Vince Lombardi Said it Best: The Winning Speech

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing. You don't win
once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them
right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

There is no room for second place. There is only one place in my game, and
that's first place. I have finished second twice in my time at Green Bay,
and I don't ever want to finish second again. There is a second place bowl
game, but it is a game for losers played by losers. It is and always has
been an American zeal to be first in anything we do, and to win, and to win,
and to win.

Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the
ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of
him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's O.K. You've got to
be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got
to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky
enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going
to come off the field second.

Running a football team is no different than running any other kind of
organization - an army, a political party or a business. The principles are
the same. The object is to win - to beat the other guy. Maybe that sounds
hard or cruel. I don't think it is.

It is a reality of life that men are competitive and the most competitive
games draw the most competitive men. That's why they are there - to compete.
To know the rules and objectives when they get in the game. The object is to
win fairly, squarely, by the rules - but to win.

And in truth, I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run,
deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline. There
is something in good men that really yearns for discipline and the harsh
reality of head to head combat.

I don't say these things because I believe in the "brute" nature of man or
that men must be brutalized to be combative. I believe in God, and I believe
in human decency. But I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the
greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has
worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of
battle - victorious." - Coach Vince Lombardi

Sectional Championship At Carmel, 7pm

The 5th ranked, but underdog, Tigers travel across Hamilton County to 6th ranked Carmel for a rare opportunity to take on one of the most storied high school programs in Indiana.  The 7-3 Carmel Greyhounds come off a 40-7 win against HSE Royals last week on the road.

Carmel brings a number of excellent running backs and a dual-quarterback offense that will try to keep the Tiger offense honest as they can also connect with one of the state's best national recruits in Sr. WR Austin Roberts who will continue his play at the next level at UCLA.

Hamilton County Sports Daily's Sectional Championship Preview:

CLICK HERE 

Mark Morrow with HC Sports Daily also asks the question of when Fishers/Carmel will become a rivalry here:

CLICK HERE

The answer may be answered on friday night!

GAME CAPSULE FROM John Harrell's Indiana High School Football:

SECTIONAL 4

Fishers (9-1) at Carmel (7-3)

GAME TIME: 7:00 pm ET, Greyhound Stadium.

COACHES: Rick Wimmer, 63-30 in 8th year at Fishers, 227-113 in 31st year overall. Kevin Wright, 38-8 in 4th year at Carmel, 172-62 in 20th year overall.

SAGARIN RATINGS: Carmel, 103.1, 2nd overall, 2nd in Class 6A. Fishers, 82.7, 17th overall, 11th in Class 6A.

LAST OUTING: Fishers defeated Noblesville, 17-13. Carmel defeated Hamilton Southeastern, 40-7.

VS. COMMON FOES: Fishers 1-0, Carmel 1-0.

OPPONENTS' RECORDS: Fishers 42-54, Carmel 48-41.

SERIES LAST 15 YEARS: Carmel, 2-1.

LAST MEETING: Fishers, 17-14, sectional, Oct. 29, 2010.

John Harrell picks Carmel to win this game 35-21 and Kyle Neddenriep also chooses Carmel 27-21.

The MIC may get a lot of attention, and it is justified, but MIC teams, the press and the Greyhounds can continue to not give the Fishers Tigers and HCC schools any respect.  That's alright.  Tigers will be ready to play and give it for all 48 minutes.  The Tigers may be coming to Carmel's door saying "trick or treat" but the Tigers aren't going to wait to see what Carmel hands out.  The Tigers will bring all the Halloween to Carmel that they will ever want!

