So coaches from Catholic schools can come into public middle schools and give presentations on the benefits of their program? If not that is what the above indicates.

 

I don't know what this restrictive mentality that many public schools have is about. Shouldn't you want to promote your school and its benefits to all? I am not just talking athletically, I am talking about things like quick recall, history club, FCA, debate team and so on. You should want people to want to attend your school as opposed to having no choice. I frankly am of the mindset that all school districts should have open borders to facilitate individual choice. We are an individualistic society and I think we should promote that. If we have to compete with each other we get better.

 

In Louisville the Catholic schools have always had to compete just to keep our own students. The vast majority of kids that go to Catholic grade schools in Louisville end up with the JCPS for high school. A Catholic school education is not cheap no matter how good an athlete you are and the only thing that defrays the cost at our schools are scores on the placement exam and financial need. Ever heard of Michael Bush? The reason he wasn't a Shamrock was because enough financial aid wasn't available. That's right, quite possibly one of the greatest athletes in Kentucky history was unable to attend Trinity for financial reasons.

 

We have facilities, but we have had to work for them. We had to solicit donations to make the campus what it is now. When I was there (97-01) we had a dilapidated stadium, a weight room that was as likely to give you tetanus as it would a good workout, a wrestling room that made most people sick when they smelled it and most of the campus had no air conditioning. We have improved our facilities in recent years but it is insulting to say we have always had state of the art facilities. In fact if we could have a school building like John Hardin's I would be stoked.

 

Point being none of what Trinity has was handed to us. We built what we had from the ground up. I resent the idea of being treated differently because of our community's commitment to improving ourselves.

 

There is no doubt that Trinity has earned some of the privileges due to their commitment to excellence. Would you agree that their excellence has a lot to do with having only 1 other similar school (St. X) to compete with in the commonwealth of KY? This is not the fault of Trinity. IMO if Trinity had to compete in the GCL with St. X Ohio, Elder, Moeller, Lasalle, etc. and then beat St. Edwards, Cleveland St. Ignatius (sp.), etc. to win State titles, they would not be nearly as successful. The make up of KY is very beneficial for schools like Trinity and St. X.

 

The fact is that public school systems in the state of KY would rather give kids more opportunities to participate in extra curricular activities by building new high schools rather than 1 big super high school. In the scheme of life, IMO the public schools are correct in doing this.

 

Again, this is not a Trinity problem and not a jab at Trinity. Trinity has rightfully taken advantage of the system in KY and the publics are never going to build a super high school just to compete with Trinity/St. X for football state titles.

There is no doubt that Trinity has earned some of the privileges due to their commitment to excellence. Would you agree that their excellence has a lot to do with having only 1 other similar school (St. X) to compete with in the commonwealth of KY? This is not the fault of Trinity. IMO if Trinity had to compete in the GCL with St. X Ohio, Elder, Moeller, Lasalle, etc. and then beat St. Edwards, Cleveland St. Ignatius (sp.), etc. to win State titles, they would not be nearly as successful. The make up of KY is very beneficial for schools like Trinity and St. X.

 

The fact is that public school systems in the state of KY would rather give kids more opportunities to participate in extra curricular activities by building new high schools rather than 1 big super high school. In the scheme of life, IMO the public schools are correct in doing this.

 

Again, this is not a Trinity problem and not a jab at Trinity. Trinity has rightfully taken advantage of the system in KY and the publics are never going to build a super high school just to compete with Trinity/St. X for football state titles.

 

 

Sure they are. They're called Male and Manual. Manual cherry picks the best and brightest students from all over the county and they have the test scores to show for it as well as some athletic success against private schools in sports other then football. Male this past year had the restriction removed from them that allowed only students that came through the "traditional" system to attend Male. Rumor has it that the reason that Bobby Redmon "retired" from Male was because this restriction had been put in place and he knew it would cripple his ability to compete with (and beat) Trinity and X. They can now take 100 students from outside the traditional program every year. I heard that 80 of the students that Male brought in this year were athletes. Is it a coincidence that they beat Trinity's freshman this year?

Please explain how the KHSAA rules in place benefit privates over publics. And be specific. I really would like to understand your argument.

