Western Boone to leave Sagamore Conference, will form new six-team league

[Muda69]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/05/10/western-boone-four-other-schools-to-separate-from-sagamore-conference-indiana-high-school-sports/70204392007/

Quote

The Western Boone school board voted unanimously Wednesday to separate from the Sagamore Conference, which will pave the way for a new six-team conference.

Western Boone athletic director Jeremy Dexter, in extensive correspondence to IndyStar, said the school cited changing enrollment and competitive balance as the main reasons for leaving the Sagamore Conference, which is currently comprised of Crawfordsville, Danville, Frankfort, Lebanon, North Montgomery, Southmont, Tri-West and Western Boone.

“It was evident that there was going to be a change in the composition of and landscape within the Sagamore Conference at the end of this school year,” Dexter said. “Concerns about possible future enrollment numbers and overall competitive balance had been raised by multiple schools. With that knowledge, we at Western Boone knew that we needed to make a diligent, data driven, process-based and well-thought-out decision for our student-athletes at this time.”

It is expected that five schools — Crawfordsville, Frankfort, North Montgomery, Southmont and Western Boone — will join with a still-to-be-named sixth school to form a new conference as early as the 2024-25 school year and no later than 2026-27 with potential to grow to seven or eight schools. Danville, Lebanon and Tri-West, schools that are growing and closer to the suburban Indianapolis area, would retain the Sagamore Conference name.

Dexter said the school met with varsity coaches in all sports and had ongoing meetings with other members of the conference schools, including Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville, before arriving at a decision to separate from the conference. The decision was based on metrics that included current and future enrollments, youth participation numbers by sport, results from the past decade by sport, free and reduced lunch percentages and driving distance.

 

“Western Boone has been a very proud member of the Sagamore Conference,” Dexter said. “We have a very respectful affiliation with each of the member schools. WeBo does have multiple academic affiliations with Montgomery county schools and are aligned within our vocational programs. We have multiple affiliations with Montgomery County within youth sports programs. North Montgomery and Southmont are very similar-sized schools to WeBo in a very small geographic radius. Crawfordsville and Frankfort are schools that we have a great history of competition with, and their enrollment numbers are expected to stay steady.

Dexter said the school has a “healthy and positive rivalry with Lebanon, and will seek to preserve that competition in as many of our athletic team schedules as we possibly can.”

“Western Boone has great respect for the Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville communities as well as their athletic teams,” he said. “We have prioritized open communication and transparency throughout this process to make certain that we would uphold our positive professional affiliations with Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville. … We do have strong interest in continuing to participate with and against these schools in some of our sports where it makes sense to do so. Once there is a more solid direction on what the makeup of their athletic conferences will look like, that picture can begin to be better filled in.  We will work on a sport-by-sport basis to form the non-conference schedules to put each sport in a position to succeed.” 

This story will be updated.

Never thought Webo would be the one to start the dominoes falling in the Sagamore.

 

[gonzoron]

1 minute ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/05/10/western-boone-four-other-schools-to-separate-from-sagamore-conference-indiana-high-school-sports/70204392007/

Never thought Webo would be the one to start the dominoes falling in the Sagamore.

 

In other words they gave up the name to kick out Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville.

[Muda69]

2 minutes ago, gonzoron said:

In other words they gave up the name to kick out Lebanon, Tri-West and Danville.

Yeah, kind of a strange way to do it.  I don't know the bylaws of the Sagamore Conference but couldn't those five schools just vote the other three out?  They have the majority.

[Muda69]

Short blurb from the Lebanon Reporter:  https://www.reporter.net/sports/western-boone-four-others-separate-from-sagamore-conference/article_c2e203fc-ef58-11ed-a2c9-333c866941c9.html

Quote

Western Boone, along with Crawfordsville, Frankfort, North Montgomery and Southmont, are separating from the Sagamore Conference.

The schools presented the other three schools - Lebanon, Danville and Tri-West - with a letter of separation at today's conference meeting.

The five schools plan on creating a new conference with at least one other school, with the potential for growth in the future.

 

The separation will occur no later than the 2026-27 school year.

This story will be updated.

This sounds very different from what the Indy Star just reported.

 

[NLCTigerFan07]

[XStar]

This is interesting.  I think Western Boone was the school that could probably go with either side of this split and it makes me wonder what Lebanon, Danville, and Tri-West have planned that make this the more appealing option. 

