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Elkhart High School - Last Hope for the Great White North?


Guest DT

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So if Elkhart and Penn leave, where does that put the NIC?  

Adams, Clay, Riley, Washington, St. Joe, Marian, Jimtown, Bremen, Glenn, and New Prairie.

The former Northern Star Conference teams Might want to go their separate ways, but not together.

Marian and St. Joe would want to stay together. The South Bend schools......?

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8 minutes ago, LaSalle Lions 1976 said:

So if Elkhart and Penn leave, where does that put the NIC?  

Adams, Clay, Riley, Washington, St. Joe, Marian, Jimtown, Bremen, Glenn, and New Prairie.

The former Northern Star Conference teams Might want to go their separate ways, but not together.

Marian and St. Joe would want to stay together. The South Bend schools......?

Looks very balanced as is minus the two big schools

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6 hours ago, DT said:

Looks very balanced as is minus the two big schools

A more balanced league, and Marian could still schedule some larger schools or the big time Catholic programs of similar size if they want to replace the competition lost. Probably not the best spot if they end up having to square off with Clay, Riley, Washington every year. Maybe SBCSC gets it figured out, but I feel like that's the refrain to a very familiar song. 

I'd expect the league to go back to rotating teams on and off of schedules in a two year pattern if it was reduced to 10 teams.

Some (Penn-centric) numbers just to add to the idea of balancing out the NIC with the removal of Penn and Elkhart. 

Penn has only lost 20 conference games since joining the NIC in 1977.  

Penn lost a conference game on 9/27/85 and didn't lose again until 10/2/09. This means Penn lost 14 games in its first 9 seasons in the conference and 6 games in the last 12 seasons.

Since 2009 Penn is 96-6 in conference play with three losses to Mishawaka (-16, 2009; -7, 2010; -7, 2018), and one to each of Elkhart (-1, 2020), Marian (-4, 2020) and New Prairie (-4, 2019). 

In 96 wins the margin of victory is 30.15 points. In 6 losses the margin is 6.5 points. 

Since 2018 Penn is 11-4 in the conference. The margin in wins is 20.54 and the margin in losses is 4.

As I said earlier in the thread, the goal is to be consistently competitive with the 6As in Indy, and Penn and Elkhart will be better served getting out of the NIC and into the DAC where the members are much more similar.

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7 hours ago, DT said:

Looks very balanced as is minus the two big schools

Perhaps Clay may drop sports as has been reported previously.   That would take the conference down to 9 schools.  Thu could still play a full round robin and have one non con

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30 minutes ago, johnny U said:

I don't understand why a "Fine Aarts Magnet" would want sports at all.  They don't attract  many athletes.

 

Not even this guy?  Seriously though, both of my boys are classically-trained in ballet.  One was a linebacker/fullback/DE when he played and danced at the same time.  The other was a QB/safety while he danced.  Was outstanding for their footwork; especially for the older one in soccer.  In baseball, both are catchers and reserve pitchers.  If time wasn't an issue, especially with travel baseball, they both would probably both still be dancing.

 

image.png.96936bc99b819054b08862aace73dfb6.png

 

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On 11/30/2020 at 12:15 PM, cbc34 said:

What's going on with Penn?

Tough year this year, but they were right on the cusp.  Their regular season losses were to teams that had a combined record of 32-1, before the tournament and several of those loses were 4 points or less (Cathedral being the exception).  Three of those teams made it to at least semi-state.  No doubt eventual Ohio champion Cincinnati St. Xavier would have been a difficult game for Penn, had it been played.

Their 2017 season was dominating, until hitting the BD buzzsaw in the Championship game.  Penn will be back.  Still haven't had a losing season in 48 years!

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On 12/1/2020 at 6:11 PM, Bobref said:

Nicest playing field is probably Ames in Michigan City.

That's nice to hear, because I remember the old Ames.  Back in '75 or '76, I remember when Penn went over and played Elston and our star running back, Tom Hill, was on a breakaway run, but tripped and fell because, if I recall. the field sloped down from the baseball base paths with which the football field shared.

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14 hours ago, gindie said:

Still haven't had a losing season in 48 years!

Amazing success in and out of conference! 

I'm not down on Penn's coaches or players, but the NIC doesn't offer anything to the program's benefit anymore. 

NIC record from 1977-2020: 264-19

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Last hope?  No way, José.   As IU has basically come out of nowhere in the college ranks, it can happen in high school as well:

 

DAC Schools, sure there has been a drought, but Crown Point, Lake Central, etc. won’t be down forever

 

NIC/NLC—Penn will always be a force and it now appears Elkhart is ready to give them a run for their money.  Mishawaka and Warsaw shouldn’t be ignored.

 

The Fort—no shortage of big schools, will it be Carroll, Homestead, or somebody else?

 

NCC—sure, it’s a great hoops league which means they have the athletes.  Will Jeff get good outside their conference?  What about Harrison and Kokomo?  

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/1/2020 at 8:27 AM, vito said:

Just to put some enrollment numbers into the scenario (these are on another thread and Morton and Hammond's are after the presumed consolidations):

Andrean - 348

Highland - 1061

Hobart - 1264

KV - 1015

Lowell - 1092

Munster - 1572

Hanover - 748

Hammond - 1596 (5A)

Morton - 2063 (6A)

 

A "closed" conference is NOT happening.  This was done 20+ years ago.  It was called the LAC and it was a mess. OUM states it well: Conference affiliations are about three things - gate revenue, participation across three levels in all sports and the ease of scheduling that comes with said participation.  I'll speak from Lowell's perspective from the standpoint of a fan who wants them to do well - Morton is a great football opponent.  What an awesome way to start your season against three 6A opponents in CP, Portage and Morton (this is why I LOVE the all in playoff format). If you believe adversity makes you stronger, playing those three to start your season does it. 

Finally, in regard to Hanover,  keep in mind it encompasses a decent portion of St. John.  South of 231 is exploding with growth. I can envision them being 4A in less than 5 years.

 

How are you going to fit that many students into Morton as it stands ?

Edited by Goose Liver
Grammar
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On 12/15/2020 at 6:38 PM, Gipper said:

Last hope?  No way, José.   As IU has basically come out of nowhere in the college ranks, it can happen in high school as well:

 

DAC Schools, sure there has been a drought, but Crown Point, Lake Central, etc. won’t be down forever

 

NIC/NLC—Penn will always be a force and it now appears Elkhart is ready to give them a run for their money.  Mishawaka and Warsaw shouldn’t be ignored.

 

The Fort—no shortage of big schools, will it be Carroll, Homestead, or somebody else?

 

NCC—sure, it’s a great hoops league which means they have the athletes.  Will Jeff get good outside their conference?  What about Harrison and Kokomo?  

The college analogy just does not fit here my friend.  Sorry.

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