HANCOCK COUNTY — The postseason landscape will have a slightly different look for six team sports next school year.
On Monday, new sectional assignments for 2021-22 in boys and girls basketball, football, boys and girls soccer and volleyball were approved by the IHSAA Executive Committee.
In April, the IHSAA Executive Committee voted to freeze member school enrollment figures from the current classification cycle for one additional year (2021-22) after this year’s enrollments revealed “significant fluctuation” likely due to the pandemic.
With the vote, all schools will remain in their current classifications for one more year except for those that met the IHSAA’s Tournament Success Factor criteria.
In football, Columbus East and Fort Wayne Snider both moved back down into Class 5A due to the success factor. However, their previous 6A spots will not be filled. As a result, 6A Sectionals 3 and 8 will compete as three-team tournaments in 2021.
Columbus East’s shift back to 5A puts them into Sectional 14 where New Palestine, Franklin and Whiteland also return in 2021-22.
In 2020, Seymour completed the four-team 5A Sectional 14 field, but it is now heads to 5A Sectional 16, which increases from a four-team sectional to five.
The addition of Columbus East in Sectional 14 puts the Olympians and the New Palestine Dragons in the same classification and sectional tournament once again.
New Palestine last faced Columbus East during the postseason in 2016 with the latter winning 35-7 at sectional and going on to finish as the 5A state runner-up.
The 5A Dragons resumed their sectional title runs in 2018, claiming back-to-back state championships in 2018 and 2019.
Columbus East won a 5A state title in 2017 and captured a 5A sectional crown in 2018. The past two years, Columbus East competed in 6A Sectional 8 with Center Grove, Columbus North and Franklin Central.
“It obviously strengthens what was already a very tough sectional,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “As we are once again in 5A due to the success factor for what will be the 7th consecutive year, we remain the smallest public school in the state in that division. You’re likely looking at three seasonal top-10 caliber teams statewide.”
Franklin finished 3-6 last season, but it posted an 8-3 record in 2019 and was ranked in the state’s top-10, led by head coach Chris Coll, who steered 3A Tri-West to a 2014 state championship.
Whiteland was 9-2 in 2020 and won its first sectional since 2014 under head coach Darrin Fisher. They defeated New Palestine 48-13 in the sectional championship this past November.
New Palestine finished 8-2 in 2020, reaching the sectional title game for a fourth consecutive season.
In Ralph’s tenure at New Palestine, the Dragons have won five sectional, five regional, four semistate and three state titles (first in 2014 at 4A) since 2013. Ralph’s Dragons have won 96 games with six losses in eight seasons.
“At the end of the day, if you want to lay claim to being the best team in 5A, you have to beat the best teams at some point,” Ralph said. “The road is just a little bit tougher now in the south, especially to survive our sectional again. Our kids and program have risen to the challenge before. The expectation here is to compete for a championship. Not just for one season and be excited about that. We work to compete every season.”
In 2A Sectional 38, the field involving Eastern Hancock drops from eight teams to seven with the subtraction of Indianapolis Howe.
Changes ahead in girls basketball
In both boys and girls basketball, Class 4A Sectional 9 remains unchanged for Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon and New Palestine.
Class 2A Sectional 41 remains the same for the Eastern Hancock boys basketball team, but Sectional 42 where the Royals’ girls compete loses Indianapolis Howe and replaces the departing school with Heritage Christian, which dropped from 3A to 2A.
In volleyball, there were no changes for 2A Sectional 41 where Eastern Hancock is assigned or in 4A Sectional 9 where Mt. Vernon and Greenfield-Central compete. New Palestine’s 4A Sectional 10 also stays intact.
In both boys and girls soccer, 3A Sectional 12 will remain the same for Mt. Vernon, Greenfield-Central and New Palestine.
