Faith Christian (Lafayette) is transitioning to 11-man football

[Muda69]

https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/11/30/faith-christian-transitions-to-11-man-football/71742821007/#:~:text=Faith Christian announced last Friday,8-man season in 2023.

(Note: site is behind a paywall)

Quote

Faith Christian announced last Friday it would be transitioning its 8-man football team to 11-man next season. The Crusaders have games scheduled in 2024 after finishing 1-5 during its lone 8-man season in 2023.

A new p/p threat has emerged in the Lafayette metro area.  Who will they steal away from the likes of Jeff, Harrison, McCutchen,  the River Rats,  etc.?

 

 

[kdets89]

15 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/11/30/faith-christian-transitions-to-11-man-football/71742821007/#:~:text=Faith Christian announced last Friday,8-man season in 2023.

(Note: site is behind a paywall)

A new p/p threat has emerged in the Lafayette metro area.  Who will they steal away from the likes of Jeff, Harrison, McCutchen,  the River Rats,  etc.?

 

 

We'll pencil them in as the 2028 1A North representative.  Blackhawk Christian should be bumped to 2A by that point.

[foxbat]

7 minutes ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/high-school/2023/11/30/faith-christian-transitions-to-11-man-football/71742821007/#:~:text=Faith Christian announced last Friday,8-man season in 2023.

(Note: site is behind a paywall)

A new p/p threat has emerged in the Lafayette metro area.  Who will they steal away from the likes of Jeff, Harrison, McCutchen,  the River Rats,  etc.?

 

 

Given that they lost 80-2 to Indiana School for the Deaf this last season, I'd expect any exodus to be really slow.

The only major short-term impact to the area, if that, is likely to be the couple kids a year from the LCC youth program that used to come from Faith, but then returned to Faith after sixth grade or went to public schools.  Previous Faith youth players that played for LCC have ended up at Harrison/McCutcheon and West Lafayette ... although there's one who's back at Faith right now.  Maybe a couple hands worth over the past 20 years.

Girls' basketball and volleyball and boys'/girls' soccer are better bets for "stealing" although they've been in those sports as IHSAA members for a while now.

[BTF]

37 minutes ago, foxbat said:

Given that they lost 80-2 to Indiana School for the Deaf this last season, I'd expect any exodus to be really slow.

Lol. Blackhawk Christian can attest to how hard it is to break into 11 man. It turns out that being really really good at basketball and baseball equates to getting completely squashed in your first year as a football program. 

[coachkj]

From the article "Hill (Faith AD) explained that the IHSAA rules prohibit any teams from competing in the playoffs unless a program can complete its full conference schedule."

Not an IHSAA rule.  The IHSAA By-laws might be a good place to start when building a program.

[Muda69]

A new era in Lafayette-area 11-man high school football beings tonight when the Eagles participate in the MVC Jamboree at North Newton.  Here is their 2024 schedule per Harrell's:

Apparently per this article:  https://www.jconline.com/story/sports/high-school/2024/08/12/faith-christian-atheltic-facility-updates-ihsaa/74735242007/,  the Eagles will play it's home games this year at other area high's school's fields, with it's new stadium being ready in 2025. 

It be interesting to see how long it will take this fledgling Eagle program to challenge for football supremacy in Tippecanoe county.  

[foxbat]

To challenge for supremacy in Tippecanoe County, they'll likely need a youth program which they currently don't have.  As such, officially the players start Faith football in 9th grade.  Almost every other program in the county, and surrounding areas, start football around 3rd/4th grade. 

[Muda69]

On 8/17/2024 at 2:04 PM, foxbat said:

To challenge for supremacy in Tippecanoe County, they'll likely need a youth program which they currently don't have.  As such, officially the players start Faith football in 9th grade.  Almost every other program in the county, and surrounding areas, start football around 3rd/4th grade. 

Or they just have their 3rd/4th graders play in the Lafayette 56ers youth or other area leagues, while they start up a middle/junior high program in the Faith 5th-8th grade system.  

Give it ten years.

 

[foxbat]

1 hour ago, Muda69 said:

Or they just have their 3rd/4th graders play in the Lafayette 56ers youth or other area leagues, while they start up a middle/junior high program in the Faith 5th-8th grade system.  

Give it ten years.

 

That's typically what the kids from Faith have done ... in small numbers ... but most of the public school youth leagues take the kids from their schools.  LCC used to allow kids from the other Christian schools ... St. James Lutheran, Faith Christian, Lafayette Christian ... as well as homeschooled kids to play in their youth program since they didn't have other programs they could play in.  I know that Harrison now allows homeschooled kids recently to play in their youth program too, but it will be harder for Faith to have kids, en masse, in structured participation in other programs unless some type of deal can be worked out.  It would be interesting to see if Jeff would be willing to accommodate large numbers of kids into their program with the realization that they likely would not continue into high school.  The reason I mention Jeff is that Jeff had an agreement with Faith for Faith's home games a Jeff's field when Faith was playing 8-man ball and gave Faith a really good deal.