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2022 Outlook - 1A


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I figured it was best to start a specific 1A thread since there were a decent amount of comments about it on the general sectional realignment threads. How do we think things look in 1A? Who are the favorites? Are there any up-and-coming teams that will surprise us?

I can really only speak on the North. Sectional 41 is definitely the strongest in this half of the state. Whoever comes out of that (North Judson, Pioneer, Triton) will likely have to go through Park Tudor for a place in semistate. Adams Central loses the bulk of their offensive production, but there will be a strong core of returning incoming juniors that will be ready to pick up the slack on both sides of the ball. I think AC will be a tough out in sectional 44 and in the regional, although I'm not sure what Carroll returns.

I'm assuming that Lutheran and Covenant Christian will be the favorites in the South. I look forward to a week 3 matchup between AC and Covenant Christian at Taylor University as a chance to compare the North & South.

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Adams Central in my opinion has been the most consistent 1A program for a long time. Coach Mosser does a great job and I don't see them falling off a lot because they never do. They're, in my view, still the favorites to win the North until shown otherwise.

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Of interest, given that LCC won a sectional and stayed in 2A with a single point, and Pioneer won a regional in 2A in 2020, but bowed out before picking up a sectional and moved down to 1A, is that Lutheran ran the table in 1A last season and remains there for this coming season.  With that occurrence, I think Lutheran is the odds-on favorite coming out of the south.  The Sectional 47 crown probably gives an indication of the LOS representative from the south.

While I don't think they have the depth to make it deep into the post season, keep an eye on TPCA to play spoiler to someone's post season.  They've been on the cusp of picking up a sectional and the Sectional 42 might just be in their future this season.

AC is, IMO, odds-on favorite to return to LOS, thus setting up a grudge match between Lutheran and AC of last year's 1A title game.  Pioneer, coming down from 2A, could play spoiler to that rematch and also don't rule out NJSP to trip someone up in an ambush on the way to LOS.  My top spoiler though, coming out of the north, is going to be Pioneer.  Been there, done that, from the Pioneer program, and the last three seasons in 2A have them relatively calm, but not cocky, returning to 1A.  If anyone can make it past AC, Pioneer would likely be the team. With that said, there's a lot to overcome to dethrone AC.

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Don’t sleep on Park Tudor. Going North is definitely a boost for them imo. The North is deeper but the South is so top-heavy with Lutheran and Covenant. They played Lutheran tough in a post season loss last year. I could see them making a run. 

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For Pioneer:

Offensively, we lose leading rusher Brock Robinson, wingback Beau Mersch and linemen, Legrand (TE), Solano, Smith(TE) and Lowe.

Defensively, we lose Legrand and Solano from the Dline, LB Smith and DB Robinson.

We return a handful of experience on both sides of the ball, but we will need a lot of kids to step up who have limited varsity experience. I'd hazard a guess that we will see freshmen on the field on Fridays sooner rather than later due to the overall lack of depth we will have.

Will definitely be an interesting year.

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Agree Lutheran from south. Not sure it'll be close (admittedly don't know what CC returns). Just to talk about someone different ill be watching Providence closely. Coming from 2A they have a good style. I assume they replace Perry Central in sectional 48. They could be a quietly good team and they play a good schedule. 

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On 5/7/2022 at 8:22 AM, WWFan said:

Agree Lutheran from south. Not sure it'll be close (admittedly don't know what CC returns). Just to talk about someone different ill be watching Providence closely. Coming from 2A they have a good style. I assume they replace Perry Central in sectional 48. They could be a quietly good team and they play a good schedule. 

Covenant returns more playmakers IMO , but a Dave Pasch coached team will always be a tough out in November . Covenant has also done a better job of beefing up there schedule ( Speedway , Adams Central, Heritage Christian, and Park Tutor )  but you can't replicate the schedule of the ICC absolutely brutal conference. 

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3 hours ago, EasyEJay said:

Covenant returns more playmakers IMO , but a Dave Pasch coached team will always be a tough out in November . Covenant has also done a better job of beefing up there schedule ( Speedway , Adams Central, Heritage Christian, and Park Tutor )  but you can't replicate the schedule of the ICC absolutely brutal conference. 

I remember when we played them in semi state (2 years ago) their coach was excited about their soph class (will be seniors). Just never know who sticks around. Yes I agree that schedule is much better but didn't seem to matter couple years ago. That team was talented as hell obviously. 

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On 5/6/2022 at 1:08 PM, FarmerFran said:

For Pioneer:

Offensively, we lose leading rusher Brock Robinson, wingback Beau Mersch and linemen, Legrand (TE), Solano, Smith(TE) and Lowe.

Defensively, we lose Legrand and Solano from the Dline, LB Smith and DB Robinson.

We return a handful of experience on both sides of the ball, but we will need a lot of kids to step up who have limited varsity experience. I'd hazard a guess that we will see freshmen on the field on Fridays sooner rather than later due to the overall lack of depth we will have.

