Take the CBTL SHOULD MICHIGAN CITY HIGH SCHOOL LEAVE THE DUNELAND ATHLETIC CONFERENCE? POLL...

Having been the Athletic Secretary for MCHS, this is kinda hard for me to answer--so I'm going to ride the fence. The DAC is extremely talented and competitive and the Wolves are usually at the bottom in most sports--not all, but most.
It has been mentioned in the past to put MCHS back in the NIC, but there is some stiff competition there, too. In reality, I don't think it matters what conference MCHS is in, until they get their act together, get good coaching staffs, and work on expanding the hidden talent and improving grades, they're not going to be winners.
A lot of the problem with the athletes are grades....the shining stars have poor grades and can't play (despite only needing a D average), and there is no one offering to tutor these kids to help get grades up so they can play. Most of the coaches are very self absorbed and will over look the kids they think won't be successful--despite the fact that there is much hidden talent in this town that just needs to be explored and discovered.
So, I decline to answer because I don't think the conference will make a difference in whether City wins or loses.
Please don't think I'm talking about all sports.....there are some super duper winning teams out there, have been in the past, will be in the future. But right now, MCHS is off its game and improvement can only begin by making changes to the heart of the matter.....

That is a really good question. I just asked someone this exact thing the other day.

The question back would be, what options do we have? The NIC? Is there another 3-4A conference in the area?

City would be a perfect fit for the Northwest Crossroads Conference. Either as an eighth member or this would be a perfect opportunity for Munster to join the DAC.

In football the Wolves would be competing in football against former against state champions Hobart, Griffith, Andrean and Lowell. Kankakee Valley is strongly a strongly improving program and Highland was also once a state finalist in football and three for their former head coaches are members of the Indiana football hall of fame.

The City would also be a highly competitive member in the NCC for all other sports for both girls and boys.

Beginning in 2013 the Duneland conference double round robin scheduling will be no more so the Wolves can still maintain their traditional regular season rivilries with the likes of La Porte, Chesterton, Valpo, Portage, Merrillville, Crown Point and Lake Cebtral in non-conference action. In addition the Duneland conference schools would remain as city's sectional opponents.

I believe this would be the perfect time for City to make the switch in leagues as in addition the elimination of the DAC double round robin scheduling Indiana is making the move to a 6th class in football.

The problem is that the closest schools would be 45 minutes away.

I know we use to have Elston in the NIC, however, I don't know that would be a good option today. All of the South Bend or Mishawaka teams are in a different time zone. They are always on E.S.T. This could prove to be very difficult for sports teams that play during the week when school is in session. A girl's volleyball team could play MC at a 7:00 start time. Which would be 8:00 E.S.T. Volleyball games can go as long as 2 hours some times. That would mean the game finishes at 9:00 (10:00 E.S.T.) and thats not counting if the players stay over for interviews or shower and dress. That puts these girls home at approximately midnight and then have to wake up for school the next day. This could also be the same in reverse. Would the MC athletes have to leave school a hour earlier to play a 4:30 baseball/softball game? To join the NCC, at $4.00 a gallon of gas, are we willing to drive to Lowell, Kankakee Valley or Highland. We just eliminated 40 coaching positions because of cost. Would it be cost effective to go to these towns? I would also like to know the town population & school enrollment of DAC teams to come up with an educated decision.

Typical. It's the conference's fault we're not as competitive.

I don't think so. See my post above.......

I'm asked this question often, and my answer is consistent: NO. What's the lesson there? If it's too difficult, quit? Aren't we saying to the kids in our community, "You're not good enough"?

Pardon my french, but to hell with that. GET BETTER. DO BETTER. BE BETTER.

Grade 9 through 12 Enrollment of the DAC High schools during the 2011 IHSAA football relcassiffication are the following:

http://www.ihsaa.org/Portals/0/ihsaa/docum...;%202012-13.pdf

Lake Central 3223
Portage 2668
Crown Point 2532
Merrillville 2396
Valparaiso 2114
Chesterton 1986
Michigan City 1909
La Porte 1839

Next enrollment realignment figures will be released in January of 2013.

I can tell you that Chesterton has over 2200 currently

Well played. What does that prove? We're always looking to the young people in Our Fair Tourist Trap to succeed; what is to be learned by going to a different conference so that we can be the top dog (or Wolf, for that matter...) ? You get better by playing the best competition. You get better by looking in the mirror and saying, "I'm done with losing to Chesterton...getting smashed by Valparaiso...letting the other guys pad their stats on me." It's why you lift the weights, run the miles, and suffer through the bumps and bruises and injuries. It's why you get off your ass, stop listening to everyone who says you're not competitive, stop worrying about how you look to the people in the stands and get the job done.

