Frozen Tundra

Still need picks from @mamasa

Week 11 Picks 6A #7 Center Grove (5-4) at Jeffersonville (6-3): Ever since the addition of 6A in 2013, the Trojans have won this sectional every single year. Meanwhile, aside from the first four years New Albany was in 6A sectional 8 in which they went winless, the Red Devils have been the worst team. They have a record of 2-8. I’ll take Center Grove 63-7 in this one. Center Grove leads the all-time series 4-0 and all four meetings have been in the postseason. This is their first meeting since 2016. Franklin (3-6) at Columbus East (6-3): This game makes me nervous. The Grizzly Cubs have a 3-6 record but that’s a bit deceiving considering how good the Mid-State Conference is. I’m cautiously taking the Olympians because I feel we’re on a hot streak and have the offense clicking at the right time. East leads the all-time series 3-0. All three meetings have been sectional first round games and all have been at Franklin. This will be Franklin’s first visit to Stafford Field, and this is the first time these teams have played since 2015. East has lost four straight postseason games and has not beaten a non-conference foe since 2020 when they defeated Franklin Central in the first round of 6A sectionals. They’ve lost 16 in a row. 5A #9/#7 East Central (6-3) at Seymour (4-5): The Trojans won the last two 4A state titles but this year’s team is nowhere near the caliber of those teams. They are definitely vulnerable. Nevertheless, the Owls don’t pose much of a threat. I could see a running clock being needed. East Central leads the all-time series 9-4 and has won the last six. Seymour hasn’t won since before the turn of the millennium (1999) and they haven’t scored more than 8 points in any game during that time. This is the first meeting since 2016. East Central leads the postseason series with Seymour 9-2. New Albany (3-6) at Evansville North (4-5): If the game wasn’t enough of a challenge, the Bulldogs get to make the long drive to Evansville. New Albany’s three wins were against teams with a combined 2-28 record, and the only reason BNL has two wins is because of their two games against Jennings County. The Huskies might not be the greatest team but they’ll feel like it against New Albany. Evansville North leads the all-time series 2-1 and all three meetings have been in the postseason. New Albany actually won the last time these two played and that was in 2009. 5A #8/#6 Castle (7-2) at Floyd Central (6-2): The Highlanders have proven this year they can really score points. However, the Knights can really put up points too and they’ve done so against stiffer competition. Could we see a shootout? It’s possible, but I don’t think Floyd Central will get enough stops to make it a game. Castle leads the all-time series 6-1 and all seven meetings have been in the postseason. This is the first meeting since 2016. Castle has won three straight with Floyd’s last win being in 2009. Ironically, this is Castle’s sixth straight visit to Floyds Knobs in the series. The first two meetings were in the 90s at Newburgh. Since the turn of the millennium, every meeting has been in Floyd County. BNL (2-8) at Greenwood (3-7): Both teams are pretty rotten defensively but, again, the Woodmen play stout Mid-State Conference competition while the Stars play the lowly HHC. Greenwood will likely feel pretty good about themselves in this game. It could be bowling shoe ugly. This is the first meeting ever between these two teams.

Took us nearly 5 years to do but we did it and it’s so beautiful 🥹

Apparently Ripley County moved theirs up a day to tonight to avoid the weather. A woman my wife works with who lives there was freaking out that she had to buy candy after work because she hadn’t gotten any to give out yet.

Why did they move it to Friday?

Week 11 Schedule 6A #7 Center Grove (5-4) at Jeffersonville (6-3) Franklin (3-6) at Columbus East (6-3) 5A #9/#7 East Central (6-3) at Seymour (4-5) New Albany (3-6) at Evansville North (4-5) 5A #8/#6 Castle (7-2) at Floyd Central (6-2) BNL (2-8) at Greenwood (3-7) This very well could be the final week of games involving HHC teams. Based on the standings, there is the potential for a tie atop the standings. Therefore, I want to add a tiebreaker. If you are one of the eight people that has picked every game every week, please add a score prediction to ONLY ONE of your picks. Should this be the last week of HHC pick ‘em, and if there’s a tie for first, I will use score predictions of those tied for first to break the tie. If there is no tie or if we end up having another week of pick ‘em then this will be all for naught. How the tiebreaker will work: 1. Did you predict the correct winner of the game? If this doesn’t break the tiebreaker then we move on to #2. (For example, if two were tied and you both picked the right winner or if you both picked the wrong winner then we move on.) 2. The person whose score prediction is the closest to the actual total points is the winner. (For example, person A predicted a 35-21 score for a game with a 42-21 result. Person B predicted a 52-7 score for a different game with a 70-14 result. Person A would win because their total score of 56 was 7 points off the actual total of 63. Whereas, person B’s total score of 59 was 25 points off the actual total of 84.) If the tie still isn’t broken, we move on to #3. 3. The person whose score prediction of the winning team is closest is the winner. (For example, two people were off by 4 points in their total score predictions in #2. Person A predicted a 24-21 score for a game with a 28-21 result. Person B predicted a 35-3 score for a different game with a 34-8 result. Person B would win because they were off by 1 point on the winning score while person A was off by 4 points.) I hope this all makes sense. Please let me know if you have any questions.

