Right before the start of Friday night’s game between Brebeuf and Bloomington South, the Panthers honored their longtime stadium announcer and hall of fame IU radio broadcaster Joe Smith, who passed away this past July at age 78. Smith had been the PA voice of the Bloomington South football team for close to 50 years, and the school was formally naming the press box after him while his son and several family members stood at midfield. But what was really cool about the occasion was the maroon and gold letter sweater that Smith’s son held aloft as he turned around and faced the Brebeuf side of the field. Joe Smith’s Brebeuf letter jacket. Before spending his life in Monroe County, Joe Smith was a Brebeuf Brave, captain of the 1966 baseball team during his senior year, and Bloomington South wanted to make sure to include the Brebeuf family in their tribute, as Smith had always spoken so highly of his time there. It was a very feel-good moment, reminding us that: a. Brebeuf grads are everywhere, doing really cool things. b. The ties that bind all of us in who are involved in high school sports are much greater than simply the color of our particular letter sweaters. It was also the last feel-good moment for the Brebeuf football team, who lost to the Panthers 52-7, and saw up close why this year’s 3rd-ranked Bloomington South squad is an odds-on favorite to compete for a 5A state championship on Thanksgiving weekend. The Panthers held Brebeuf to two first downs and 45 yards in the first half, while jumping to a 31-0 halftime lead on the strength of QB Duncan Combs’ four TD passes, a couple of which were perfectly-thrown “football dropped from a blimp” rainbows that stirred memories of the five TD passes Brebeuf’s Mav Geske threw here the last time the two teams played in Bloomington. That game, part of the Crazy Scoreboard-Breaking Season of 2024, was a 68-57 Braves victory, featuring 1352 combined yards, one of the highest-scoring non-overtime games in IHSAA history. And it was a lot more fun to write about than this game, which got out of hand early and never got better. Brebeuf was missing two offensive line starters (whom I won’t name, because those guys prefer to be anonymous anyway) but it showed, as the running game with Jasir King never got on track, and Braves QB Keegan Bouwkamp was on the run from purple defenders all night. It probably didn’t help that Bloomington South was coming off their only loss of the season, 37-0 at Ironton High School in Ironton, Ohio (It’s in the tough southeast ‘West Virginia’ part of Ohio, where teeth are optional and they bowl overhand). The Panthers were snarling for an opportunity to bounce back, just as Brebeuf’s team was last week at Columbus North. So it goes with 16-18 year old warriors that are still emotional kids. What this game really showed, however, is that Brebeuf football plays one of the hardest 4A schedules in the state, with South being the third Top Five-ranked team they’ve played in the last four weeks. Not an excuse, just a fact. Part of the philosophy that Matt Geske and AD Ted Hampton have about how you forge a team that can win a bloodbath like Sectional 21, with Chatard, Danville, Guerin and Northview. And honestly, on a night when Brebeuf Brave Joe Smith (’66) was being honored by the Bloomington South team that he gave so much of his life to, perhaps it was fitting that the home team won in a romp, because as any long time (LONG TIME, he typed) IU football fan knows, Joe Smith spent the majority of his on-air career sitting beside Don Fischer, shaking his head and watching terrible IU football games. Brebeuf, now 4-4, closes the 2026 season next Friday night against Cardinal Ritter at Marian University, a great facility to see a high school game. They’ll know their sectional opponent this Sunday when the IHSAA reveals their playoff brackets. Go Braves!