Frozen Tundra

I’m a huge fan of the AD. I’ve always said the previous regimes stunk because they never brought an outsider in. The school has a history of losing so bringing in your own begets more losing. A culture change was needed. Luckily, Cory Stevens was hired in from the Chicago area and he has a vision of building the athletic department into a winner. He’s upset the status quo but has found he actually has a lot more support from the community than what people would’ve originally thought. He has made a couple of good football hires now and the baseball coach he brought in seems to be a winner as well. While wrestling has gone down a bit, boys and girls cross country have been really good and the boys track team has been winning sectional titles in recent years. On top of that, both the boys and girls basketball teams are having great years this year thus far. The girls have been on the rise for awhile while the boys shot up this year with their combination of experience and tremendous shooting ability. These are some exciting times right now in the county and there’s starting to become an energy around here again. Hopefully it continues. It’s long overdue in this county.

It should be noted that the Mount Vernon program Vasilchek inherited was on a 20-game losing streak. It’s also important to note Vasilchek is a native of Evansville, Indiana and played college football at Kentucky Wesleyan where he graduated in 2003. He stayed on at the school as a tight ends coach after graduating before taking a couple of assistant coaching jobs at Indiana high schools (not sure where). I found an article about him from when he took over the Mount Vernon job in Washington. Here’s his quote about his offensive scheme. “I like to run the spread, but run first,” he said. “It’s no-huddle with a little different pace. Yes, it’s a running game out of a spread formation.” Here’s what the article said about his defensive scheme. On defense, Vasilchek runs an active 3-5 scheme with multiple blitzes. It’s a defense, he said, that doesn’t require big players.

Just did some research on this guy and here’s what I found. Luella High School Lions (Luella, GA - 45 minutes south of Atlanta) 2010 (5A): 3-7 2011 (5A): 4-6 2012 (6A): 2-8 2013 (6A): 5-6 *clinched playoffs* 2014 (5A): 5-5 2015 (5A): 4-6 2016 (4A): 5-6 *clinched playoffs* - 28-44 (.389) record over seven seasons with two playoff appearances. - First coach in school history to clinch a playoff spot more than once. Mount Vernon High School Bulldogs (Mount Vernon, WA - 1 hour north of Seattle) 2017 (4A): 4-6 2018 (4A): 8-3 *clinched playoffs* 2019 (4A): 5-5 *clinched playoffs* - 17-14 (.548) record over three seasons with two playoff appearances. -Ended the school’s 21-game losing streak to their rival. Went 3-0 against them during his tenure. -First coach in school history to clinch back-to-back playoff appearances. Totals: 45-58 (.437) record over ten seasons with four playoff appearances. My takeaway is that this guy has a track record of taking over bad programs and finding some success with them. Whether he can do that long-term is a reasonable question as his coaching tenure has never exceeded seven years at a particular school. Nevertheless, the short-term results are there and I think this is an exciting hire for a school that is in a similar situation as Vasilchek’s previous two head coaching stops.

Jennings County has hired a new football coach

New Albany’s non-conference schedule is now complete on John Harrell’s website. The Bulldogs will once again play Gibson Southern in week 2. Floyd Central is the only team in the conference that doesn’t have its non-conference opponents listed.

It’s not. They’re playing BNL in week 2.

Any idea who the week 2 opponent will be?

Other schedule changes thus far: - Jennings County will open the season at South Dearborn. The Panthers opened with a neutral site game against Norwell this year. They’re trading one Knights team for another. - Seymour, who had opened with South Dearborn the last four years, will now open the 2022 season at Greenwood. - Seymour will also have a change in week 9. After Madison every year since 1997, the Owls will now host Bloomington South (as mentioned by @MuleDriver) - Not really a schedule change but Jeffersonville will be playing at Bell County (KY) in week 1. Jeff was supposed to host them this year in week 1 but COVID kept it from happening. BNL, Floyd Central, and New Albany’s schedules are listed as incomplete on John Harrell’s website. Here’s what we do know: - BNL still has Martinsville and Bloomington North as their opponents for weeks 1 and 2. Madison is still their week 8 opponent. - Floyd Central doesn’t have any non-conference opponents listed yet but I believe @Fkfootball had mentioned at the beginning of this past season who the Highlanders will be playing. - New Albany will still play Bloomington South in week 1 and Bloomington North in week 6. No opponent listed yet for week 2 but that was Gibson Southern this past season.

