Jeff Holloway
Central can cross off another unknown resulting from its consolidation with Southside. The Bearcats knew they would be moving up to Class 4A in most sports as a result of their larger enrollment, and on Monday they learned who their sectional opponents will be. The answer to the question depends on the sport.
Both basketball teams and the volleyball squad will enter sectionals dominated by the Fort Wayne area. The baseball and softball teams will be in sectionals loaded with teams to the south. The football team will be in a Class 5A sectional with other teams with past and present connections to the North Central Conference. And the soccer teams’ alignment in Class 2A will remain unchanged, with teams exclusively from Delaware and Jay counties.
For the boys basketball team, it means a Class 4A sectional with Fort Wayne South Side, Fort Wayne Wayne, defending state champion Homestead, Huntington North and Jay County. Central has played against Jay County in the regular season in recent years, and Huntington North is a departing member of the North Central Conference, but otherwise there isn’t much tradition between Central and the other sectional schools. Sites were not released with Monday’s announcement of team pairings.
When Central was last in Class 4A, in the 2010-11 season, it competed in the New Castle Sectional. Monday’s announcement included a very similar sectional, with Connersville, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, Pendleton Heights and Richmond, but the IHSAA elected to pair the Bearcats with opponents from the north.
“We know about a couple of these teams, Jay County is on our schedule every year and Huntington North was part of the conference,” Central coach Jeff Holloway said. “And just knowing Homestead and Fort Wayne Wayne and South, you know about them, but you’re not that familiar with them, because they’re not traditional teams that you play. So it’s going to be exciting again, just because it’s something new we’ve got to do our homework on and play the games. But I still think it will be fun, I think the kids will be excited about just doing something new, a new adventure, a new challenge.”
Central’s girls basketball team will have the same sectional opponents as the boys squad. The Bearcats’ volleyball team will have those same five opponents, plus Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran as a seventh team in its sectional.
Central’s baseball and softball teams will have Anderson, Connersville, Greenfield-Central, New Castle, Pendleton Heights and Richmond as potential sectional opponents. The Bearcats’ football team will be in a sectional with Anderson, Huntington North and Kokomo. Both soccer teams will be in sectionals with Delta, Jay County and Yorktown.
Central athletic director Suzanne Crump said the sectional sites for various sports will be determined through discussions among the member schools. She said she planned to pursue the possibility of a basketball sectional in Muncie Fieldhouse.
“I would offer it up to be the host sectional site. Now whether we can get that done or not, I don’t know,” Crump said. “But it’s historically just kind of a fun place to play. We can accommodate a good crowd. So we’ll see how the conversations go, and if we can host it, that’d be great. And if we don’t then I wouldn’t mind hosting the regional level as well. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The Class 3A boys basketball sectional Central formerly played in will remain mostly intact, with Blackford, Delta, Hamilton Heights and Yorktown all staying together. Marion and Tipton will jump in to bring that sectional back up to six teams, while it previously had Central and Southside.
Following its Class A state championship, the Wes-Del volleyball team is moving up to Class 2A by virtue of the IHSAA’s tournament success factor. It will join a 2A sectional in which it won’t be the only school with a state championship history, as Burris and Wapahani will also be in the mix. Wapahani had moved up to Class 3A via the success factor, but is headed back to 2A after not maintaining enough points to remain in 3A. The sectional will also include Frankton, Lapel, Monroe Central and Sheridan.
Wes-Del coach Biff Wilson said he suspected his team would either go east to play those historical powers, or go west and face the likes of Alexandria and Madison-Grant, which would also present a challenge.
“The biggest difference for me was go east and we knew we were going to be more familiar with those teams,” Wilson said. “And go west and there’s a little less familiarity in terms of who we play during the season. In the sectional (announced Monday) we play every team but one during the season. So we’re again real familiar with that.”
Yorktown’s volleyball team spent the last two years in Class 4A via the success factor, but will be returning to Class 3A this fall. It learned Monday that Blackford, Delta, Guerin Catholic, Hamilton Heights and Tipton are potential sectional opponents.
The Delta football team will be returning to Class 4A based on enrollment numbers, and it learned Monday that it will be in a sectional with Connersville, Greenfield-Central, Jay County, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, Pendleton Heights and Richmond. Yorktown will now be joined by Fort Wayne Bishop Luers in a Class 3A football sectional, after Luers defeated Yorktown in a regional championship last fall. Bellmont, Fort Wayne Concordia, Maconaquah, Northwestern, Norwell and Peru will join the Tigers and Knights in that sectional.
Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.