HIGHLAND – The scoreboard burns bright under the Friday night lights.
For many, it is the end-all and be-all. Who is best. Who is not. Who won. Who lost.
But those colored bulbs do not tell the entire story. Not even close.
The Highland Trojans ran onto their home field last Friday for their homecoming game against rival Munster. They had lost four straight and had been shut out in two consecutive games.
It didn’t look good on paper.
Since Adam was a quarterback and Eve was a cheerleader, high school football has been pretty much the same. When a team struggles and loses for a month or more, it takes a coach and his staff to keep the players above water.
Many high school teams have quit long before the scoreboard reads 0:00.
“Since the summer, we’ve just been trying to build things up,” said first-year Highland coach Jimmy McCormack. “We are trying to learn how to compete.”
And that’s exactly what the Trojans did against Munster.
They battled.
They never quit.
They were in the game into the fourth quarter before eventually falling 52-34. And the stands were filled with fans cheering for this one-win team.
“This is not how we wanted it to be,” said senior running back and quarterback Jake Slaven. “The records and scores don’t really show who we are. It all starts on Monday. It’s a new week. We have to put it all behind us.”
Highland travels to Kankakee Valley on Friday night.
Slaven was 3-for-9 passing for 37 yards against the Mustangs while rushing 25 times for 173 yards and two touchdowns. He also recorded five tackles from his linebacker position.
His brother, Justin Slaven, had five catches for 53 yards and a touchdown. He also scored on a two-point conversion and made eight tackles on defense.
Aaron McCormack, Highland’s other quarterback, completed 8 of 11 passes for 69 yards and a touchdown. He also carried the ball 15 times for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
Every yard gained and every tackle made by these Trojans proved they have not quit.
They are not going to stop fighting until it is time to turn in the equipment.
“The score doesn’t define us,” Justin Slaven said. “It’s the little things. We’re out of position or we don’t make a tackle. We’re up. We’re 100 percent improved. We know we are capable. We just need to get better and keep on working hard.”
McCormack replaced Ben Geffert late in the summer after Geffert returned to coach at his alma mater, Griffith. The Trojans had won just three games over the previous two seasons, so McCormack knew the rebuilding process would continue under his watch.
The roster doesn’t have many seniors.
But the younger players have experience because many of them were already playing as sophomores.
A year ago, McCormack said, only 15 players were consistently coming into the weight room. That number doubled this season.
Football may be the most difficult sport in which to turn a program around. One or two players cannot change a football program. It takes 15 or 20 players just to begin the rebound.
“It got to the spot where our kids had to look in the mirror,” McCormack said. “How far are you going to dig deep? I thought our guys did that against Munster. They played really hard.
“Now we play a team we can beat. Then we have to keep working so we can compete against a very good Hobart team. If we can bring the same effort we had against Munster the rest of the season, it would make me very happy.
“And it will set us up for what we can do next year.”
McCormack said the way the Slaven brothers played against Munster helped lead the team. The home crowd inspired everyone.
Sometimes, it only takes a spark to get a fire going.
“We did a lot of the little things right against Munster,” Aaron McCormack said. “That gives us potential heading into sectionals.”
The IHSAA postseason draw is Sunday. Highland plays in Class 4A Sectional 17. It is a very tough sectional, but the blind draw opens up possibilities. The Trojans could draw a team they can compete with.
Attitude and faith can change a team, regardless of its record. And, in time, that can change the numbers on the scoreboard.
Never quitting is one of the best qualities in high school sports.
And in life.

