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Darren Rodriguez will not be returning to the sideline next year at The Warpath. Portage went from a 5A Title appearance in '94 and an annual threat to win Sectionals (couldn't get over the Penn hump in Regionals) under Craig Buzea to capping out at 6 wins a few times in the post Buzea era with multiple coaches. Due to demographic shifts eastward from Lake County, Portage arguably now has more talent to work with then Buzea was ever dealt. This job should attract a handful of applicants from Northern Indiana. 

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8 minutes ago, Boilernation said:

Darren Rodriguez will not be returning to the sideline next year at The Warpath. Portage went from a 5A Title appearance in '94 and an annual threat to win Sectionals (couldn't get over the Penn hump in Regionals) under Craig Buzea to capping out at 6 wins a few times in the post Buzea era with multiple coaches. Due to demographic shifts eastward from Lake County, Portage arguably now has more talent to work with then Buzea was ever dealt. This job should attract a handful of applicants from Northern Indiana. 

Unfortunately, Coach Rodriguez just didnt get the job done.

Portage has been undersized for a long time.  Lots of hispanics in the area.  They need a good strength and conditioning coach to assist the HC and develop bodies for varsity football.  The football culture at Portage is gone.  Portage has not had a D1 kid in years.  This is a tough job.  Maybe the toughest in The DAC.  They may have some difficulty finding good applicants.

Edited by DT
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3 minutes ago, DT said:

Unfortunately, Coach Rodriguez just didnt get the job done.

Portage has been undersized for a long time.  Lots of hispanics in the area.  They need a good strength and conditioning coach to assist the HC and develop bodies for varsity football.  Portage has not had a D1 kid in years.  This is a tough job.  Maybe the toughest in The DAC.  They may have some difficulty finding good applicants.

They’ve had far more D1 and lower level college talent the past 5 or so years than Buzea ever had. Bigger kids too. Portage has always had a Hispanic population. Not sure that’s an issue. That population pumped out some darn good football players over the years. 

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Just now, Boilernation said:

How many do you think went P5 in all of Buzea’s years? All I can think of is Albert Evans to Purdue. 

They had a lot of MAC kids in those years.  I havent seen that in a while

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Portage’s athletic department has been a mess ever since Larry Casbon and Les Klein retired. Multiple sports have experienced a coaching carousel with little to no continuity in the programs. The problem is not confined to the football program. It goes deeper than that.

Edited by Bobref
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8 hours ago, Bobref said:

Portage’s athletic department has been a mess ever since Larry Casbon and Les Klein retired. Multiple sports have experienced a coaching carousel with little to no continuity in the programs. The problem is not confined to the football program. It goes deeper than that.

Yep. That was Buzea's downfall as he warned a potential basketball coach not to get involved in that mess and it went public. They lost a very good baseball coach in Tim Pirowski as well. I did see in the article announcing Darren's departure that former wrestling great Fred Joseph is now the Athletic Director. Maybe things have changed for the better since the old AD was in the building. I'm out of the loop though. I haven't lived in Portage since the late '90's. There's no reason Portage can't be a contender for DAC and Sectional Championships at the very minimum on a yearly basis. It would be nice to see someone turn the program around.

Edited by Boilernation
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5 minutes ago, Boilernation said:

Yep. That was Buzea's downfall as he warned a potential basketball coach not to get involved in that mess and it went public. They lost a very good baseball coach in Tim Pirowski as well. I did see in the article announcing Darren's departure that former wrestling great Fred Joseph is now the Athletic Director. Maybe things have changed for the better since the old AD was in the building. I'm out of the loop though. I haven't lived in Portage since the late '90's. There's no reason Portage can't be a contender for DAC and Sectional Championships at the very minimum on a yearly basis. It would be nice to see someone turn the program around.

I taught at Portage that year.  I am friends w/ the hoops coach you are talking about.  It was UGLY.

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18 hours ago, DT said:

I cant remember seeing a Portage kid go D1 in some time.  Talking primarily P5.  

 

18 hours ago, DT said:

They had a lot of MAC kids in those years.  I havent seen that in a while

 

19 hours ago, DT said:

Unfortunately, Coach Rodriguez just didnt get the job done.

Portage has been undersized for a long time.  Lots of hispanics in the area.  They need a good strength and conditioning coach to assist the HC and develop bodies for varsity football.  The football culture at Portage is gone.  Portage has not had a D1 kid in years.  This is a tough job.  Maybe the toughest in The DAC.  They may have some difficulty finding good applicants.

I didn't catch that. 

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14 hours ago, Coach Nowlin said:

give it a go 

I did that once for Michigan City.  A lot of exciting things have happened since then and have been thinking oeif updating it.

It would be scenario where you are the head coach at Hooterville High School for the past 8 seasons and have moved up into administration have been promoted to athletic director (which is very common)  after no internal candidates have applied to be the new football coach you are being tasked to write a job description about your program to seek out the best external candidate.

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3 minutes ago, Tommy said:

I did that once for Michigan City.  A lot of exciting things have happened since then and have been thinking oeif updating it.

It would be scenario where you are the head coach at Hooterville High School for the past 8 seasons and have moved up into administration have been promoted to athletic director (which is very common)  after no internal candidates have applied to be the new football coach you are being tasked to write a job description about your program to seek out the best external candidate.

Don't see a soul ever leaving that High School.

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  • 1 month later...

Al Hamnik (a guy that has been covering the high school sports scene longer that most people reading this has been alive) is reporting that Russ Radtke is leaving New Prairie and taking over at Portage.

The DAC and 6A north might get a lot more interesting.

 

955F3EBC-8959-4B19-810C-9B5D5D182ED3.png

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3 hours ago, Tommy said:

Al Hamnik (a guy that has been covering the high school sports scene longer than most people reading this has been alive) is reporting that Russ Radtke is leaving New Prairie and taking over at Portage.

The DAC and 6A north might get a lot more interesting.

 

955F3EBC-8959-4B19-810C-9B5D5D182ED3.png

 

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Would all the 6A fans heads explode with a Portage vs Warsaw Semi-State in 2025 with the over/under passing attempts for the game being set at 3?   I for one would LOVE IT! Hard to picture Russ Leaving NP, but this has kind of been par for the course if you look at his career.  Show up, push everyone and everything to its limit, and then move on when he feels like the limit has been reached or people around the program start to push back or question the pushing, and he is on to the next place.  

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37 minutes ago, Wedgebuster said:

Would all the 6A fans heads explode with a Portage vs Warsaw Semi-State in 2025 with the over/under passing attempts for the game being set at 3?   I for one would LOVE IT! Hard to picture Russ Leaving NP, but this has kind of been par for the course if you look at his career.  Show up, push everyone and everything to its limit, and then move on when he feels like the limit has been reached or people around the program start to push back or question the pushing, and he is on to the next place.  

Has the New Prairie community actually started to question his methods? IMO, this would be a home run hire for Portage. He'll instill discipline and toughness, he can out-coach most coaches in the Region, and he can develop an offense that scores. Hope this rumor comes to fruition. 

 

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