Carmel's Season:

DATE	OPPONENT	SCORE
Aug. 23	at Indianapolis Tech	W   6-  2
Aug. 30	Louisville Trinity (Ky.)	L 35-42
Sept. 6	Center Grove	L 26-35
Sept. 13	(n)Lawrence Central	W 17-  7
Sept. 20	Lawrence North	W 49-  9
Sept. 27	at North Central (Indianapolis)	W 42-  7
Oct. 4	Warren Central	W 21-15
Oct. 11	Pike	W 40-32
Oct. 18	at Ben Davis	L 24-28
Oct. 25	at Hamilton Southeastern	W 40-  7

Sectional Round 1 is a Revenge Game Against Noblesville

@ Noblesville, 7pm

Fishers Tigers travel to Noblesville Millers friday night in the first round of the sectionals.  The game will be a rematch on the same ground that Fishers Tigers lost 27-24 to the Millers in week 1.  Because of the new IHSAA 6A brackets, it will also be a sectional semi-final with the winner to take on the winner of the Carmel/HSE game for the sectional championship.

Noblesville QB TC McKiernan ran for 141 yards and passed for another 229 and 3 TD against the Tigers in week 1.  His performance put him on many pundits' charts as a Mr. Football and All-State candidate.  His performance was electric and he seemed to carve up the Tiger defense at will.  The Tigers defense, having gained much more experience through the season and we believe the Miller QB will have a much tougher time this game doing what he wants.  Unable to find McKiernan's stats from last week's game against Harrison, his total passing yardage through 8 games was 1,273 with a total of 7 TD passes.

Since defeating the Tigers in week 1, Millers ended their regular season 5-4 with losses to Zionsville, HSE, Avon and Westfield.  Indeed, throwing out the Harrison game, the Millers were on a 3-game losing skid toward the end of the season.  They will certainly be gearing up to repeat their week 1 win but they know it won't be given to them.  We can't give this one to them!

Aug. 23	Fishers	W 27-24
Aug. 30	at Brownsburg	W 26-  6
Sept. 6	at Zionsville	L   9-14
Sept. 13	Lafayette Jeff	W 24-13
Sept. 20	at McCutcheon	W 28-20
Sept. 27	Avon	L 11-17
Oct. 4	Hamilton Southeastern	L   9-26
Oct. 11	at Westfield	L 14-17
Oct. 18	Harrison (West Lafayette)	W 35-  0

The following is from John Harrell's Indiana High School Football webpage/capsule:

SECTIONAL 4
Fishers (8-1) at Noblesville (5-4)
GAME TIME: 7:00 pm ET, Swanson Field.
COACHES: Rick Wimmer, 62-30 in 8th year at Fishers, 226-113 in 31st year overall. Lance Scheib, 22-39 in 6th year at Noblesville, 120-105 in 22nd year overall.
SAGARIN RATINGS: Fishers, 90.86, 8th overall, 7th in Class 6A. Noblesville, 82.58, 19th overall, 14th in Class 6A.
LAST OUTING: Fishers defeated Brownsburg, 41-17. Noblesville defeated Harrison (West Lafayette), 35-0.
VS. COMMON FOES: Fishers 8-0, Noblesville 4-4.
OPPONENTS' RECORDS: Fishers 37-44, Noblesville 40-41.
SERIES LAST 15 YEARS: Fishers, 5-3.
LAST MEETING: Noblesville, 27-24, Aug. 23, 2013.

LINK:  Mark Ambrogi's Star News or USA Today article on this game.

LINK:  Hamilton County Sports Daily's Sectional Preview of Hamilton Co Teams.

Go Tigers!!!!! Beat Millers!!!!!

Tigers Wrap Championship Season with 44-17 Victory

Fishers Tigers went up 20-0 and then gave up 17 unanswered points to lead at halftime just 20-17 and gave all Tiger fans some concern.  Halftime speech must have been a pretty good one because the Tigers came out in the second half and put the answer to everyone's question and wrapped up a HCC Championship shared with Westfield and a 44-17 win.  Westfield won as well to secure their share in an incredible season thus for the 5A Shamrocks.  What a game in Lucas Oil we had!

