Frozen Tundra

Gibson Southern 28 Lawrenceburg 22 11:06 left

Gibson Southern 21 Lawrenceburg 7 Halftime Gibson Southern will receive the second half kickoff

Memorial never ceases to amaze me anymore. I didn’t think they could compete in 4A when they were moved up but here they are in the final four yet again. Twice in a three year span with the first resulting in a state title.

Evansville Memorial 17 East Central 14 Final East Central led 14-0 at the half but Memorial tied it up with 5:55 left before hitting a 30-yard field goal as time expired. Mount Vernon (Fortville) at Evansville Memorial next week.

Bloomington South was without their starting QB and starting RB last night. I don’t think New Albany would’ve won under normal circumstances but I’m still shocked they won at all. This is the most experienced team New Albany probably has ever had and it allowed them to get here. First conference and sectional titles since 2002. First ever regional title. Nevertheless, I fully expect Cathedral to be up by 35+ by halftime and play with a running clock in the second half.

A few days before the game, I remember listening to 1070 The Fan and hearing it discussed that it would probably be the quickest state title game ever with the way both teams liked to run the ball. Lol. I went into that game thinking we’d probably lose based on what I’d seen of Westfield. That miracle play we made at the end of the first half made the score closer than it should’ve been. You guys had the stronger team. I never like losing but I didn’t mind losing to your Shamrocks. When we went to the 4A state title game in 2013, I was pulling for Westfield to beat Cathedral in the 5A title game. The result was all too similar to our first four match-ups with Cathedral so I sympathized for you that you weren’t able to get your first state title. So when Westfield beat us in 2016, I remembered 2013 and was happy for you. No shame in losing to a deserving team, especially when it was their first state football title.

New Albany up 20-14 at the end of the third quarter. The Bulldogs are trying to hang on to win their first ever regional title.

New Albany and Bloomington South are tied 14-14 at the half

I’ve got several here so bear with me. For my Columbus East Olympians… 2007 4A Regionals: 61-60 loss at Evansville Reitz. Heck of a game where neither offense could be stopped. Unfortunately, Reitz scored a touchdown at the end of the game and decided to go for two. They converted and didn’t leave East with enough time to do anything. 2009 5A Sectional First Round: 27-26 win at Columbus North. The one and only time we’ve played our crosstown rival in the postseason was an instant classic. North led 26-20 with just under two minutes left and had the ball around the East 35 on fourth down. They only needed a few yards to get a first down and attempted to go for it. They turned it over on downs and Gunner Kiel led East down the field for the tying touchdown with 20 seconds left. The PAT gave East the lead and the defense held North off in the final seconds for the win. 2013 4A State Championship: 28-27 win against Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger. After East jumped out to a quick 21-0 lead, Dwenger grabbed the momentum by scoring 27 straight. East would convert a pass (a rarity that season) on fourth down en route to an eventual touchdown and a one point lead in the final couple minutes. However, the Dwenger offense had given East problems all day and was driving into field goal range in the closing seconds when East forced two fumbles on the same play and recovered the latter to win. It was the first state title since 1979 (second overall) and the first state title for hall of fame Coach Bob Gaddis. 2014 4A Semistate: 30-28 loss at New Palestine. See @MICFan34‘s post. I’ll add that East had control for most of the game but got worn down by the fourth quarter. New Palestine drove it down into field goal range and, despite Coach Gaddis using all three timeouts in succession, the New Pal kicker had ice in his veins and didn’t get rattled. The kick was good as the game clock hit zeroes. 2017 5A Semistate: 42-13 win at Cathedral. Wasn’t a close game after halftime but the win was so significant that it felt like a state championship. Cathedral had stomped mud holes in East in the 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2012 4A semistate championships. To get the monkey off our backs and return a beating to Cathedral was amazing. It also removed any doubt that East was a top-tier program in the state. Some of my favorite moments not involving Columbus East include… 2015 5A State Championship: Fort Wayne Snider 64, New Palestine 61. Snider jumped out to a 28 point lead but New Pal scored 35 straight to go in front. New Pal would take a 61-56 lead with 1:03 left but Snider would march down and score to win the game. 2017 2A State Championship: Southridge 15, Woodlan 14. Woodlan led 14-7 in the final minute but Southridge scored the touchdown and converted a gutsy two-point conversion in the final seconds to win their first state title in football. 2020 2A State Championship: Western Boone 36, Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 35. Trailing by nine late, WeBo drove 86 yards to score a touchdown and cut the lead to 35-33 with 1:55 left. After failing to recover an onside kick, WeBo was able to force Luers into a three-and-out. WeBo took over at their own 46 and marched it down to the Luers 21 where the kicker calmly made a 38 yard field goal with just seconds remaining to win the team its third straight 2A championship.

