Welcome To The NLC, Mishawaka
July 18, 2018 at 2:33 p.m.
By Roger Grossman-
When Elkhart Memorial ceases to be a high school in 2020 and there is one, united Elkhart High School, Mishawaka will replace it in the Northern Lakes Conference.
Now that the dust has settled from last week’s announcement, some perspective is needed on what this means for the two NLC members from Kosciusko County.
First, the press release that made the official proclamation that Mishawaka was “in” came from Goshen Athletic Director Larry Kissinger, who serves as a contact person for the combined group of the NLC athletic directors. He’s the one who sends us all-conference information and the sort.
One of the things that stood out in that e-mail was that Kissinger described the process of selecting a new member as “emotional.” If you know the seven remaining athletic directors the way I do (and principals were involved also, of course), you would not use the word “emotional” to paint a picture of any of them. Great people, fun to see and work with … but pretty even-keel people across the board. I still don’t know how to interpret the “emotion” of the process, but they wanted us to know it wasn’t easy.
Why Mishawaka then?
Well, first, we don’t know who the other applying schools were. As you can understand, that is a secret and should remain a secret so as not to ruffle feathers in their existing conference. You won’t hear or read about them from me.
The pros of choosing Mishawaka are obvious.
Mishawaka has 1,470 students in the top four grades, which ranks them 67th in the state and will make them fourth-largest in the conference. Sizing the schools up, Warsaw is the big dog at 2,115; Goshen has 1,948; Concord 1,677; Northridge 1,407; Plymouth 1,147; Wawasee has 948; and NorthWood is the smallest at 886.
Size-wise Mishawaka fits.
Their facilities are plenty good enough, and especially so after Dean Huppert left TV and became the athletic director there. The football stadium will have field turf by the time the Tigers make their first appearance there in almost 30 years, and the Cave is one of the most unique basketball venues in Indiana.
Let me also say that having Huppert at Mishawaka is a major positive for Mishawaka’s case to join. He grew up in Bremen – a former NLC member – and he knows what is expected in each sport, and of himself in this league.
Compared to Memorial, Mishawaka will be an upgrade in the NLC for football and a drop-off for boys and girls basketball, but the girls will have a new coach starting in the fall.
The biggest downer of Mishawaka joining the Northern Lakes Conference is the geography.
It’s 58 miles from Warsaw Community High School to Mishawaka High School, while it’s only 46 to Elkhart Memorial. However, according to the three travel apps I checked for this article, the travel time for both is exactly an hour. That’s mainly because the first leg of the trip takes you on U.S. 30 to Bourbon.
From Wawasee High School, it’s a 30-mile trip which will take about 50 minutes to Mishawaka (using U.S. 33), compared to 27 miles and a 44-minute ride to Memorial. Again, driving time won’t be more, but I have no doubt that the transportation departments for both schools were hoping for the new member to put a few less miles on their buses.
Speaking of budgets, I am not sure how Mishawaka fans will travel when it comes to road trips to Syracuse and Warsaw. As a matter of fact, I am not sure how supporters of the Cavemen feel about the move to the NLC in general. Think about it, most of their conference games have been in South Bend and Mishawaka, with their long road trips to New Prairie and Glenn, who joined the NIC a few years back. So, you can understand why Warsaw, Wawasee and Plymouth seems pretty far away to them.
But here is the payoff for them.
Huppert had to look in the mirror and ask himself “Who will bring more fans through our turnstiles, South Bend Washington and South Bend Adams or Wawasee and Warsaw?”
I think we know the answer to that question.
Know this, the fan base of Mishawaka is more like a community than that a city school. They will support their teams better than Memorial, especially at their home events. They will be a good fit that way.
Also keep this in mind: Warsaw, Wawasee and Plymouth are the outliers on the conference map. For Concord, Northridge, Goshen and NorthWood this is not a big deal. And especially for Warsaw, no one is going to lose any sleep over the Tigers and their fans having to drive a little farther to conference events.
Mishawaka being selected to the join the NLC does bring with it a whole new set of questions to the Northern Indiana Conference. Will Penn stay in the NIC or will it become an independent? What does this mean for schools like Glenn, Jimtown and Bremen? With Mishawaka out, and the possibility that Penn may venture out on its own, how can the NIC financially survive without its two most financially solvent communities?
All-in-all, Mishawaka is the best choice to fill the void Memorial is leaving in 2020. They are not perfect, but there was not going to be a perfect fit for this. The other option, which I threw out there last spring, was to hold off on adding an eighth member now and go with seven for a few years to see what shakes out. The leaders of the member schools didn’t want to do that, and I totally understand.