2013 HCC Co-Champions

TEAM	Pts	PF	PA
Fishers	8-  1	333	193
Westfield	8-  1	286	170
Hamilton Southeastern	7-  2	279	158
Avon	6-  3	236	129
Noblesville	5-  4	183	137
Zionsville	4-  5	120	122
Brownsburg	3-  6	156	249
McCutcheon	3-  6	210	279
Lafayette Jeff	1-  8	111	262
Harrison (West Lafayette)	0-  9	77	292

Inspirational Videos

Don't Want to Finish Second!

Remember The Tigers!

Let's go into Sectional rematch with Noblesville as HCC Champs and REVENGE week 1!  Treat this game like you are the UNDERDOG and PROVE TO YOURSELVES that you DESERVE this CHAMPIONSHIP on friday night.

For your BROTHERS!  Go Tigers!

HCC Standings (look elsewhere)

Many have asked why I haven't put up the updated HCC standing for this week.

Well, my reason is, with just one game left on the schedule, the Tigers know where they are and it doesn't matter right now.  What will matter is how the final standings look next week.  All that matters this week in standings for fans, players and coaches, and as much as any other week, is to win THIS FRIDAY NIGHT!  Win friday, win the conference championship.  Only after the game do we hope Jeff can find an unexpected victory over Westfield to give us the conference championship outright but it is all on Tiger Nation to win one more and move to next challenge after securing the conference championship.

Beat Brownsburg!!!

Fishers Tigers at Brownsburg Bulldogs

Fishers (7-1) at Brownsburg (3-5)
GAME TIME: 7:00 pm ET, Roard Stadium (WXRB, 1610 AM).
COACHES: Rick Wimmer, 61-30 in 8th year at Fishers, 225-113 in 31st year overall. Brett Comer, 49-35 in 8th year at Brownsburg.
SAGARIN RATINGS: Fishers, 90.24, 8th overall, 7th in Class 6A. Brownsburg, 72.57, 49th overall, 21st in Class 6A.
LAST OUTING: Fishers defeated Lafayette Jeff, 44-0. Brownsburg lost to Zionsville, 27-3.
VS. COMMON FOES: Fishers 7-1, Brownsburg 3-5.
OPPONENTS' RECORDS: Fishers 30-34, Brownsburg 30-34.
SERIES LAST 15 YEARS: Fishers, 4-3.
LAST MEETING: Brownsburg, 31-0, Oct. 12, 2012.
PREDICTION: Fishers, 38-17.

The above game capsule and prediction comes from John Harrell's Indiana High School Football

Brownsburg's 3 wins this year have all come at the hands of the Lafayette area schools.  This has the feeling of Brownsburg's final game of the SEASON as they will take on AP 9th ranked Pike in round one of playoffs.  They will come to play in both but Brownsburg will want to upset Fishers and walk out of home a winner taking away the Tigers' Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship.  Brownsburg won the conference last season.

Brownsburg is led on offense by sophomore RB Toks Akinribade and he has been putting up big numbers against even the tougher teams in the conference with the exceptions of HSE and Zionsville.  Brownsburg runs the ball versus passes at at least a 2 to 1 ratio.  The teams best rushing performances were against McCutcheon and Harrison when they put up 301 and 303 yards respectively.  Against Harrison, Brownsburg ran the ball 52 times and had a run to pass ration of 5:1.  Against Jeff, they put up 298 yards on 40 carries.  Indeed, Brownsburg will look early and often to control the game with the rushing attack.

Go Tigers!

Other October 11th HCC Matchups

All games start at 7pm

Avon at McCutcheon, prediction: Avon

Brownsburg at Zionsville prediction: Zionsville

Hamilton Southeastern at Harrison prediction: HSE

Noblesville at Westfield prediction: Westfield

If Noblesville can pull off the victory, and Tigers win out, the conference championship will likely be decided this week.  If Westfield wins against Noblesville, the conference will more than likely be a shared championship as long as the Tigers hold their end of the deal.  Westfield wraps up the final week on the road against Lafayette Jeff.

