Is New Pal a Lock in 5A?

[SMAUG]

57 minutes ago, 23andCounting said:

Still wondering if they play a s*** ton of kids both ways. I often wondered how a school of their enrollment competes with 6A programs. I know in the past Coach Ralph put his best players on both sides of the ball. Presuming that's still the case. 

The short answer is yes, but you have to understand to be one of Coach Ralph’s “Dragons” means something to these kids.  It means something at school and in this town.  They would play both ways and work concessions at halftime if he asked.  The guy gives everything he has for his players and they enthusiastically reciprocate.  

[23andCounting]

4 minutes ago, SMAUG said:

The short answer is yes, but you have to understand to be one of Coach Ralph’s “Dragons” means something to these kids.  It means something at school and in this town.  They would play both ways and work concessions at halftime if he asked.  The guy gives everything he has for his players and they enthusiastically reciprocate.  

I never looked at it as a bad thing. Impressed at how his kids do this for four quarters. Also feel like he's one of the top three coaches in the state. Kudos to him and what he's built for the community. Thanks for the reply.

[Frozen Tundra]

2 hours ago, 23andCounting said:

I never looked at it as a bad thing. Impressed at how his kids do this for four quarters. Also feel like he's one of the top three coaches in the state. Kudos to him and what he's built for the community. Thanks for the reply.

I’m curious to know who your top 3 would be. Kyle Ralph would top my list. Michael Mosser would be #2. Not sure about #3.

[Footballking16]

9 minutes ago, Frozen Tundra said:

I’m curious to know who your top 3 would be. Kyle Ralph would top my list. Michael Mosser would be #2. Not sure about #3.

Eric Moore

[Frozen Tundra]

2 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

Eric Moore

I would need sold on that. That’s a community with money. I feel like they have a built in advantage.

[23andCounting]

21 minutes ago, Frozen Tundra said:

I’m curious to know who your top 3 would be. Kyle Ralph would top my list. Michael Mosser would be #2. Not sure about #3.

There are probably 20 coaches out there I could rattle off, maybe more. Not all coaches have the same resources, so it's really hard to gauge. But if was going into battle, I might want to start with Ralph or Wright. Maybe Moore. 

[Footballking16]

59 minutes ago, Frozen Tundra said:

I would need sold on that. That’s a community with money. I feel like they have a built in advantage.

They didn’t when he built that program from the ground up. He was a very successful coach in Florida prior.

[Frozen Tundra]

29 minutes ago, Footballking16 said:

They didn’t when he built that program from the ground up. He was a very successful coach in Florida prior.

Completely agree with that. However, he can almost rest on his laurels at this point because of the money and resources that school now enjoys. I put him in the top 10 but it’s hard for me to say top 3.

[FastpacedO]

9 hours ago, Frozen Tundra said:

Completely agree with that. However, he can almost rest on his laurels at this point because of the money and resources that school now enjoys. I put him in the top 10 but it’s hard for me to say top 3.

CG had money and resources prior to Coach Moore. I find it odd that you would have Coach Ralph on a top 3 list but not Coach Moore.

Center Grove before Eric Moore in 26 seasons snap shot:  137-122 with 1 Regional Title

Center Grove with Eric Moore in 26 seasons snap shot: 259-81 with 18 Regional Titles, 8 Semi-State Titles, 5 State Titles

A very impressive resume coming to CG and he was 48-5 at Charlotte HS in Florida where he was 2 times named coach of the year in Florida. In my opinion he is a hard lock in top 3 coaches.

[Frozen Tundra]

1 hour ago, FastpacedO said:

CG had money and resources prior to Coach Moore. I find it odd that you would have Coach Ralph on a top 3 list but not Coach Moore.

Center Grove before Eric Moore in 26 seasons snap shot:  137-122 with 1 Regional Title

Center Grove with Eric Moore in 26 seasons snap shot: 259-81 with 18 Regional Titles, 8 Semi-State Titles, 5 State Titles

A very impressive resume coming to CG and he was 48-5 at Charlotte HS in Florida where he was 2 times named coach of the year in Florida. In my opinion he is a hard lock in top 3 coaches.

Again, I’m aware of what Eric Moore has done in Florida and Indiana. If there’s anything I may have mistaken it’s the community of which Center Grove belongs to. Have there really always been money and resources there? The impression I got is that it only developed over the last 20-25 years there. I was a kid in the 90s and a teen through most of the 2000s. I had always heard about Carmel back then but Center Grove, and the area as a whole, was never mentioned.