HHC Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 10): @SPARKS 39/42 @LC_Bears_04 38/42 @boilerfan87 37/42 @Frozen Tundra 37/42 @gonzoron 36/42 @Bulldog15 35/42 @Uncle Bubba 35/42 @mamasa 34/42 @Bluejacket1 33/38 (.868) @Impartial_Observer 32/38 (.842) @Fkfootball 24/29 (.828) @Owls2005 21/29 (.724)

BNL 38 Jennings County 6 Final

BNL 32, Jennings County 0 Halftime So much for JC putting up a fight.

Still need this week’s pick from @Uncle Bubba

This conspiracy theory is from a fan perspective. From 2015-2018, Columbus East played in one of the very few five-team sectionals in 5A. That means three teams got a first round bye and two teams didn’t. Therefore, you had a 60% chance of getting a bye each year. In those four years, Columbus East never got a bye. If you do the math, the probability of never getting a bye in that four-year period is 2.56%. Bob Gaddis was the coach of Columbus East at that time and if you knew him well enough or played for him you knew how much he hated for his players to get out of a routine. He felt like it could affect the team mentally. So once the season started, the routine was that you had a game every Friday night. If you had a bye, that threw the routine off. Because of this, some of his former players and I would joke around that he used his influence as a key member of the coaches association to ensure Columbus East didn’t get a bye so that the routine didn’t get thrown off. Let me be clear. We have zero evidence that this happened. We just thought it was quite the coincidence that the routine never got thrown off in those four years despite the 2.56% chance of never getting a bye.

Week 10 Pick Jennings County (0-9) at BNL (1-8): Our only game this week is a repeat match-up from week 6. Just like everyone else, I don’t see the victor changing. I’m mostly interested in the margin though. The Stars jumped out to a 41-0 lead four weeks ago before the Panthers scored 14 points in the fourth quarter against the back-ups in a 41-14 game. This was one of six straight games in which JC had been shut out by starting defenses until finally breaking through last week against Jeff. With their season (and their pride) on the line, I think they score on the starting defense this week too. Will they keep it close though? Probably not. I’m guessing they still lose by at least three TDs. BNL leads the all-time series 45-7 and has won the last eight games. This is the third postseason meeting between the two teams. BNL won at Jennings County in 2011 and at home against them in 2012.

Yeah I feel those visits really amped up the atmosphere at games. I miss it. Dang. Didn’t even think about that. You’re right. I miss the visits though. Made the atmosphere even better.

It hit me the other day that I haven’t seen a news station fly a helicopter in for a high school football game in maybe a decade. I remember going to Columbus East games as a student and also in the subsequent 5-7 years where Dave Calabro from WTHR 13 or Anthony Calhoun from WISH-TV 8 would fly in on a helicopter with a cameraman or two, fire up the student section, throw out some t-shirts, and record some game footage for their Friday night football segments on the news. Seemed like it happened all the time back then and sometimes they’d both be there at the same time. There was an excitement knowing they were coming and then when you heard/saw them coming. The chopper would circle overhead and then land on the baseball field or on some open land near the football field. I know the Louisville stations would sometimes cross the Ohio River and do this as well at big games on the Indiana side of their coverage area. Did the news stations stop doing this completely or did they decrease the number of visits drastically?

The shooting in New Albany took place before 10 PM.

Dang man. That’s like the second time in ten days that an Indiana high school football player has died from a gunshot. Happened in New Albany the previous weekend to a Corydon Central player at a fall festival.