I know this is more than a football decision, but from that perspective Western Boone is moving away from the 3 teams that compete with them in conference and going with the 4 teams they always beat.  10-9 against Tri-West, Danville, and Lebanon over the past 6 seasons.  27-0 in that same stretch against North Montgomery, Southmont, Crawfordsville, and Frankfort.  Always felt like playing those tougher games helped prepare them for the tournament success they've had recently.

Not sure who they might eye as the 6th team in the conference but hopefully it's a school with a good football program.  

 

[Ballhawk]

Speculation on the 6th team - where do they go to find someone else?

Greencastle?  North and/or South Putnam?  Seeger?  It would be interesting to know who is on their radar.

[Gatorguy]

Are Clinton Central, Clinton Prairie and Sheridan looking? Or are they all happy with their current conference?

[Donnie Baker]

47 minutes ago, Ballhawk said:

Speculation on the 6th team - where do they go to find someone else?

Greencastle?  North and/or South Putnam?  Seeger?  It would be interesting to know who is on their radar.

Why would Seegers move to a conference where they’d only win one or two games a year?

[superjay]

6 hours ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/05/10/western-boone-four-other-schools-to-separate-from-sagamore-conference-indiana-high-school-sports/70204392007/

Never thought Webo would be the one to start the dominoes falling in the Sagamore.

 

Webo didn’t start the dominos.  The Montgomery County schools did and Webo had to choose.  Webo’s decisions were based on where things will be in 10 years.  Lebanon and Danville enrollments are about to swell.  TW will keep rising too.  Disappointed for my friends at Webo that wanted to come along.  Time will tell if decisions were correct.

[Jbk2]

Not sure if this is reading into something but here is this

FROM THE NORTH PUTNAM YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUE:

Good Afternoon Cougar Nation!!!! Just wanted to drop in with some very important and exciting news about our upcoming youth football season! Our board recently has sat down with each other several times, along with board members from NorthMont, SouthMont, Crawfordsville, and Western Boone, and our North Putnam board has voted to leave the West Central league. With that being said the new league being formed has voted and APPROVED us to join with them! So we will now officially be joining with Northmont, Southmont, Crawfordsville, and Western Boone beginning this upcoming FALL 2023!!! This is going to be so much easier and better for our community and our youth players and parents. We will adapt to the new league and their new age groups as well, starting now with our ROOKIES team now being a FLAG ONLY K-1st grade team, our Minors will now be 2-3rd graders and tackle, and our Majors 4-5th graders and tackle, and now our 6th grade boys and girls will be a solo team and tackle as well. We will need your help COUGAR NATION  spreading the word as we try to venture into flag again, and  to get as many as we can to sign up at all ages. We also will be doing online sign-ups again, that will begin here very soon, and I will update on here with all that information. I will have flyers going out to all the schools to let you know more information and also more important dates, and I will be getting those out before the end of the school year. Feel free to let us know any questions you may have, and we will respond as soon as we can. Thank you and we look forward to this huge step in our program and our community!! GO COUGARS!!!!!!

[XStar]

With the Eli Lilly development in Boone County I would've thought Western Boone should see some good growth as well over the next 10 years.  

[wabashalwaysfights]

13 hours ago, Ballhawk said:

Speculation on the 6th team - where do they go to find someone else?

Greencastle?  North and/or South Putnam?  Seeger?  It would be interesting to know who is on their radar.

Seeger would make no sense geographically, if that even matters. It's almost an hours drive to the closest of the five former SAC schools. The three Putnam County schools make the most sense for an eventual eight team conference down the road, so coupled with the quoted post below, I would definitely say one of those three, though I don't know as much about the WIC.

8 hours ago, Jbk2 said:

Not sure if this is reading into something but here is this

FROM THE NORTH PUTNAM YOUTH FOOTBALL LEAGUE:

Good Afternoon Cougar Nation!!!! Just wanted to drop in with some very important and exciting news about our upcoming youth football season! Our board recently has sat down with each other several times, along with board members from NorthMont, SouthMont, Crawfordsville, and Western Boone, and our North Putnam board has voted to leave the West Central league. With that being said the new league being formed has voted and APPROVED us to join with them! So we will now officially be joining with Northmont, Southmont, Crawfordsville, and Western Boone beginning this upcoming FALL 2023!!! This is going to be so much easier and better for our community and our youth players and parents. We will adapt to the new league and their new age groups as well, starting now with our ROOKIES team now being a FLAG ONLY K-1st grade team, our Minors will now be 2-3rd graders and tackle, and our Majors 4-5th graders and tackle, and now our 6th grade boys and girls will be a solo team and tackle as well. We will need your help COUGAR NATION  spreading the word as we try to venture into flag again, and  to get as many as we can to sign up at all ages. We also will be doing online sign-ups again, that will begin here very soon, and I will update on here with all that information. I will have flyers going out to all the schools to let you know more information and also more important dates, and I will be getting those out before the end of the school year. Feel free to let us know any questions you may have, and we will respond as soon as we can. Thank you and we look forward to this huge step in our program and our community!! GO COUGARS!!!!!!