By Steve Hanlon
Heartland Sports Network

GRIFFITH – Charging into Week 8 of the season, only 52 yards separate Lowell’s Tymothy James and Griffith’s Desmond Neylon from the top spot among Indiana’s leading rushers.
James, a junior, has rushed for 1,441 yards and 18 touchdowns. The senior Panthers standout has 1,389 yards and 23 scores.
This one could be going down to the wire.
“I’ve got something for him,” Neylon said of James. “I’m going to win it.”
Obviously, the postseason run a team makes can help its players in such competitions. And with the IHSAA state tournament draw set to air Sunday, coaches, players and fans are beginning to turn their attention toward the postseason.
Griffith, which hosts Calumet Friday night, plays in the very tough Class 3A Sectional 25. Lowell, which travels to Munster Friday, is in Class 4A Sectional 17.
Equally as tough.
But the two programs already met Sept. 4, with Griffith winning a shootout, 36-28. The Panthers held James to fewer than 100 yards rushing.
Neylon believes he has the tiebreaker.
“I had 356 yards rushing with five TDs against Lowell,” he said.
Both standout runners operate behind very good offensive lines. Griffith, however, wins when it comes to size.
The Panthers are huge to the 10th power.
“I think we have the biggest offensive line in the state,” Griffith coach Phil Mason said.
“When they’re standing up, I can’t see the defense,” Neylon said.
The 5-foot-7, 180-pound Neylon began his high school career at Lake Central. After two seasons with the Indians, he transferred back to Griffith, where he grew up playing Pop Warner football.
“It was an easy transition because I already knew all the guys here,” Neylon said. “They made me feel like family.”
He was 5 years old when family members encouraged the excitable youngster to play football. His father taught him how to find the hole while carrying the ball. Then Neylon heard about Eric Dickerson and watched hours of the NFL Hall of Famer on YouTube.
“I tried to make my game like his,” Neylon said.
The Panthers went 9-2 last season and won the Greater South Shore Conference South championship. But a 50-35 loss to Knox in the sectional semifinal, along with the influence of former Panthers coach Russ Radtke, planted the seeds for this season.
Immediately after the loss, the players wanted to get back into the weight room and start working for the 2026 season.
It wasn’t a week or two after the Panthers got off the bus.
It was the next day.
“Usually after a season I’ve given players time and have had voluntary workouts after Thanksgiving,” said Mason, who is in his 26th season as a head coach. “I’ve always given kids a little bit of time off. Our guys wanted to get right back at it. We’ve developed a really good weight room culture, and the kids jumped right back in.”
Neylon spent the summer working on his footwork – how to maintain his balance, spin and avoid a hit. His 12-yards-per-carry average is proof that all that work is paying off.
“We’re lucky to have him. He’s really good,” Mason said. “He’s like the rest of the team. We try to take advantage of every minute we have. He’s really matured as a player. His leadership has really come a long way in a year.
“He has natural instincts in doing what he does.”
Consequently, Neylon appears destined to play football on Saturdays. His 5-foot-7 frame could limit which colleges come calling, but he is hearing interest from Grand Valley State, the University of Indianapolis and Indiana State.
Several members of Neylon’s family work in the construction trade, and he has done that type of work when he can. He said that after college, he would like to return to a life like that.
But there are too many goals ahead of him right now to be concerned with a tool belt.
“I plan on being first in the state,” Neylon said.


