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Anderson should drop its football program


Guest DT

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Anderson is 0-6 in its 11th season post consolidation.  Since Randy Albano left after the 2013 season, the program is 11-52.

Expectations were high that Anderson might see a football revival after the closure of Highland and the consolidation to one school.

Why bother.  Clearly, football has zero emphasis and influence on this campus.  The program is highly uncompetitive and invests nothing in potential improvement.

Contraction is the best solution for a basketball crazy school like Anderson that only offers football because it feels it is obligated to.  Pull the plug and take those valuable resources and invest in other most cost effective activities for the Anderson student body.

 

 

 

ANDERSON
INDIANS
Coach: Ron Qualls, 4-23 in 3rd year at school, 99-85 in 17th year overall
               
DATE OPPONENT EASTERN TIME OA 8.7, DA 43.0
Aug. 21   Yorktown 3A L 0 48    
Aug. 28 at Pendleton Heights 4A L 6 45    
Sep. 4 at Muncie Central 4A © L 20 21    
Sep. 11   Marion 4A © L 0 49    
Sep. 18 at Harrison (West Lafayette) 5A © L 14 42    
Sep. 25   Kokomo 5A © L 12 53    
Oct. 2   Indianapolis Tech 6A © 7:00 pm    
Oct. 9 at Richmond 4A © 7:00 pm    
Oct. 16   Logansport 4A © 7:00 pm  
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4 minutes ago, Whiting89 said:

I don’t think the answer is contraction I think the answer is the opposite of success factor the unsuccessful factor. Struggling programs like this get knocked down a class till they can compete

Coaches will start tanking?

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42 minutes ago, Whiting89 said:

I don’t think the answer is contraction I think the answer is the opposite of success factor the unsuccessful factor. Struggling programs like this get knocked down a class till they can compete

I've always liked the suggestion of putting teams in classes using the Sagarin ratings or something similar instead of enrollment.  Seems to me it would be beneficial for everyone.  The stellar smaller school programs (the current ones) would play against better competition in the tournament and not dominate and the bigger struggling schools would play lower level teams and be more competitive.  It will never happen because it makes too much sense, but I'd like the IHSAA at least try it.  The success factor would be automatic.  You get ranked higher, then you move up.

Edited by itiswhatitis
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3 hours ago, DT said:

Anderson is 0-6 in its 11th season post consolidation.  Since Randy Albano left after the 2013 season, the program is 11-52.

Expectations were high that Anderson might see a football revival after the closure of Highland and the consolidation to one school.

Why bother.  Clearly, football has zero emphasis and influence on this campus.  The program is highly uncompetitive and invests nothing in potential improvement.

Contraction is the best solution for a basketball crazy school like Anderson that only offers football because it feels it is obligated to.  Pull the plug and take those valuable resources and invest in other most cost effective activities for the Anderson student body.

 

 

 

ANDERSON
INDIANS
Coach: Ron Qualls, 4-23 in 3rd year at school, 99-85 in 17th year overall
               
DATE OPPONENT EASTERN TIME OA 8.7, DA 43.0
Aug. 21   Yorktown 3A L 0 48    
Aug. 28 at Pendleton Heights 4A L 6 45    
Sep. 4 at Muncie Central 4A © L 20 21    
Sep. 11   Marion 4A © L 0 49    
Sep. 18 at Harrison (West Lafayette) 5A © L 14 42    
Sep. 25   Kokomo 5A © L 12 53    
Oct. 2   Indianapolis Tech 6A © 7:00 pm    
Oct. 9 at Richmond 4A © 7:00 pm    
Oct. 16   Logansport 4A © 7:00 pm  

DT should drop off the digest 

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4 hours ago, DT said:

Anderson is 0-6 in its 11th season post consolidation.  Since Randy Albano left after the 2013 season, the program is 11-52.

Expectations were high that Anderson might see a football revival after the closure of Highland and the consolidation to one school.

Why bother.  Clearly, football has zero emphasis and influence on this campus.  The program is highly uncompetitive and invests nothing in potential improvement.

Contraction is the best solution for a basketball crazy school like Anderson that only offers football because it feels it is obligated to.  Pull the plug and take those valuable resources and invest in other most cost effective activities for the Anderson student body.

 

 

               
       
               
               
               
               
               
               
           
           
         

Agreed.  Take the resources that are used for football and invest it into rebuilding and maintaining the Wigwam, truly one of the nation's basketball palaces.

 

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20 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

Agreed.  Take the resources that are used for football and invest it into rebuilding and maintaining the Wigwam, truly one of the nation's basketball palaces.

