Big Blue still big with Indiana prep football

There was some tension in the fall of 2008. The longtime relationship between the Colts and Indiana high school football seemed shaky at best.

With the close of the RCA Dome and the state high school football championship moving to Lucas Oil Stadium in 2008, the cost of the rental was estimated between $250,000 and $500,000. The IHSAA nervously looked elsewhere for another home, a colder, wetter place, for the state championship games to be played.

"It didn't look good," Valparaiso coach Mark Hoffman said.

Then, last August, everything changed. The Colts became a corporate sponsor of the IHSAA state football tournament, which is believed to be the first time a professional sports franchise entered into any agreement with a state high school association.

"The Colts organization has a long standing commitment to youth football in Indiana and our new relationship with the IHSAA is an extension of that commitment," said Tom Zupancic, Colts senior vice president of sales and marketing. "The IHSAA and the Indianapolis Colts have a common goal of developing core values of young athletes.

"It is an honor to join forces with such an outstanding organization."

Suddenly, the relationship that began in 1984 when the Colts arrived in Indiana from Baltimore is continuing at an even higher level.

And when the Colts face the New Orleans Saints on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV, there are countless examples of how this relationship is working. Two of Hoffman's student aides, Logan Andrews and Sara Langer, went to the AFC championship game on Jan. 24.

"These are typical high school girls," Hoffman said. "They're involved in a lot of things, but they're not really big football fans. They came back on Monday in Colts apparel. They became football junkies in one day.

"Kids all over our school were wearing Peyton Manning jerseys. Ten years ago there would've been just one or two."

For the past five years, the Colts have played a big part in the North-South All-Star game in July, with cheerleaders and mascots being at the game. For 10-plus years, the Colts Coach of the Week has been awarded during the nine weeks of the regular season.

Morton coach Roy Richards received the honor last August. He got to watch a Colts practice and meet Colts president Bill Polian and coach Jim Caldwell. Then each coach who won the award received four tickets for the Colts' regular-season game against the Denver Broncos.

"At the practice, both Peyton Manning and Jeff Saturday came over and thanked us for what we do for high school football," Richards said, then laughing. "Yeah, Manning's thanking me. I was raised a Bears fan. I had the Bears' pajamas as a kid. But you can't help but being a Colts fan.

"What they do is contagious."

Surprisingly, Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy has coached his Red Devils three times in the Colts' home stadium in state championship games. But he's never won the Coach of the Week honor. Still, that hasn't kept him from noticing what the Colts are doing in his home state.

In 2008, Lowell won the Colts' 7-on-7 Tournament of Champions at the Colts' training facility. The Colts were one of 16 NFL franchises to sponsor the passing competition. Consequently, Kennedy and his players were flown to the national championship in New Orleans.

"When you look at where the state tournament was a couple years ago and where we are now, it's pretty amazing," Kennedy said. "The Colts stepped up to the plate big time. Sponsoring the state tournament was a heck of a gesture on their part. The 7-on-7 was a great experience for all of our kids. The Colts' Mike Prior went with us and was responsible for us in New Orleans.

"I'm a Bengals fan, and I always have been. But it's hard to not cheer for the Colts. They do things the right way and I'm a big fan of what they do."

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Note: The Colts' relationship with the IHSAA, including Lucas Oil Stadium's role as the venue for the state football finals, has helped yield impressive attendance figures for the state title games in recent years. Here are the top five attendances in the history of the IHSAA football state finals:

1. 56,050 (2008)  

2. 51,217 (2007)  

3. 46,162 (2009)  

4. 44,303 (2005)  

5. 43,701 (1993)