Looks like Columbus East vs Indianapolis Chatard was just a one year thing. East has Bloomington North back on the schedule for the first time since 2017. Sorry @Lysander

This is where I disagree. I can understand them joining the MIC as long as football is independent. Even a weaker MIC in football is still a huge jump in competition for Columbus North. Look at all the years they’ve lost to Center Grove in sectionals. Some of those CG teams weren’t all that great in relation to the last couple years or in terms of where they finished in the conference at the time. You are correct in your statement that Columbus North isn’t thrilled about Conference Indiana’s instability. They’ve tried bringing in Columbus East and other schools in the past few years to help stabilize it only to be turned down. If an opportunity presents itself, I could definitely see them bolting. In regards to travel, the ride to Bloomington is not a burden for Columbus North. First of all, it’s not that far. Secondly, the Columbus North vs Bloomington South rivalry goes all the way back to when they were the sole high schools of their cities. North has no problem playing Bloomington South or even Bloomington North for that matter. Also, I’m not suggesting Bless is afraid of playing teams solely because they’re good. I think it’s a combination of how good they are plus the depth those schools have. That’s the safety concerns he’s referring to. While North may have the depth to fill in some injury holes against schools of similar or lesser size, there’s a much larger talent disparity between their reserves and those of a large school like Ben Davis or Warren Central. To play schools of that size on a consistent basis will beat you up and deplete you. Unlike Fort Wayne Luers up in the SAC, there is no upside for North in playing schools like that when it doesn’t prepare them for the postseason. It only leaves them banged up for the already brutal 6A state tournament. So if you can’t win a 6A sectional then the only reward to a season is a conference title. And, as I already stated, that isn’t happening in the MIC due to the sizes of the schools and roster depth of their teams. Personally, I feel one of three options is going to happen for North. Option 1, they’ll apply to join the Mid-State Conference if an opening pops up. Option 2, they go independent in football. A high profile school with the athletic success they have shouldn’t be hindered from finding eight opponents annually for their schedule. Option 3, they ride it out with Conference Indiana until a dissolution or further contraction forces them to move on.

Hold up. You literally interviewed Columbus North head coach Tim Bless back in July and, in that interview, he whined about the unfairness of having to play the 6A mega schools in the state tournament every year. He said the size discrepancy was “ridiculous and, in some cases, borderline unsafe.” So my question to you is, based on that interview, how do you justify Columbus North making the move to the MIC when Ben Davis is more than twice the size of North, Warren Central and North Central are nearly twice the size of North, and Pike has 1,000+ more students than North? Is that not a “safety concern”? North can’t even get out of sectionals due to a Center Grove team that has roughly 500 more students enrolled than North. Was he suggesting they were too big for North to compete with as well? If so, then Lawrence North would be too big also since they’re slightly bigger than Center Grove. So I guess what I’m really saying is this. Either your suggestion of Columbus North jumping to the MIC is ridiculous or Tim Bless is full of crap and is bitter about not being able to beat Center Grove.

Nevertheless, despite living an hour and a half away from MIC territory, I still find this whole situation intriguing. I have no dog in the fight but, as I mentioned in the Hoosier Hills Conference thread, my gut is telling me there’s a chance ripple effects could find their way down to my part of the state. I’m interested to see how the dominos fall.

