Indiana state finals?

Who's been there?

I am taking them in as I will be covering them for a site I have been covering games for most of the season.

I will have pics on my google pics page and my facebook page.

I am doing to articles,but won't break the rule of posting another site.

I've been to the Indiana state finals a couple of times. It's indoor, which I have mixed feelings about, but the Indiana teams I've seen are well coached with have solid talent.

I've been, but it's been more than 10 years ago. Saw the legendary Bud Wright, who has been coaching for over 50 years at a 1A school, win his 8th state title.

This year, the 1A game will likely be a blowout. Pioneer has a kid going to ND playing QB/S. He is a man amongst boys, and may be the best 1A player in state history. Warren Central/Carmel could be a big win for Warren, but they were seriously challenged by Center Grove last week, so who knows.

The rest of the games have a chance to be good. I was planning to go, but my alma mater lost in 4A Semi-State to FW Dwenger, so those plans have changed. Hope you enjoy your time in Indy!

I would imagine the Chicago suburbs/Gary IN teams dominate but I have nothing to really base that on.

I was asked by Jaysie to talk a little about quality of teams and my thoughts on the game.

I will start with the Pioneer game again North Vermillion. That is the small class game.

This years pioneer team was dominating(Have been for the last two years) with back to back state title, I believe they move up to 2-A next season. They were 15-0 this season,had 11 shutouts and gave up 39 points all season.

Simply put, they could compete with any D-6 or D-7 teams in Ohio and Kentucky in my opinion. My reasoning for this is defense.

North Vermillion finished 13-2 and in talking to their fans, they were a super surprised this season, so much so that most of their fans expected them to make it to state next season and be good this.

I will do 2-A, when I get home tonight.

On a side note 12 bucks got you all three games each day.

I would imagine the Chicago suburbs/Gary IN teams dominate but I have nothing to really base that on.

Central IN schools dominate, especially the Metropoltan Conference around Indianapolis in big school competition.

Indiana football and the IHSAA work differently than Kentucky. Each school chooses to be in a Conference or not. The school chooses opponents for 9 games. In a Conference you have to play "X" number within the conference. Your 10th game is the first tourney game. Every team has one tourney game within the 6 classes. IHSAA sets up tourney play. The "success" factor can move you up a class. School size moves you up or down as that is fluid. State finals are Thanksgiving Friday and Saturday, three games each day. Day and classes rotate each year.

My cousin played for Evansville Central in the 4A championship game. They lost 16-10 to Ft. Wayne Bishop Dwenger in 4OTs. The game was scoreless until the second overtime. You would think that it would have been a boring game to watch, but actually it was pretty exciting the entire time. It was the longest championship game in IHSAA history.

The Class 2-A game featured Eastbrook,who I have now seen twice this season and the winner,Western Boone.

Western won 34-20 and left a good impression on me.

Eastbrook runs the wing T, I do not like, but is fun if you have a magical ball handling QB and team speed. Being I had seen EB earlier this season, I knew how potent their offense was. To see WB hold them to 20 and then put 34 up on a defense that I also knew was good showed me, how good the winners were.

Based on what I got to take in from these teams, I think they both are a little less than Pioneer, but over all I think they could compete with most of the schools there size in all seven states I took games in,in 2018.

@newarkcatholicfan not to jump the gun on you, as you may share some thoughts later, but I'd be interested to hear your opinion on how you think Pioneer would fare against the two 3A teams, Evansville Memorial and West Lafayette.

It was an odd year, in that Pioneer was clearly the best team in 1A and 2A, and some feel they would have made a lot of noise in 3A, as well. Those 3A teams were very, very solid though.

@newarkcatholicfan not to jump the gun on you, as you may share some thoughts later, but I'd be interested to hear your opinion on how you think Pioneer would fare against the two 3A teams, Evansville Memorial and West Lafayette.

 

It was an odd year, in that Pioneer was clearly the best team in 1A and 2A, and some feel they would have made a lot of noise in 3A, as well. Those 3A teams were very, very solid though.

You are correct both of the 3-A teams were good, especially on offense.

Coming in both looked sound on both offense and defense, so to me this showed just how potent they were on the offensive side of things, in this match up.

I going to say both of these teams could compete, with any of the teams I got to see this year in all of the states I visited. I am not saying they would win them all, but I would be shocked if they lost big.

As far as how pioneer would fair against either of these teams,

I think depth would wear Pioneer down, but as you know when it is just one game,with two very good teams squaring off, anything could happen.