Chip Shots: New League, Future Tiger Foes Keeps This Old Dog Woofin’
April 7, 2023 at 10:42 p.m.
Chip Shots: New League, Future Tiger Foes Keeps This Old Dog Woofin’
By Chip Davenport-
I wanna’ think an old dog like me still “has plenty of woof in him” for several more school years.
The week’s political and legal news have been far more compelling to read and to watch than some of the televised sports, and sports talk shows so I’m eager for prep sports to pick up its collective pace.
I’m excited, this morning, to include the following snippet from the IHSAA Executive Committee meeting minutes released recently about game official participation since I recently expressed my concern about saving the zebras.
“Assistant Commissioner Brian Lewis reported that the Association has 275 more officials this year than it did at this time last year. The number of licensed officials has exceeded 6,000 for the first time in three years. The attention the topic of low number of officials has received in recent years and months appears to have made a difference.”
Some of the participation uptick might also be the result of some officials returning to action post-pandemic, but I was still happy with the news.
I’m also excited for the Tippecanoe Valley’s foray into a new conference resembling the former “big school” version of something similar to the Northern State Conference, disbanded in middle of the last decade.
LaVille is the new, unnamed conference’s only IHSAA Class 2A member, but they’ll be competitive on the gridiron and on the hardwood among its larger enrollment foes. Bremen, currently in Class 3A, is one of its enrollment class’s smaller schools. Jimtown, John Glenn, and Knox are Class 3A schools who will make each football season much more competitive for this group than conference play was in their soon-to-be former conferences.
Their gymnasium’s range from Glenn’s cozy gym near 1,700 in capacity to Knox’s 3,500 seat classic-looking fieldhouse. The average gymnasium capacity among the new members of this conference is 2,600 fans.
It would be interesting if these schools decide to adapt the NSC name again. This re-use doesn’t happen much around here, but growing up in Northeast Ohio, and keeping up with that area even after moving here, using NSC wouldn’t seem unoriginal to me.
In the Cleveland-Akron area the following conferences have been comprised of different and like schools, and have taken the following names out of their mothballed state at least once:
The Lake Erie League, Greater Cleveland Conference, Suburban League, and the Western Reserve Conference are just a few examples for those among you who care to know.
Again, go ahead… currently un-named conference. Use NSC again for the league’s name. No harm for me. Whatever name you choose, you’ll be a strong football conference.
There were Twitter volleys about the addition of two more members because an eight –team conference is a very tidy setup for football, where Indian schools customarily launch two non-conference games each year on their football slate.
Some folks mentioned Fairfield and North Judson, but each of those schools are on the respective far West and Far East of the conference’s map.
Wawasee’s name was dropped, but some fans’ perceptions of a more competitive set of conference foes for the Warriors is not worth throwing away guest gate revenue their Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) opponents bring.
Wawasee fans seeing some of these volleys in social media understandably might take umbrage to the suggestion of joining the league of schools whose greatest enrollment levels are still at least 350 fewer students, close to two-thirds the size of Wawasee.
Anyone grousing about enrollment disparity being a limiting factor among NLC member schools, please note NorthWood’s less-than-900 student enrollment didn’t hamper them from running the table in both football, and in basketball this scholastic athletic year.
Had their football team not experienced… non-injury attrition in its postseason, there was a possibility the Panthers would be clearing space for two state title trophies behind the glass instead of just one.
Some of the teams in the un-named league will cannibalize their customary number of football wins, but the quality of football will be well worth the price of admission among these six stadiums.
I’ll remind you as well, the same school year these teams launch their new league (2024-2025) the Warsaw Tigers football team will play the first of two games in a home-away series with big school football power, Warren Central.
The Tigers will add Fort Wayne Snider to its non-conference slate.
Looks like I’ll need to take good care of myself for a few more years – lots of good prep sports in this area’s future.
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I wanna’ think an old dog like me still “has plenty of woof in him” for several more school years.
The week’s political and legal news have been far more compelling to read and to watch than some of the televised sports, and sports talk shows so I’m eager for prep sports to pick up its collective pace.
I’m excited, this morning, to include the following snippet from the IHSAA Executive Committee meeting minutes released recently about game official participation since I recently expressed my concern about saving the zebras.
“Assistant Commissioner Brian Lewis reported that the Association has 275 more officials this year than it did at this time last year. The number of licensed officials has exceeded 6,000 for the first time in three years. The attention the topic of low number of officials has received in recent years and months appears to have made a difference.”
Some of the participation uptick might also be the result of some officials returning to action post-pandemic, but I was still happy with the news.
I’m also excited for the Tippecanoe Valley’s foray into a new conference resembling the former “big school” version of something similar to the Northern State Conference, disbanded in middle of the last decade.
LaVille is the new, unnamed conference’s only IHSAA Class 2A member, but they’ll be competitive on the gridiron and on the hardwood among its larger enrollment foes. Bremen, currently in Class 3A, is one of its enrollment class’s smaller schools. Jimtown, John Glenn, and Knox are Class 3A schools who will make each football season much more competitive for this group than conference play was in their soon-to-be former conferences.
Their gymnasium’s range from Glenn’s cozy gym near 1,700 in capacity to Knox’s 3,500 seat classic-looking fieldhouse. The average gymnasium capacity among the new members of this conference is 2,600 fans.
It would be interesting if these schools decide to adapt the NSC name again. This re-use doesn’t happen much around here, but growing up in Northeast Ohio, and keeping up with that area even after moving here, using NSC wouldn’t seem unoriginal to me.
In the Cleveland-Akron area the following conferences have been comprised of different and like schools, and have taken the following names out of their mothballed state at least once:
The Lake Erie League, Greater Cleveland Conference, Suburban League, and the Western Reserve Conference are just a few examples for those among you who care to know.
Again, go ahead… currently un-named conference. Use NSC again for the league’s name. No harm for me. Whatever name you choose, you’ll be a strong football conference.
There were Twitter volleys about the addition of two more members because an eight –team conference is a very tidy setup for football, where Indian schools customarily launch two non-conference games each year on their football slate.
Some folks mentioned Fairfield and North Judson, but each of those schools are on the respective far West and Far East of the conference’s map.
Wawasee’s name was dropped, but some fans’ perceptions of a more competitive set of conference foes for the Warriors is not worth throwing away guest gate revenue their Northern Lakes Conference (NLC) opponents bring.
Wawasee fans seeing some of these volleys in social media understandably might take umbrage to the suggestion of joining the league of schools whose greatest enrollment levels are still at least 350 fewer students, close to two-thirds the size of Wawasee.
Anyone grousing about enrollment disparity being a limiting factor among NLC member schools, please note NorthWood’s less-than-900 student enrollment didn’t hamper them from running the table in both football, and in basketball this scholastic athletic year.
Had their football team not experienced… non-injury attrition in its postseason, there was a possibility the Panthers would be clearing space for two state title trophies behind the glass instead of just one.
Some of the teams in the un-named league will cannibalize their customary number of football wins, but the quality of football will be well worth the price of admission among these six stadiums.
I’ll remind you as well, the same school year these teams launch their new league (2024-2025) the Warsaw Tigers football team will play the first of two games in a home-away series with big school football power, Warren Central.
The Tigers will add Fort Wayne Snider to its non-conference slate.
Looks like I’ll need to take good care of myself for a few more years – lots of good prep sports in this area’s future.
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