And here I didn’t think we’d have anything to talk about until enrollment numbers came out in the spring…

You are exactly right. Maybe I was blind to it before but I really started feeling the shift about three years ago.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock over the past 24 hours, I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference voting out Carmel and Center Grove and the two schools pitching to join the Hoosier Crossroads Conference. Without rehashing a topic we’ve repeatedly beat a dead horse over, I simply ask whether this big move will cause ripple effects throughout the state in regards to conference affiliation. While the situation is still very much fresh and fluid, I could personally see a domino effect happening that would affect the HHC. Admittedly, I’m not privy to any inside information but I would like to think there is some validity to my speculation. What do you guys think?

Major Columbus East streaks that were snapped this year (per CE Football Stats on Twitter): - 17 straight conference titles (2004-2020) - 14 straight outright conference titles (2007-2020) - 96 straight conference wins (last loss: at BNL on 10/13/06) - 107 straight wins against conference opponents (last loss: at BNL on 10/13/06) - 60 straight conference home wins (last loss: vs Floyd Central on 9/26/03) - 55 straight home wins against conference opponents (last loss: vs Seymour on 10/21/05) - 47 straight conference road wins (last loss: at BNL on 10/13/06) - 55 straight road wins against conference opponents (last loss: at BNL on 10/13/06) - 18 straight conference opening wins (last loss: vs Seymour on 9/6/02) - 8 straight conference opening road wins (last loss at Seymour on 8/31/01) - 18 straight wins against Seymour (last loss: at home on 10/21/05) - 10 straight road wins against Seymour (last loss: 8/31/01) - 19 straight wins against New Albany (last loss: at New Albany on 9/20/02) - 10 straight home wins against New Albany (last loss: 9/18/98) - 12 straight wins against 4A teams (last loss: at New Palestine on 11/21/14) - 6 straight road wins at 4A teams (last loss: at New Palestine on 11/21/14) - 36 straight road wins at 5A teams (last loss: at Columbus North on 8/27/10) - 11 straight 5A tournament road wins (last loss: at Terre Haute North on 10/21/88) - 6 straight 5A sectional opening wins (last loss: at Terre Haute North on 10/21/88) - 16 straight sectional opening road wins (last loss: at Bloomington North on 10/23/98) - 9 straight 5A sectional wins (last loss: vs New Palestine on 11/6/15) - 5 straight sectional semifinal road wins (last loss: at Whiteland on 10/26/01)

Final Pick ‘Em Standings: @Frozen Tundra 40/49 @Olympian06 39/49 @LC_Bears_04 38/49 @mamasa 32/49 @boilerfan87 32/49

Week 14 Predictions New Albany (9-3) at #1 Cathedral (12-1): I usually wait until Thursday or Friday to make my picks just in case COVID rears its ugly head and causes a key player or two to miss the game. However, I don’t think even COVID could change the result of this game. No disrespect to the Bulldogs but they just haven’t played this level of competition outside of Columbus East in a long, long time if ever. I think the goal should be to see how long they can play without having a deficit that requires a running clock. Unfortunately, I think they’ll trail by 35+ by halftime. The Fighting Irish are just too good. It’ll be interesting to see the total yardage in this game. Cathedral wins.

They definitely have improved. New Albany has been notorious within the Hoosier Hills Conference for their atrocious defense. They started the year rough but improved on it greatly as the year has gone on.

Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 13): @Frozen Tundra 39/48 @Olympian06 38/48 @LC_Bears_04 37/48 @mamasa 32/48 @boilerfan87 31/48

I liked Coach Gilbert when I found out he was friends with Coach Gaddis. I think Gaddis offered him some big role with the IFCA prior to 2016. So any friend of Coach Gaddis is ok with me.

Completely agree

Lawrenceburg turns it over on downs on the Gibson Southern 41 with 51 seconds left. Gibson Southern 31 Lawrenceburg 29 Final

Gibson Southern with a 20 yard field goal Gibson Southern 31 Lawrenceburg 29 3:25 left