Hoosier Hills Conference

[Pantherfootball1957]

Do you guys see any teams being able to compete with Bloomington South? To me it seems like we might be replacing the juggernaut that East used to be. Their two HHC matchups were the two best teams in the conference last year resulting in a  (W 55-7) over a regional Floyd team.

And (W 42-7) over the second place team in the conference Columbus East

[Frozen Tundra]

1 hour ago, HSFootballCoach said:

I am not sure the Hoosier Hills, a conference full of schools with 1,500+ kids, is the appropriate competition for a school with 750ish...

 

Corydon would be the smallest school in the conference by 400-500 kids every year and the school that is closest to them in enrollment is 400+ kids smaller than the rest of the conference to begin with. 

Jennings County - 1,159

BNL - 1,185

Columbus East - 1,278

 

So there are actually two schools within 400 students from Jennings County. Nevertheless, your point still stands. Corydon Central has no business being in the HHC. Even if they do somehow have one miracle season, it won’t be the norm for them. They need to try winning the Mid-Southern first before even considering stepping up to the HHC.

[Frozen Tundra]

34 minutes ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

Do you guys see any teams being able to compete with Bloomington South? To me it seems like we might be replacing the juggernaut that East used to be. Their two HHC matchups were the two best teams in the conference last year resulting in a  (W 55-7) over a regional Floyd team.

And (W 42-7) over the second place team in the conference Columbus East

The only team that stands a chance against them is Columbus East and that’s contingent on how the new head coach does. Jeff and New Albany just don’t take football seriously enough despite having a wealth of talent walking the halls. Floyd Central is solid but still lightyears behind where they need to be in order to compete in the upper echelon of 5A. But, as of right now, Bloomington South should run away in football. Everyone has next year to prepare before South joins in 2027.

[btownqbcoach1]

11 hours ago, Frozen Tundra said:

Thought the snippet below from the article was pretty interesting. I figured they’d just plug Bloomington South in Madison’s old slot on everyone’s schedules. If they were to do that, this is what South’s schedule would look like:

Week 1: Bloomington North

Week 2: Martinsville

Week 3: Floyd Central

Week 4: Jeffersonville

Week 5: Open

Week 6: New Albany

Week 7: Columbus East

Week 8: BNL

Week 9: Seymour

If they did that then the other six HHC football members would be giving up the following non-conference games:

Week 3 - Floyd Central: Silver Creek

Week 4 - Jeffersonville: Kokomo

Week 6 - New Albany: Silver Creek

Week 7 - Columbus East: Chatard

Week 8 - BNL: Scottsburg

Week 9 - Seymour: Crispus Attucks

 

Lastly, the article got it wrong. Unless something changes after this year, Floyd Central and Providence no longer have an annual rivalry game. That ran from 1969-1994 and from 1998-2020.

So--- Floyd would look like 

(in no particular order)

Gibson

Memorial

Bloom South

Seymour

New Albany

Jeff

BNL

Col East

Whiteland 

 

Solid, especially if East can get back to where (ish) they should be. Only other solid options for Floyd-- Col North, East Central, Castle, and Ev North. That's really solid schedule. 

1 hour ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

Do you guys see any teams being able to compete with Bloomington South? To me it seems like we might be replacing the juggernaut that East used to be. Their two HHC matchups were the two best teams in the conference last year resulting in a  (W 55-7) over a regional Floyd team.

And (W 42-7) over the second place team in the conference Columbus East

no

[btownqbcoach1]

12 hours ago, Fkfootball said:

I’m not sure about the contract situation? I can ask Coach B the next time I see him.

I don’t remember him and I follow them pretty intently. They’re pretty loaded this season so I think they’ll be fine. Where did he transfer to?

Well-- I doubt they're one year contracts, FC will make two of those trips next year, but.... the POINT was.... FC is in a tough spot to schedule, as everyone is that is an hour+ from Indy, specifically in the south and as a big school. There just isn't that many teams.

[RetiredSouthernCoach]

There was talk at BNL that there would be a meeting this summer to basically redo the entire HHC football schedule with the teams. They said they were looking at a rotating week 3-9 HHC schedule that still allowed for some of the rivalry games HHC non conference that were in place. It would make more sense for Bloomington south to just take the Madison or Jennings County weeks on everyones schedules, if JC is going to stay out of conference long term, which is mixed feedback on. 