Columbus East and Columbus North play for the Pigskin Scramble Trophy in the “Crosstown Confrontation”. Jennings County and Madison play for the Railroad Trophy in the “Battle of the Railroad”.

Week 10 Schedule Jennings County (0-9) at BNL (1-8)

HHC Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 9): @SPARKS 38/41 @LC_Bears_04 37/41 @boilerfan87 36/41 @Frozen Tundra 36/41 @gonzoron 35/41 @Bulldog15 34/41 @Uncle Bubba 34/41 @mamasa 33/41 @Bluejacket1 32/37 (.865) @Impartial_Observer 31/37 (.838) @Fkfootball 24/29 (.828) @Owls2005 21/29 (.724)

I really don’t get this world. It shouldn’t be that hard to be kind, respectful, and get along with others. Too many idiots out there that ruin things for no reason.

Was that the kid from Corydon Central?

Floyd Central 55 New Albany 0 Final Jeffersonville 42 Jennings County 13 Final Bloomington South 42 Seymour 6 Final

Week 9 Picks Columbus East (5-3, 5-0 HHC) at BNL (1-7, 1-4 HHC): The Olympians can clinch the outright HHC championship tonight with a win or a Floyd Central loss. The Stars have won two straight in the series and will be looking to win three in a row for the first time since the late 90s. Won’t happen though. East leads the all-time series 40-13. Jeffersonville (5-3, 3-2 HHC) at Jennings County (0-8, 0-5 HHC): The Red Devils get to follow up a disappointing performance at Columbus East with a get-right game at Jennings County. This should get ugly quick as the Panthers still haven’t scored a TD against a starting defense since week 3. Will they score a point tonight? They haven’t done so in three weeks. Jeff leads the all-time series 30-7 but Jennings County has won the last two games by a point each. New Albany (3-5, 2-3 HHC) at Floyd Central (5-2, 4-1 HHC): Just like with the other two conference games tonight, this Floyd County rivalry will likely also be a dud. The Bulldogs have lost four in a row while the Highlanders will be motivated to keep their minuscule HHC title hopes alive. It may not be a 47-0 shutout like last year, but I still think Floyd Central will provide them with a beatdown. They’ve won two straight in the series and lead it 31-25 overall. Bloomington South (4-4) at Seymour (4-4): It’s a down year for the Panthers due to all of their graduation losses but their four L’s have all come against ranked competition. They’ve lost their last two games and play an Owls team that has won its last two games. Nevertheless, I doubt this is close. Bloomington South has a great running back and possesses the size and speed at the other positions to make this a long senior night for Seymour. South leads the all-time series 13-6 and has won the last five games (none of which have been close). Seymour hasn’t won since 1990.

Yeah the only way a conference would work well for the Terre Haute schools is if they were joined by the Bloomington schools, Plainfield, Decatur Central, Mooresville, and Martinsville. That would be a decent little conference but I don’t think those four Mid-State schools would be clamoring for that. Three years ago, the Vigo County School Corporation had eight options on the table as to how they wanted to handle the high school situation. The buildings were old and outdated (including West Vigo) so they were trying to come up with efficient, cost-effective ways to address it. Renovations, consolidations, demolishing/rebuilding the schools, and the addition of a fourth high school were discussed. If a fourth high school was decided upon then they would then have to decide whether West Vigo would be affected or not. As it stands, here are the student populations: Terre Haute South - 1,609 Terre Haute North - 1,467 West Vigo - 518 If you add a third Terre Haute school and exclude West Vigo then you have 3,076 students to split among three schools. This gives you around 1,025 students per school if you split things evenly. If you add a third Terre Haute school and include West Vigo then you have 3,594 students to split among four schools. This gives you around 900 students per school if you split things evenly. Splitting the two Terre Haute schools among three schools is probably too big for the smaller schools in the Western Indiana Conference since they’d have just over 1,000 students each. However, they could form a new conference by stealing Northview and Edgewood from the WIC who have over 800 students each. Maybe Danville could be the sixth school. Or if the three Vigo County schools were split among four schools then, at around 900 students each, they could fit into the WIC. Never heard what the school corporation decided to do. Might have tabled it for a later date or might have decided to renovate. Regardless, you are correct. As things stand, the Terre Haute schools are isolated.

Maybe so but would the Mid-Southern Conference always like it? You don’t have to go back very many years in this state to find several instances of conferences booting out members because they got too big for them.