Henderson County's football series with Reitz, North will be victims of SIAC expansion
Kevin Patton
HENDERSON, Ky. – The decisions of Vincennes Lincoln and Jasper, two programs that Henderson County has never played in football, to join the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference has thrown the Colonel football schedule for the 2020 season into chaos and may end many of the program's biggest rivalries.
Indiana football teams play a nine-game regular season. With the SIAC now having 10 schools, the members’ regular-season schedules are now full. There is no room for non-conference games. That’s good news for the SIAC members, not so much for schools like Henderson County which have traditionally played SIAC opponents in the first two weeks of the season.
Reitz has been the Colonels’ season opener every year since 2009. North, which is now the Colonels’ opponent in week two, has occupied an early-season slot on the schedule for 20 of the last 23 years.
Those series will be history after this season when the SIAC expands for the 2020-21 school year.
“It’s been such a good situation for us to play teams 20 minutes away by just going across the river,” said Henderson County coach Josh Boston, who laments the end of those rivalries with no possibilities to play any SIAC teams in the immediate future. “It’s a lose-lose deal for us.”
With Reitz and North gone from the schedule, the obvious solution is to just go find two other teams to play. It isn’t that simple.
Kentucky high schools operate on two-year contracts for football scheduling. The 2020 season will be in the second year of that scheduling cycle. Barring some scheduling fluke, there isn’t likely to be any Kentucky teams looking for a one-year deal.
“We won’t be able to get a game in Kentucky,” Boston said.
With the 10 SIAC members locked up, the Colonels may have look farther into Indiana or into Tennessee to fill its schedule. Even that will be tricky.
“We have to find teams willing to sign one-year contracts,” Boston said. Because there will be no return game, Henderson County would have to pay any school to come for a home game at Colonel Stadium or just be willing to start the season with two road games instead of one. “That would leave us with four homes games. We don’t want that.”
The best option for Henderson County is to seek out other schools whose 2020 schedules have been thrown into disarray by the SIAC expansion.
Boston compiled a list of teams, like Henderson County, that are playing SIAC teams in the first two weeks of the 2019 season. All will be looking to fill those dates in 2020. In the mix are Terre Haute South and New Albany, which play SIAC teams in each of the first two weeks.
Other possibilities include Bloomington South, which plays Castle in the season-opener, as well as members of the expanded Pocket Athletic Conference -- Gibson Southern, Princeton, Washington, Southridge and Boonville. The PAC will be a 12-team league likely split into two divisions based on enrollment, which could allow for non-conference games on their schedules.
Even in the long-term, the SIAC’s expansion will affect Henderson County’s football schedule. With no room for the SIAC schools to play non-conference games, a football series between Henderson County and any Evansville school seems dead unless the SIAC were to expand again, which seems unlikely.
Other than North and Reitz, Henderson County has a history with Bosse (10 meetings from 1985 through 1996), Central (nine meetings from 1978 through 1986), Harrison (five meetings from 1980 through 1984), Mater Dei (three meetings from 1956 through 1988) and Memorial (14 meetings from 1964 through 2016).
It seems unlikely that the Colonels will find two nearby opponents to replace Reitz and North on their schedule.
As one of the state’s largest schools, Henderson County has difficulty in filling its non-district schedule. “It’s hard for us to get games in Kentucky as it is,” Boston said. “We are already having to go to Anderson County to get a game this season.”
Henderson Co. 2019 schedule
Aug. 23 Reitz
Aug. 30 at North
Sept. 6 Christian Co.
Sept. 13 Hopkinsville
Sept. 20 at Anderson Co.
Oct. 4 at Marshall Co.
Oct. 11 Apollo
Oct. 18 at Daviess Co.
Oct. 25 McCracken Co.
Nov. 1 at Owensboro
Henderson Co. 2020 schedule
Aug. 21 TBD
Aug. 28 TBD
Sept. 4 at Christian Co.
Sept. 11 at Hopkinsville
Sept. 18 Anderson Co.
Oct. 2 Marshall Co.
Oct. 9 at Apollo
Oct. 16 Daviess Co.
Oct. 23 at McCracken Co.
Oct. 30 Owensboro
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