Is this from Facebook? And if it is, is it still posted? I ask because this statement reads as if written by someone who is in the know but taken with the corresponding silence from North Putnam maybe wasn't supposed to let the cat out of the bag yet.

Regardless, North Putnam does make the most sense as the sixth team and with the new league not starting until 2026-2027, that g8ves plenty of time to bring the other two Putnam County schools on board. The question remains: what do Lebanon, Tri-West, and Danville do? There are plenty of  options I think for each, but what I can't figure out is why would they want to keep the Sagamore Conference name intact? If those three were each targeting separate or a joint move to other existing conferences, why are the othere five leaving of their own accord? Seems like this is simple one of many dominoes in West Central Indiana.

[Jbk2]

1 hour ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Seeger would make no sense geographically, if that even matters. It's almost an hours drive to the closest of the five former SAC schools. The three Putnam County schools make the most sense for an eventual eight team conference down the road, so coupled with the quoted post below, I would definitely say one of those three, though I don't know as much about the WIC.

Is this from Facebook? And if it is, is it still posted? I ask because this statement reads as if written by someone who is in the know but taken with the corresponding silence from North Putnam maybe wasn't supposed to let the cat out of the bag yet.

Regardless, North Putnam does make the most sense as the sixth team and with the new league not starting until 2026-2027, that g8ves plenty of time to bring the other two Putnam County schools on board. The question remains: what do Lebanon, Tri-West, and Danville do? There are plenty of  options I think for each, but what I can't figure out is why would they want to keep the Sagamore Conference name intact? If those three were each targeting separate or a joint move to other existing conferences, why are the othere five leaving of their own accord? Seems like this is simple one of many dominoes in West Central Indiana.

Not sure about Facebook but I seen it first on Twitter on a few post back in late March or early April. I tried to find the link  about this but they are not there anymore so I Google it and found it there. I think they were not supposed to mention this but everyone will definitely know when the youth start up.

[Jbk2]

12 minutes ago, Jbk2 said:

Not sure about Facebook but I seen it first on Twitter on a few post back in late March or early April. I tried to find the link  about this but they are not there anymore so I Google it and found it there. I think they were not supposed to mention this but everyone will definitely know when the youth start up. I did find it on Facebook it's under North Putnam touchdown club.

 

[wabashalwaysfights]

Reading the NP post again, I think I misread it initially.  I initially had read it as they (NP) were joining the 5 former SAC schools at the high school level and that because of that the youth leagues were joining together.  On second read, that does not appear to be the case.  Still, it seems interesting that the post is apparently no longer posted on whichever account it originated from.  Still, my apologies.  The only excuse I can offer is that I had not yet had my coffee when I made that initial post so my brain was not operating at peak efficiency.  

[1st_and_10]

3 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Reading the NP post again, I think I misread it initially.  I initially had read it as they (NP) were joining the 5 former SAC schools at the high school level and that because of that the youth leagues were joining together.  On second read, that does not appear to be the case.  Still, it seems interesting that the post is apparently no longer posted on whichever account it originated from.  Still, my apologies.  The only excuse I can offer is that I had not yet had my coffee when I made that initial post so my brain was not operating at peak efficiency.  

It is posted on Facebook.  Search North Putnam Youth Football

It only is in regard to youth leagues is the way I read it.

Edited May 11 by 1st_and_10

[Muda69]

15 hours ago, Ballhawk said:

Speculation on the 6th team - where do they go to find someone else?

Greencastle?  North and/or South Putnam?  Seeger?  It would be interesting to know who is on their radar.

Western or Sheridan would be my personal choices, but it will probably be North Putnam.

And I still haven't seen an answer as to why these 5 schools chose to leave the Sagamore instead of attempting to kick out the other three.  Is anybody here privy to the Sagamore council bylaws and willing to share them?

 

 

[vanhalenfor6]

The problem with the Lily development for WeBo is all the residential building is within Lebanon city limits after the mayor annexed land further out.  Lebanon will continue to grow and WeBo will only get the leftovers similar to how Tri-West and Danville have had in recent years with kids moving out of Avon and Brownsburg.  I think WeBo in 15 years or so will start to see residential growth but other than the farmers who sold land to the state, a lot of them aren't selling closer out to WeBo because no one wants the suburbs out here.

