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Questions about the new Elkhart High School


Guest DT

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Would appreciate if some posters close to the local situation in Elkhart can comment on the following.

It appears as if the new Elkhart High School is operating off of two campuses, called Elkhart East and Elkhart West.  So apparently all of the students have not been consolidated to one campus.

Did East and West just replace Memorial and Central in name, and the kids are still going to separate schools but the corporation has consolidated all extra curricular activities to one location?

If this is the case, why wouldnt Bloomington North and South, Columbus North and East, Terre Haute North and South all do the same and consolidate their extra curriculars to one location while maintaining separate campuses?

I must be missing something here?

Is the new Elkhart HS really a mega school?  

Or is it some type of new hybrid?

 

 

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12 hours ago, DT said:

Would appreciate if some posters close to the local situation in Elkhart can comment on the following.

It appears as if the new Elkhart High School is operating off of two campuses, called Elkhart East and Elkhart West.  So apparently all of the students have not been consolidated to one campus.

Did East and West just replace Memorial and Central in name, and the kids are still going to separate schools but the corporation has consolidated all extra curricular activities to one location?

If this is the case, why wouldnt Bloomington North and South, Columbus North and East, Terre Haute North and South all do the same and consolidate their extra curriculars to one location while maintaining separate campuses?

I must be missing something here?

Is the new Elkhart HS really a mega school?  

Or is it some type of new hybrid?

 

 

I am happy to help answer this for you.

 

In 2018, Elkhart Community Schools filed paperwork with the IHSAA letting them know that beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, Elkhart Memorial and Elkhart Central High schools would be competitive together as one Elkhart Hish School.

 

Construction had not yet been completed, leaving the new high school to operate out of two campuses. 

 

Construction has since been completed and, beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, Elkhart High school will house grades 10-12 at its West Campus (formerly Elkhart Memorial HS) and 9th grade students at East Campus (formerly Elkhart Central HS).

 

Football games will continue to be played at Rice Field, located at the East Campus.

 

 

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12 minutes ago, CoachShattuck said:

I am happy to help answer this for you.

 

In 2018, Elkhart Community Schools filed paperwork with the IHSAA letting them know that beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, Elkhart Memorial and Elkhart Central High schools would be competitive together as one Elkhart Hish School.

 

Construction had not yet been completed, leaving the new high school to operate out of two campuses. 

 

Construction has since been completed and, beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, Elkhart High school will house grades 10-12 at its West Campus (formerly Elkhart Memorial HS) and 9th grade students at East Campus (formerly Elkhart Central HS).

 

Football games will continue to be played at Rice Field, located at the East Campus.

 

 

This is a great short cut to mega school status.

Terre Haute and Bloomington should follow suit.  Both would be infinitely more interesting to watch as 3000 plus enrollment megas than middling 5A non contenders.

We are now in a period of consolidation.  Hammond and Elkhart have followed Muncie and Anderson down this path.  South Bend should be primed to consolidate from 4 down to 2.  Just get it done and get these programs strengthened for the future.

 

 

 

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Going to play a little Devil's advocate here........does anyone else worry about kids having less opportunities for involvement in this model?   44 starters in 2 football playing schools gets cut to 22.  10 basketball spots to 5, 28 wrestling slots to 14.  

What is the positive trade-off that comes with this move towards fewer teams?  Is the thought that Elkhart or other like schools couldn't successfully support 2 smaller programs in each sport but with their combined resources they could support 1 program at an accelerated level of competition?  

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3 minutes ago, Wedgebuster said:

Going to play a little Devil's advocate here........does anyone else worry about kids having less opportunities for involvement in this model?   44 starters in 2 football playing schools gets cut to 22.  10 basketball spots to 5, 28 wrestling slots to 14.  

What is the positive trade-off that comes with this move towards fewer teams?  Is the thought that Elkhart or other like schools couldn't successfully support 2 smaller programs in each sport but with their combined resources they could support 1 program at an accelerated level of competition?  

One unintended consequence is increasing single sport specialization, which studies have shown increases the probability of both injury and burnout.

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12 hours ago, CoachShattuck said:

I am happy to help answer this for you.

 

In 2018, Elkhart Community Schools filed paperwork with the IHSAA letting them know that beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, Elkhart Memorial and Elkhart Central High schools would be competitive together as one Elkhart Hish School.

 

Construction had not yet been completed, leaving the new high school to operate out of two campuses. 

