Old one-class basketball system would be ideal for football this year
By CLIFF BRUNT
ISL Editor
Most everybody in Indiana knows about the state’s legendary old single-class state tournament in basketball. You know, the one that spawned the movie Hoosiers and was dismantled in the 1990s, leading to heated debates about tradition vs. fairness to small schools ever since.
I’d love to see that one-class system in football this year.
I just watched Jake Purichia of Class 2A Cardinal Ritter cut Bishop Chatard’s vaunted defense to shreds. It looked like somebody playing a video game on easy mode. Purichia, just a junior, passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 126 yards and four scores in a 56-33 win on Friday night. Would those numbers work for your fantasy football team?
But back to the point, that was Class 2A No. 2 Ritter blowing out Class 3A No. 1 Chatard, the same Chatard team that shut down defending Class 4A champion and then-4A No. 1 Cathedral 21-7 the week before.
Oh yeah, Cathedral. Wait, didn’t they beatClass 5A power Warren Central earlier this season?
Yes, 14-7 in Week 2.
So, in this altered game of six degrees of separation, Ritter could conceivably beat Warren Central.
Maybe.
I’m not kidding. I’m not sure anybody can stop Ritter’s offense, regardless of class. I’d love to see Warren Central’s defense, one of the fastest and best I’ve seen at the high school level, play the Raiders, with their dual-threat quarterback, multiple weapons at receiver led by Alex Parrett and strong running game with Logan Beaman.
Now, obviously, it’s not physically possible for football players to play enough games to have a one-class tournament. There’s not enough time, it wouldn’t be safe because there would be too many games, etcetera. The IHSAA just voted to add a class to football in 2013 to make it more fair for smaller schools in Class 5A, so I know they are going in the other direction. But just have fun with me and imagine the possibilities. Imagine Carmel, with its defense and tradition, facing Chatard, with workhorse running back Pete Hartley and the excellence of execution that is coach Vince Lorenzano.
For fun, let’s throw Heritage Christian into the mix. I witnessed one of the longest and most entertaining high school games I’ve ever seen at Lucas Oil Stadium earlier this season when Ritter escaped Heritage Christian and star receiver Anthony Warrum, 42-41 in the season opener. In that game, Heritage Christian faked an extra point after scoring with no time remaining, but failed.
For the record, that 42 points is by far the fewest Ritter has scored this season.
So, again, in our game of six degrees of separation, Heritage Christian probably could give Warren Central a game.
Perhaps.
Now keep this in mind. Warren Central’s other loss was 6-3 to Ben Davis, which is unbeaten and entered last week ranked No. 2 in Class 5A. So the gap between Heritage Christian, the No. 8 team in Class 2A, and Ben Davis, the No. 2 team in 5A, doesn’t appear to be great.
Evansville Mater Dei entered this past week as the No. 1 team in the Associated Press’ Class 2A poll. I haven’t seen Mater Dei. They’d better be good.
And, though Chatard’s defense got shredded to pieces by Ritter, there is no reason to believe that the very talented Trojans can’t bounce back and win 3A. It’s highly unlikely they’ll face an offense like Ritter’s again, even in 3A.
My point in all this is that there are some excellent small class teams that have made this Indiana high school football season unique. And it is greatly appreciated.
So, what’s your dream matchup? Do you think Ritter could beat Warren Central or Carmel? Let me know what you think!