[Muda69]

15 minutes ago, vanhalenfor6 said:

 Lebanon will continue to grow and WeBo will only get the leftovers similar to how Tri-West and Danville have had in recent years with kids moving out of Avon and Brownsburg.  

How is a family moving out of Avon or Brownsburg to Danville or Lizton/Pittsboro a 'leftover'?   Families move all the time for all types of reasons.   Are they somehow told by the Avon or Brownsburg government school system that they are not worthy of the educational and extracurricular opportunities offered there, so they should move?

[1st_and_10]

10 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

How is a family moving out of Avon or Brownsburg to Danville or Lizton/Pittsboro a 'leftover'?   Families move all the time for all types of reasons.   Are they somehow told by the Avon or Brownsburg government school system that they are not worthy of the educational and extracurricular opportunities offered there, so they should move?

I think they are referring to the kids leaving Avon or Brownsburg and going to school at Danville or Tri-West but not actually moving into the district maybe?  Like the kid maybe 3rd string or not be able to play at a 6A school (Avon/BBurg) but could start at a 3A or 4A school?  Not speaking for VanHalen6, but I think that is what they are referring to?

[foxbat]

39 minutes ago, wabashalwaysfights said:

Reading the NP post again, I think I misread it initially.  I initially had read it as they (NP) were joining the 5 former SAC schools at the high school level and that because of that the youth leagues were joining together.  On second read, that does not appear to be the case.  Still, it seems interesting that the post is apparently no longer posted on whichever account it originated from.  Still, my apologies.  The only excuse I can offer is that I had not yet had my coffee when I made that initial post so my brain was not operating at peak efficiency.  

Sometimes there's crossover activity with youth leagues/programs.  I recall a couple of seasons where Little Gridiron played some games with Monticello Youth Football.  The teams didn't join the leagues, but the leagues played some crossover matches.  One year one of the LGI programs played both LGI and played MYF in weekends when they were going to have a bye.  Just recently, I know that LCC was playing some of the 56er teams even though I don't think they had officially joined 56er football.

[1st_and_10]

7 minutes ago, foxbat said:

Sometimes there's crossover activity with youth leagues/programs.  I recall a couple of seasons where Little Gridiron played some games with Monticello Youth Football.  The teams didn't join the leagues, but the leagues played some crossover matches.  One year one of the LGI programs played both LGI and played MYF in weekends when they were going to have a bye.  Just recently, I know that LCC was playing some of the 56er teams even though I don't think they had officially joined 56er football.

Webo, CVille, North Montgomery, Southmont, North Putnam will be a league that schedules and plays those teams.  There are rules in place that all individual leagues have agreed to.  The Webo 6th grade team will also play Lebanon, Danville, and Tri-West because they need more games (I assume the other schools will pick up teams as well to fill a schedule).  We structure our league that Minors is 2nd/3rd grade, Majors is 4th/5th grade, and then a 6th grade team (1 team unless numbers dictate you can do more than 1).  Southmont and Lebanon's 6th grade teams are a school team (just like 7th and 8th grade football), but the other schools all run theirs as part of the youth organization.

[Jbk2]

54 minutes ago, vanhalenfor6 said:

The problem with the Lily development for WeBo is all the residential building is within Lebanon city limits after the mayor annexed land further out.  Lebanon will continue to grow and WeBo will only get the leftovers similar to how Tri-West and Danville have had in recent years with kids moving out of Avon and Brownsburg.  I think WeBo in 15 years or so will start to see residential growth but other than the farmers who sold land to the state, a lot of them aren't selling closer out to WeBo because no one wants the suburbs out here.

Lebanon annexed the Lilly development so it's part of Lebanon now. People that move to work there will live in Lebanon or whitestown. Lebanon is building several housing additions and whitestown is the fastest growing place in the state. There is no place to live in Thorntown, Advance, or Jamestown. No rentals available and very few houses for sale. There is supposed to be a housing addition in Thorntown but that is now on hold because people of Thorntown don't want it because they want the small town to stay a small town.

[Jbk2]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Western or Sheridan would be my personal choices, but it will probably be North Putnam.

And I still haven't seen an answer as to why these 5 schools chose to leave the Sagamore instead of attempting to kick out the other three.  Is anybody here privy to the Sagamore council bylaws and willing to share

Sheridan and Western have been on Webo's schedule for a few years. I believe one of those schools will be dropped to add Lebanon because of the rivalry.