November 26, 2014 at 4:36 p.m.

ACAC slate brings change

ACAC slate brings change
ACAC slate brings change

By RAY COONEY
President, editor and publisher

Schedules change.
Every once in a while the list of opponents remains the same from one year to the next, but more often than not there are minor differences. One team departs and another takes its place.
But other times, big changes are required.
Such is the case this season with the Jay County High School boys basketball team.
With the Patriots’ move to the Allen County Athletic Conference this year, six foes from the 2013-14 schedule are gone, replaced by five new rivals and the league tournament.
While there will be some adjustments to be made, JCHS coach Craig Teagle said he’s looking forward to being in a conference for the first time since the Olympic Athletic Conference dissolved in 2010.
“That’ll be good for the kids,” he said. “It’s a chance to play for not only a season championship in the conference but then the tournament championship, which I think that’s neat.”
“The ACAC conference championship would be great to have,” said JCHS senior Nick Clemens. “I think it’s possible, and I think we have a good chance at it.”
The changes this year mark the fourth time JCHS has gone through a seismic schedule shift since the school opened in 1975. All have been conference related.
The first of those major shifts came in 1985, when the Patriots joined the Olympic Athletic Conference. That change brought the addition of teams like Carmel, Huntington North and Madison Heights — new conference rivals.
The second was also related to the OAC, when the conference expanded in 1996. That brought the addition of Noblesville, Hamilton Southeastern, Brownsburg and Lafayette-area schools Harrison and McCutcheon.
Those moves were short-lived as a split in 2001 left the Olympic Athletic Conference with just five teams — Jay County, Muncie Southside, Connersville, Anderson Highland and Huntington North.
The changes have been gradual over the course of the last decade, with minor changes from year to year.
But that changes this season, as five new ACAC rivals — Adams Central, Heritage, Leo, Southern Wells and Woodlan — join the fray.
“It’s going to be different, traveling to new places, playing new teams,” added Clemens, who already experienced the vast changes during the football season. “But I think we’re going to be ready for it.”
The addition of those squads — other ACAC foes Southern Wells and Bluffton were already on the schedule — and the conference tournament forced Jay County to remove six teams that it played a year ago.
Gone are long-time OAC rivals Muncie Southside, which merged with Muncie Central, and Connersville, as well as Monroe Central, Eastbrook, Mississinewa and Union City.
Three of those schools rank in the top seven on the list of the Patriots’ most frequent opponents. JCHS has played Union City 43 times (fourth-most in school history), Muncie Southside 42 times (sixth) and Monroe Central 41 times (seventh).
The loss of that familiarity will be an adjustment.
“It’s difficult because you don’t know exactly what they’re going to do,” said JCHS senior Zach Pryor.
And Teagle noted that the situation will put more of an onus on the coaching staff to make sure the players are prepared for the new looks they will see.
“We’re not familiar with these teams much at all. We’ll have to really work hard. Our scouting will have to be intense,” he said. “Guys who have been on our schedule for a long time, the same coach … we kind of had a feel for them. These teams we won’t have much feel for.”
The conference changes also include a shift away from weekend games as the Patriots are slated to play five times on Tuesday, once on Wednesday and twice on Thursday. That eliminates all but one of the “double weekends” — games played on Friday and Saturday night back-to-back — with the lone such occurrence coming against ACAC rivals South Adams and Southern Wells on Jan. 23 and 24.
The first of the new weekday games is a throwback to a previous tradition — opening the season on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
For years the day before the holiday marked the start of the season, with Norwell as the regularly-schedule foe. In 2004-05, Elwood claimed the slot, but the date remained the same.
However, for the last seven years, that Wednesday has passed without any basketball being played. Jay County had instead opened its seasons against Lakewood Park Christian on the Saturday after the holiday.
This year, the Wednesday opener returns with Muncie Central as the opponent.
Teagle isn’t a fan of the change, not because of the opponent, but because of the change in rhythm at the start of the season.
“I always feel that you make your most improvement really between game one and game two. Well, you’re not going to have time to improve between game one and game two here because you’re going to start working on game two,” said Teagle, whose team will follow its opener by playing LPC on Saturday. “Hopefully that weekend will kind of sling shot us to the next weekend, which is a conference game and we’ll see improvement there …”
But while many things change with the schedule this year, some stay the same.
While Union City departed, Jay County will continue to play the three teams — Delta, Blackford and Winchester — that have been mainstays. All three were on the Patriots schedule during their first season and have stayed there nearly every year since.
No opponent has appeared on the JCHS schedule more often than Delta, with the Patriots holding a 30-20 advantage overall. The Blackford series was tight into the late 1990s, but Jay County has won 16 in a row over the Bruins since then for a 32-14 lead. And it is 28-16 all-time against Winchester.
It’s distance, or lack thereof, that Teagle said makes the rivalries with Delta, Blackford and Winchester special.
“I think it’s mainly the proximity, just the closeness,” said the Blackford graduate, noting that Jay County was always the No. 1 rival when he was playing for the Bruins. “You can develop a rivalry with someone that’s close.
“They’re the schools right around us,” he added, while also touting the rivalries with Fort Recovery and South Adams. “It’s bragging rights.”
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