This time of the summer sees true excitement begin to ramp up for the upcoming season, with just over a month left before we kick off the 2023 campaign.
It also is traditionally the time of the final sendoff for some of last year’s top seniors with the Indiana Football Coaches Association’s North/South All-Star Game.
Friday night at Decatur Central, the 57th edition of the game kicked off in front of a big crowd looking forward to seeing the Class of 2023 on the gridiron one final time.
What it witnessed was an absolute mess.
Antagonistic play, smack talking, late hits and a litany of personal foul penalties eventually saw the officiating crew from Fort Wayne – including stalwarts James Payne and James Craig – call the game with four minutes left.
That’s right. A prep all-star game in Indiana was ended early because of behavior issues from players.
Unbelievable.
The tone was set early when a player from Warren Central laid a late hit on the North quarterback on the first drive of the game. There was no penalty, but players were warned.
Instead, the warning was ignored and things heated up from there, including a North player from New Prairie was thrown out in the first half for headbutting.
Coaches and officials tried their best to rein in the aggressiveness, but to no avail. Per one coach, there were no problems over the course of the week with events and practices in which all the all-stars were together, but the game was different.
Local players stood out in a good way in the South’s 21-2 victory (Why are all the Indy-area schools in the South? Why not split the state for the game the same we do in the playoffs? But Blitz digresses…). DaVon Doughty of North Side secured the North’s lone points of the game with a pursuit tackle in the end zone for a safety.
Meanwhile, Brandon Stuckey of Snider was voted a captain, while Norwell’s Luke Graft landed some big-time hits during play. Josh Arntz of Columbia City, Maverick Summersett of South Adams and Lamarion Nelson of Wayne also had their moments.
Columbia City coach Brett Fox was a member of the North coaching staff as well as assistant Jeff Clark. Dean Doerffler and Tim Martone were honored for their four decades of selflessness in coaching. Carroll coach Doug Dinan also received an award as he eclipsed 30 years in giving back as a prep football coach.
But the night was marred by player behavior. To be fair, the players responsible were only a handful on each side, but it was prevalent throughout the game. Close to 10 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties were called throughout, and pleas by coaches and officials to calm down went unanswered with every hit out of bounds and smack talk between players on the field and the sideline.
The officiating crew finally had enough after Payne warned both teams that with one more unsportsmanlike penalty the game would be called. After a late hit and a shove of a player on the North sideline, whistles blew and the contest was called.
An exclamation point on the departed seniors and a celebration of the sport was called four minutes short of completion due to behavior.
It’s easy to play the blame game. Kids? Parents? Coaches? Officials? Everyone surely has an opinion, right or wrong. Instead, Blitz is calling attention to the absurd – an all-star game ended early due to an excessive amount of penalties.
Is this where we are at now in this state? Blitz has seen things escalate on and off the field over the years. Parents screaming. Coaches cursing. Players crossing the line verbally and physically. Now it has found its way in a significantly disruptive fashion into an event with the best players in the state. Something that is supposed to celebrate the good of prep football.
Instead, Friday night saw the opposite.
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All the teams from Indy play in the south for the playoffs as well. Plus IFCA and IHSAA are two different entities.