Mishawaka it is!
When Elkhart Memorial ceases to be a high school in 2020 and there is one, united Elkhart High School, Mishawaka will replace it in the Northern Lakes Conference.
Now that the dust has settled from last week’s announcement, some perspective is needed on what this means for the two NLC members from Kosciusko County.
First, the press release that made the official proclamation that Mishawaka was “in” came from Goshen Athletic Director Larry Kissinger, who serves as a contact person for the combined group of the NLC athletic directors. He’s the one who sends us all-conference information and the sort.
One of the things that stood out in that e-mail was that Kissinger described the process of selecting a new member as “emotional.” If you know the seven remaining athletic directors the way I do (and principals were involved also, of course), you would not use the word “emotional” to paint a picture of any of them. Great people, fun to see and work with … but pretty even-keel people across the board. I still don’t know how to interpret the “emotion” of the process, but they wanted us to know it wasn’t easy.
Why Mishawaka then?
Well, first, we don’t know who the other applying schools were. As you can understand, that is a secret and should remain a secret so as not to ruffle feathers in their existing conference. You won’t hear or read about them from me.
The pros of choosing Mishawaka are obvious.
Mishawaka has 1,470 students in the top four grades, which ranks them 67th in the state and will make them fourth-largest in the conference. Sizing the schools up, Warsaw is the big dog at 2,115; Goshen has 1,948; Concord 1,677; Northridge 1,407; Plymouth 1,147; Wawasee has 948; and NorthWood is the smallest at 886.
Size-wise Mishawaka fits.
Their facilities are plenty good enough, and especially so after Dean Huppert left TV and became the athletic director there. The football stadium will have field turf by the time the Tigers make their first appearance there in almost 30 years, and the Cave is one of the most unique basketball venues in Indiana.
Let me also say that having Huppert at Mishawaka is a major positive for Mishawaka’s case to join. He grew up in Bremen – a former NLC member – and he knows what is expected in each sport, and of himself in this league.
Compared to Memorial, Mishawaka will be an upgrade in the NLC for football and a drop-off for boys and girls basketball, but the girls will have a new coach starting in the fall.
The biggest downer of Mishawaka joining the Northern Lakes Conference is the geography.
It’s 58 miles from Warsaw Community High School to Mishawaka High School, while it’s only 46 to Elkhart Memorial. However, according to the three travel apps I checked for this article, the travel time for both is exactly an hour. That’s mainly because the first leg of the trip takes you on U.S. 30 to Bourbon.
From Wawasee High School, it’s a 30-mile trip which will take about 50 minutes to Mishawaka (using U.S. 33), compared to 27 miles and a 44-minute ride to Memorial. Again, driving time won’t be more, but I have no doubt that the transportation departments for both schools were hoping for the new member to put a few less miles on their buses.
Speaking of budgets, I am not sure how Mishawaka fans will travel when it comes to road trips to Syracuse and Warsaw. As a matter of fact, I am not sure how supporters of the Cavemen feel about the move to the NLC in general. Think about it, most of their conference games have been in South Bend and Mishawaka, with their long road trips to New Prairie and Glenn, who joined the NIC a few years back. So, you can understand why Warsaw, Wawasee and Plymouth seems pretty far away to them.
But here is the payoff for them.
Huppert had to look in the mirror and ask himself “Who will bring more fans through our turnstiles, South Bend Washington and South Bend Adams or Wawasee and Warsaw?”
I think we know the answer to that question.
Know this, the fan base of Mishawaka is more like a community than that a city school. They will support their teams better than Memorial, especially at their home events. They will be a good fit that way.
Also keep this in mind: Warsaw, Wawasee and Plymouth are the outliers on the conference map. For Concord, Northridge, Goshen and NorthWood this is not a big deal. And especially for Warsaw, no one is going to lose any sleep over the Tigers and their fans having to drive a little farther to conference events.
Mishawaka being selected to the join the NLC does bring with it a whole new set of questions to the Northern Indiana Conference. Will Penn stay in the NIC or will it become an independent? What does this mean for schools like Glenn, Jimtown and Bremen? With Mishawaka out, and the possibility that Penn may venture out on its own, how can the NIC financially survive without its two most financially solvent communities?
All-in-all, Mishawaka is the best choice to fill the void Memorial is leaving in 2020. They are not perfect, but there was not going to be a perfect fit for this. The other option, which I threw out there last spring, was to hold off on adding an eighth member now and go with seven for a few years to see what shakes out. The leaders of the member schools didn’t want to do that, and I totally understand.
Mishawaka it is!
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