One KHSAA rule would be the open borders that kids from Ohio and Indiana can participate in Athletics in the state of Kentucky. Due to Moeller's success in the 1980's with many NKY players being recruited to attend Moeller, the OHSAA has closed the border. A kid cannot live in KY and participate in athletics in Ohio per the OHSAA rules.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many kids that play at Trinity and X, live in Indiana? This rule may be a non-factor for T and X, but I know that Holy Cross Covington has made a living off kids that live in Ohio for many years. Again, since there is no restriction in place, these schools would be foolish not to poach Indiana players.

Sure they are. They're called Male and Manual. Manual cherry picks the best and brightest students from all over the county and they have the test scores to show for it as well as some athletic success against private schools in sports other then football. Male this past year had the restriction removed from them that allowed only students that came through the "traditional" system to attend Male. Rumor has it that the reason that Bobby Redmon "retired" from Male was because this restriction had been put in place and he knew it would cripple his ability to compete with (and beat) Trinity and X. They can now take 100 students from outside the traditional program every year. I heard that 80 of the students that Male brought in this year were athletes. Is it a coincidence that they beat Trinity's freshman this year?

 

Interesting, I did not know that. The JCPS schools definitely have a better opportunity to do this than 6A County schools because of the size and tightly packed population of Louisville.

But that doesn't benefit just the private schools as public schools can (and have) used players that live in bordering states. Who was the basketball player that signed with Louisville a few years ago that played for a KY PUBLIC high school while living in Tennessee?

But that doesn't benefit just the private schools as public schools can (and have) used players that live in bordering states. Who was the basketball player that signed with Louisville a few years ago that played for a KY PUBLIC high school while living in Tennessee?

 

I'm not sure, basketballs are too round for my liking.

 

I agree that it does not solely benefit Privates, but IMO it easier for out of state kids to attend private schools than public schools. Again, due to public school regulations on Tuition and out of district students. I still think the KHSAA should close the borders for the sole reason of every out of state kid that gets to play in KY is taking an opportunity away from a KY kid.

There is no doubt that Trinity has earned some of the privileges due to their commitment to excellence. Would you agree that their excellence has a lot to do with having only 1 other similar school (St. X) to compete with in the commonwealth of KY? This is not the fault of Trinity. IMO if Trinity had to compete in the GCL with St. X Ohio, Elder, Moeller, Lasalle, etc. and then beat St. Edwards, Cleveland St. Ignatius (sp.), etc. to win State titles, they would not be nearly as successful. The make up of KY is very beneficial for schools like Trinity and St. X.

 

The fact is that public school systems in the state of KY would rather give kids more opportunities to participate in extra curricular activities by building new high schools rather than 1 big super high school. In the scheme of life, IMO the public schools are correct in doing this.

 

Again, this is not a Trinity problem and not a jab at Trinity. Trinity has rightfully taken advantage of the system in KY and the publics are never going to build a super high school just to compete with Trinity/St. X for football state titles.

 

Size of school does not limit opportunities for extracurricular activities, all it takes is enough moderators for activities. With about 1300-1400 students Trinity has 11 fine arts clubs, 16 Academic clubs, 17 special interest clubs/activities, 5 intramural sports along with 12 KHSAA sanctioned sports and 7 non KHSAA sanctioned sports. In fact one of those is fencing which I am really bummed didn't exist when I was there. so that makes 68 clubs and activities that currently exist for students to be involved in, only 19 of which are sports. If you take the larger number of the student body I put up there and divided by activities available you have approximately 21 students per activity if divided evenly. There are plenty of opportunities there and on top of that the student to teacher ratio is approximately 15-1 if things have stayed what they once were. I am sure someone can correct me on the exact details there.

 

Size does not dictate opportunity.

Size of school does not limit opportunities for extracurricular activities, all it takes is enough moderators for activities. With about 1300-1400 students Trinity has 11 fine arts clubs, 16 Academic clubs, 17 special interest clubs/activities, 5 intramural sports along with 12 KHSAA sanctioned sports and 7 non KHSAA sanctioned sports. In fact one of those is fencing which I am really bummed didn't exist when I was there. so that makes 68 clubs and activities that currently exist for students to be involved in, only 19 of which are sports. If you take the larger number of the student body I put up there and divided by activities available you have approximately 21 students per activity if divided evenly. There are plenty of opportunities there and on top of that the student to teacher ratio is approximately 15-1 if things have stayed what they once were. I am sure someone can correct me on the exact details there.

 

Size does not dictate opportunity.

 

It does in football, basketball, baseball and other athletics. For example in football, 1 Boone County High School with 3200 students would give 11 kids the opportunity to play football on a given down. With 4 high schools in Boone County with 800 students per school, 44 kids have the opportunity to play football on a given down. That gives 33 kids an opportunity to play that they would not have with 1 county high school.

