Defensive back Gavin Oakes, left, makes a tackle for Center Grove during last season’s semistate victory over Ben Davis.
No matter how Center Grove fares tonight in its season opener against Warren Central, an overwhelming sense of finality is poised to make the most jarring of tackles.
The Trojans and Warriors, a staple of Week 1 football in Indiana the past 11 years and annual conference foes since 1997, are about to venture different directions.
Maybe just for the short term. Maybe longer.
Center Grove is without conference affiliation for the first time in 102 years, meaning a bold — okay, maybe cold — new world is opening up in terms of future athletic scheduling. Nowhere will that be more pronounced than in football.
Whether the six remaining Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference programs consider scheduling Center Grove is out of the latter’s hands.
This much is known: Warren Central’s dance card is already filled for 2023, and the Trojans aren’t on it.
“Our No. 1 goal every year was to win our conference. Now I feel like a fish out of water,” said Center Grove coach Eric Moore, whose club is the two-time defending Class 6A state champion. “As easy as it might sound, in football, you only need nine opponents.
“But as good as we’ve been, no one wants to play us. In college, you can pay people to get as many games as you want, but in high school, it’s a challenge. People can avoid you. It destroys me because we cut our teeth in that conference.”
Center Grove’s athletic lineage spans five conferences, most recently the MIC, which it help found in 1996. Prior to that, Trojan teams competed in the South Central (1991-96), Central Suburban (1981-91), Mid-State (1956-81) and Johnson County (1920-56) leagues.
Enter first-year athletic director Joe Bronkella, a 1996 Anderson Highland graduate who spent the last five years in the AD’s chair at Madison.
Bronkella helped his previous employer transition into independent status after leaving the Hoosier Hills Conference in 2020, so he has experience in this area.
“Part of this is going to be me growing relationships with the other ADs. For me, individually, that’s not hard, but I just want to build positive relationships and continue to build on them,” Bronkella said. “I’m making sure everything is solidified for this year, and I’m a very forward looker, so I want to make sure we have everything planned out way in advance.”
Next season’s schedule is devoid of a Week 1 opponent for the first time in a long time.
However, Center Grove is contracted to continue playing Carmel, another former MIC rival, and league holdover Ben Davis, a 6A semistate qualifier the past three seasons. The Trojans host Louisville Trinity in 2023 as part of a home-and-home after playing on Bluegrass soil in Week 3 of this season.
Moore’s program will keep playing Cathedral in Week 9, at least for the foreseeable future.
Bronkella is going to contact athletic directors at North Central, Lawrence Central, Pike and Lawrence North in an effort to keep as many of these MIC schools on the schedule as possible.
In the case of playing Warren Central, bidding farewell to a rivalry that has already played out 30 times this century — with 11 of the outcomes decided by seven or fewer points — isn’t easy.
One option, at least initially, is to schedule some out-of-state opponents.
Since taking over as coach in 1999, Moore has faced only two teams outside of Indiana, opening the 2008 season with a 41-0 drubbing of visiting Dayton (Ohio) Carroll and winning a wild 55-37 contest at Cincinnati LaSalle in 2013.
Moore, who turned 61 last week and has battled health issues of late, doesn’t want to become the public school version of Cathedral, which since 2010 has had 41% of its regular-season opponents (33 of 80) come from Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan or Tennessee.
In 2017, the Fighting Irish opened with three consecutive road games in as many states — Louisville St. Xavier, Detroit King and Pickering (Ohio) Central. Overall, six of Cathedral’s nine games that year were against teams from other states, five of those on the road.
“Nothing good can come from it,” Moore said of any long-distance road trips that can consume much of a weekend for players, coaches, parents and fans. “The trickle-down effect takes place, and it hurts your younger programs.”
A best-case scenario would have Center Grove signing contracts to continue playing football against the MIC schools.
If not, Bronkella says, there will be options.
“We do have a lot of opportunities in the state, but it’s not far-fetched to say we might have a couple out-of-state games,” he said. “My hope is to keep it as local as we can and still have good competition.”
THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES
Warren Central at Center Grove, 7 p.m. tonight
Franklin at Danville, 7 p.m. tonight
Seymour at Greenwood, 7 p.m. tonight
Whiteland at Columbus East, 7 p.m. tonight
Batesville vs. Indian Creek at Franklin College, 7 p.m. tonight
Tindley at Edinburgh, 7 p.m. tonight
Roncalli at Southport, 7 p.m. tonight
Greenwood Christian at Brownsburg JV, 4 p.m. Saturday
