You hear the hype announcement when you attend or watch NFL games each Sunday, or even at some college football games on Saturday. These days, the announcement can be heard by the home team’s public address announcers among some – but not all – of the high school stadiums in Northern Indiana.
Not at Fisher Field, though.
People love it, and I understand why they love it. I still won’t do it.
Case in point, last Sunday’s CBS televised NFL clash between the Detroit Lions (4-1 entering the fray) and their hosts, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-1) is proof of why it can sound foolish.
The Tampa Bay announcer continued to make the hype announcement “Thiiiirrrrd Doooowwwwn” even after the Lions well into the fourth quarter successfully converted a very impressive 9 first downs out of 15 third down conversion attempts.
When does it begin to sound foolish? Well, in Tampa Bay, apparently the fourth quarter in a convincing loss to the Lions was still O.K. to bray “Thiiiirrrrd Doooowwwwn.”
It seems like the announcement is a fool’s errand more so on the high school gridiron, and we can look right onto the friendly confines of Warsaw Tiger opponents’ fields for a hypothetical supporting case.
If the Tigers, or the Mishawaka Cavemen are in a gridiron clash in your stadium, and they do not convert a third down into a first down, they’re probably going to choose to “go for it” on fourth down even on their end of the field where there is a short distance between them and their opponent’s end zone if the fourth down conversion fails.
The Tigers’ third and fourth down defensive success, you might argue, is solid enough to hype the third down call. Warsaw, through their first eight regular season games, permitted their opponents a stingy 34% on third down, and 29% when the Black Plague’s foes dared to attempt a fourth down conversion.
Still… not doin’ it.
I’d rather reach slightly deeper in my diaphragm to note the opponent is in punt formation on the following play, or matter-of-factly announce “the result of the play is a turnover on downs. First down Tigers.”
Do you know what I mean?
They’ve done it before… often… and we’ve seen them do it often, particularly in the 2023 season. Even when they are defending the short end of the field in enemy territory, the Tiger defenses expects to succeed in stopping their opponents. They act like they’ve been there before, so I try to sound like we’ve stopped opponents on third down before.
The first snaps among all the games in Class 5A and Class 6A football sectional will not launch postseason play until Friday, but for the grown-ups – because your young athletes will be focused state-wide on going 1-0 this week and keeping their gear for another Monday – it’s fun to speculate out of earshot from our children.
The 2023 Indiana Depart of Education Enrollment (DOE) data seems to be a harbinger of some significant changes in classification among as many as six high schools between the state’s two largest enrollment classes when the 2024 enrollment classes are evaluated state-wide.
Cathedral only needs to win a sectional to earn three Tournament Success Factor (TSF) points to stay in Class 6A, and Valparaiso only needs to win a regional to return to Class 6A.
The greater Indianapolis area, especially schools with larger enrollment in the Circle City’s bedroom communities, show growing trends opposite of Northern schools who tended to be greatly affected by the recession (2009-2011, by far the worst stretch).
Northern schools might consequently see smaller freshman student numbers: the recession babies.
Lafayette Harrison already had enough students in the 2022-2023 school year to leapfrog into Class 6A if the schools had to evaluate their enrollment class structure today.
A bump from Valpo (who needs a regional title in 5A to bump up to 6A), and Cathedral’s opportunity to remain in Class 6A by winning a sectional crown, schools affected by the likely shifts upward or downward will find a tournament run in Class 5A football to be just as hard as it would be in Class 6A.
The schools in the North who move to 5A from 6A will still need to get past Merrillville, Mishawaka, Concord, and Fort Wayne Snider to earn a trip to Lucas Oil Stadium during the 2024 Thanksgiving Day weekend.
The 2023 postseason runs, however, are each football team’s most immediate priority. The action will be compelling, and the competition will be fierce.
This is why it’s fun to be a parent or a pundit, sometimes, because we can speculate, and the kids these days seem very good at tuning out our what-ifs, focusing instead on their October 27 opponents.