Go Tigers!!  Finish Strong!!  Win the last game of the year!!

Senior Night Welcomes Lafayette Jeff

Lafayette Jefferson Bronchos visit Fishers Tigers on SENIOR NIGHT.  Tigers are ranked 6th in the state at 6-1 and Bronchos are 1-6.  As the final home game of the regular season, excellent football weather and a team looking to close out the conference schedule with 2 more wins to take the conference, we expect a loud and proud crowd!

Bronchos bring the fastest individual football players in the state with 2013 IHSAA 100m champion, QB Matthew Johnson, speedy RB Darian Green who was a teammate of Johnson's on the state championship 4X100m relay team, and WR Tim Wilson, himself a state finalist in the 100m and 300m hurdles.  Matthew Johnson and Darian Green are both on their way to Ball State to continue playing football.  Darian Green has been hobbled by ankle injury the last 2 games and that was further aggravated during the Avon game last week.  At the time of this write up, we are not sure what his game time condition will be.  Prior to the ankle injury, Green was averaging 180+ yards per game.

Defense is led by DB Woody Archibald who is a threat with 4 interceptions so far this season and 7 last year.

Lafayette Jefferson's games so far this season:

Aug. 23	at Zionsville	L   7-14
Aug. 30	at Harrison (West Lafayette)	W 26-  0
Sep. 6	McCutcheon	L 15-18
Sep. 13	at Noblesville	L 13-24
Sep. 20	Hamilton Southeastern	L 22-42
Sep. 27	Brownsburg	L   0-28
Oct. 4	at Avon	L 14-54

A pre-season writeup from the Lafayette Journal and Courier with 2012 stats:

LAFAYETTE JEFF BRONCHOS

Head coach: Andy Kennedy (13-39 in fifth season at Lafayette Jeff; 22-40 in sixth season overall) 
2012 results: 3-7 (3-6 Hoosier Crossroads Conference); lost to Hamilton Southeastern 41-13 in sectional quarterfinal 
Class: 6A, Sectional 1 (Crown Point, Lake Central, Merrillville) 
Sectional championships: 5 (1981, ’82, ’89, ’91, 2002)
Stadium: Scheumann Stadium, 1801 S. 18th Street 
Returning starters (offense/defense): 4/7 
Offense: Spread 
Defense: 3-5 

Returning leaders
Rushing: Darian Green (5-9, 175, sr., RB) 204-1,394 yards, 14 TD 
Passing: Matt Johnson (5-11, 180, sr., QB) 56-149, 794 yards, 6 TD, 12 INT 
Receiving: Tim Wilson (6-0, 185, Sr., WR) 16-285 yards, 2 TD 
Tackles: Woody Archibald (5-9, 160, Sr., WR/S) 109 
Interceptions: Archibald 7 
Others to watch: Austin Albrecht (5-11, 175, Sr., WR); Teddy Martin (5-10, 190, Jr., DE); Justin Gordon (6-0, 220, Sr., TE/LB); DeeAndre Venters (5-10, 275, Sr., DT); Chad Brown (6-1, 305, Jr., DT); Irving Madden (5-9, 180, Sr., LB); Mitchell Sterner (6-0, 175, Sr., CB); Alex Baker (5-9, 165, Sr., K)

 
Outlook: There won’t be many teams who can put more speed on the field than the Bronchos. After back-to-back three-win seasons, Jeff wants to take another step in its final season in the HCC. 

The big names are on offense, but the Bronchos have more experienced depth on the defensive side of the ball. Archibald returns to roam at free safety and Sterner is back at corner, where Johnson should also see more snaps this season. Vinters and Martin lead things up front, while Gordon, Madden and Alex Gualajara form the nucleus of the linebacking corps. 

Green is a four-year starter at running back, and he and Johnson have both committed to play at Ball State. Wilson and Albrecht give Johnson a pair of experienced targets. But with a completely new offensive line, the Bronchos must protect Johnson and open up holes between the tackles.