[Frozen Tundra]

8 minutes ago, RetiredSouthernCoach said:

There was talk at BNL that there would be a meeting this summer to basically redo the entire HHC football schedule with the teams. They said they were looking at a rotating week 3-9 HHC schedule that still allowed for some of the rivalry games HHC non conference that were in place. It would make more sense for Bloomington south to just take the Madison or Jennings County weeks on everyone’s schedules, if JC is going to stay out of conference long term, which is mixed feedback on. 

They would have to take the spot Madison was in because BNL, Columbus East, and Seymour still have Jennings County on their schedules in the same weeks they played them when JC was an HHC football member.

[Fkfootball]

2 hours ago, Frozen Tundra said:

The only team that stands a chance against them is Columbus East and that’s contingent on how the new head coach does. Jeff and New Albany just don’t take football seriously enough despite having a wealth of talent walking the halls. Floyd Central is solid but still lightyears behind where they need to be in order to compete in the upper echelon of 5A. But, as of right now, Bloomington South should run away in football. Everyone has next year to prepare before South joins in 2027.

Floyd Central has passed up East. 

[Frozen Tundra]

4 minutes ago, Fkfootball said:

Floyd Central has passed up East. 

If a 3-2 record against East in the last five years is passing them up then those are low standards. I want to see some consistency first. I think East has a higher ceiling but, like I said, that’s contingent on what the new coach does. Vogel had his shot and, despite not doing well, still managed an HHC championship and two wins against Floyd Central. Imagine what a decent coach could do. 

Nevertheless, this isn’t a you-know-what measuring contest. I have no problem stating Floyd Central has passed up Columbus East if the facts present themselves. I would agree Floyd Central has had the edge these last five years but I wouldn’t necessarily say they’ve passed them up. Let’s see how these next 2-3 years go with East having a new coach at the helm.

[Pantherfootball1957]

3 hours ago, Frozen Tundra said:

If a 3-2 record against East in the last five years is passing them up then those are low standards. I want to see some consistency first. I think East has a higher ceiling but, like I said, that’s contingent on what the new coach does. Vogel had his shot and, despite not doing well, still managed an HHC championship and two wins against Floyd Central. Imagine what a decent coach could do. 

Nevertheless, this isn’t a you-know-what measuring contest. I have no problem stating Floyd Central has passed up Columbus East if the facts present themselves. I would agree Floyd Central has had the edge these last five years but I wouldn’t necessarily say they’ve passed them up. Let’s see how these next 2-3 years go with East having a new coach at the helm.

I’m with Tundra on this one. Just because a blind squirrel has found a couple nuts over the past few years doesn’t mean they are a better team. Let’s give a new coach a chance with some strong upcoming classes before we make any wild statements. Plus I don’t think Floyd Central would be using AI to make their players look more buff in their pictures if they knew they had an upper hand.

[Fkfootball]

On 5/8/2026 at 11:53 AM, Frozen Tundra said:

If a 3-2 record against East in the last five years is passing them up then those are low standards. I want to see some consistency first. I think East has a higher ceiling but, like I said, that’s contingent on what the new coach does. Vogel had his shot and, despite not doing well, still managed an HHC championship and two wins against Floyd Central. Imagine what a decent coach could do. 

Nevertheless, this isn’t a you-know-what measuring contest. I have no problem stating Floyd Central has passed up Columbus East if the facts present themselves. I would agree Floyd Central has had the edge these last five years but I wouldn’t necessarily say they’ve passed them up. Let’s see how these next 2-3 years go with East having a new coach at the helm.

I agree with this take. But Floyd Central should dominate the HHC this season. Their pipeline is looking pretty good too from what I’ve heard. I wasn’t a big fan of that Vogel guy so a new coach at East may flip them back towards the top of their region.

[Fkfootball]

On 5/8/2026 at 3:24 PM, Pantherfootball1957 said:

I’m with Tundra on this one. Just because a blind squirrel has found a couple nuts over the past few years doesn’t mean they are a better team. Let’s give a new coach a chance with some strong upcoming classes before we make any wild statements. Plus I don’t think Floyd Central would be using AI to make their players look more buff in their pictures if they knew they had an upper hand.

