Before we get to the Outside the Huddle All-Area Team and our end-of-year awards, Blitz wanted to take some time and take a last glance at area conferences and hand out some league-specific hardware.
First up, the Summit Athletic Conference.
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: BRANDON LOGAN, SNIDER
Let’s not overthink this here. Logan was the best athlete on the field all fall in the SAC and is one of the top athletes to come out of northeast Indiana in quite some time.
Logan, who is headed to South Bend next season to play for Notre Dame, was a big-play machine. He picked off five passes. He recovered a pair of fumbles. He scored a pair of defensive touchdowns. He also finished third on the team with 57 tackles.
The senior also saw some action on offense, where he hauled in 11 balls for 117 yards.
Playing safety, you don’t pile up the stats, but Logan was as high-impact as it came in the SAC the last two seasons.
HONORABLE MENTION: Jimmy Sullivan, Carroll
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: KIMAR NELSON, WAYNE
Two years ago, Kimar’s brother Lamarion won this same honor for Blitz. In 2022, Lamarion rushed for over 1,600 yards and 16 touchdowns as the bell-cow running back for the Generals that never seemed to tire.
Fast-forward two years, and little brother Kimar had that same impact. In fact, even more so, as he was as deadly defensively as he was offensively, perhaps more so.
When you ask coaches around the league, no one played as hard as Nelson play after play. Whether it was the first play of the game of the 71st, he went 100 percent. Like his older brother, Nelson never seemed to get tired. He got after it snap after snap after snap.
Late-season injuries caught up with Nelson and he missed two games and portions of others, but he still rushed for 458 yards and eight touchdowns.
But on defense is where Nelson made the most impact. Beginning in Week 1 when he amassed an incredible 27 tackles against Crispus Attucks, it was an incredible season for the senior.
All told, Nelson finished with 106 tackles, 25 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and an interception.
No single player in the SAC was more valuable to his team than Nelson.
HONORABLE MENTION: Tristen Newsome, North Side; Daryea Williams, Bishop Luers; Michael White, Homestead; David Callison, Northrop
BREAKOUT PLAYER: DARYEA WILLIAMS, BISHOP LUERS
After graduating their top three running backs by yardage gained last season, many wondered who would step up and fill the void for Bishop Luers in the offensive backfield.
Williams did just that, despite carrying the ball just 13 times as a junior in 2023. He was the motor that drove the Knights’ offense, rushing for 1,490 yards and 15 touchdowns on the season. He averaged 6.3 yards per touch, giving Bishop Luers, which lacked its typical big-play ability on the outside, a steady presence to help move the chains.
One wonders where Bishop Luers would have ended up without Williams. Surely not in the Class 3A state championship game, that’s for sure. And to do it without much in the way of playing time at the varsity level in prior seasons made it all the more impressive.
HONORABLE MENTION: Carter Kennedy, Homestead; Eli Neuhouser, Carroll; Ayle Taylor, Bishop Luers
COACH OF THE YEAR: KYLE LINDSAY, BISHOP LUERS
There are a number of different directions you could go here.
Doug Dinan’s Carroll Chargers won the SAC again.
South Side’s Andre Goodwell led the Archers to one of their biggest wins in the 21st century in a victory over Bishop Luers.
But Blitz is going with Lindsay, of that same Luers team that lost to South.
Bumped up to Class 3A due to Success Factor and with a roster that needed rebuilding after last year, Lindsay impressed by not taking a considerable step back with his program despite a host of new faces.
Yes, they won just five games in the regular season, and entered the Class 3A playoffs on a three-game losing streak, but Lindsay and his staff got the players refocused and rolled through the 3A playoffs to the state title game.
This Bishop Luers team was a year away, with a talent-laden junior class. Under Lindsay’s guidance, the Knights did in 3A what it has done time and again in 2A.
HONORABLE MENTION: Doug Dinan, Carroll; Andre Goodwell, South Side
GAME OF THE YEAR: North Side 6, South Side 0, Week 7
First off, all due respect, the Totem Pole Game is the best rivalry in the city. Sorry, Battle of the Bishops and whatever we are supposed to call Carroll-Homestead, but South v. North is it.
Yeah, it rarely has title implications, but it delivers year after year after year. And 2024 was no exception.
The lone score came in dramatic fashion.
Backed up to his own end zone in the second quarter, South Side quarterback KJ Alexander scrambled in an attempt to gain some yards. North Side senior Sahsovian Harris then laid a hit on Alexander that dislodged the ball, with Jamari Pearson grabbing it out of mid-air in the end zone.
Whether a fumble or interception (it was ruled a pick), it was touchdown Legends, the only score of the game.
The second half was tense, where at any time a single play could decide the game.
It was the latest in a long line of classic Totem Pole games.
EARLY PICK FOR 2025 SAC CHAMPION: HOMESTEAD
Snider is the easy answer, but Blitz doesn’t go easy.
Carroll is in a spot where Jimmy Sullivan will need to be replaced.
Bishop Luers is loaded, but Carroll and Snider are both on the schedule beginning in 2025.
How about Homestead? If quarterback Michael White can take the next step in his development, he could easily be the best signal caller in the league next year.
The key will be in the trenches, where the Spartans have struggled in recent years. You can’t teach size, and Homestead has lacked size up front.
If Homestead can have a superb offseason and improve the line play, with White, Carter Kennedy and others set to return, Sparty could make a run and its first SAC championship since 2020.
These opinions represent those of Blitz and Outside the Huddle. No opinions expressed on Outside the Huddle represent those of any of our advertisers. Follow Blitz on Twitter at Blitz_OTH
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