Is the starting QB playing for South tonight? I saw he got knocked out of the game last week.

Week 13 Predictions #8 Bloomington South (8-2) at New Albany (8-3): The Panthers defeated the Bulldogs in week 1 at home by a score of 50-20. The location of game 2 may be different but I don’t expect the result to change. New Albany lost all three of their non-conference games decisively in the regular season. I do think they can make this one closer than they did 12 weeks ago but I still don’t think they have the athletes or size to outscore them. Bloomington South wins.

Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 12): @Frozen Tundra 39/47 @Olympian06 38/47 @LC_Bears_04 37/47 @mamasa 32/47 @boilerfan87 31/47

Seymour leads 14-7 at the half

As someone who has a lot of visibility to the program and the school as a whole, there’s just not the level of commitment there to make them competitive. I’m a firm believer that you need to start kids at the youth levels and build them up so that they have the skills and the knowledge necessary to succeed by the time they get in high school. Jennings County should have an advantage in this area considering it’s the only high school in the entire county. There’s also only one middle school in the county. The unfortunate thing is, Justun Sharp was fully committed to the program and wanted to build them up from the ground level. He was a young guy who played at Jennings County himself so the passion and energy were there to make them successful. However, being a dad came first and he had to take care of his daughter. Sadly, I’m not sure they’ll find someone with the ability or the motivation to stay at Jennings County and build them up into a contender. You don’t get many Howard Joneses at Jennings County. What he did with wrestling (and Jim Harr before him) has yet to be duplicated in other sports. Jennings County has had a long history of politics in the past and that has stunted the growth of the athletic program as a whole. It’s why so many kids have transferred to other area schools, especially South Decatur (which has been given the nickname Jennings County North High School). Columbus East, Columbus North, Greensburg, Seymour, and Brownstown Central are the most common schools kids transfer to. I’ve even heard of one kid transferring as far away as New Castle. Nevertheless, the culture overall is changing a little bit. The athletic director that was hired within the last few years is an outsider and he’s been bringing outsiders in as head coaches. When you’re known for losing, it’s best not to higher from within because things won’t change. The AD also doesn’t kowtow or play politics. He’s a good guy and a breath of fresh air. Hopefully he doesn’t get chased off. Jennings County has the potential to be good at sports but it’s going to take a lot of time to reverse the skeletons of the past and the reputation of being a losing program. The pieces are in place. There just needs to be some buy-in from the student-athletes and their families and full commitment by the coaches.

Week 12 Prediction Seymour (4-5) at New Albany (7-3): The Bulldogs beat the Owls by 21 in week 8. They’ve beaten every team in this conference by double-digits except for Columbus East (including Floyd Central twice). Hard to think this week will be any different. New Albany owns the HHC this year and deservedly so. New Albany gets the W.

Both teams got byes into the semifinals and both teams were on the road for their semifinal games. Based on the rules the IHSAA uses to determine the home teams in the postseason, Seymour should be hosting the sectional championship because they are in the bottom half of the bracket. The only way they wouldn’t be the host is if they agreed to let New Albany be the host.

Is it posted because the interim doesn’t want the job or is it posted because the interim has to be interviewed for the job in order to be hired as the true head coach?

Rails has always been my go-to in Seymour. Never been to Brooklyn Pizza. Is it legitimate Brooklyn-style pizza or is it just the name of the place? As a huge pizza lover and someone that has tried many different styles of pizza, I don’t want to get my hopes up if it’s not true Brooklyn-style. I need to know where to set my expectations before going in 😂

The irony of the fact that the only two HHC teams left are the ones that beat East. Couldn’t have been more appropriate. Trying to decide if I should make the short drive over to Seymour to watch the game, spend an hour in the car to watch Chatard at Roncalli, or spend an hour in the car to watch Brownstown Central at Lawrenceburg. Better food options on the south side of Indy and slightly better food options in the Lawrenceburg area in comparison to Seymour, but not more convenient drives.

Quick question for you Donnie. Who do you find the least tolerable? Cody Parkhurst, your boss Randy, or your neighbor Mitchell?

He didn’t learn when it happened last year and I doubt he does this year.

He’s a disgrace to Packers fans. None of us would claim a guy like that.

If Merrillville somehow makes it to state, CP is the kind of guy that would blame a blowout loss to Center Grove on the wind.

Pick ‘Em Standings (after week 11): @Frozen Tundra 38/46 @Olympian06 37/46 @LC_Bears_04 36/46 @mamasa 31/46 @boilerfan87 30/46

Seymour 18 BNL 10 Final