 

So just because the Wigwam is of historical significance, we should try to keep it open to play bad 4A basketball?  Anderson past 6 years...(2-22, 7-17, 11-14, 4-20, 3-20, 6-19).  I remember watching games there and I'm honestly for keeping it open, but cannot make the argument to contract Anderson HS football b/c of bad records and argue that the Wigwam should stay open with those records I mentioned.  

Anderson can win in football.  Get the right guy in there and they'll be OK.  He's had success at the small school level, but I don't think current HC has the necessary experience to win consistently there.  They seem to be trending downward in recent years....

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No chance the wigwam comes back, unfortunately.  Probably should have bought in the early 2000's when they sold it for a dollar to turn it into a nursing home.  Of course now it's a Jane Pauley Community Health center.

As far as the football program, there was a reason why the consolidated the schools, all the factories shut down and everyone moved.  They have never recovered, most of Madison county is struggling in football at the moment.  It all starts with the youth programs and a tenured coaching staff to get behind said programs.  But you have to keep a coach longer than 3 seasons to get that going typically.

Drop the program, no.  Every conference has a bottom dweller. If you dropped programs just for not having a winning season in the last 10 years, we would lose a lot of football teams.  Anderson barely made this list, should all these programs be dropped?

 

Current Losing Streaks
Min. 10 Games
35-South Newton
25-Elwood
22-Hammond
21-Pike Central
21-Evansville Harrison
21-Union Dugger
20-Shelbyville
19-Indpls Perry Meridian
16-Northwestern
16-Fountain Central
14-Bellmont
13-Indpls Shortridge
12-Anderson
10-Rushville
 

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Anderson has a unique problem this season, they have been in virtual learning until last week.

its 12+ miles from the North boundary to the school.  It was probably real had getting players to practice if parents worked and players didnt drive or have an available car.

You never know who would be there.  When Anderson consolidated they lost a bunch of good athletes to Pendleton, Lapel, Frankton, Daleville, and Alexandria. 

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I think there are many other issues at play when it comes to Anderson's athletic success since the consolidation of Anderson Highland after the 2010 school year.

First - it is a well known fact that many of those families ended up sending their kids to Pendleton Heights, Yorktown, Lapel and Frankton over them all going to Anderson High School. If you notice, all of those schools have done pretty darn well in football, boys basketball and girls basketball in the last 10 years.

As well - there has to be something going on within the Athletic Department and the hallways of Anderson High School. It is still a big enough school to get athletes from and be competitive, but they need the right coaches and enough support to encourage the students to play athletics. Outside of a solid 3 year stretch from the girls basketball team from 2012-2014, here are those 3 main programs records since 2010:

Football: 29-79 (0.269 winning percentage) - with 1 winning season
Boys Basketball: 71-161 (0.306 winning percentage) - with 1 winning season
Girls Basketball: 128-113 (0.531 winning percentage) - with 4 winning seasons

In my opinion, it looks more like a culture change that needs to occur within the school building to encourage/promote the benefits of extracurricular athletics while also making sure the programs have the right coaches and enough support to be successful.

Edited by NLCTigerFan07
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I have coached at Anderson High School. In my opinion one of the biggest issues with Anderson is the community. They won’t let go of the past. This is 2020 not 1985. Highland and Madison Heights are gone and aren’t coming back. Overall they need a fresh start in all athletics from top to bottom with new ideas and new culture. 

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41 minutes ago, CoachKRichards said:

Overall they need a fresh start in all athletics from top to bottom with new ideas and new culture. 

They are working on a fresh start.  New field last year, upgraded the gym floor, new ball diamonds, soccer field and Aux gym.  Now, like you said, get the community to back them up.

 

 

FB_IMG_1601482484426.jpg

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Yes, let's demand that Anderson drop it's football team.  That's a bit hypocritical coming from a fan of a school who's had only one winning season in the last 10 years.  And the 2 years before that they went 1 and 20.  So tell me, WHO are you to judge other programs when your own isn't very good?  It's past time for someone to rein in their holier than thou attitude towards others and take a long look in the mirror.  

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3 hours ago, CoachKRichards said:

I have coached at Anderson High School. In my opinion one of the biggest issues with Anderson is the community. They won’t let go of the past. This is 2020 not 1985. Highland and Madison Heights are gone and aren’t coming back. Overall they need a fresh start in all athletics from top to bottom with new ideas and new culture. 

<politicallcorrectness> And obviously dropping the offensive and culturally appropriative team name of "Indians" needs to change as well. </politicalcorrectness> 

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