Will definitely be an interesting year.

Will Pioneer have any studs in your opinion?

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1 hour ago, AG said:

Will Pioneer have any studs in your opinion?

We don't have any Jack Kiser's walking through the halls if that's what you're asking... 

We have a few kids that could step up and be pretty good for us this year, but most of our skill positions will be relatively new faces with different roles than they're used to playing.

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Sectional 47 will definitely be a meat grinder of small school sectionals. In two seasons 5 teams played in a regional, 2 of us lost to the 2 State Champions(20-21). 3-4 being projected top 10 preseason. Looking forward to the challenge!

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I was very surprised to see that whoever puts together the Hoosier High School Football page left North Judson out of the top 10. They return their main offensive producers from a semistate run and are probably favorites in the tough sectional 41. HHF releases some great content for HS football in Indiana (interviews, player/coach spotlights, etc.), but NJ should definitely be in the top 10.

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20 hours ago, FarmerFran said:

We don't have any Jack Kiser's walking through the halls if that's what you're asking... 

We have a few kids that could step up and be pretty good for us this year, but most of our skill positions will be relatively new faces with different roles than they're used to playing.

I assumed that there aren't any Kiser or Lewellen type talents walking the halls right now. I was asking about maybe a tier or two below that, i.e. potential all-state players. It sounds like we return most of our lines though. Hopefully everyone will take their new role with pride and work hard.

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On 5/11/2022 at 1:14 PM, Oldschool said:

Wondering what everyone’s thoughts are on how they matched up the regional assignments?

The north regionals are a little weird, especially with Park Tudor coming to the north and Monroe Central going to the south. 

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I do think that the regional assignments allow for some potentially fun matchups - Park Tudor vs. North Judson/Pioneer/Triton and AC vs. Carroll Flora (not sure what they bring back from last year, so maybe they won't be the favorites in sectional 43???)

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Was little surprised to see AC’s 1st 3 games.  Could be tough sledding early for a team that lost a ton.  I’m sure the younger kids are good but the difference between jrs and seniors is significant.  Win with seniors.  That being said the ACAC is down a little given SA is in rebuild mode for awhile… Bluffton lost bunch of seniors.  … maybe Heritage or Jay Co can put something together.  Regardless, plenty of time to “get right” before tournament.  Am predicting “dark horse” 1A rep from the North at LOS this year… am going with Triton.

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4 hours ago, Purdue Pete said:

Was little surprised to see AC’s 1st 3 games.  Could be tough sledding early for a team that lost a ton.

I really like what AC did with the schedule, its fun to beat up Belmont but needed to schedule some different teams in there.  Let them got to battle some before easing into the ACAC schedule.

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9 hours ago, Purdue Pete said:

Was little surprised to see AC’s 1st 3 games.  Could be tough sledding early for a team that lost a ton.  I’m sure the younger kids are good but the difference between jrs and seniors is significant.  Win with seniors.  That being said the ACAC is down a little given SA is in rebuild mode for awhile… Bluffton lost bunch of seniors.  … maybe Heritage or Jay Co can put something together.  Regardless, plenty of time to “get right” before tournament.  Am predicting “dark horse” 1A rep from the North at LOS this year… am going with Triton.

I think you can argue that AC’s 2021 team wouldn't have gotten past Busco in round 1 of sectional without the lessons learned from the week 2 loss to Eastside. I’d love to go undefeated, but a loss early on can offer a lot of lessons if you’re willing to learn. I’m glad they picked up Covenant Christian week 3. That’ll be a fun one and will offer a lot of insight to the state in terms of comparing 1a teams from the north to south. Bellmont electing to drop us is a loss for the community, but good for our program overall. 

I’m not sure about the “ACAC is down” comment, though. It was already one of the worst conferences in the state. 

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22 hours ago, Purdue Pete said:

Was little surprised to see AC’s 1st 3 games.  Could be tough sledding early for a team that lost a ton.  I’m sure the younger kids are good but the difference between jrs and seniors is significant.  Win with seniors.  That being said the ACAC is down a little given SA is in rebuild mode for awhile… Bluffton lost bunch of seniors.  … maybe Heritage or Jay Co can put something together.  Regardless, plenty of time to “get right” before tournament.  Am predicting “dark horse” 1A rep from the North at LOS this year… am going with Triton.

Woah I’ve never seen on GID anyone ever talk about about Triton in that high of regard!  Frankly, I don’t like it.  They have 14 seniors who are all good football players!  Some really talented junior playmakers and lots of underclassman who are hungry for playing time!  We’ll see!  They are working hard in the weight room but don’t know how to really play discipline, winning football yet!

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1 hour ago, FarmerFran said:

Does AC post their stats online anywhere? I was curious to see what they lose statistically from graduation from last year's team. I checked MaxPreps and Digital Scout and couldn't find anything.

We lose the backfield minus the QB. Do have many capable replacements though. We could actually have 2 sets of backfield if everyone progresses as they should. I'm hoping we try it.

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