'Loyalties are torn.' Lapel vs. Eastern Hancock weaves family ties in battle of unbeatens

Tom Miller will be standing beyond the goalpost at one end of the Eastern Hancock football field on Friday night, alongside wife Marciann.

Not exactly the best spot to watch one of the best high school football games in the state on Friday as Class 2A No. 9 Eastern Hancock hosts No. 2 Lapel in a battle of unbeaten teams. But for Miller, there is little choice.

“Your loyalties are torn,” Miller said. “My wife and I will be right in the middle so neither side can say we’re rooting for the other.”

The Lapel-Eastern Hancock game is not just a rivalry, it is a family affair. Tom’s son, Tim, is the Lapel coach. Another son, Todd, is the Lapel defensive coordinator. Grandson Jack, Tim’s son, is the starting senior running back for Lapel. Jack’s brother, freshman Tate, plays on special teams for the 6-0 Bulldogs. Daughter Drew, a seventh grader, will be on the Lapel sidelines as a student manager.

But one of the main names on Tim Miller’s scouting report will be sitting at the same table for Thanksgiving dinner in a few weeks. Eastern Hancock junior Luke Manship, a 6-3, 225-pound tight end, is his nephew. Mike and Libby Manship have another son who was part of this rivalry for years, Eli, now playing at Wabash and another, seventh-grader T.J., who will be in coming years.

“It’s a week I dread and a week I look forward to,” said Tim Miller, who is in his 15th season at Lapel. “I don’t think you can really remove the family part of it, but that’s also kind of what makes it fun. In this day and age of sports where the only goal is to get to the next level, this is what high school sports is all about. I think it adds to the fun of it.”

Adding to the fun is that the games between the teams have been unbelievably competitive and close, including two matchup last year that went right down to the wire. Lapel won both, taking a 21-20 decision in the regular season finale and scoring in the final seconds two weeks later at Eastern Hancock for a 26-22 win.

That victory propelled Lapel to its first regional title in program history. The Bulldogs came up just one win short of the state finals, losing 31-21 to Brownstown Central in the semistate. It was also a crushing loss for Eastern Hancock, which had a team capable of making a similar run.

“If I’m being honest, it’s hard to talk to someone who just beat you in the sectional game and ended your season,” Luke Manship said. ” … But it’s cool. We don’t talk a ton on Friday night, just say, ‘Nice job, good luck the rest of the year,’ and that kind of stuff. But definitely the weeks after, we talk about the games.”

Football has long been part of the Miller family tree. Tom played receiver on the first Mt. Vernon varsity team in 1968. “We weren’t very good, so we were always passing,” Miller said. His receiving records set that season, including yardage for a single game (154) and receptions in a season (42), stood until Tim came along and broke them nearly 30 years later. Tim’s records fell when his younger brother Todd broke them in 2006. Libby played soccer at Franklin College, scoring the first goal in the program’s history.

Those backyard games between the grandkids over the holidays and family gatherings have now evolved into outstanding high school matchups.

“Imagine your cousin coming at you at running back when you are a linebacker,” Manship said. “You get to meet him in the gap. It’s kind of cool. It’s definitely a little weird the week we play them. Me and my younger uncle, Todd, talk a lot during the weeks throughout the season … but we don’t talk a ton during the week we play them.”

The conversation will certainly pick up again after Friday’s game. It just might take a few days. Tom and Marciann alternate Lapel and Eastern Hancock games throughout the season until the annual meetings between the programs, which is now a conference game with the inception of the Eastern Crossroads Conference this year.

“I try to keep an eye on the other game on video stream if I can,” Tom Miller said.

There has not been much to watch so far this year for either team, at least from a competitive standpoint. Both Lapel and Eastern Hancock have won every game by at least four TDs. That seems likely to change on Friday.

“The family piece aside, this has been a good rivalry, not just in football but in everything,” Tim Miller said. “We have good, competitive games against them.”

The good news is that due to realignment, the teams will not meet again this year in the sectional. Was Miller happy to see that news?

“Ab-so-freaking-lutely,” he said. “I think everybody was.”

The only way Lapel and Eastern Hancock could meet again after Friday’s game would be in the 2A state championship on Thanksgiving weekend. While that might change the family’s plans for Thanksgiving dinner, no one on either side would complain about that scenario.

“I can’t even imagine,” Tom Miller said. “But the thing that makes me the most proud is they are all in good spirits after it’s all over and they can let bygones be bygones.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: ‘Loyalties are torn.’ Lapel vs. Eastern Hancock weaves family ties in battle of unbeatens