Between a new conference, a new set of sectional opponents and a multitude of new starters, Tippecanoe Valley football is bursting at the seams in intrigue as the 2024 season gets set to start.
“It’s definitely been a unique time, especially what we did last year, going through all that,” coach Steve Moriarty says of Valley playing 2023 as an independent after ending its nearly 50-year affiliation with the Three Rivers Conference.
The Vikings didn’t just play as an independent last year, but flourished at it, completing a 9-0 regular season against a cobbled-together schedule that included ultimately 7-3, 9-4 and 7-5 clubs.
“It was something you never get to do,” Moriarty says. “Each week was exciting for both the coaching staff and players, discovering a new school almost every week. Normally, you have some backlog on teams, so it was different.”
That said, Moriarty’s also looking forward to the familiarity among schools, the annual shot at a conference title and the player recognition of all-conference lists that will come with being back in a league.
What a league the debuting Indiana Northern State Conference is shaping up to be, too.
“What impresses me is it’s all good programs across the board,” Moriarty says of the six-school group that also includes Bremen, Glenn, Jimtown, LaVille and Knox, which is ranked No. 2 in Class 3A by Indiana Football Digest. “There’s not a single week off looking at our conference or non-conference schedule.”
It’ll be a mighty challenge for a Viking club that returns just three full-time starters on defense and two on offense as it heads into Friday’s opener against visiting Wawasee.
“Our cabinet got a little emptied,” says Moriarty, who graduated stars like tailback Nate Parker and interception machine Wade Jones among others. “We’re kind of almost in rebuild mode, but we’ll be all right.”
On defense, two of the returning regulars are linebackers in Brock Derf — one of just eight seniors on the roster — and junior Grady Moriarty, who was crafting a spectacular two-way sophomore season before suffering a broken leg against Jimtown in Week 6.
Healthy now, the coach’s son finished No. 2 on the team in tackles last fall with 53 despite missing the final four games, while Derf closed at No. 1 with 81.
Senior Brandon Stiles completes the anticipated starting linebacker group.
The third defensive regular back is junior corner Wes Parker. Projected to join him in the starting backfield are junior Jamison Phillips at the other corner and a pair of sophomore safeties in Owen Omondi and Hunter Paxton.
Defensive line, per the senior Moriarty, could be manned in part “by committee,” with seniors Asher McGriff and Konnar Fountain, and juniors Carlos Gonzalez and Kolten Sisk among those figuring prominently.
On offense, Derf at fullback (31 carries, 182 yards) and McGriff along the line are the lone regulars back.
Phillips and sophomore Hunter Stage have been battling for starting quarterback duties, while Stiles and the younger Moriarty, each with experience, are leading tailback possibilities. Stiles picked up 282 yards on 58 carries last fall, while Moriarty, who can also handle fullback, gained 243 on just 20.
Parker and senior Wyatt Hart are wing hopefuls, senior Colton Crabb is penciled at tight end and Omondi has emerged as a leading wideout.
Candidates to join McGriff on the interior offensive front include senior Nash Miller, Sisk, junior Cale Dewees, Gonzalez, Fountain and, perhaps most notably, junior kicking star Gage Overbey, who did not play the position at all last fall.
As a kicker, Overbey hit 44-of-46 on extra points in 2023, and 8-of-13 field goals with a long of 46 yards.
While the new conference seems change enough, another modification that Valley is heartily welcoming is the latest sectional realignment.
Inexplicably to many, the school spent the last two years in a grouping of eight that included a couple Indianapolis area powers.
The Vikings lost on the road to one of those teams — eventual 15-0 Class 3A state champion Indy Chatard — in a sectional opener last fall to close 9-1.
This season, every single school in Valley’s 3A sectional (Angola, Fairfield, Fort Wayne Concordia, Garrett, Lakeland, West Noble and Woodlan) is different from those last two years.
“Still some really good teams,” says Moriarty, who begins his eighth season at his alma mater with a 50-25 record, including 28-4 over the last three years, “but it does seem more of a fit (geograhically).”
Of more immediate concern is Friday’s opener against Wawasee, followed by the annual Bell battle with Rochester and a first-ever matchup with Class 5A Hammond Morton, all at Smith-Bibler Memorial Field.
“Wawasee makes me nervous with (triple option guru Matt) Thacker,” Moriarty says of the Warriors’ new coach. “Then the Bell’s always tough, then Morton with three DI players who have already signed.”