Frozen Tundra

I wouldn’t know. I wish they were in the Hoosier Hills Conference but I know of at least four teams that wouldn’t like that 2+ hour drive.

I was not aware Lawrenceburg and South Dearborn were switching divisions. John Harrell’s website still shows them in the 3A Division and 4A Division respectfully. Thanks for the info. I definitely like that split much better. I was wondering if East Central would ever go independent in football. If the EIAC keeps the divisional split then I think they’re happy to stay. If the EIAC went back to doing away with divisions and making everyone play each other then I think that would force East Central to go independent. They want that competition and they don’t get it by playing the other seven EIAC schools. The divisional split suits them much better.

Unfortunately, I don’t have an article to provide as evidence and I can’t remember if I read about it or if I was told about it. However, when Jennings County, Madison, Seymour, and Columbus East started looking into leaving the HHC six years ago, Jennings County and Madison were looking into going to the EIAC. The EIAC wasn’t interested though because they liked their eight team, two division format. They liked having that perfect split with four teams in the 4A division and four teams in the 3A division. Having said that, I’m curious what the EIAC thinks these days. The previous classification cycle saw Franklin County move down to 3A. The newest classification cycle has South Dearborn also moving down to 3A. Therefore, East Central and Connersville are the only remaining 4A members in the EIAC. The divisions are still the same, however, and are still labeled as the 3A Division and the 4A Division. I wonder if that will ever change. Personally, I’d like to see them return to no divisions and a round-robin schedule. I don’t think East Central would go for it though. I think they like having the freedom to schedule Ohio schools and Indy privates.

Does anybody want to take a shot at how the standings will look this year? I feel like this is the most wide open the conference has been in a very long time. I personally don’t know what everybody has coming back this year. Columbus East will have much more experience and I believe I heard Floyd Central and BNL will be as well. New Albany will take a step back. I’m not sure about the situations at Jeffersonville and Seymour. As for Jennings County, I don’t think it matters what they have coming back. Yet another coaching change means yet another system to learn.

Because they had originally wanted to go to the EIAC as a tandem a few years ago but the EIAC didn’t want them.

I think they will eventually but they’ll want a new conference first. My understanding is that they would rather be in the HHC than be independent.

Bumping this up just for @DT 🤣

I’m curious if you guys literally mean not throwing the ball at all or if you mean rarely throwing the ball. I ask because the 2017 Columbus East 5A state championship team rarely threw the ball due to their three-headed rushing attack. There were a couple of key moments in the state title game where they had to complete a pass to keep a drive alive (one of which turned into a TD) but, for the most part, that was a run-heavy team.

The southern half is definitely much weaker. The discrepancy in depth between the north and south might be the biggest in the state at the 5A level. As for the southern teams, Decatur Central and Harrison are the favorites to make it to state. Ironically, they’re in the same sectional. It’ll be interesting to see how that game goes. There are other teams to keep an eye out for even though they’re not threats to win state. - Whiteland is always in the top 10 mix. A solid program that can’t seem to ever break through regionals. I know they lost a lot of key players off of the 2020 9-2 team. So after going 6-4 last year, can they return to or even top that 9-2 mark? They should be the favorite in sectional 14. - Sectional 15 is interesting because of two teams: Bloomington South and Columbus East. Bloomington South always seems to have a lot of talent but they’re never able to stay healthy enough and/or disciplined enough to put it all together and make a run in the postseason. - Columbus East is coming off its worst season since 2002. It had won 107 straight games against conference opponents but went 4-2 last year in HHC play. The streak of 17 consecutive conference championships came to an end as a result. It was anticipated that East would have a down year in 2021 but it went worse than some expected. And while the talent pool at the school has gone down over the last few years, the team is much more experienced than last year. Will this translate to success? Was last year an anomaly? Or will this be the norm without Bob Gaddis as head coach? Definitely something to keep an eye on. - Castle is the favorite in sectional 16 although Evansville North has gone from a losing team to a team finishing at .500 over the last three years under Joey Paridaen. Can they build off of that and finally have their first winning season in 15 years? They’ve beaten Castle twice in the last three years. Can they break through and win a sectional for the first time in 22 years? These are the teams and storylines I’ll be following closely in the southern half of the state. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