I realize the river schools will never get much love from you guys in the central. This coming from the same guy that thinks FC losing their #8 WR is gonna set them back. 

Edited May 13 by Fkfootball

[Frozen Tundra]

3 hours ago, Fkfootball said:

I agree with this take. But Floyd Central should dominate the HHC this season. Their pipeline is looking pretty good too from what I’ve heard. I wasn’t a big fan of that Vogel guy so a new coach at East may flip them back towards the top of their region.

I’m excited to see how these next couple years go for the HHC and for the former HHC members. Here’s a rundown.

Current Members

BNL - Had a surprisingly successful 2025 season with an 8-4 record and a sectional championship appearance despite being 2-9 in 2024 and having a new (first-year) head coach. Can Brayden Tidd build on this or will 2025 be a one-hit wonder? Also, how will the gradual drop in enrollment affect BNL longterm? Will the slide continue or has it finally bottomed out?

Columbus East - The five-year Eddie Vogel era didn’t go very well but East still ended up being the second-best team in the conference overall in that span and even added an HHC championship. What does Tyler Campbell bring to the table? Can he tap into some of the success Bob Gaddis had during his 20 year tenure? Can he develop players like Gaddis did? Can he sway kids to choose East over North with Vogel and North head coach Luke Haston both out?

Floyd Central - After earning their first sectional title in six years and having one of the best seasons in school history, can Floyd Central build on this and become a player in 5A? With Steve Cooley now gone from New Albany, James Bragg is now the senior head coach in the HHC and it’s not even close. Can he get his program ready to welcome the challenge Bloomington South presents when they join the HHC in 2027?

Jeffersonville - Jeff is now on its eighth head coach in the last 20 seasons. Enter Doug Preston who spent the last 23 years as a head coach in Kentucky. He found success at Franklin-Simpson (a school of roughly 850 students) where he went to three straight 4A state title games (2016-2018) and won two of them (2017-2018). Will any of that success translate across the Ohio River with a 6A school? His last stop wasn’t as kind. His six years as head coach at John Hardin (a school of roughly 800 students) only resulted in a 33-33 record.

New Albany - After getting to semi-state in 2021 for the first time ever, Steve Cooley was never able to build on this and followed it up with records of 2-8, 2-8, 3-7, and 0-10 (their worst season ever). In comes another coach from across the Ohio River in Marc Clark, a guy who was previously the offensive coordinator at Louisville Male. Like with Preston at Jeff, Clark’s challenge will be to get the loads of talent walking the halls to turn up for football and turn around a program that has had little to no success. Will any of his accomplishments in Kentucky translate to success at New Albany? Stay tuned.

Seymour - Tyson Moore exits after a somewhat decent six-year run. Hard to believe he’s the only Owls coach with back-to-back winning seasons (2022-2023) since Joe Goodman had seven straight from 1996-2002. David Papenhaus replaces him after a seven year stint with Silver Creek where he was 17-3 in his first two years but only 24-27 in his last five. Can he revitalize a program coming off its worst season since 2014?

Future Member

Bloomington South - Coming off five straight sectional titles, two straight regional titles, and a Conference Indiana title, South enters their lone year of independence before joining the HHC. How will they handle independence and will they dominate the HHC right away? Ever since getting upset by New Albany in the 2021 regionals, the Panthers have won ten straight against HHC teams. The average score in those games? 41.8 to 8.4. No HHC team has scored more than 14 on them and all have given up at least 27. If anyone is going to challenge South, they’ve got 2026 to get ready. If it’s more of the same then Bloomington South will run through the HHC like East used to.

Former Members

Bloomington North - The Cougars leave Conference Indiana for the stability of the Mid-State Conference, one of the strongest conferences in the state. If that wasn’t tough enough, they are also on their fourth head coach in four years as they have brought in an assistant coach from a North Carolina high school who graduated from Bloomington North in 2000 (Andy Harding). Can they retain this coach for the long run? Can they compete in the Mid-State and challenge the likes of Decatur Central and Whiteland?

