Northeast Indiana HS Football Media Day takes center stage

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Over 300 coaches and player made their way to the ASH Centre on Friday for 2024 Northeast Indiana High School Football Media Day, as 39 local teams were represented at the annual event hosted by Optimum Performance Sports.

Last season, northeast Indiana had three teams advance to the state finals for the first time in over 20 years, as Snider, Bishop Luers, and Adams Central all made it to Indianapolis. The Panthers won the 5A title, the Knights won the 2A crown, while the Jets were the 1A runner-up for the third year in a row.

With a new season, a number of programs in the Highlight Zone’s viewing area have new head coaches. That includes Alex Stewart taking over for Luke Amstutz at East Noble, Brock Rohrbacher back on the sidelines leading Woodlan, long-time assistant Jeremy Hullinger taking the reins at Heritage, Matt Thacker moving from Fairfield to Wawasee while Corey Stoner takes over the Falcons, and Thomas Tyree going from an assistant at North Side to the head coaching position at Southwood.

Northeast Indiana has a handful of Mr. Football candidates this year. Two-way standout Brock Schott led the state in sacks last year with 19 and has verbally committed to play for the Miami Hurricanes in college. Carroll senior quarterback Jimmy Sullivan, who led the Chargers to the 6A state title game two years ago, will play for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Snider two-sport standout Brandon Logan, who has verbally committed to play college baseball at Vanderbilt, may wind up playing both sports on the next level, as the safety picked up a football offer from Notre Dame over the summer.

Practice gets underway on Monday, August 5 with the Highlight Zone returning for its 30th season on Friday, August 23 for the first games of the 2024 season.

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