Lowell football online exclusive: For now, there'll be no fiddling with the roof

INDIANAPOLIS | Many guests, upon entering Lucas Oil Stadium and seeing long shadows on the field during the Class 3A title game, assumed the retractable roof was open.

However, it was closed. The sunlight from the windows behind the south end zone seats created an illusion of outdoor football.

The last open-air state title games in Indiana were in 1983 when the four class championships were spread among various Indianapolis-area high schools.

"Usually you talk about kicking off and you can take the wind. You can take the sun here," Lowell coach Kirk Kennedy said after Red Devils lost 23-9 in the Class 4A state championship to Evansville Reitz on Saturday afternoon.

Game-time temperatures were in the low 50s, and the sun was bright.

IHSAA sports information director and Crown Point grad Jason Wille said the topic of opening the roof has yet to be considered seriously. A decision to open the roof would have to be reached by both the IHSAA commissioners and the Lucas Oil Stadium administration, Wille said.

The home of Super Bowl XLVI, Lucas Oil opened in 2008, replacing the RCA Dome as the home of the Colts and the IHSAA football championships. Lowell was the first Region team to play a game at the new venue.

"It's a great facility," Kennedy said. "Underneath, it's kind of the same, the locker rooms are a little bigger, but it's a great facility and great atmosphere."

A taste of the action: Lowell sophomores Tyler Kristoff and Jeremy Crocker would not have played in Saturday's game, regardless of the circumstances.

However, Kristoff and Crocker, who wear Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, were in full uniforms and pads on the sidelines for the first time since August.

Kristoff has been out since he hurt his left knee in Week 1, and Crocker suffered a foot injury that required surgery back in Week 2. Kennedy gave them the option of suiting up for the state championship.

"(It was) just to give them a taste of all this in uniform," Kennedy said. "I appealed to them as football players (and said) they'd probably rather be in uniform than in street clothes, and they agreed."

Crocker is out for another month but will return to the wrestling mats around New Year's Day.

Seeing spots: When Brandon Grubbe was marked short of a crucial first down inside the Reitz 4-yard line in the fourth quarter, it was simply the capper of what Kennedy thought was a game full of miscalculations.

"What I saw was pretty much what I saw the whole night," Kennedy said. "It wasn't just us. It was on their side, too. When the knee hits, you spot the ball where the ball is, not where the knee is. They were spotting it where the knee was."

Tough road to till: The worst playoff opponent Lowell faced, record-wise, was Concord, which entered its game with Lowell at 8-3.

The combined record of Lowell's playoff opponents before facing the Red Devils was 63-6.

Still no Mental Attitude Award: Despite making the state championship game in three of the last five years, Lowell has yet to have a player win the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award winner.

This year the winner of the award for seniors displaying excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability in the Class 4A game went to Evansville Reitz's Erik Bryant.

The last Mental Attitude Award winners from the Region were Matt Handlon (Valparaiso) and Casey Nowinski (Andrean), both in 2001.

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