that team play.

For Columbus East it’s no doubt the 2013 undefeated 4A state championship team. They absolutely steamrolled everybody up to the championship game. They won their first 14 games by 28 or more and that includes wins against ranked opponents such as Jasper at regionals and New Palestine at semistate. They came from behind to beat Fort Wayne Dwenger in the state championship by 1. Best coach is Bob Gaddis for obvious reasons. Best player is a tough one. It would probably be Stevie Brown (2002-2005) if you base it on the fact he was a Swiss Army knife and could fit in anywhere on the field and excel. Played four years at Michigan before having a short NFL career. If you want to base the best player on records set then it would be Markell Jones (2011-2014). He set the state record for rushing yards in a season in his senior year. He came close to the career rushing yardage record and probably would’ve gotten it had East made the state title game.

Glad I’m not the only one who thinks that. I just figured folks would say it was sour grapes on my part since I associate with the rival school. To me, the helmets look clean without the bulldog. Adding it to the front makes them look corny.

The side the pressbox is on used to be the home bleachers (1972-2013). In 2014, they moved the home crowd to the visitor’s side of the field. Those bleachers used to be smaller than the old home bleachers. Not sure why exactly they switched sides but I’m guessing 42 seasons of complaints about the home fans having to stare into the sun during early season games might have had something to do with it.

I’m aware these are 3A and 4A schools but what’s the growth like? Could these potentially all be 4A schools at the very least in the future? Is there a possibility that these three could pick up the two Terre Haute schools down the road and save them from an unstable Conference Indiana?

Maybe that’s why our track meets with Bloomington South were always on Final Four Saturday at 10 AM. Never had Saturday track meets against any other team unless it was part of a multi-team invitational.

Depends on who you are I guess. When you look at college football, those conferences don’t schedule the same games in the same weeks year after year (except for rivalries). Even when conferences were small enough that you could play every team it still didn’t occur. Is it a huge deal that the HHC schedule is always the same? No. It would just be a nice change of pace though. Wouldn’t hurt anything if they did it. I’m sure there’s some random scheduling generator computer program they could use to schedule games given the constraints involved if they didn’t want to take the time to do it manually.

As a fan, it just feels boring. If I was a fan of another team aside from East, I would feel like the schedule layout helped East stay unbeaten in conference longer than they would’ve been if it had been switched up. For instance, those last three years under Gaddis had some teams that got off to really slow starts. In 2018, I’m not sure East would’ve been unbeaten in conference play had they not started off with Seymour and Jennings County. New Albany nearly beat us in week 5 and BNL nearly beat us in week 9. Had either or both of those games taken place in weeks 3 or 4 then I’m not sure East makes it to 2021 with a 14 year HHC unbeaten streak. So that’s why I’m in favor of switching the schedule up every other year. If Floyd Central and New Albany want to keep their rivalry in week 9 then they should but it would be nice to mix everything else up.

So if conference games are long term contracts then does that also include the date? Otherwise, I don’t understand why it would be in the same order. As for Columbus East and Columbus North, the game hasn’t always been in week 2 although it has been since 2000. Because of conference schedules, that is the best week for it and I’m ok with rivalry games always being the same week. But week 2 works best because week 1 helps you see where you’re at before going into a rivalry game. Technically, they could have it later in the year now that both conferences are below eight members, but I think the warmer weather in week 2 help makes it such a huge draw for the community.

Does anyone know why HHC games are scheduled in the same exact order every single year? I’m not talking about non-conference games. I’m aware each team has designated weeks for conference games. I’m just asking why, for example, I know year-in and year-out that Columbus East gets Seymour in week 3, Jennings County in week 4, New Albany in week 5, Floyd Central in week 6, Jeffersonville in week 8, and BNL in week 9. Why can’t it be switched up every year or every other year?

Yeah I saw Shelbyville has played in seven sectional championship games in their history and lost all seven. They either ran into Columbus East or East Central and then there was a year with Roncalli and the year with that legendary Seymour team.

Wish I could add to this conversation but I don’t know squat right now. Maybe I’ll have a better idea after summer camps but I know nothing as of now.