Jennings County - We’ll see if Jennings County’s independence accomplishes what they hoped it would. They’ve got their easier schedule. Last year’s regular season opponents had a 165.44 average in Sagarin. This year’s opponents have a 185.44 average based on the same Sagarin rankings. Two of their three strongest opponents from last year are gone (Floyd Central at #60 and Beech Grove at #115). Only BNL remains on the schedule at #107 and is their toughest game based on the 2025 rankings. The hope is that an easier schedule will translate to more wins, a bigger roster/more depth, and higher home game attendance among students and others. Can they accomplish it? We’ll see.

Madison - Gone is Charles Benintende after a two year stint. His 6-5 record in 2024 tied the school’s best record since 1991. How do you replace a guy like that? You bring back the other guy who also had a 6-5 season in Patric Morrison. He coached the Cubs from 2013-2018 and his first two seasons (4-6 and 6-5) were better than his last four (0-10, 2-8, 1-9, and 1-9). However, Morrison knows the roster well after being in the athletic department from 2019-2024 and an assistant football coach in 2025. And with Madison about to begin their first year in the Mid-Southern Conference, things may wind up better than they were in the HHC. They more than likely won’t be able to challenge for a Mid-Southern title, but a top half finish is a realistic goal and one they very rarely accomplished in the HHC after the mid-90s.

[Pantherfootball1957]

8 hours ago, Fkfootball said:

I realize the river schools will never get much love from you guys in the central. This coming from the same guy that thinks FC losing their #8 WR is gonna set them back. 

Floyd is obviously the best river school I just think we need a couple years before we call them better than East, however the past 4-5 years it has been an even fight. 

[Fkfootball]

20 hours ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

Floyd is obviously the best river school I just think we need a couple years before we call them better than East, however the past 4-5 years it has been an even fight. 

That’s fair.

 

I’m just excited about this Non-Conference schedule, the inclusion of Bloomington South, and some quality HCs that were hired. Nobody likes watching 47-7 games if it’s not against a good team.

[Pantherfootball1957]

15 hours ago, Fkfootball said:

That’s fair.

 

I’m just excited about this Non-Conference schedule, the inclusion of Bloomington South, and some quality HCs that were hired. Nobody likes watching 47-7 games if it’s not against a good team.

Floyd and East have been on their own level the past couple of years.

Good enough to win comfortably over the other river schools like Jeff and New Albany.

Not good enough to compete with the teams up North. A new coach at East and some new competition in the conference might be what it takes to give them a regional championship here before too long.

I don’t see Floyd having what it takes to compete with anything up North, they get some confidence with a win over teams like Silver Creek and Jeff then get destroyed by teams like Whiteland and Bloom South. East has shown us they can do it before (with a legendary head coach) but I’m yet to see it from the Highlanders.

[Fkfootball]

2 hours ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

Floyd and East have been on their own level the past couple of years.

Good enough to win comfortably over the other river schools like Jeff and New Albany.

Not good enough to compete with the teams up North. A new coach at East and some new competition in the conference might be what it takes to give them a regional championship here before too long.

I don’t see Floyd having what it takes to compete with anything up North, they get some confidence with a win over teams like Silver Creek and Jeff then get destroyed by teams like Whiteland and Bloom South. East has shown us they can do it before (with a legendary head coach) but I’m yet to see it from the Highlanders.

I think they’ll have a good chance to beat Whiteland at home this season. I know what the score looked like last season but they fumbled on the first play of the game at the 25 and then the next time Whiteland had the ball they punted and FC muffed it at the 20. They have plenty of talent, size, and speed here. They beat 2 decent teams in the Sectional. The issue is, they seem to piss down their leg against top teams. Bloomington South smacked us around and I promise you, the talent gap isn’t as big as the final score indicated.

[Pantherfootball1957]

51 minutes ago, Fkfootball said:

I think they’ll have a good chance to beat Whiteland at home this season. I know what the score looked like last season but they fumbled on the first play of the game at the 25 and then the next time Whiteland had the ball they punted and FC muffed it at the 20. They have plenty of talent, size, and speed here. They beat 2 decent teams in the Sectional. The issue is, they seem to piss down their leg against top teams. Bloomington South smacked us around and I promise you, the talent gap isn’t as big as the final score indicated.

