Columbus North’s Asher Ratliff, left, hands the ball off to Gino Prescott during a football game against Terre Haute South at Columbus North High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Oct. 13, 2023.
The Republic file photo
While the four lowest classifications start the football postseason on Friday, Class 5A and 6A teams have a bye week before they start tournament play next week.
Columbus North and Columbus East have another full week to rest players, get healthy and have more study time on their respective opponents for the Oct. 27 sectional semifinals. The Bull Dogs will host Jeffersonville, and the Olympians will host Seymour.
“We have some guys that have some bumps and bruises, so I think the bye week for us will help,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “I think it helps kind of getting some guys healthy, so we’ll take it.”
The bye week not only gives teams a rest physically, but also mentally. It couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.
Columbus East’s Kyson Villarreal looks for room to run against Bedford North Lawrence’s Gibson Crane (36) and Kline Woodward (50) Friday at Columbus East High School.
The Republic file photo
East ended the regular season losing three of the last four games, and North finished the regular season with a close win, but that snapped a two-game losing skid. The Olympians finished the regular season 3-6, while the Bull Dogs finished 4-5.
“The great thing about Indiana high school football is that everybody is 0-0. Everybody is back to a fresh start and hitting the reset button. Now, it’s win or go home,” North coach Logan Haston said. “For us, we’re going to use this bye week to get guys healthy and focus on us and fix the fundamentals and the technical things.”
Another challenging aspect of being on hiatus for a week is keeping the same repetition going as if there was a game to be played on Friday.
Haston said it’s “Columbus North versus Columbus North” this week and getting better every week, regardless who the opponent is. It’s also trying to find some competitive ways to keep the players’ interests important and not build some rust heading into next week.
“Obviously, we want to be safe, and we’re not going to be driving each other into the ground on every play, but giving them a chance to think, ‘Hey. This isn’t a week off. We’re still here to work, we’re still here to get better each day,’” Haston said. “I think the older guys in our program understand that. They understand that’s the challenge that we’ve put on them. I think we’re going to see those older guys really keep the focus high on getting better this week.”
While North did not play Jeffersonville in the regular season, East has met Seymour as conference rivals. The Owls got the better of the Olympians 41-26 in a regular season game on Sept. 1.
“We know what to expect and what they have, but for us, we’re going to work on some of the details that we have to that deal that with us and really work on us this week. We’ll sprinkle in some Seymour, but we’re going to try to do some things that we have to get better at to win football games,” Vogel said. “We’re looking forward to the bye week and trying to really get ourselves not only fundamentally better for ourselves, but also working toward Seymour.”
