Columbus North has been a relatively balanced football team on offense the past couple of years.
But following the loss of two-year starting quarterback Trenton Kelley and a pair of high-profile transfers on the offensive side of the ball, the Bull Dogs are looking at becoming a run-heavy team this fall.
That was evident in Tuesday night’s informal scrimmage — tackling was not allowed, and plays were blown dead if a defender came close to the quarterback — against Lawrence North. The Bull Dogs failed to get into the end zone, but coach Tim Bless wasn’t concerned.
"There were glimmers of progress in all facets," Bless said. "You don’t pay a lot of attention to whether you score or not because it’s hard to officiate in those scenarios — ‘Well, he tagged him. Does that mean he was really tackled?’ Whether you score or give up scores, that’s not my bigger concern. The greatest thing is, we want to be able to see it on film, we want to be able to evaluate fundamentals and learn and grow as a football team."
Bless had a chance to do that in an in-house install camp the first week of summer and the UIndy overnight camp June 10-12.
"I felt really good about our progress at UIndy, and it was great competition," Bless said. "We were playing pretty much all 6A schools, including a big school out of Chicago. You go against speed, that’s obviously going to help you and show you your deficiencies in a hurry."
North lost last year’s top receiver, Preston Terrell, who moved to Brownsburg, and last year’s JV quarterback, Cody Ruble, who transferred to Seymour. But the Bull Dogs did get a couple of move-in quarterbacks in incoming senior Tanner Hadley from Florida and incoming sophomore Elijah Foster from Colorado.
Hadley and incoming sophomore Luke Hammons saw action Tuesday, along with senior starter Hunter Huser, who moved from wide receiver after Ruble transferred. Incoming junior Blake Huffman, North’s top rusher last season, did not play after injuring a hip flexor in summer baseball.
IHSAA tweaks alignment
The IHSAA made a minor change to its football tournament alignment for Classes 6A and 5A for 2019 and a little bigger change to the alignment for 2020 on Friday.
With schools now needing only two points instead of three under the IHSAA’s Tournament Success Factor, Fort Wayne Snider will remain in 6A and Cathedral will remain in 5A. And with Elkhart Central and Elkhart Memorial consolidating into Elkhart High School for 2020 and becoming 6A, Zionsville will drop from 6A to 5A after this season.
As a result, Carmel in 2020 will move into Class 6A Sectional 5, which is in the southern semistate, with Avon, Brownsburg and Pike.
Also of note, Warren Central now is in Sectional 7 with Lawrence Central, Lawrence North and North Central. The winner of that sectional plays in the regional against the winner of Sectional 8, which includes Columbus East, Columbus North, Center Grove and Franklin Central. Previously, the winner of Sectional 8 would not face Warren Central until the semistate.
East catcher named All-State
Dalton Back, who helped lead Columbus East to a Class 4A state runner-up finish, has been named to the Prep Baseball Report All-State team as its catcher.
Back batted .406 and led the Olympians with eight doubles, six triples, six home runs, 35 RBIs and 33 runs scored as a junior. He is one of only four juniors on the 14-player PBR All-State team.
Olympians selected All-HHC
Three Columbus East and one Jennings County player have been named to this year’s All-Hoosier Hills Conference baseball team.
East senior Julian Greenwell and juniors Back and Cole Gilley are on the first team, along with Jennings County senior Josh Pettit. East senior Jonah Wichman and Jennings senior Cody Wilson made honorable mention.
Greenwell (Wright State), Back (Miami-Ohio) and Gilley (Indiana State) are committed to Division I schools. Wichman had committed to D-I South Carolina-Upstate, but asked for his release last weekend after that school made a coaching change.
Senior named East MVP
Greenwell, who earned Academic All-State honors and played in last weekend’s North-South All-Star series, has been selected as MVP of the Columbus East baseball team.
Greenwell also was the Olympians’ Quality At-Bat Champion. Senior Nash Murphy won the Jay Lemmon Everyday Award, and Wichman won the Lou Giovanini Leadership Award.
Will Rieckers was named JV MVP. Dylan Niese won the JV Mental Attitude Award.
East to host volleyball camp
Columbus East volleyball coach Stacie Pagnard and her staff and players will host the Columbus East Youth Volleyball Camp from 4:30 to 6 p.m. July 8 to 11 at the school for Grades K through 8.
Cost is $50 and includes a camp t-shirt. To register, visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1fLEB0q1VSzidit6CvWQYBP9Y1oR6jwHSmbCOqPpnSAQ/edit
Lancer hoops to host outing
The Edinburgh Basketball Golf Outing will be at 8 a.m. Aug. 3 at Timbergate Golf Course.
Cost is $240 per team or $60 per person and includes lunch and a chance for prizes. Hardwood, Special Event and Hole Sponsorships also are available.
To sign up a team, call Brad Rooks at 812-374-8970 or drop off an entry form at Edinburgh High School. To be a Hole Sponsor, call boys coach Keith Witty at 317-657-7689 or girls coach Amy Macy-Schilling at 812-603-1085.
Jets looking for coaches
Hauser is looking for high school soccer and boys tennis coaches and a junior high soccer coach for this fall.
For more information, contact athletics director Tyler Phillips at tphillips@flatrock.k12.in.us.