 

Construction has since been completed and, beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, Elkhart High school will house grades 10-12 at its West Campus (formerly Elkhart Memorial HS) and 9th grade students at East Campus (formerly Elkhart Central HS).

 

Football games will continue to be played at Rice Field, located at the East Campus.

 

 

This is a similar to some of the schools in the Plano district in Texas ... north of Dallas.  Plano East and Plano West service Grades 11 and 12 and are each in turn fed by a pair of high schools that service Grades 9 and 10.  Plano East also handles freshen/sophomores who are part of the IB curriculum.  Plano East is fed by McMillen and Williams high schools and Plano West is fed by Jasper and Shelton high schools.  This setup allows Plano West and East to have enrollments of around 2,700 and almost 3,000, respectively, while not over-burdening resources at a single school.

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13 hours ago, DT said:

This is a great short cut to mega school status.

Terre Haute and Bloomington should follow suit.  Both would be infinitely more interesting to watch as 3000 plus enrollment megas than middling 5A non contenders.

We are now in a period of consolidation.  Hammond and Elkhart have followed Muncie and Anderson down this path.  South Bend should be primed to consolidate from 4 down to 2.  Just get it done and get these programs strengthened for the future.

 

Maybe the entire school corporation doesn't revolve around football?  I realize this is a football board but you have to realize there are far more significant factors in such decisions.  

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2 hours ago, Wedgebuster said:

Going to play a little Devil's advocate here........does anyone else worry about kids having less opportunities for involvement in this model?   44 starters in 2 football playing schools gets cut to 22.  10 basketball spots to 5, 28 wrestling slots to 14.  

I don't worry about it. In my experience, the families that are most concerned about this type of thing find a parochial school or a smaller public school. I also don't think it's that much of a problem since school consolidation will likely create more opportunities to be on a team.

A decade ago, Elkhart Central used to have an abysmal freshman football team. We're talking 15-16 kids (with a couple sophomores thrown in there, they were always up front about it). That's not fun, and I wouldn't describe it as an opportunity. I would imagine that the freshman football team at Elkhart High School is a lot of fun to be a part of now. It helps that they have a good program in place (which should increase participation on its own in theory), but the team would also logically have more potential players.

The opportunity to participate is different than the opportunity to start. If we focus on football only, and even at the largest schools, nearly every player that makes it through their senior year should have had ample opportunity at a starting position. If they didn't end up starting then they probably weren't able to perform at the necessary level. I don't want to disparage guys who don't or didn't start, but how many of those guys (hedging a little) would have started somewhere else anyway? I get what you're saying to some degree with sports that have smaller teams. But I would apply logic similar to the football example to this problem. 

When you're cutting down to a manageable, reasonably sized basketball team or a hockey team or whatever, you're going to have a handful of guys that you know are automatically making the team. They're just that much better, faster, bigger, stronger etc. The bottom is usually pretty easy to cut away too. Kids that can't run, throw, jump, etc. The bubble is where you might lose some opportunity to be on the team and usually there is very little to distinguish the bubble guys from each other - which is how you end up on the bubble anyway. 

Anyway it's worthy of discussion.

2 hours ago, Bobref said:

One unintended consequence is increasing single sport specialization, which studies have shown increases the probability of both injury and burnout.

But have any studies suggested that school consolidation -> increased specialization? This does seem like a safe, common sense assumption, but usually  consolidation is considered to lead to an increase in athletic and other extracurricular activity. Coaches, parents, the private coaching industry with travel sports industry (in other sports, but I guess 7 on 7 now) and the lure of scholarships are more likely culprits for specialization in my opinion. 

We could dance around the idea that more potential players and fewer spots (consolidation) allows for coaches to demand specialization, or for parents to encourage it, but from what I've seen I'd be less likely to point to consolidation as the driver of specialization, while I am willing to concede that it might be a factor. Most of the time in school coaches were the culprit when it came to forcing better players to specialize, and players did out of fear of retribution. They weren't the players that were at risk of getting cut because they couldn't play.

Just an example of why I'm discussing this, but in my current line of work I can think of experiences with a handful of families with 10, 11, 12, 13 year old boys that have considered specializing or do specialize in hockey only. In Indiana. And it's not like they're the best players either. The best players are, of course, the best athletes. 

I totally agree with you on the destructive and limiting aspects of specialization, and I do everything I can to discourage it. 

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15 minutes ago, PDB26 said:

Coaches, parents, the private coaching industry with travel sports industry (in other sports, but I guess 7 on 7 now) and the lure of scholarships are more likely culprits for specialization in my opinion. 