The WANE 15 YouTube channel posts videos every Monday starting with week 1 and ending the Monday after all the local teams are done playing. They cover Fort Wayne area teams (specifically the SAC, NE8, NECC, and ACAC). Sometimes they’ll throw in Warsaw, Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley, and others. The Monday videos look ahead to the week’s match-ups. The final Monday video of the season recaps the entire season and they hand out fictional awards to players, teams, and coaches. There are also videos posted every Friday night with highlights of that particular night’s games. These videos are just the segments taken from that night’s news telecast. I watch the Monday and Friday videos every season. Keeps me updated on what’s happening in northeast Indiana football. I think WANE does a better job of covering local football than anybody else.

I once considered taking an LFL job. For the love of football of course.

If it happens, it happens. However, I’ll be here until it happens.

Personally, I hate the Facebook groups. It’s harder to keep track of the posts because they’re not separated by topic and it’s just way easier to miss posts. Also, I feel like the overall IQ is much much lower on there and I don’t have the patience for it.

I’ve been on this site since six years ago and I’ve definitely noticed a decline in the number of users. It stinks but it’s the reality of it. I hear this site used to be popping back in the day and I’m sad I missed it.

Looks like the Jennings County job got filled last week while I was on vacation.

The Jennings County job was filled last week

Here you go http://tribtown.com/2021/05/14/three_local_conferences_to_have_different_look_in_fall/

It’s actually a three year or a five year run depending on how you look at it. It’s three years if you count New Palestine in 2018 as a southern team even though they played in the northern semi-state. If not, it’s five years. 2016: Westfield (North) 2017: Columbus East (South) 2018: New Palestine (North) 2019: New Palestine (South) 2020: Cathedral (South) 2021: Cathedral (South)

The Jennings County job is also open. Nic Vasilchek has now accepted and backed out of the job twice in the past 3-4 months. Not counting Vasilchek (since he never actually coached a game at Jennings County), the Panthers are looking for their sixth coach in 11 years.

The new sectional assignments just got released. 6A Sectional 8: Center Grove, Columbus North, Franklin Central, and Jeffersonville 5A Sectional 15: Bloomington North, Bloomington South, Columbus East, and Seymour Sectional 16: Castle, Evansville North, Floyd Central, and New Albany 4A Sectional 23: Bedford North Lawrence, East Central, Edgewood, Greenwood, Jennings County, Martinsville, Shelbyville, and Silver Creek

Harrison is definitely a winner if they end up going south for the state tournament like I’m anticipating. If so, the road to state is much easier than having to get there from the north.

Justun Sharp was supposed to be that guy but that didn’t pan out for good reason. Nevertheless, it’s a tough job because it requires a lot of work. The program has to be built from the ground up. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of folks out there willing to put the time and effort in to build a program at Jennings County. Hopefully it changes. It’s my adopted home, the former home of my parents, and the lifelong home of my extended family as well as my wife’s family. They deserve to finally have a winning football team after all these years of suffering.

Vasilchek had already gone across the country once when he left Georgia for Washington. The guy is from Indiana and his family still lives here. The belief was that this would work as a result, especially considering he has a track record of quickly turning bad programs around. So even if he does leave them after six or seven years, they’re in a lot better position going forward because there should be more interest for the job. Also, six or seven years is longer than any tenure a coach has given them since Rick Zimmerman’s first stint with the team back in the 2000s.

Because the feeling is that if he doesn’t have the time and ability to coach at Jennings County then he shouldn’t have the time and ability to coach elsewhere. Basically, I think the real issue at the root of the problem is that people here are burnt out from having so many different football coaches. This will be the sixth different football coach in 11 seasons and the indecision of Vasilchek only exacerbated it.

And to add insult to injury, the previous head coach (Justun Sharp) took a defensive coordinator position at Guerin Catholic for next year. He’s the guy who quit coaching Jennings County after two years because of his young daughter’s health. Granted, Sharp was taking his daughter to her appointments in Indy and I believe he and his family just moved back up there. So while it makes sense for him to take the job given the circumstances, it was still seen as a slap in the face by some folks around here.