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July 10, 2008

MIKE BEAS: Elwood to help break in "The Luke"

Years from now, when Lucas Oil Stadium trivia questions are tossed around, the Elwood High School football program should be one of the answers.

The Panthers won’t be involved in the first football game played beneath this state’s most-famous retractable roof, nor will they take part in the second.

But they will be 50 percent of the equation in the third.

On Aug. 23, Elwood, which returns 16 starters from last season’s Class 2A sectional final, plays defending 2A state finalist Heritage Christian inside “The Luke,” “The Oil” or whatever it is we’re going to call the new $675 million home of the Indianapolis Colts.

Here’s the kicker, and no it’s not Adam Vinatieri: Elwood actually gets to screen pass and safety blitz inside The Luke 33 hours before its primary tenant does.

Coach Marry Wells’ Panthers tee it up at 11 a.m. on the 23rd; Tony Dungy and the Horseshoes host an exhibition game against the Buffalo Bills beginning at 8 p.m. the following day.

The Elwood-HC match is the first of four games to be played at The Luke that day in what’s being called the Marsh Indiana Invitational. The building’s debut games are the previous evening during the annual Peyback Classic (Noblesville vs. Fishers at 6 p.m. forever goes in the books as Game 1).

How the Panthers got their foot in the door on a Saturday quadruple-header that includes heavy hitters such as Hamilton Southeastern, Avon, Zionsville and Lafayette Jeff is a lesson in persistence.

“Ray Compton is the promoter of (Indiana Invitational), and I read where they were looking for a team for the 1:30 game,” Wells said. “After exchanging four or five e-mails with him, we were in. Honestly, I didn’t know if he would even reply to us.”

The game at The Luke, the Panthers’ 2008 opener, will be the first of two morning starts for Elwood this season.

Sept. 20, the Panthers make the drive to 25,000-seat Scheumann Stadium on the Ball State University campus to tangle with Blackford. This 10 a.m. meeting kick-starts an all-Central Indiana Conference day with Frankton-Mississinewa playing at 1 p.m., Alexandria-Eastbrook at 4 p.m. and Madison-Grant-Oak Hill at 7 p.m.

Even with the surplus of peripheral football scenery, Elwood still gets to host four games at its own stadium: Alexandria (Sept. 12), Madison-Grant (Sept. 26), Mississinewa (Oct. 10) and Oak Hill (Oct. 17).

First things first. Practice for the coming high school football season begins Aug. 4.

Speaking of practices, Wells is hopeful his team is presented the opportunity to rehearse inside Lucas Oil Stadium before facing Heritage Christian, so that, as he says, “We can get all of the gawking out of the way. Going there to play is a thrill for an adult much less 16-, 17- and 18-year-old players.”

Mike Beas is a sportswriter / columnist for The Herald Bulletin. He can be reached at mike.beas@heraldbulletin.com.

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