The Mid-Hoosier Conference is about to lose 30 percent of its membership, but Hauser athletics director Dave Irvine said the Jets’ schedules won’t change a whole lot next year.
The MHC’s largest school, Indian Creek, is leaving for the Western Indiana Conference. The MHC’s two newest members, Eastern Hancock and Knightstown, also have announced their intentions to leave at the end of the school year.
Those three schools were among six in the MHC that field football programs. The other four, including Hauser, have soccer teams.
Eastern Hancock and Knightstown were in discussions to form a conference that included Lapel and Shenandoah, but nothing has been finalized. Irvine isn’t surprised that Eastern Hancock and Knightstown decided not to stay.
“When they proposed getting into the conference, I kind of balked because of the distance,” Irvine said. “They said ‘It’s not that far,’ but I said with junior high and all these other trips, it is. They didn’t think it was a big deal at the time, but now it is.”
Irvine said the departing schools indicated they wanted to keep MHC schools on the schedule in some sports. Meanwhile, the conference is looking to add an eighth school but hasn’t come up with a good fit.
“In my opinion, eight would be a perfect number for the Mid-Hoosier Conference,” Irvine said. “We had a meeting about who would be a good fit. Some of the schools that we’re interested in or were interested in us are committed to another conference. We don’t want to make a rash decision.”
MHC officials have discussed the idea of playing each other twice a year in basketball.
“I kind of like that idea, so I hope we’ll go to that eventually,” Irvine said.
State champs to be honored
Hauser will host a 10-year reunion for its 2006 Class A state championship boys basketball team Saturday night at its game against Crothersville.
Irvine said all but one player from that team has indicated they will be in attendance. Gabe Miller is an assistant coach at Judson University, which has a game at Calumet College on Saturday.
Columbus hosts bowling sectional
Columbus Bowling Center will host an Indiana High School Bowling sectional tournament Saturday.
Twelve boys and six girls teams will bowl in the team session beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday. Columbus East and Columbus North have coed teams which will compete in the boys division.
The individual sectional was contested on Saturday at Classic Lanes in Bloomington. North’s Jordan Bowman finished fifth with games of 180, 144 and 183 to qualify for the girls singles regional, which will be Feb. 6 at Kingpins Alley in Seymour.
The individual and team semistate will be Feb. 13 at Championship Lanes in Anderson. The state finals are Feb. 20 at Mike Aulby’s Arrowhead Bowl in Lafayette.
Girls hoops pairings drawn Monday
The IHSAA girls basketball tournament draw will be at 8 p.m. Monday.
The draw will not be televised but will be streamed live on IHSAAtv.org. The IHSAA Champions Network will also provide radio coverage of the event.
