I understand all the various explanations for playing Saturday vs Fridays.. more in attendence, traffic, weather, getting in sync with practice patterns leading up to a state finals game etc etc, but I would rather the games be on Friday nights. What about parents who have two ir more sons where one is playing in high school and the other is in college playing and they both have games on Saturdays ? I know there's not a large number of situations like that but it's still remains a possibility. When you look back in time though there have been a lot of IHSA football playoff games that took place on Saturdays and I've seen some on YouTube going back to the '80s
Tomorrow night across the state of Indiana (Edgy just loves it when I talk Indiana high school football haha) they will play what they call their Semi-State ganes which is the same as our Semi-Final game. that's a big thing there you win that and they give you a trophy and you're on your way to Indianapolis on Thanksgiving Day weekend. There are 6 classes so there will be 12 games ALL to be played tomorrow night.
A few will involve teams from the Northwest Indiana "Region" which are
6A (11-1) Westfield Shamrocks @ (12-0) Crown Point Bulldogs whose head coach is former Homewood Flossmoor Vikings coach Craig "Buzz" Buzea . It's been 17 seasons since the Bulldogs apoeared in a Semi-State game. This is Coach Buzea's third sesson at the helm since he had taken over a program in '21 that had won only 14 games in three seasons prior. His teams have gone from 5-5 to 10-1 last season to 13-0 currently and with a win would put Crown Point in a state championship game for the first time in school history. Buzz also took the 13-0 Portage Indians to the 5A title in '94 but they were beaten by Castle The winner of this game will meet the winner of the other Class 6A Semi-State game between two State powers. The Ben Davis Giants out of Indianapolis vs the defending class 6A Champion Center Grove Trojans from Greenwood. Since Indiana High School football went to a sixth class in 2013, no 6A team from NWI has appeared in a State Championship game.
5A (10-2) Merrillville Pirates @ (11-1)Fort Wayne Snider Panthers. Merrillville and Crown Point are both members of the Duneland Athletic Conference and the Pirates lost to the Bulldogs 39-6 in week 3. Merrillville also lost the regular season game to Valparaiso 26-24 but the Pirates defeated the Vikings last week 24-20 in the Regional Championship which is their quarterfinals. It's may not end up well for Merrillville. Not many schools from the NWI region come into Fort Wayne and leaves winning. The last school to do it was Valparaiso last season when they beat the Panthers 22-21 in OT electing to go for a two-point conversion in overtime and making it which sent the Vikings down to Indianapolis where they defeated Whiteland to win the 5A title. Snider's only loss so far this sesson was 23:20 to Homestead also from FW 23-20 in week 6. Snider has been to the State finals a few times but for Merrillville you have to go all the way back to 1976 when the won the 3A title which was then the largest class in Indiana at the time. The pressure will be on the Boys in Purple.
3A The (12-0) Knox Redskins from Starke County coached by longtime Indiana high school football ciach Russ Radtke (Griffith and New Prairie) and is just outside of the NWI Region will travel down to Indy to face the (12-0) Bishop Chatard Trojans who had a signature 24-21 win vs Indianapolis Cathedral Chatard has won 14 Class 3A State titles so this will be a monumental task for small town Knox. Radtke like Buzea has turned around the Redskins football program . Knox lost in the Regional title to West Lafayette last season.
1A Finally the (10-2) North Judson-San Pierre Blue Jays also out of Starke County will head to Monroe IN to take on the (12-0) Adams Central Jets who beat NJSP 35-0 in last year's 1A semi-state. One of the Blue Jays three losses was to Knox in week four 22-18. North Judson makes its third semi State appearance in school playoff history and has lost in the Semi-State the last two seasons to Adams Central. Adams Central went on to the State Championship those two seasons and lost both times to Indianapolis Lutheran.