By Steve Hanlon
Heartland Sports Network

LOWELL – It was the middle of September back in 2005. I was writing two columns a week in those days.
There was no crazy news to write about. No one died.
So I wrote some words about the Lowell Red Devils, who were 1-4 heading into Week 6. But I had seen the team twice. They had some studs. Jeff Clemens. Scott Gray. Jed Travis. Ryan King. And others.
I don’t recall the exact words I wrote 21 years ago, but I basically said this team coached by Kirk Kennedy was much better than its record.
Ten wins later, on Thanksgiving weekend, the Red Devils shocked the state with a 28-27 victory over Indianapolis Roncalli to win the Class 4A state championship.
During the celebration, Kennedy shook my hand and said thanks.
I was like, why?
“Because our staff knew we had a good team, but I don’t think they believed it until you wrote that,” he said.
It wasn’t why I wrote it. I was just pointing something out. I didn’t expect it to happen.
But I wasn’t shocked when it did.
Lowell trailed by two touchdowns at halftime inside the RCA Dome. I was walking to the press box during the break when, in the underbelly of that place, I heard a voice screaming at his team in the locker room.
It wasn’t PG-13.
Lowell offensive coordinator Jim Carlson said there was a camera in the room, expecting to record Kennedy’s speech. After one sentence, the camera was shut off and carried out of the room.
Those words were only for the players.
They were harsh. But they inspired a sputtering team to go out and dominate a better team and win a state title.
This is who Kirk Kennedy was.
A great football coach who knew how to inspire teenagers. Probably the best I ever saw.
He did not allow excuses from anyone. Not the best player on the team. Not the worst.
There was a standard that had to be followed.
And for 19 years, that’s exactly what he did.
Lowell was a team everyone wanted to play at its homecoming before the fiery coach arrived in 1991. They won 10 sectionals, eight regionals and three semistates before Kennedy left after the 2009 season.
Kennedy died Sunday at the age of 63.
RDP. RIP.
“We were bad before he got there,” Carlson said. “He said we had to get in the weight room and learn how to win. And that’s exactly what we did.”
In that glorious season, Lowell hosted Fort Wayne South in the semistate. It was in the mid-teens that night, with a November wind blowing.
Kennedy had a winter hat on his head while wearing shorts.
That was one of his traditions.
Shorts on Friday nights.
The crowd was huge. Several television stations were there, along with radio and print media. The press box was big enough for six people, like an outhouse perched on top of the bleachers.
The lines trying to get into the bathrooms were Disneyland long.
I later wrote that if Lowell wanted to become a state power, the facilities had to improve.
The following summer, members of the community came together and built a wonderful press box big enough for everyone.
Former Lowell athletic director Don Bales jokingly called it the Steve Hanlon Press Box the following season.
Lowell would advance to the state finals in 2007 and 2009 as well before Kennedy left for Bloomington South, Franklin County, North Judson and, finally, Kankakee Valley.
The Red Devils will host the Kougars Friday night.
Perfect symmetry.
Kennedy brought so many things to LHS.
The running backs wore No. 6, Kennedy’s number when he played football for Howard Schnellenberger at Louisville.
He had a Teacher Appreciation Night every season in which educators wore the jersey number of the player who picked them as their favorite.
His daily expectations transformed many lives, both on and off the field.
Many area coaches once played for Kennedy, including Red Devils assistant Brandon Grubbe.
He rushed for 5,923 yards and 80 touchdowns and played in two state championship games.
“You knew what you were getting every day,” said Grubbe, now coaching at Lowell. “He was very demanding, but he wasn’t an &^%hole. He was a very good guy and treated others very well.”
During the 2008 season, Grubbe fumbled a ball in a blowout win over Andrean.
He wasn’t the only Devil who played poorly.
Everyone knew what was coming.
“We were at the practice field at 7 a.m. on Saturday and we ran for two and a half hours,” Grubbe remembered at Tuesday’s practice.
He also recalled the day Kennedy played Shania Twain in the weight room.
All the players hated it and complained.
Kennedy went off.
He told them the music wasn’t lifting the weights. They were.
Don’t let something you can’t control affect what you can control.
No excuses.
Do your best.
Period.
Grubbe said Lowell will line up in the Power I formation Friday to honor Kennedy. That was his offense for decades.
He said Crown Point is expected to do the same because of Lowell’s influence there.
I wonder how many Power I formations we will see this weekend?
We should all rise to our feet when one occurs to honor this great legacy.
This great man.
Current Lowell coach Casey McKim coached against Kennedy before arriving on Commercial Avenue two years ago. They formed a good friendship.
And the Red Devil Pride Kennedy started continued last Friday night when junior running back Tymothy James carried the ball 50 times for a school-record 394 yards in a victory over Hobart.
“When I got here, I was told RDP stands for Run Don’t Pass,” McKim said. “So we’re keeping Kirk’s legacy going.”
McKim went to visit Kennedy on Saturday.
He walked in and the ailing coach was watching a football game. Kennedy asked how the Devils had done the night before.
Some things never change.
“Most people talk about how good of a coach Kirk was,” McKim said. “But everyone talks about how great of a person he was.”
On Thursday, there will be a wake and service for Kennedy at Sheets Funeral Home in Lowell from 2 to 7 p.m.
Carlson was with Kennedy when he gave his final requests with his wife, Michelle.
Mike Pickett, the famed running back who led Lowell past vaunted Hobart in the 1994 regional that put the program on the map, will read Kennedy’s three favorite Bible verses.
Heaven’s coaching staff just got so much better.
I got to cover most of Kennedy’s years at Lowell.
I saw him ride his Harley several times.
I saw him ignite an entire community around one thing: togetherness.
I’m going to miss you, Kirk.
I believe you’re in a better place.
But our place now is missing some color and life.
RDP.
RIP.

By Steve Hanlon
​Heartland Sports Network