[olinecoach]

15 hours ago, 23andCounting said:

I never looked at it as a bad thing. Impressed at how his kids do this for four quarters. Also feel like he's one of the top three coaches in the state. Kudos to him and what he's built for the community. Thanks for the reply.

For them, they have been good enough that it is not really for 4 quarters. It has been for 2.5 to 3 quarters most of the regular season. Their dudes are still fresh (or as fresh as you can be after 9 games) when they roll into the playoffs. New Pal, GFC, and MV all were programs that 15 years ago people around the HHC knew could explode in numbers and success with the right people driving the ship.

As far as kids from other districts around them coming in, it has seemed less at New Pal in numbers, but what they have had move in has been high quality. Families want to go where there is success. Can't blame them!

[FastpacedO]

On 9/18/2025 at 8:50 AM, Frozen Tundra said:

Again, I’m aware of what Eric Moore has done in Florida and Indiana. If there’s anything I may have mistaken it’s the community of which Center Grove belongs to. Have there really always been money and resources there? The impression I got is that it only developed over the last 20-25 years there. I was a kid in the 90s and a teen through most of the 2000s. I had always heard about Carmel back then but Center Grove, and the area as a whole, was never mentioned.

Yes Center Grove has always had money and resources well before Coach Moore.

The 2 largest impact things that Coach Moore brought to Center Grove (aside form running the Wing T)

1.) Speed Development - This was a must when competing with the likes of Ben Davis and Warren Central on a regular basis joining the MIC. He had also become the HC of Track to develop speed. It now is very common for CG to be amongst the top in speed and that started with Moore.

2.) The Youth League - CG Bantham football is what many want to emulate, he put a lot of time an interest in the youth league and when it comes to the Wing T by the time the kids are in HS they could probably run Coach Moore's system in their sleep it has been etched into them from a young age.

[crimsonace1]

On 9/15/2025 at 11:37 PM, Boilernation said:

Slightly changing topicc, any chance Warren Township talent starts heading accross the county line and not to the neighborhoods that feed into Mt. Vernon. I don't know much about the housing developments and population trends down there. It's clear Brownsburg really took off when demographics started changing and Wayne Township type of talent started moving west of  Raceway Road. 

A good chunk of Warren Township borders the New Pal district (including most of Cumberland), and there are already a lot of kids who live in Warren who attend New Pal schools. I'm also watching to see when the Franklin Township spillover begins to head into New Pal, especially since Shelby County won't allow residential development in the Triton Central district (gotta make sure nobody threatens the county seat as the biggest community in the county). 

On 9/16/2025 at 1:05 PM, Flyingangel said:

As I was told by a new pal coach if they make state this year they move to 6A next year. They don’t have to stay on a class for 2 years. Now your right they can’t go back down because they have 4 points but if they make a run to state they move to 6A even if they don’t win state just making it pushes them to 6A. 
 

that’s the same reason snider didn’t move back down. They had 4 points year prior and you only need 2?? To stay up.

 

teams can move every year up. But down they gotta lose in sectionals two straight years if he told me correctly. 

That coach was wrong. The SF is a rolling 2-year cycle. A school needs 6 points in a class to move up in two years. Because NP is in year 1, the max points it can receive is 4, so NP will be in 5A next year regardless of what happens this year. 

[crimsonace1]

On 9/16/2025 at 1:14 PM, 23andCounting said:

Thumbs down to Sagarin just 4 weeks in. Thumbs up to New Pal. 

After seeing them last year against East Noble, I felt firmly that they were a Top Ten team.......latter half more than likely. Someone in the offseason said they return 18 starters. That was enough to dub them as potential Top 5 this season, and so far, they look the part. I've got New Pal in a lock. Even Merrillville's speed on turf in perfect playing conditions won't be enough to challenge them in my opinion.

Question: The model at New Pal has always been to take the best players and put them on both sides of the football. Presuming that's the case again this season?

Yes, but they have more depth, so they have fewer full 2-way players than they have in the past. A lot of 1.5s - guys who start on one side of the ball and split on the other. Josh Ranes, who was an All-State RB last year, has barely touched the ball this year because he's splitting time at RB and is spending most of his time at LB. 

[crimsonace1]

On 9/16/2025 at 10:57 PM, PHJIrish said:

New Pal's biggest game was against Decatur Central.  Cathedral has played Ben Davis, Brownsburg, Cincinnati St. X and Bishop Chatard to date, with Center Grove and Warren Central yet to come.  Don't base your opinions on W's and L's!

As we've pointed out ad nauseum, schedule doesn't win you games in November, players do. And NP's players are really good. 

