Night games
- Thread starter RPG24
- Start date
I’m guessing the IHSA caters more to the fans and families of the teams playing more than to us football geeks who would like to attend more than one game.
The teams come up with this, not IHSA, unless they can’t agree.
I just don’t understand why there are never games on Friday nights anymore in quarters or semis. Weak!!!
Both teams have to agree to play on Friday nights. And with likely longer travel for playoff matchups vs reg season, im sure teams are considering the parents who have to work and the kids who are in school.
Teams want the extra day to prepare in the playoffs and once they start playing on Saturday they're not going back to Friday's. That being said I fully support games being on Friday nights as that's when HS football should be played.
I hear you man. My senior daughter will miss her third playoff game because she works on Saturdays and asked me why there are no Friday nights.
I prefer Saturday day games, much warmer.
I like Friday night games rounds 1 and 2 and Saturdays for the quarters and semis. I like the mix of day/night for the state championships, but would dislike having the 10 a.m. game because it's so out of routine. Le-Win doesn't seem to mind though 
I'm a Dinosaur.I miss the Wednesday-Saturday playoff games & SFDS/Mendel/Weber type Sunday Catholic games with refs from the Big 10
As a frequent traveler to Salt Lake City, I love how they handle all 6 classes of the playoffs. Games are scheduled Thur, Fri and Sat. Not only that, but they are free to watch online with decent broadcasters and no major glitches.
Your best bet would be LA/York at 12:30 and MC/Batavia at 4. Say a novena for a ground and pound at LA and light traffic and a good GPS to get down to Woodlawn.
If I were you I’d pick one game or the other: hit Meier’s Bar after the LA game or Western Ave in Beverly before the MC game. I’ll defer to my Southside buddies on the best spot down there.
If you choose LA look for Karen, she’s well known in the neighborhood up there. She might join you for a pop. Her guard will be down since it’s an Elmhurst crowd visiting and not those hooligans from the south side.
But if your 1a-4a you short yourself a day of practice the week of the state game.
This year, weather hasn't been an issue, but I think this is part of it. Get large temp swings between potentially sunny, 1pm start, and dark, 7-10pm. Players might not care that much, but the fan experience is better when it's warmer.
There seems to be a lot more than one reason to have games on Saturday instead of Friday. Traffic and distance plays the biggest part, in my opinion. If you're someone who wants to see a Friday night game at 7:00 but you don't get out of work till 5:00, depending on traffic and distance, it can be quite a challenge, However if the game is on Saturday, say, at 2:00 you can give yourself more time to get there.
I do think that's the biggest reason, out of many. Maximize the number of parents/fans that can make the game.
Skip 94: Take Lake all the way east to Sheridan and Sheridan to the drive.
Much more scenic and you should fly down the drive with a little slowdown downtown.
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.
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.
Couldn't agree more about HS games being on Friday night. Maybe the IHSA should schedule the semi's. Half the games on Friday and half on Saturday. Doesn't have to be all the small schools on Friday either, do a random draw for which games are on which day.
That sounds like a good idea. It's mind boggling to think that back when the schools went into the playoffs and the first game was on a Wednesday, that meant schools woukd pkay 3 games in one week. The 9th game, many of which were on Saturday because a lot of schools didn't have lights back then, followed 4 or 5 days later by the Wednesday opener, then what was the Quarter-Final game most which were played on Saturdays. Can you imagine this going on today? I was proud of the era I played in ('77-'81) and there were some really big dudes playing back then...but these kids today are bigger faster and stronger. Look around the kickoffs ball goes in the endzone and that's it. I remember back when I was playing if you caught the ball in the end zone you brought it out and wham! I just think playing three games in one week with today's landscape and tge way players are you'd have a ton of injuries going on. That's just my opinion.
Hope Academy at 1pm then a 20min I290 trip to LSD to MC by 3:15pm (parking & food stop sacrificed).
Westfield has amazing facilities both at the school and at Grand Park in town. The community is exploding.
What a game! Caught the second half online.. Crown Point had taken a decent lead in the first half but Westfield came roaring back to tie it and Crown Point won it in OT! They will face long time power Ben Davis next Saturday. BD knocked off defending 6A Champion Center Grove in OT last night as well
Craig Buzea leaves HF goes back home to Indiana to CP and in three seasons takes the Bulldogs to the state championship .
In 1994 Buzz took the 13-0 Portage Indians to the 5A championship but they lost to Castle.