It does in football, basketball, baseball and other athletics. For example in football, 1 Boone County High School with 3200 students would give 11 kids the opportunity to play football on a given down. With 4 high schools in Boone County with 800 students per school, 44 kids have the opportunity to play football on a given down. That gives 33 kids an opportunity to play that they would not have with 1 county high school.

 

They all have opportunities to be on the team and/or be involved. There are huge numbers of kids involved in the program at Trinity and not everyone gets to play, that is part of it. Even so we rotate players in and out and platoon them. The coaches at the big schools do what they can to get as many people involved as possible, and I don't know of many kids that played football for Trinity that graduated angry because they didn't get to play as many minutes as some other players. It is about the team, not the player and that is something the Rocks have always emphasized. Now are there kids who are upset about playing time? Yes, of course but most of them tend to transfer out or quit as Freshman. I see no issue with that either. If you have open borders so kids can attend where they wish, then they get the opportunity to play elsewhere if they have issues with how they feel they are being treated.

There is no doubt that Trinity has earned some of the privileges due to their commitment to excellence. Would you agree that their excellence has a lot to do with having only 1 other similar school (St. X) to compete with in the commonwealth of KY? This is not the fault of Trinity. IMO if Trinity had to compete in the GCL with St. X Ohio, Elder, Moeller, Lasalle, etc. and then beat St. Edwards, Cleveland St. Ignatius (sp.), etc. to win State titles, they would not be nearly as successful. The make up of KY is very beneficial for schools like Trinity and St. X.

 

The fact is that public school systems in the state of KY would rather give kids more opportunities to participate in extra curricular activities by building new high schools rather than 1 big super high school. In the scheme of life, IMO the public schools are correct in doing this.

 

Again, this is not a Trinity problem and not a jab at Trinity. Trinity has rightfully taken advantage of the system in KY and the publics are never going to build a super high school just to compete with Trinity/St. X for football state titles.

 

Scott Co. is getting closer though by choosing to expand their one county school instead of building additional high schools.

The point I was making is technically most public schools have to play with kids in their geographical boundaries. They cannot attract kids from outside that boundary legally, whereas, private schools are not bound by the same restriction. Their pool to choose from is more expansive making them almost untouchable. The rules are the rules they aren't breaking them but it creates an unfair advantage Imo. It is like Oak Hill Academy the famed High School basketball team who perennially rank in the top 5 nationally. They should be ranked high every year they get the best kids from all over the country. No public school in VA can touch them. They have an unfair but legal advantage.

 

It impresses me more to see what a public school like Belfry does year and year out and they have to do it with kids from that area. How many impact players on Trinity's roster are from within a 100 mile radius of Trinity?

I don't live anywhere near Louisville, but in my part of the state a public school student can attend a school outside his boundaries if he is willing to pay tuition. So why don't students who are unhappy with their public school system send their kids to a different public school. Yes they have to pay tuition, but so do all students at private schools.

One KHSAA rule would be the open borders that kids from Ohio and Indiana can participate in Athletics in the state of Kentucky. Due to Moeller's success in the 1980's with many NKY players being recruited to attend Moeller, the OHSAA has closed the border. A kid cannot live in KY and participate in athletics in Ohio per the OHSAA rules.

 

Just out of curiosity, how many kids that play at Trinity and X, live in Indiana? This rule may be a non-factor for T and X, but I know that Holy Cross Covington has made a living off kids that live in Ohio for many years. Again, since there is no restriction in place, these schools would be foolish not to poach Indiana players.

Are you saying the KHSAA rules state that private schools can use out of state students but public schools cannot?

 

Wow that is unfair. The KHSAA rules really do favor private schools I guess.

true trench, but most public schools have a larger student body to pull from don't they?

It most often boils down to great coaches, good kids, awesome parents and boosters supporting the school and their kids. That is the case in most private schools and in some small public schools, like in Nor. Ky; Beechwood and Highlands are both public schools. You have to live in district or if there is room you can pay tuition and they both have awesome coaches,students and parent/booster support.

How many Catholic Students from FT Thomas and Southgate attend the Ft Thomas public school system after elementary school , and eventually play at Highlands . Not that there is anything wrong with that .

Well, let's see. This town is three miles long, and we have, essentially, three Catholic Churches. So....it's somewhat likely.