My View/Your View: Cathedral QB seems both confident and poised

Some notes along the Indiana high school football tournament trail:

Cathedral quarterback Kofi Hughes comes across as first class and confident off the field as he is on it. I caught a segment of “The Drive” with JMV on WNDE-1260 AM right before the start of the 2009 state tournament and, quite frankly, I was truly impressed with what the senior had to say.

Hughes demonstrates the same poise with his words as he does in calling signals for the Class 4A No. 1 Cathedral Fighting Irish. Even the show’s host, John Michael Vincent, was truly impressed with the soft-spoken youngster. And I’m guessing that JMV doesn’t always impress easily if you get my drift.

Hughes talked about how you have to step up when you are the quarterback and how much easier his leadership role has been with strong support from his teammates.

He also talked the influence his dad has been on him and on his career. He said his dad has always had his back, that he’s helped him make some good decisions, and has been a major part of his success.

His high school history or trail has been well documented. One of the good decisions his dad helped him with might have been their decision to transfer his sophomore year, though there were problems over his transfer from Lawrence North. As the story goes, the school contested it and he had to sit out 365 days before being eligible to play for Cathedral. Hughes wasn’t even playing football at Lawrence North, rather basketball, at the time. Anyway, no one can argue with the success the young man has had and continues to have at Cathedral.

As to the state football tournament, which comes to an end the final weekend in November, Hughes said Cathedral wants to be the last leaf on the tree, and that the Irish are almost there, referring to a quest for a second straight Class 4A football title.

The Irish (10-1) are three wins away from playing for another state title. They travel to Plainfield this weekend to meet the Quakers (8-3) for the Sectional 14 title.

• With Carmel’s sectional semifinal victory over Fishers, the Greyhounds replaced Cathedral as the No. 1 football team in Indiana in the Sagarin Ratings. Cathedral, which opened the season with wins over both Carmel and Warren Central, had held the top spot until this week. Among other 5A schools, No. 2 Warren Central is second in the Sagarin Ratings, and Hamilton Southeastern, which meets Carmel for the sectional 4 title, stands at No. 3.

• Carmel senior linebacker Brian East says he’s had offers to play college football for the U.S. Air Force Academy and Penn and Cornell of the Ivy League. He said he’s still talking to Michigan State, Indiana and Vanderbilt. “Academics are important,’’ he told me, “but so is playing for a Bowl Championship Series School. I would love to play for a BCS school.’’

• Bishop Chatard senior running back Ari Pappas became the school’s rushing leader in last week’s 35-0 rout of Southmont. His 264 yards gave him 1,733 for the season and 5,343 for a career. The previous mark of 5,265 yards belonged to Joe Holland.

• Sheridan’s 2-8 record in 2009 was the third worse finish in the past 16 years under coach Bud Wright, a nine-time state championship coach, and the first losing season since 2002 for Wright-coached teams, who won three Class A titles in four appearances this decade.

• Westfield, which moved up to Class 5A this season, made major strides by winning four games which, based on its tough Hoosier Crossroads Conference schedule, may have exceeded expectations.

• Beech Grove, which lost in the second round of 3A sectional, finished at 6-5 and produced the school’s first winning football season since 2000.

• Heritage Christian quarterback Jackson Kirtley and receiver James Houck, arguably the top pass-catch tandem in the Indianapolis area, finished their senior year at Heritage Christian with some mighty impressive statistics. Kirtley completed 93-of-310 passes for 2,308 yards and 30 touchdowns. Houck, who also played defense, hauled in 77 aerials for 1,221 yards and 14 TDs. Also most football buffs probably recall that they teamed to help the school win the 2A state championship last year.

Mark Morrow is an online columnist for VYPE High School Sports Magazine, Central Indiana. He can be reached at mediamarko@sbcglobal.net or by leaving a comment.