Improved Competition Creates Value for Tiger Sports Fans
October 23, 2021 at 4:22 a.m.
Improved Competition Creates Value for Tiger Sports Fans
By Chip Davenport-
I’ll use the quote from Connor McCann’s recent article on the IHSAA Class 4A volleyball sectional title match between Warsaw and Penn to illustrate why tougher competition is better than a deceivingly impressive won-loss record inflated by inferior local and/or traditional non-conference competition.
Although the Tiger spikers fell to Penn, head volleyball coach Chandra Helper offered this pleasing takeaway.
“It’s bittersweet when you have such high hopes, but I schedule our games to be as tough as possible, our strength of schedule is up there with the top teams in the state,” Hepler said. “We know that Penn is our stopper and we have to progress throughout the season so that we can compete with them. But we are going to take them down.”
This is how you do it. This is how you make a relatively reasonable six-dollar admission and even better value than it used to be.
The volleyball team headed into the postseason with a won-loss record of 18-13, finishing the season 20-14 after their sectional title match loss.
Did Tiger fans experience a season where an exchange of better caliber opposition for wins comparable in prior year to shooting fish in a barrel increased the value of admission? I speculate even the fans, friends, and families who hate losing to any opponent with a passion will admit they’re treated to an improved level of competitive play.
It seems the only place for keeping overmatched volleyball opponents on the schedule these days is within some of the Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) action.
Good stuff, Coach Hepler.
The same trend is evident in the Warsaw girls’ track and field regular season. The gerrymandering of their unimpressive sectional opposition is beyond their control, in their defense. However, the Princess Relays (Mishawaka), the Bulldog Invitational and Relays (each one week apart in New Haven), and dual meets typically with Penn help them compete against someone in different laundry now and then instead of most of their conference dual meets where their toughest competition arrived at the party in matching outfits.
Squirrel.
I just recalled a song, “Paris Original,” from the 1960 Broadway hit musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” If you know, you know.
I return to the rails, now.
Tiger head coach Matt Moore’s boys’ hoops programs, not to be outdone, has enough Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) opponents worthy of earning the orange and black an honorary DAC membership.
The Tigers finished the regular season 15-7, but played enough top-notch programs along with the DAC (Homestead, Leo, Carroll, Penn) to improve the value of the six-dollar admission to the Tiger Den. It will be interesting to see if local fans appreciate the lifting of attendance restrictions to watch some increasingly competitive non-conference basketball this coming season.
The 2021-2022 Tippecanoe Valley Vikings, now moved to Warsaw’s final home game in late February, have an athletic squad returning almost all its key players from last year.
You were expecting me to knock the local rival whose four-grade enrollment is less than two average graduating classes at Warsaw, weren’t you? Well, my heart can’t completely soften. Thanks, Tiger athletics, for not charging six dollars for hoops fans to witness a game against Manchester, or Triton.
Tiger football will have two DAC pre-conference opponents in 2022 and 2023: Michigan City (Class 5A ranked tenth, 6-3), for the season opener, and Chesterton (Class 6A 6-3) for game two. Each program competes well with Warsaw.
M-City holds a 2-1 advantage in their recent series renewal since 2019, and Chesterton fought until they had a fourth down in the red zone in the 2019 sectional opener. The Tigers, however, held on for a 35-28 win in their first, and still only, sectional title season.
The scheduling of opposition to fortify the football program is further evident in the scheduling of two- time IHSAA Class 6A champion Warren Central for 2024 and 2025.
The Warriors will replace the Chesterton in game two during those two seasons. The future foes are part of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC). Four teams from the MIC have been the only teams to hoist the IHSAA Class 6A state football championship trophy since the uber-klas was created for the Indiana prep gridiron in 2013.
It appears Warsaw Tiger athletic programs are creating a very welcome value for their fans.
I’ll use the quote from Connor McCann’s recent article on the IHSAA Class 4A volleyball sectional title match between Warsaw and Penn to illustrate why tougher competition is better than a deceivingly impressive won-loss record inflated by inferior local and/or traditional non-conference competition.
Although the Tiger spikers fell to Penn, head volleyball coach Chandra Helper offered this pleasing takeaway.
“It’s bittersweet when you have such high hopes, but I schedule our games to be as tough as possible, our strength of schedule is up there with the top teams in the state,” Hepler said. “We know that Penn is our stopper and we have to progress throughout the season so that we can compete with them. But we are going to take them down.”
This is how you do it. This is how you make a relatively reasonable six-dollar admission and even better value than it used to be.
The volleyball team headed into the postseason with a won-loss record of 18-13, finishing the season 20-14 after their sectional title match loss.
Did Tiger fans experience a season where an exchange of better caliber opposition for wins comparable in prior year to shooting fish in a barrel increased the value of admission? I speculate even the fans, friends, and families who hate losing to any opponent with a passion will admit they’re treated to an improved level of competitive play.
It seems the only place for keeping overmatched volleyball opponents on the schedule these days is within some of the Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) action.
Good stuff, Coach Hepler.
The same trend is evident in the Warsaw girls’ track and field regular season. The gerrymandering of their unimpressive sectional opposition is beyond their control, in their defense. However, the Princess Relays (Mishawaka), the Bulldog Invitational and Relays (each one week apart in New Haven), and dual meets typically with Penn help them compete against someone in different laundry now and then instead of most of their conference dual meets where their toughest competition arrived at the party in matching outfits.
Squirrel.
I just recalled a song, “Paris Original,” from the 1960 Broadway hit musical “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” If you know, you know.
I return to the rails, now.
Tiger head coach Matt Moore’s boys’ hoops programs, not to be outdone, has enough Duneland Athletic Conference (DAC) opponents worthy of earning the orange and black an honorary DAC membership.
The Tigers finished the regular season 15-7, but played enough top-notch programs along with the DAC (Homestead, Leo, Carroll, Penn) to improve the value of the six-dollar admission to the Tiger Den. It will be interesting to see if local fans appreciate the lifting of attendance restrictions to watch some increasingly competitive non-conference basketball this coming season.
The 2021-2022 Tippecanoe Valley Vikings, now moved to Warsaw’s final home game in late February, have an athletic squad returning almost all its key players from last year.
You were expecting me to knock the local rival whose four-grade enrollment is less than two average graduating classes at Warsaw, weren’t you? Well, my heart can’t completely soften. Thanks, Tiger athletics, for not charging six dollars for hoops fans to witness a game against Manchester, or Triton.
Tiger football will have two DAC pre-conference opponents in 2022 and 2023: Michigan City (Class 5A ranked tenth, 6-3), for the season opener, and Chesterton (Class 6A 6-3) for game two. Each program competes well with Warsaw.
M-City holds a 2-1 advantage in their recent series renewal since 2019, and Chesterton fought until they had a fourth down in the red zone in the 2019 sectional opener. The Tigers, however, held on for a 35-28 win in their first, and still only, sectional title season.
The scheduling of opposition to fortify the football program is further evident in the scheduling of two- time IHSAA Class 6A champion Warren Central for 2024 and 2025.
The Warriors will replace the Chesterton in game two during those two seasons. The future foes are part of the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC). Four teams from the MIC have been the only teams to hoist the IHSAA Class 6A state football championship trophy since the uber-klas was created for the Indiana prep gridiron in 2013.
It appears Warsaw Tiger athletic programs are creating a very welcome value for their fans.
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