*********

Lafayette Jeff senior safety Woody Archibald puts up big numbers on the stat sheet.

As a junior, that meant 105 tackles and seven interceptions, both team highs.

Yet the numbers on the roster don’t exactly intimidate. The 160-pound weight might be accurate, and the 5-foot-9 height is probably a bit generous.

“I wish I was bigger; the hit would be a lot bigger,” Archibald said. “But I like being a little guy, because the coaches on the other team don’t really expect it. When I bring it, they’re surprised.”

The Bronchos are no longer surprised. Archibald is the heart of a fast, experienced Lafayette Jeff defense that hopes to take a step up this season.

“He’s small, but he brings that powerful punch,” Jeff senior linebacker Irving Madden said. “He really makes our defense whole, like a unit.”

Dennis Archibald Jr. acquired the nickname “Woody” shortly after birth. He’s not certain of the origin, though one theory credits the main character of the movie “Toy Story,” which came out around the time he was born.

“Everyone in the school calls me that,” Archibald said. “I don’t really like teachers calling me that, but they end up calling me that at the end of the year.”

While Archibald’s frame might not make him an obvious fit for safety in the Bronchos’ 3-5 stack defense, his attitude does.

“He’s just got a great nose for the ball, which is what makes him so good at safety,” Jeff coach Andy Kennedy said. “He’s not afraid to take on bigger guys.”

Lafayette Jeff allowed 33.6 points per game last season, a number that must come down if the Bronchos want to challenge for their first winning record since 2008. Archibald is one of seven returning starters on defense and part of a senior class that is motivated to point the program in a new direction.

Each big play from the smallest guy on the field provides Jeff an emotional lift as well.

“It makes everybody else get hyped up, and it makes everyone else feel like they can make those big plays too,” Jeff senior linebacker Justin Gordon said.

October 4th Around the HCC

Great games all around the HCC this week.  Can't definitely call winners in any of the other games with the exception perhaps of Avon with key injury possibly slowing Jeff down more and Westfield should get it done.  Okay, I'll go out on a limb and say Brownsburg win their 3rd game!

Fishers at Zionsville 7pm BE THERE TIGER FANS!

Hamilton Southeastern at Noblesville 7p

Harrison (West Lafayette) at Brownsburg 7p

Lafayette Jeff at Avon 7p

McCutcheon at Westfield 7p

Zionsville Preview

Tigers travel to Zionsville friday for a hot conference matchup against 3-3 Zionsville Eagles.  While I was able to find the stats on individual Eagle players at MaxPreps, I will give a brief overview of players that have done the most so far for Zionsville.

On offense, the Eagles are led by senior QB Josh Hinkle who is 56 0f 97 passing (57.7%) for 496 yards and 1 TD.  Hinkle is also their leading rusher getting 329 yards on 46 rushes and 4 more TDs.  Running backs are led by senior Cole Wendt and junior Matt Penola who are a combined 458 yards on 103 rushes.  Senior RB Matt Cramer will also some carries.

Receiving corps is led by senior Ben Kocher who has 16 catches for 210 yards.  Kocker is also the Eagle defensive leading tackler.

Also of note on defense is senior defensive end Nick Maines, who is leading the team with 5.5 sacks, including 3.5 in their week 3 14-9 win over Zionsville.

Zionsville Weekly Scores:

vs. Jeff won 14-7
@Mavs lost 6-30
vs Millers won 14-9
vs HSE lost 3-21
@ Rocks lost 7-10
@ Raider won 35-13

Throwing out the Harrison Raider game last week, Zionsville is not putting up a lot of points per game (8.8) but they are also not giving too much up on defense (15.4) so the Eagles can be stingy on defense.

Tigers can continue to control their own destiny and get their business done every week against another opponent that circles Fishers game on the calendar and wants to take us down.  Go Tigers, beat Eagles!