'Backyard Brawl' is back and not a football season too soon for Mishawaka and Penn

MISHAWAKA — Their high school football hopes and dreams seemed as oversized as those older kids they watched over at Freed Field in some years, then at Steele Stadium in others. 

They grew up witnesses to a neighborhood rivalry, watching older brothers play, listening to stories about the memorable moments in games their fathers and uncles and even grandfathers participated in when the schedule matched one area high school (Mishawaka) against another (Penn) separated by 4.2 miles.

They heard the stories. They attended the games. They waited their turns, through elementary school and middle school, for a chance to get to high school and play in something known simply as the “Backyard Brawl.”

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It was Mishawaka. It was Penn. It was a rivalry game, and those games hit differently. Literally.

“It was physical; the crowd was going nuts,” said Penn senior offensive lineman Reilly Schramski. “It seemed like a crazy, fun atmosphere to play in.”

One day, that atmosphere would be theirs. It would be electric. They’d be in it. Living it. Loving it. They would be the guys that the younger kids watched and wanted to be. They would be the ones to carry on the tradition of their grandfathers and fathers and uncles and older brothers whose prep playing days had long come and gone.

This would be their rivalry game one day, but that one day went away, its fate sealed by two words that continue to alter the landscape of college athletics.

Conference realignment.

When Mishawaka decided in 2018 after 90-plus years in the Northern Indiana Conference that the Northern Lakes Conference would better serve their athletic needs (i.e., Mishawaka escaped the Penn athletics shadow), the fate of the Backyard Brawl was sealed. Both sides insisted they couldn’t shoehorn the game into their schedules. The game was placed on pause.

One of the true rivalry games in the area — maybe THE game in the area (sorry Marian and Saint Joseph) - would go dark for the near future following the 2019 meeting.

“It was disappointing,” Mishawaka senior Ethan Bryce said of learning of the brawl’s pause. “We’ve grown up with those guys, played with and against them in elementary school and middle school. I probably know that whole Penn team.”

He probably wanted to beat the whole Penn team. Would he ever get the chance?

Back on the schedule where it belongs

Penn senior cornerback Nate Batchelor remembers when he learned the brawl was back. He was in his first block class (math) one winter day when an announcement tumbled over the school public address system that Penn and Mishawaka would play in football for the first time since 2019. They would meet again — after 1,403 days — in the second week of the 2023 season.

Fifth-ranked (5A) Mishawaka (1-0) and ninth-ranked (6A) Penn (1-0) play Friday at what is now known as Everwise Freed Field. They’ll come in on Capital Avenue from the north, Lincolnway from the west and east, Bittersweet from the south. They’ll all meet where an open seat might be but a rumor. Midweek whispers had it that a crowd of 10,000 was possible. Don’t tell the Fire Marshall.

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Seniors from both sides finally get to see what this rivalry is like up close and personal. The passion. The plays. The pressure. Even when Batchelor learned that the game was a go, he wasn’t sure.

“I texted my mom — 'is it true?'” he said. “I was so excited. This is why we play games around here, it’s for games like this.”

Batchelor and Bryce are friends. They played together in the Granger Rocket program. Their football paths first crossed when they were in fifth grade. Batchelor knew he was going to Penn; Bryce knew he was going to Mishawaka. They figured they’d knock heads yearly while in high school.

Friday’s their first and last chance.

Bryce was in the stands the last time Mishawaka played at Penn. If you were there on that cold, misty/foggy/electric October night in 2018, you remember.

Both offenses went up and down the field. Defense was occasionally optional as Mishawaka rushed for 443 yards and Penn tallied 340 total yards. Points kept piling up on the scoreboard. Twenty for each side. Then 30. Then over 40. Mishawaka led early by two touchdowns. Penn erased a late 14-point deficit. Regulation wasn’t enough to decide the NIC regular-season champion. Maybe it would be Penn. Maybe it would be Mishawaka.

Former Cavemen linebacker/safety/stud C.J. Fisher ended any other maybes when he shot in from somewhere near South Bend to drop Kingsmen quarterback Ron Powlus III short of the goal line on fourth down to seal the 49-42 overtime win.

It was wild. It was crazy. It was the Brawl at its absolute best.

Afterward, Mishawaka coach Keith Kinder stood there in a victorious stupor. Watching his team pose for pictures with the conference trophy didn’t seem real. The tears that welled in Kinder’s eyes, those were real.

If Bryce could’ve grabbed a helmet and shoulder pads and a maroon and white jersey right then and there, he would have. Sign him up. The game, the win, the moment, meant that much. Meant everything. Set the table for Bryce to play in high school.

“It was a big motivational factor,” he said. “I tried to envision myself in those moments and now one of those moments is coming Friday.”

Also there that night in 2019 was Fisher’s youngest brother, Brady, now a senior quarterback for the Cavemen. The Fishers served as ball boys growing up, so they basically were raised on the Steele Stadium sidelines. Brady Fisher watched his brothers (Justin’s a sophomore walk-on tight end at Notre Dame) in the rivalry. He now gets his turn.

Fisher knows well what awaits. One-sided rivalry aside (Penn leads 48-15-1), this one’s different.

“They’re always close and physical and intense games,” he said. “The stadium’s packed. It’s pretty cool.”

Settle in for the next four years

Also cool is that Friday is the first of four consecutive meetings between the neighbors. Two games at Freed Field (2023, 2025), two games at Steele Stadium (2024, 2026). High school football in the area feels better, feels right, when Mishawaka and Penn play. Doesn’t matter what conference each calls home. The previous three years, something about those Friday nights didn’t seem right.

Those Fridays felt … empty.

“Yeah, there’s been something missing,” said Penn coach Cory Yeoman, who has taken part in the game as a player, as an assistant and now as a head coach. “It’s a big game for everybody. It’s nice to have them back on the schedule.”

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Schramski made his first varsity start in last week’s victory at Valparaiso. For him, it was surreal. What’s Friday going to be like, when he makes his first varsity start at home against Mishawaka?

How about surreal times 10? His parents went to Mishawaka, but likely will be rooting for their son. His grandmother might be in the stands sporting her Cavemen letter jacket. Family ties run deep, but so do school ties. That’s this rivalry.

Nerves? There will be some early.

“It will get the adrenaline going,” Schramski said. “You realize, ‘Wow, we get to do this. We’re bringing back the brawl.’”

Everyone from both sides — coaches, players, heck, probably even the administrators who once sent this series into mothballs — worked this week to downplay what Friday means to both sides, what it means to the community, what it means to the area.

They insist that it’s just another game, one of nine on the regular-season schedule. The winner of this one won’t snag an inside track on a conference championship. What happens in the coming months in sectionals or regionals or semistate won’t be decided by what happens after 48 minutes on Friday.

To the coaches, the players, it’s just another Friday night on the schedule. Just like last week; just like next week. But they know the truth. They know what this game means, what it always has meant. To Mishawaka. To Penn. To everyone.

“This game means more,” Bryce said with a smile. “Deep down, we all know.”

Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Indiana high school football Penn Mishawaka backyard brawl is back