I didn’t intend to suggest that consolidation, resulting in decreased athletic opportunities, was the only reason for the increase in ever-younger single sport specialization.  But as you pointed out, there are other factors as well. That makes it extremely unlikely that any studies of the effects of school consolidation on specialization could be properly designed.

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1 hour ago, Bobref said:

That makes it extremely unlikely that any studies of the effects of school consolidation on specialization could be properly designed.

Very true, and I didn't mean for that to come across as challenging as it might have. Specialization is such a serious problem that I am always interested in discussing. Not sure if there's an actual solution though.  

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6 minutes ago, PDB26 said:

Very true, and I didn't mean for that to come across as challenging as it might have. Specialization is such a serious problem that I am always interested in discussing. Not sure if there's an actual solution though.  

I think the only solution, albeit an imperfect one, is to convince coaches, players and parents of the virtues of playing multiple sports, through education.

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On 2/14/2021 at 8:39 PM, DT said:

This is a great short cut to mega school status.

Terre Haute and Bloomington should follow suit.  Both would be infinitely more interesting to watch as 3000 plus enrollment megas than middling 5A non contenders.

We are now in a period of consolidation.  Hammond and Elkhart have followed Muncie and Anderson down this path.  South Bend should be primed to consolidate from 4 down to 2.  Just get it done and get these programs strengthened for the future.

 

 

 

Have Anderson and Muncie gotten any better?

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A huge enrollment of more than 2000, 2500, 3000...10,000 kids isn’t necessarily the answer.  Other factors need to be considered.   Take Linton as an example, or even Pioneer: both have very small enrollments, yet both are consistently good.  Props to them.

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On 2/15/2021 at 9:49 PM, Gipper said:

A huge enrollment of more than 2000, 2500, 3000...10,000 kids isn’t necessarily the answer.  Other factors need to be considered.   Take Linton as an example, or even Pioneer: both have very small enrollments, yet both are consistently good.  Props to them.

Both are consistently good due to extremely high participation rates, excellent coaching, and great program alignment grade school to high school.   I can see where if two smaller schools can't support those things individually, but by combining their resources could do so, that a bigger combined school might be an answer.

It does sadden me that some look at that as the first option, rather than putting things in place that might lead to better participation, better coaching, better program alignment at both smaller schools and therefore a higher number of kids overall benefiting from playing high school sports. 

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On 2/18/2021 at 8:40 AM, Wedgebuster said:

 

Both are consistently good due to extremely high participation rates, excellent coaching, and great program alignment grade school to high school.   I can see where if two smaller schools can't support those things individually, but by combining their resources could do so, that a bigger combined school might be an answer.

It does sadden me that some look at that as the first option, rather than putting things in place that might lead to better participation, better coaching, better program alignment at both smaller schools and therefore a higher number of kids overall benefiting from playing high school sports. 

I think there were other factors that led to consolidation than just football, an extracurricular activity...

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3 hours ago, Tommy said:

As a season ticket holder I am very excited and looking forward to see Derrick Woods play at Grand Valley State.

 

How are the boys doing Tommy?

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On 2/25/2021 at 11:54 AM, DT said:

How are the boys doing Tommy?

Outstanding, all of D2 had their football season cancelled as a result they got a full free year of college education and they did take away any of their eligibility so they will be there the next 2 seasons.  Spring practice began 2 weeks ago. They are being taken care of really good up there.

I told Buck that they should put him on the cover of EA Sports NCAA Football K21.

 

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22 minutes ago, Tommy said:

Outstanding, all of D2 had their football season cancelled as a result they got a full free year of college education and they did take away any of their eligibility so they will be there the next 2 seasons.  Spring practice began 2 weeks ago. They are being taken care of really good up there.

I told Buck that they should put him on the cover of EA Sports NCAA Football K21.

 

https://gvsulakers.com/sports/football/roster        Check out the dudes from Michigan City, as well as all the other Indiana talent on the Grand Valley State University roster.

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35 minutes ago, DT said:

https://gvsulakers.com/sports/football/roster        Check out the dudes from Michigan City, as well as all the other Indiana talent on the Grand Valley State University roster.

 

Buck, Markice, TE Scott Cooper from La Porte, Kicker Josh Gorball from Concord, DB JT Webb from Elkhart Central from Concord, are all key returners for the Lakers next season.  They all played against each other in high school and now have become teammates in college.

BTW, I fully support the idea of the NCAA student athlete to be fully compensated for the use of their name, image, likeness and performance statistics.

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