Every year, people talk about how bad NP's schedule is (yet, EVERY SINGLE non-conference opponent NP has played - except one - in the Kyle Ralph era has been to a semistate, and I believe they have all been to Lucas Oil, in the last decade ... it's not a bad schedule), and yet, they have 4 state titles, 5 semistate titles and 6 regional titles. 

The path to Lucas Oil going to be difficult - three Top-4 teams in the same sectional, a Top-5 team potentially in the regional and then No. 2 Bloomington South in the semistate, and a lot of things can happen. I'm not going to count any chickens before they hatch, but this is the best NP defense I've ever seen. 5A is as deep as it has been in years. I'd be hesitant to list any team as a "lock." Especially because there's a lot of season and injuries, et al, can play a role. 

[crimsonace1]

On 9/17/2025 at 4:17 PM, WestfieldRocks said:

What about Marion Co kids making the trip on US 52 to play at New Pal? Is that happening, or are a huge number of their kids home grown, from elementary on up?

Nearly all of NP's players are home-grown. They've had a couple of move-ins - the QB being one, as his dad got a job transfer to the Indy area from Ohio - but just about every kid playing on Friday night was a name I saw on a jersey in the New Pal Cadet Football League when my son was playing in it nine years ago. The youth league is phenomenal, and has been for a long time. There are hundreds of kids playing tackle football from first grade on, learning proper fundamentals from an early age, and getting very good coaching. A lot of the youth coaches are former players in the program. 

On 9/17/2025 at 4:27 PM, 23andCounting said:

Still wondering if they play a s*** ton of kids both ways. I often wondered how a school of their enrollment competes with 6A programs. I know in the past Coach Ralph put his best players on both sides of the ball. Presuming that's still the case. 

NP is 4-1 all-time vs. 6A programs. 

2018: New Pal 31, Center Grove 9
2019: New Pal 28, Center Grove 9
2022: New Pal 42, Westfield 28
2023: Westfield 34, New Pal 14
2025: New Pal 28, Decatur Central 6 (*6A due to success factor)

[PHJIrish]

4 hours ago, crimsonace1 said:

As we've pointed out ad nauseum, schedule doesn't win you games in November, players do. And NP's players are really good. 

Every year, people talk about how bad NP's schedule is (yet, EVERY SINGLE non-conference opponent NP has played - except one - in the Kyle Ralph era has been to a semistate, and I believe they have all been to Lucas Oil, in the last decade ... it's not a bad schedule), and yet, they have 4 state titles, 5 semistate titles and 6 regional titles. 

The path to Lucas Oil going to be difficult - three Top-4 teams in the same sectional, a Top-5 team potentially in the regional and then No. 2 Bloomington South in the semistate, and a lot of things can happen. I'm not going to count any chickens before they hatch, but this is the best NP defense I've ever seen. 5A is as deep as it has been in years. I'd be hesitant to list any team as a "lock." Especially because there's a lot of season and injuries, et al, can play a role. 

We shall see!  It's still a ways to late October and November.  It's not going to be easy to win that sectional.  And the rest is as you say, no cakewalk for anyone.

[temptation]

1 hour ago, PHJIrish said:

We shall see!  It's still a ways to late October and November.  It's not going to be easy to win that sectional.  And the rest is as you say, no cakewalk for anyone.

Plainfield is a paper tiger and this is Cathedral's worst team in years.

[23andCounting]

19 minutes ago, temptation said:

Plainfield is a paper tiger and this is Cathedral's worst team in years.

5A is just a weak class in general this year.

[PHJIrish]

All that remains to be seen.  Losing to Brownsburg and St. X doesn't make Cathedral a bad team yet.  The schedule is still 6a heavy.  We'll all know more in a month or so.

[temptation]

29 minutes ago, PHJIrish said:

All that remains to be seen.  Losing to Brownsburg and St. X doesn't make Cathedral a bad team yet.  The schedule is still 6a heavy.  We'll all know more in a month or so.

Haven’t been shy about the fact that New Pal would be #3 in 6A in Temp’s mind.

Just a different animal.

But you’re right.  Plenty of opportunities lie ahead for the Irish.

[Footballking16]

New Pal is now just the favorite to win 5A. No longer a lock in my opinion.

Edited October 4, 2025 by Footballking16

[PHJIrish]

As Coach Corso used to say, " not so fast, my friend."  Don't ever count out the Irish!😉

[LC_Bears_04]

Cathedral-New Palestine will put a lot of butts in the seats.

[IndianaWrestlingGuy1]

Yep. Lock.