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Indianapolis Star
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
IHSAA realignment: Cathedral, New Palestine in same football sectional, other takeaways
The Indiana High School Athletic Association approved the sectional assignments for four fall sports, including football, at its monthly executive committee meeting. Here are five takeaways from a football perspective: Cathedral, New Palestine in same 5A sectional Based on the proximity of the schools, it seemed like Cathedral and New Palestine were bound to be aligned in the same Class 5A sectional … and it happened that way. Cathedral, a 4A school by enrollment size, is moving down from 6A for the first time since winning back-to-back 5A state titles in 2020 and '21. The Irish had been playing in 6A via the tournament success factor but did not achieve enough points over the past two-year cycle to continue playing in 6A. New Palestine, meanwhile, is moving up to 5A via the tournament success factor. The Dragons won the Class 4A state title last year and figure to be one of the favorites to compete for a 5A state championship with much of the team returning. Cathedral and New Palestine last played in the tournament in the 5A regional in 2021, a 23-7 Cathedral win. New Palestine won the 5A regional against Cathedral 35-10 in 2019 on the way to winning the state title. Anderson and Plainfield will also be part of the four-team 5A Sectional 13 with Cathedral and New Pal. Decatur Central takes Cathedral's place Decatur Central, which is moving up due to the tourney success factor to 6A after winning the 5A state championship, will be placed in Sectional 6 with Lawrence North, Lawrence Central and North Central. That is the spot Cathedral was in the previous three seasons. Decatur Central should again be one of the better teams in the area with several players returning from the state title team. Lawrence North was 11-1 last year and won the sectional title, losing by one point in the regional to eventual state champion Brownsburg. Decatur Central's Kasmir Hicks: State's top-ranked recruit picks IU Whiteland back to Sectional 14 With the addition of New Palestine and Cathedral and the departure of Decatur Central in Sectional 13, someone had to go. That turned out to be Whiteland, which will move back to Sectional 14 with Columbus East, East Central, Franklin and Seymour in the only five-team sectional in 5A. East Central won Sectional 14 last year before falling to Decatur Central in the regional. Whiteland lost to Decatur Central in the sectional. Shuffling in Class 4A With New Palestine moving up to 5A, there is just one less team in the now seven-team Class 4A Sectional 21. That group is now Beech Grove, Greenfield-Central, Mt. Vernon, New Castle, Pendleton Heights, Richmond and Yorktown. The biggest change in 4A is Heritage Hills, last year's 3A state champion, moving up via the tournament success factor into Sectional 24 with Evansville Reitz, Jasper, Boonville and others. Heritage Hills, led by Jett Goldsberry, will be a contender in 4A. Not much change Remember, with the tweak to how the IHSAA now applies the tournament success factor annually over a two-year period, these are the only changes this time around. This the second year of the two-year classification cycle, so there will be certainly be more significant moves going into the next cycle a year from now.
Indianapolis Star
25-04-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
State's top-ranked football recruit picks Indiana: 'It just felt like home'
When Bo Polston talks about there being 'something different' about Kasmir Hicks, the Decatur Central quarterback can speak from experience. Polston and Hicks, both juniors, have been playing with and against each other going back to kindergarten in the Decatur Central youth program. In the championship game when they were in fourth grade, Polston's team played against Hicks' team. 'The score was like 56 to 55,' Polston said. 'It was me and him, just back and forth. But he ended up getting the ball last. So, he won. When he has the ball in his hands or he's guarding the best player, special things happen.' That was true of Hicks in grade school, middle school and high school. IU believes it can be in college, too. The 6-foot, 180-pound speedster, ranked as the No. 1 player in the state in the 2026 class by On3sports, announced his commitment to Indiana on Friday, picking the Hoosiers over Cincinnati, Louisville, Missouri and Vanderbilt. In addition to those schools, Hicks also had offers from Illinois, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue, Stanford and Wisconsin and several Mid-American Conference programs. 'Home was just IU,' Hicks said. 'It was just different. It wasn't really because it was close, it was just from being around campus and being around the coaching staff. They were different from every other school. I definitely like coach Cig (Curt Cignetti) and what he has going. I went there and it felt different from everywhere else. I love (cornerbacks coach Rod Ojong) too. It just felt like home.' Hicks was a major part of Decatur Central's run to its first state championship last year in Class 5A. He caught 54 passes for 877 yards and 13 touchdowns and ran for 479 yards and five touchdowns on offense. On defense, Hicks had 32 tackles, four interceptions, two fumble recoveries and one caused fumble. He also averaged 48.8 yards on eight kickoff returns for coach Kyle Enright's team. Hicks likely projects as a cornerback in college, at least initially. 'I was talking to coach (Cignetti) and I don't really know everything yet but because I do play both ways (in high school), he was talking about potentially down the road I could start playing both ways,' Hicks said. 'But coming in that first year I'm going to stick at corner. I don't really care (about position). I just love football.' Hicks, rated as a three-star prospect by On3 and 247Sports, is the fourth known high school commit in IU's 2026 recruiting class. Four-star athlete Henry Ohlinger of Columbus, Ohio, three-star offensive lineman Samuel Simpson of River Falls, Wisc., and three-star defensive lineman Rodney White of Towson, Md., are the others. Hicks is the third Decatur Central player in the 2026 class to commit to a Division I college, joining quarterback Polston (Toledo) and athlete Fa'Rel Carter, who committed to Eastern Michigan on Tuesday. The connection with Ojong, who coached All-American cornerback D'Angelo Ponds last season as IU made a run to the College Football Playoff, played a major role in Hicks' comfort level in Bloomington. 'The first time I talked to him about a year ago at a junior day and got coached up by him, it was good,' Hicks said. 'I was there a lot and every time I went there, it was home. And a big difference from the other schools was that I had great relationships with all the coaches. At one school, it was just a relationship with the position coach. With IU, I had relationships with all the coaches there on the defensive side mostly.' Hicks said the timing of his decision was him 'trusting my gut.' 'Coaches told me to trust my gut and I'd know when I know,' he said. There are bigger challenges ahead for Hicks and his teammates in coming months as Decatur Central makes the jump from Class 5A to 6A via the tournament success factor. But his college decision is now behind him. 'I was just ready,' Hicks said. When Hicks is ready, things tend to happen.