They have definitely have had the most talent in the conference recently. If they can’t pull off a win over whiteland or south here in the next couple years it’d be safe to say there isn’t enough talent on the river to compete with teams up north, or there needs to be a coaching change there.

[Fkfootball]

1 hour ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

They have definitely have had the most talent in the conference recently. If they can’t pull off a win over whiteland or south here in the next couple years it’d be safe to say there isn’t enough talent on the river to compete with teams up north, or there needs to be a coaching change there.

 

1 hour ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

They have definitely have had the most talent in the conference recently. If they can’t pull off a win over whiteland or south here in the next couple years it’d be safe to say there isn’t enough talent on the river to compete with teams up north, or there needs to be a coaching change there.

I agree. I do think Coach Bragg is pretty solid coach. I just think they’re still trying to establish a mentality there. It’s not a physical thing. Look what Cignetti did at Indiana. 

[Pantherfootball1957]

1 hour ago, Fkfootball said:

 

I agree. I do think Coach Bragg is pretty solid coach. I just think they’re still trying to establish a mentality there. It’s not a physical thing. Look what Cignetti did at Indiana. 

 

1 hour ago, Fkfootball said:

 

I agree. I do think Coach Bragg is pretty solid coach. I just think they’re still trying to establish a mentality there. It’s not a physical thing. Look what Cignetti did at Indiana. 

I think he’s done a poor job with the talent he has. It’s high school football I’m not saying fire a guy over it, he has had some good seasons, but they’ll have to make a big change in that program to surpass the season they just had.

[Fkfootball]

24 minutes ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

 

I think he’s done a poor job with the talent he has. It’s high school football I’m not saying fire a guy over it, he has had some good seasons, but they’ll have to make a big change in that program to surpass the season they just had.

I wouldn’t say a poor job at all. Most programs in this part of the state would hire Coach B in a heartbeat. We’ll see man. This years team has a ton of returning players. This was a vaunted class. They didn’t lose a game from 5th grade to Freshman. They actually beat St X by 3 TDs. They need to get past the Sectional this season. Jackson Stone at QB will be a little more electric than what they’ve had recently.

[Pantherfootball1957]

18 minutes ago, Fkfootball said:

I wouldn’t say a poor job at all. Most programs in this part of the state would hire Coach B in a heartbeat. We’ll see man. This years team has a ton of returning players. This was a vaunted class. They didn’t lose a game from 5th grade to Freshman. They actually beat St X by 3 TDs. They need to get past the Sectional this season. Jackson Stone at QB will be a little more electric than what they’ve had recently.

Is that who they are going with at QB? I haven’t heard much about it.

[Fkfootball]

16 hours ago, Pantherfootball1957 said:

Is that who they are going with at QB? I haven’t heard much about it.

I’m guessing so. He’s also their #1 WR. He’s probably the best pound for pound athlete in the school. Starting Catcher. Starting wing in basketball. He’s just one of those guys. He was the QB from 5th grade to JV. Switched to WR because they had Jack Mull. In the Sectional Championship game it was so foggy that passing was extremely hard. They put him in at QB and he gashed Evansville North with the QB run. If it weren’t for him, North wins that game. Unless they have someone else I don’t know about, then he’s probably the guy.

Edited May 16 by Fkfootball

[HSFootballCoach]

On 5/8/2026 at 9:11 AM, Frozen Tundra said:

Jennings County - 1,159

BNL - 1,185

Columbus East - 1,278

 

So there are actually two schools within 400 students from Jennings County. Nevertheless, your point still stands. Corydon Central has no business being in the HHC. Even if they do somehow have one miracle season, it won’t be the norm for them. They need to try winning the Mid-Southern first before even considering stepping up to the HHC.

Jennings is still in the HHC? Thought there was talk of them going independent and their schedule on JH doesn't designate any games as conference games. 

[HSFootballCoach]

On 5/15/2026 at 3:04 PM, Pantherfootball1957 said:

 

I think he’s done a poor job with the talent he has. It’s high school football I’m not saying fire a guy over it, he has had some good seasons, but they’ll have to make a big change in that program to surpass the season they just had.

What is your coaching background?