PREP FOOTBALL: Area winners and losers from sectional realignment

Tuesday saw the IHSAA release its sectional alignments for the 2024 and 2025 football seasons, with plenty of movement amongst area programs.

Who benefits from the new sectionals? Who took a hit?

Let’s examine.

WINNER: WARSAW

For the first time since the inception of Class 6A in 2013, Warsaw will not be competing in the highest class in the state.

The new alignment has the Tigers in Class 5A due to enrollment, despite the fact that the school grew by 20-odd students since the last cycle.

Warsaw has been a consistent winner under Coach Bart Curtis, but only once in the last decade has the program secured a postseason title – a sectional crown in 2019. Continually butting heads with the likes of Carroll, Homestead and Penn in sectional has ended plenty of good campaigns for the Tigers.

But with Tuesday’s release of the new alignments, Warsaw now goes to Class 5A against North Side and Northern Lakes Conference foes Concord and Goshen.

The familiarity with Concord and Goshen will definitely pay dividends, with the Tigers having beaten Goshen 16 straight times. While North Side always has talent, it’s a program that hasn’t captured a sectional title since 1990.

Warsaw is now the clear favorite in Sectional 12 and could make more noise in Class 5A than it ever could in 6A.

LOSER: HOMESTEAD

There was a bit of hope that the Spartans would complete an all-SAC Class 6A sectional with Carroll, Northrop and Snider. Instead, Homestead stays with Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern and adds Noblesville.

Woof.

Fishers and HSE are tough outs every single year, while Noblesville is a program that cannot be judged by its recent season records due to being a member of the Hoosier Crossroads, a league that may very well be the best top-to-bottom football conference in the state right now.

The Spartans have not captured a sectional crown since 2020, their longest drought since 2006-15. In the last two-year cycle that saw Homestead with Fishers and HSE for the first time, Sparty dropped one game to each program by a combined score of 77-14.

Homestead has its work cut out for it the next two years, even more so than last cycle.

WINNER: ANGOLA

Outside of consecutive sectional titles in 2017-18 that saw the team go 24-2 over a two-year span, the Hornets have not had much success in Class 4A.

In fact, outside of the two aforementioned sectional wins, all of Angola’s postseason success has come in Class 3A, including the only regional championship in program history in 1992.

So consider it a good thing that Angola has been sent down to 3A for at least the next two years, losing 54 students from last cycle where it was the smallest school by enrollment in 4A.

Instead of potentially taking on the likes of East Noble, Columbia City and Leo in the playoffs, Angola will be dealing with squads like Concordia Lutheran, Fairfield and Woodlan.

LOSER: BLUFFTON

Make no mistake, Coach Brent Kunkel has taken Bluffton to new heights in recent years, with back-to-back sectional titles to prove it.

But outside of Eastbrook, there wasn’t much in the way of perennial powers in the old sectional field. To be fair, when the last sectional alignments were announced, we thought Eastbrook would be that program to be the thorn in the Tigers’ side, only for Kunkel’s team to go two-for-two in playoff matchups against the Panthers.

But now, Bluffton has a powerful foe in Sectional 35, and a familiar one in that. Adams Central, by virtue of Success Factor, was bumped up to Class 2A and lands in the sectional.

The Flying Jets have beaten Bluffton 13 straight times, including scores of 24-0, 56-8 and 56-0 in the last three years.

Now, the flip side is that Eastbrook is gone, but Bluffton lost that trade in which the Panthers are out and AC is in.

WINNERS: SOUTH ADAMS

Bluffton’s loss is the Starfires’ gain, so to speak.

The precious two-year cycle saw rivals South Adams and Adams Central in the same sectional. Prior to that, the teams had a stretch where they were in different 1A sectionals, leading to consistent regional matchups.

For the next two years, Coach Grant Moser’s team doesn’t have to worry about the Flying Jets at all with Adams Central up to 2A. The addition of Cambridge City Lincoln and Hagerstown adds some different flavor, but neither are the rivals from Monroe.

In five of the last seven years, Adams Central ended South Adams’ season at some point in the playoffs. For at least the two seasons, they will be in separate classes.

LOSER: EVERYONE IN SECTIONAL 28

The reigning Class 2A state champion moves up to 3A for at least the next two years, as Bishop Luers is now in Sectional 28 with area squads like Bellmont, Heritage, Norwell and Jay County.

Have fun with that.

The expectation, for now at least, is that Bishop Luers will take a bit of a step back this season. But that means they likely won’t be SAC champions, it has nothing to do with their standing in Class 3A.

The Knights immediately become the favorite in Sectional 28. Perhaps Heritage can continue its upward trajectory. Maybe Norwell can find its place again. Perhaps even 2023 sectional champ Delta can stay relevant in the field.

But Bishop Luers will always be the team to beat in that field, and the squad that everyone is chasing in a sectional that felt wide open in recent years.