There is no secret this column isn’t “live” each Saturday morning. I am excited about the prospect of Warsaw’s ability to compete with and defeat the Concord Minutemen in their sectional title clash considering the Tigers had them on the ropes with a 17-0 halftime lead six weeks ago.
If we awaken to another week of practice for Tiger football this morning, it will be wonderful to win the title defeating a team that usually made our week 9 trips to Janke Field end sadly when they were the recurring final regular season opponent.
So, will we wake up to the joy of ending Concord’s season on a sour note for them? I certainly hope so. The Tiger defense is a different animal than it was in midseason, and the only team who could have beaten Warsaw last night would be… Warsaw.
Tiger football fans, the two best full-season, five-year football won-loss records have come under the helms of Phil Jensen (41-13; 0.759 winning percentage; 1998-2002) and Bart Curtis (41-14; 0.745; 2019-2023).
The Tigers, in the current season (five-year rolling accumulation of 39-14 so far) would need to reach the state championship to top the aforementioned rolling five-year wins. If the Tigers won last night, their likely remaining foes would be undefeated Lafayette Jefferson, and one-loss Merrillville.
This is a tough row to hoe, and it would be Warsaw’s deepest run ever.
Bottom line, success in football, especially in large school postseason action is a meat grinder.
Jensen led the Tigers to 10 winning record seasons among 18 in total, and considering Warsaw was certainly a “basketball school” when he took the helm in 1996, this was quite a feat.
The seven seasons, starting in 2018 and up to 2024 so far under Bart Curtis, are the only seven years run where Warsaw has won at least seven games in each season.
The efforts of these gentlemen, and two out of four winning seasons under Troy Akers sandwiched by Jensen’s tenure, spell 19 winning seasons among the last 29 campaigns.
Warsaw football makes us more than a basketball school, and it took three gentlemen to do that over nearly 30 years. Hats off to each of them.
My uncle and godfather, an Ohio State alum who lives within walking distance of the Big House in Ann Arbor and can see Michigan’s soccer stadium from his kitchen window, reminded me of something I wrote earlier this year.
“I’m wondering how much crow you’re eating already,” he said,” since you wrote in your columns Indiana and Purdue would thankfully see less TV time due to the improved quality of the Big Ten’s newest members… you know, relegated to the Big Ten Network only?”
Additionally, Washington, and USC are experiencing a down year, and UCLA has been a doormat for some of the legacy Big Ten teams, resulting in more crow on my plate regarding the contributions I expected from these programs.
At this rate, I feel like I’ll be eating far more weight in crow meat than turkey meet throughout November.
With all this said, I told my uncle I was resigned to that fact I was half right, for now.
It appears the half right rests with what will likely be another Ohio State win against one of two Indiana public universities in the conference (Purdue), and certainly not a pretty win with all those mangled Buckeyes wearing jerseys with pants or sweatpants on the sidelines at noon today.
In two weeks, however, my uncle reminded me about my “Buckeye smug” rant, telling Hoosier fans how we feel in our customary rarified air with new guests in the first-class lounge among us.
I have a feeling the way IU football is playing these recent weeks, if Ohio State doesn’t’ get some of their athletes healthy and game ready. IU is legitimately in the running for a college football playoff berth. Who knew?
Now, I’ll finish my lunch hour eating some ravioli with a tomato-flavored alfredo sauce over some chicken breast cutlets before I eventually eat more crow.