New conference? NO. Light up the one we're in? You betcha.

Or maybe when they do have coaches who care and are there for the kids they don't push them out in a game of politics. Let's push out a coach who was turning your program around and bring in the coach who put that program in shambles and quit on the kids before..really smart...

I'm lost here.

I think she's saying the coaches who really care about the kids and their successes are forced to leave for reasons such as someone in authority doesn't like them, or they stepped on the wrong toes, etc. only to be replaced with coaches who don't care about the kids -- only themselves -- and end up leaving MC after a short time to pursue bigger and better things.
My guess is her point being that if MCHS would keep coaches who are showing positive results, in the long run they would have more wins.

Yes that is what I was trying to say. But I don't really care about the wins, it's more about the athletes that are losing out because of the politics they play in the school system.

Amen Sister!! I totally agree. I sat in that athletic department, I have seen many victims, and been one myself, which is why I left the MCAS.

It seemed like someone specific was being addressed there. I can only think of one head coach in the last few years that left under not happy, non-budgetary circumstances, and that seemed to be for a pretty good reason. After observing the fall-out from that situation, and seeing the success that his replacement has had, it seems like it was justified and it worked out fine.

It goes deeper than football, and not just head coaches. I believe I know to whom you are referring, and if you're thinking back to 05/06, I'm not really sure we got the whole story on that deal. There were good things and bad things there, and being an insider at the time, I think the political machine played a huge role. Really I do. Yes, things could have been done differently from the coaches' aspect, but other people could have been more forthcoming about the whole issue. Had they been from the very beginning, it may not have turned out the way it did.

Furthermore, we have lost some very good coaches because of the school politics. Not because they were "forced" out, but because they didn't want to play that game any more and chose to leave. Volleyball and basketball come to mind--not recently but over the past 8 years or so. It appears to me, however, now that there is a new Principal at MCHS, things are running a more "normal" course.

I will say that I have more faith in the group of coaches that are up at MCHS now versus anytime in recent memory.

Who replaced Bumber?

Mike Liss is the boys XC coach. Tom McGrath is the girls XC Coach.

Was not saying anyone specific, just observations from someone who attended MCAS and now has students in the school system. I just think it would be more beneficial to the athletes and they may get more kids if the coaches who care about the students are kept and those who don't care aren't.

Gotcha. I also almost forgot to welcome you to the site! Thanks for posting.

Thank you for the welcome... and even though I wasn't really referring to anything in specific, I will now...my husband has been the diving coach for the last 3 years. We replaced a coach that let the kids run wild then quit on them because they got in trouble at a party. We picked up the shambles of a program we were handed and were going to actaully turn the program around this year and have a decent year with a good boy diver. But we stepped on the wrong toes so he was pushed out this year and instead of him continuing to build up this program and its athletes the old coach who already quit on them before was put back in...I am sorry but if my children were old enough to be a part of this program they would not be after that and would probably be at a different school by the end of that day...just saying because we have spent countless hours and money to help build this program to only get it ripped away for really no good reason...

NO absolutely not. They would win many more games in all sports in the south bend conference but win no more sectionals and that's what matters. The competition you get in the dac week in and out blows away the south bend area conference nac i believe.

I think a member on the CBTL Facebook page hit the nail right on the head, What's the best financialy wise conference to be in, then that's the conference. The level of competition should have nothing to do with it. It's all about the dollars.

I agree the money is a consideration but the competition should absolutely have something to do with it in my eyes. You have to push the kids to want to improve. If you want to improve the city as a whole. You also have to look at things such as South Bend is on a different time then us as was stated before. This means that they want to have a 6 o'clock game and the Michigan City busses would be leaving at 4 or even 330. That leaves no time for kids to do school work before the game. I know the persona of a student athlete is they get free passes but it's just not the case. Many of my class mates in high school who graduated 3.0 or better also were athletes. I'm sorry but i would not ever give my blessing ( not that my opinion counts) to this move for financial reasons over those two reasons. When money is the only thing that's looked at that's politics at it's worst. There are far more factors then money in a decision like this.

As far as academics, the "free Pass" is a thing of the past. Teachers (at least at MCHS) realize that academics are more important than athletics, and the IHSAA has very strict rules regarding that. The teachers expect that the student athletes do just as well academically as their non-athletic peers and for the most part, do not give them a break for the sake of the game.