Under the new postseason alignment, Center Grove coach Kevin Stuckmeyer and Franklin’s Mike Armstrong won’t meet until the regional round.
Daily Journal file photo
The undeniable sense of community that formerly enveloped sectional week in Indiana continues to distance itself from those involved.
As if breaking schools into four classes a quarter-century ago wasn’t enough fragmentation, the Indiana High School Athletic Association’s latest postseason setup includes splits within the splits.
Take this week, for example.
While Center Grove and Greenwood play a first-round sectional game tonight at Bloomington South, the other Class 4A teams from Johnson County, Franklin and Whiteland, are part of the six-team Shelbyville site.
These four were previously part of the same sectional.
“I think I’m more sad than angry,” Whiteland athletic director David Edens said. “With the makeup of our current sectional, there aren’t a lot of common opponents. “I prefer local rivalries in the sectional — but if you win sectional, you’re not worried about it.”
Edens mentions how Whiteland’s boys basketball team will be playing its sectional at East Central, a school located near Cincinnati, in March 2024.
“What if Whiteland and Franklin draw the Tuesday night 6 o’clock game, and they have to drive all that way when the schools are five minutes apart?” Edens said. “It just seems inconvenient.”
Geographically speaking, Sectional 14 doesn’t present a lot of enticing options.
Should Franklin or Whiteland one day serve as host, players and coaches from East Central will load a bus and drive here unless future realignment sends them elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Sectional 13 not only includes Center Grove and Greenwood, but the two Bloomington schools, Martinsville and Mooresville.
For sake of comparison, Greenwood and Bloomington South, the schools farthest apart in Sectional 13, are separated by 48 miles. Using the same formula in Sectional 14, Whiteland is 73 miles from East Central.
“As an outsider looking in, I never thought I would see Center Grove, Franklin, Greenwood and Whiteland split up,” Franklin girls coach Mike Armstrong said. “Mooresville going to Sectional 13 is also a little perplexing because Sectional 12 now only has five teams. Sectional 11 has seven teams.
“But you know what? Go play who they tell you to play.”
Sectional 11 at Southport includes Roncalli, Decatur Central, Perry Meridian, Franklin Central and the host Cardinals — which makes far more sense in terms of rivalry and geography than what the Johnson County teams will experience this week.
Center Grove closed its regular-season schedule a week ago today with a 48-22 victory at Greenwood. The rematch, however, is 41 miles south of the CG campus.
“It caught me off guard a little bit. But when you get down to it, breaking up the Johnson County teams seems strange for us,” Trojans coach Kevin Stuckmeyer said. “My freshman year of high school was the first year of class basketball (1997-98), and even then you had all the traditional rivalries.
“Now we have realignment every two years and the (IHSAA) success factor, so there’s always fluid movement.”
Regardless of which teams cut the nets at the Shelbyville and Bloomington South sites, they will have to travel all the way to Bedford North Lawrence to square off in another of the IHSAA’s recent brainstorms — the one-game regional.
Indian Creek, the county’s lone 3A school, has long been on an island of sorts.
Nonetheless, the Braves’ girls squad (22-1), ranked fourth and absolutely capable of a lengthy postseason run, are expected to make three 86-mile round trips to and from Owen Valley for sectional competition.
In Class A, a second helping of local division exists with Greenwood Christian and Edinburgh driving different directions as part of Sectionals 59 (at Eminence) and 60 (Southwestern), respectively.
The more things change, the more they … change.
IF YOU GO
Class 4A Bloomington South Sectional
Tonight
Bloomington South vs. Mooresville, 6 p.m.
Center Grove vs. Greenwood, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Martinsville vs. Bloomington South/Mooresville, 6 p.m.
Bloomington North vs. Center Grove/Greenwood, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7 p.m.
Class 4A Shelbyville Sectional
Tonight
Franklin vs. Columbus North, 6 p.m.
Columbus East vs. East Central, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Whiteland vs. Franklin/Columbus North, 6 p.m.
Shelbyville vs. Columbus East/East Central, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7:30 p.m.
Class 3A Owen Valley Sectional
Tonight
South Vermillion vs. Brown County, 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday
West Vigo vs. Edgewood, 6 p.m.
Indian Creek at Owen Valley, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Northview vs. tonight’s winner, 6 p.m.
Wednesday’s winners, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7:30 p.m.
Class A Eminence Sectional
Tonight
Greenwood Christian vs. Tindley, 6 p.m.
Friday
Indianapolis Lutheran at Eminence, 6 p.m.
Central Christian vs. tonight’s winner, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7 p.m.
Class A Southwestern Sectional
Tonight
Waldron vs. Jac-Cen-Del, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday
Oldenburg Academy vs. South Decatur, 6 p.m.
Morristown vs. Edinburgh, 7:30 p.m.
Friday
Southwestern vs. tonight’s winner, 6 p.m.
Wednesday’s winners, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday
Championship, 7:30 p.m.
Admission: $7 per session, $15 all sessions; children 5 and under free
Mike Beas is a sportswriter for the Daily Journal. He can be reached at [email protected].
