Highland

[NWI10]

What is the state of the Trojans?

Lost 74-0 to Hobart Friday night. Why are they not more competitive?

[BallinFreak]

Munster and Highland are such sad cases IMO. I just cannot figure it out. They should be able to field competitive teams

[NWI10]

I completely agree. Same with KV. The NCC is very top heavy. Region Football would be better if it was more competitive.

[scarab527]

I mean they haven’t been good since the 80s. Radtke consolidating Griffith/Highland pop warner in the 90s killed Highland football more or less. Demographic shifts exacerbating the issue now. Obviously Hobart ran it up quite a bit on them too.

KV is pretty much the same case as Highland of not being decent since the 80s and demographic shifts causing further issues.

Munster is the one that is really the head scratcher. Everything just hit the fan when Marsh retired. Not sure if that was on him/admin/his assistants or some combination. But Munster football was always solid, maybe not great, but respectable. What’s happened in the last 10 years is sad to see.

[nwifbfan]

Highland is a mystery to me as well. Low turnout for a 4A school obviously suggests a lack of interest in football. Coach Geffert is a good guy and coach. I’m baffled by them.

Munster is simple to explain for me. Two things, demographics and Chicago Catholic league and to a lesser extent Andrean.

Great school system with excellent pay but it has become the medical hub for NWI and these families simply aren’t interested or have t played American football.
They also lose a lot of their better football and baseball players to Mt Carmel, Brother Rice and St Rita’s.

BTW, I think the new coach is going a good job as there has been improvement in the last two years.

[From the Stands]

I mean they haven’t been good since the 80s. Radtke consolidating Griffith/Highland pop warner in the 90s killed Highland football more or less. Demographic shifts exacerbating the issue now. Obviously Hobart ran it up quite a bit on them too.

KV is pretty much the same case as Highland of not being decent since the 80s and demographic shifts causing further issues.

Munster is the one that is really the head scratcher. Everything just hit the fan when Marsh retired. Not sure if that was on him/admin/his assistants or some combination. But Munster football was always solid, maybe not great, but respectable. What’s happened in the last 10 years is sad to see.

Highland had a nice couple years in the late 90’s with the Boyd’s, Havens, Beard, etc..
That ‘99 sectional game with Lowell was one for the ages.

Munster, not there yet, but IMO has made great strides in last two years from where they were.

KV seems like an uphill battle for no matter who’s in position.

[Jimbo23]

I'll start with Highland since they were the beginning of this thread. Highland has not had a head coach with a career winning record since Brad Smith (1996-2001) who went 39-25 in his tenure and coached those competitive teams mentioned above. Something happened at Highland between 2001 and 2002 that has carried into today. Scarab's pop warner comment holds some weight but Highland has had a pop warner program for quite awhile now but it is not yielding returns at the high school level for various reasons. Looking at the data, product on the field, and the little bit I do know about their in building operations, they are not a place that is interested in being good at football and haven't been for a LONG time. A weight room culture (grades 6-12), weights class (WITH the athletes actually in it), accountability, and hard work is not "in the water in Highland." As crazy as this sounds, Geffert has the worst head coaching record of all coaches since Brad Smith, and even still I KNOW he's the best football coach they've had since Smith. This is not a coaching issue in Highland and the "talent" isn't exactly oozing out the doors of the place.

Munster is next. Leroy is obviously one of the most respected coaches in the Region's history and earned that. For the purpose of this exercise (should've stated this above) I went back to 1996 to gauge how competitive Highland, Munster, and KV have been. From 1996-2017 Leroy had a record of 125-105 (54% win %) which is literally 10 close games going the other way away from being Jeff Fisher. from the little I've learned over the years (way less than I know about Highland), the fall of Munster (allegedly) has to do with Leroy and/or admin's lack of interest in "kissing the boots" of folks who are contemplating playing for the hometown 'Stangs or heading over to Andrean/ the CCL. I'm not saying Leroy should've kissed the boots but I am saying people care about that stuff, right or wrong, and it cost them some quality players along the way.

KV has had 1 coach with a record of .500 since 1996. I will not waste my time trying to even pretend that they were ever competitive. Two of the areas best in the last 20 years (Stewart and Kennedy) have taken cracks at it and nothing... Congrats on the 5 seasons above .500 since 1996. If this job wasn't ranked below Highland and Munster on my Top 25 Coaching Jobs thread, I made an AWFUL mistake.

[NWI10]

Looking ahead for future trajectory I would say KV has a chance for success with the population growth down south. Andrean, Hanover, Hobart and Lowell will always be the big four in the NCC. Maybe Illiana joins the that conversation when they join. At some point does Highland bow out and go to the GSC? Who could replace them?

[nwifbfan]

Griffith or Wheeler

[Coach Nowlin 2.0]

Looking ahead for future trajectory I would say KV has a chance for success with the population growth down south. Andrean, Hanover, Hobart and Lowell will always be the big four in the NCC. Maybe Illiana joins the that conversation when they join. At some point does Highland bow out and go to the GSC? Who could replace them?

What population growth? I think KV is under 1000 kids, somewhere around 970 or so these days.

Why should KV stay in the NCC? What do they bring to the table? How many Team Championships have been won by KV team in the NCC? Football, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Soccer?

Griffih sitting there.......
Laporte in NCC compared to Duneland? Good or Bad?