Oh my I had a great time yesterday. My brother-in-law, Steven, and I went up to Seymour High School to the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium, one of the largest high school gyms in the country, to watch the Lady Cats of North Harrison HS dismantle to the Lady Owls of Seymour. That was so much fun. The ladies played a tough game. The refs seemed to let some rough stuff go and maybe that was a good thing. Games like these prepare you to play another day. With the 60-42 win over the Seymour squad, the Lady Cats are now 16-1. Add that to the last two years and the team is 71-7 the last three years. That is sooooo impressive.
The Lady Cats will return to Seymour to play in the Sectional thanks to some “Success Factor” rule made by the Indiana High School Athletic Association. There were three class 3A teams that moved up to 4A given their success the previous two seasons.
Heritage Christian beat North Harrison in the 2016 State Finals. Heritage moved to 4A this year.
South Bend St. Joseph’s beat North Harrison in the 2017 State Finals. They moved to 4A.
North Harrison lost both of these championship games…but they too moved to 4A because of the ISHAA Success Factor Rule.
This makes me sick.
North Harrison is a public high school. We don’t charge tuition.
Heritage Christian advertises a tuition of over $11,000. It’s a private school.
St. Joseph’s is a private school. Parishioners tuition is 7,000 and change and non-Parishioners tuition is 9,000 and change.
If you know anything about the dynamics of high school sports and the politics of being here, you probably know what I am getting at.
North Harrison is a victim of political circumstance. Schools like North Harrison had nothing to do with the implementation of a rule like this.
What about 4A teams at the highest level…if they win three championships three years in a row are you going to tell them they can’t field a team for a season or two
This stinks and it slaps the face of country schools like North Harrison doing the right things to be successful. But, don’t ask the IHSAA to care. They don’t care about the country school.
It was bad enough in 1994, wasn’t that the last season we had single class basketball?
There had to be a great deal of whining associated with turning to class basketball. The IHSAA decided more trophies needed to handed out…but I guess now you can only be so successful before you are penalized. And now we know you can be penalized without winning it all. That is pure stupidity.
The old Sectionals were Indiana institutions. As a kid I went to the old Seymour Sectional. It hosted all the county teams from Seymour to Medora. Huge to the smallest. And we all loved it. Next to the Jackson County Fair, this was the biggest social event of the year. Those sectionals were played in the same gym I went to this past Saturday to watch the Lady Cats.
Now sectionals rotate among different schools and a point of reference we once knew we could look forward to, having the sectional at one familiar, welcoming spot, is gone. Now I do know there are coaches who will argue with me. They want to move it around to give all a sporting chance. I guess that too comes with class basketball. So be it.
One bonus about being in Seymour Saturday came to fruition as I hoped it would. I met up with Dr. Bob Mahan. He is the most accomplished school man I have ever known. He was the superintendent of schools at North Harrison when my family moved here in 1979. He left North a few years later to be superintendent at Seymour. He has since worked on an interim basis at 9 different school systems needing his help and expertise. He told me he reports tomorrow to Crothersville for the sixteenth year in a row to oversee that school while their chief, Terry Goodin, a State Legislator, is in session in Indianapolis.
I worked with Dr. Mahan during the 2007-2008 school year while he was the interim Superintendent at Medora Schools for a year. It was a pleasure to spend time with him and I enjoy and appreciate our visits now more than ever.
In April of 2008, Dr. Mahan and his wife were at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville taking in a Moody Blues concert. I saw him there, as I knew to look for him. The mans knows music too.
Leading me to the sadness.
I got word today that Ray Thomas has died. Ray was one of the original Moody Blues. He was to be with the group at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in the coming April. Ray left the group in 2002. He was not in the best of health and decided to hang it up. Justin Hayward, John Lodge, and Graeme Edge have soldiered on ever since.
Ironically, the current Moody Blues were hosting a fourth “Moody Blues Cruise” when Ray died. The band and other musical acts and a literal boat-load of Moody Blues fans were at sea to enjoy the music. Ray’s passing was not announced until the cruise was ending. Certain this news would probably cause distress at sea, it was withheld. I don’t blame them.
I saw Ray perform with The Moodies twenty-three times. The last time I saw him was in September of 1999 at Deer Creek.
Ray is holding the flute in this picture and his autograph is above. This photo celebrated the Red Rocks concert that marked the 25th anniversary of the album Days of Future Passed in 1992. I saw the 50th anniversary concert in 2017.
A photo of a photo, this was taken in 1994….Ray is beating on the tambourine.
I’m sorry Ray won’t be at the Hall of Fame induction. He was a Hall of Famer a long long time ago!
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson