Frozen Tundra

It wasn’t feasible to continue being successful as the “little guy” unless you’re going to go all-out and invest in the team like Gonzaga does. Not sure why Butler doesn’t. However, by joining the Big East, Butler makes a lot more money than they did when they were in the Atlantic 10 and Horizon League before it. So that’s a positive. If you haven’t been on campus in 10-15 years, you’d definitely see the benefit of all that Final Four and Big East money. As for “Big East bottom feeder”, nothing could be further from the truth. Of the ten teams that have been part of the conference since its rebirth in 2013-2014, Butler is #6 in wins. They’re ahead of Marquette, St. John’s, Georgetown, and DePaul and slightly behind Seton Hall. Throw in NCAA Tournament appearances and Butler is tied for fourth with Creighton and Seton Hall at four appearances each. Only Villanova (7), Xavier (5), and Providence (5) are higher. That also includes UConn who only has three appearances in that time despite being in the much easier AAC for most of it. Also, it was just two years ago when Butler was ranked in the top 5. Of course, COVID’s role in the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament that year kept us from seeing how far Butler would advance.

As a Butler fan, there are no regrets as it pertains to joining the Big East. The only regrets we should have are that we haven’t allocated more money into the men’s basketball budget and that we don’t pay our men’s basketball coach better. Not talking LaVall. I’m talking about the one we let get away (Holtmann).

Classifications will change after the school year. Classifications are updated every two years.

Yeah but take Columbus for example. There are two middle schools (Central and Northside). Neither of them are assigned to a particular high school. Most kids that attend Northside go to Columbus North but not all do. Just like most kids that go to Central go to Columbus East but not all do. Add in St. Peter’s Lutheran and St. Bartholomew Catholic which are K-8. Neither of them are assigned to a particular high school. So that’s where issues arise.

Doesn’t work when you have open enrollment.

Honduran and Guatemalan? Wow. Wasn’t expecting anything other than Mexican in these parts.

There were jokes made when I was in high school about their high Hispanic population. I brushed it off thinking it wasn’t any higher than what Columbus had, but I also didn’t take percentage of the population into account. It’s crazy to hear it’s now nearly 1/3 of the total population. I guess I still look at Seymour as a bit of a backwoods area and not as something that would attract minorities.

Columbus East doesn’t care about whether a conference is southern enough. They applied for membership to the Mid-State Conference a few years ago, along with Bloomington North, but Perry Meridian was chosen instead because of geography. Conference Indiana tried to get Columbus East to join around that same time but there were allegedly some “logistics issues” as to why East turned them down. The rumor I’d heard was that East wasn’t fond of traveling to the Terre Haute schools. So if the Mid-State Conference doesn’t want you and you don’t want Conference Indiana, you really have no other choice than to stay in the Hoosier Hills Conference. It’s the only one in the area with schools of a similar size. The others are too far away.

I just realized 16 will be losing BNL too since the Stars are now a 4A school. If Cathedral gets moved up to 6A and New Palestine gets moved back to 4A then I could see Whiteland, Franklin, Columbus East, and Seymour being in sectional 14. Then I could see sectional 16 going back to an alignment they used in the past where Floyd Central, New Albany, Castle, and Evansville North are together.

With the addition of Dugger Union next year and Purdue Polytechnic the following year, that would basically give you 32 teams in 5A and 6A and 63 teams from 1A-4A, and you would still have one team left over to throw into one of the classes.

With Jeffersonville now back in 6A, I wonder if the sectional will shrink to four teams or if they will pull someone else in as the fifth team. Probably depends on who’s in 5A once the IHSAA determines who’s moving up and who’s moving down due to the success factor.

@HoopsCoach released the new enrollment numbers in another thread and Madison’s enrollment dropped by over 100. They are now firmly in 3A.

According to the new Department of Education enrollment numbers that @HoopsCoach posted in another thread, here are the enrollment numbers and rankings within the state. 29. Jeffersonville - 2,099 43. Floyd Central - 1,854 47. New Albany - 1,787 54. Seymour - 1,604 60. Columbus East - 1,534 69. BNL - 1,391 82. Jennings County - 1,180 Jeff, Floyd Central, Seymour, and East all experienced some growth. New Albany, BNL, and Jennings County all shrunk. I understand why Jennings County shrunk but what’s the deal with New Albany and BNL?

Madison applied to join the Mid-Southern Conference last February after Clarksville announced it was leaving. The conference’s principals voted to table the application and stick with eight for the 2021-2022 school year.

Unfortunately, I don’t quite remember if the two tried to get in the EIAC. However, I do know they both were heavily considering it.

Maybe I’m incorrect but the last few years it seems Lawrenceburg has also distanced themselves from the rest of the conference, sans East Central. The Trojans have some distance between themselves and Lawrenceburg and then the Tigers have some distance between themselves and the other six teams in the conference. Therefore, if East Central were to leave as you suggested, wouldn’t it just be Lawrenceburg’s conference to win every year?

Would you want Jennings County and Madison in place of Rushville and Connersville? I believe both Madison and the former North Vernon High School were once part of the conference. JC and Madison both seem to be a better fit for the EIAC these days than they do (or, in Madison’s case, did) the HHC.

This is why I don’t want to coach. I’d get myself in trouble because I would’ve asked her why she wasn’t coaching if she knew so much about it.

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?