With the 2013 season in the wraps, here is what I learned from this year.

 

1.) Six class football is now hear to stay. Only two private schools made the title game and they played one another in Class 2A. T and X didn't even make it to the Final Four, let alone a title game. Aren't they the reason we have six class football now? The field was unbalanced? The large publics couldn't compete? Not any more. Not this year any way.

 

2.) Defense still wins championships. Ask Belfry, Mayfield, and Highlands.

 

3.) Speaking of Mayfield, if they aren't playing in Bowling Green each year from here on out, there should be an investigation. Top to bottom from feeder to varsity, maybe no better complete program in the state.

 

4.) Remember when people were upset when DeSales unceremoniously dumped head coach Mark Sander a short time after leading them to the 2A title game in 2009? I don't either.

 

5.) Play was much faster this year. More teams adopting a no-huddle, fast-break style offense. Teams were slow to adopt.

 

6.) Bowling Green may very well have had the best team in the state this year. Hard to say though without them playing other teams that made it to Bowling Green.

 

7.) The regional finals and semi-final rounds, I think, are more dramatic and evenly matched than the state finals. That means better crowds. I know weather was bad but a 50-percent drop in attendance was rather steep for the most important game of the year.

 

8.) Social media on Friday nights makes following games in progress statewide much easier when you don't have web access.

 

9.) Consolidation will continue to make it harder for public county schools to win state titles and make it easier for the nearby independant districts to rebuild quicker. Three of the six winners were independent schools if I'm not mistaken.

7.) The regional finals and semi-final rounds, I think, are more dramatic and evenly matched than the state finals. That means better crowds. I know weather was bad but a 50-percent drop in attendance was rather steep for the most important game of the year.

I could tell attendance was down, but didn't realize it was that much of a drop. I haven't seen the numbers, but I would think the bad travel conditions played a big part. Do you have the attendance numbers for the last couple of years compared to this year?

 

9.) Consolidation will continue to make it harder for public county schools to win state titles and make it easier for the nearby independant districts to rebuild quicker. Three of the six winners were independent schools if I'm not mistaken.

I believe only two were independent, Mayfield and Bowling Green. Desales, of course was the only private. Scott County, Collins and Belfry are public county schools, right?

With the 2013 season in the wraps, here is what I learned from this year.

 

 

7.) The regional finals and semi-final rounds, I think, are more dramatic and evenly matched than the state finals. That means better crowds. I know weather was bad but a 50-percent drop in attendance was rather steep for the most important game of the year.

 

8.) Social media on Friday nights makes following games in progress statewide much easier when you don't have web access.

 

The weather played a part, but the travel plays a bigger part imo. Bowling Green is a long trip for the majority of fans in the state. Not having it centralized will always hurt attendance imo.

The weather played a part, but the travel plays a bigger part imo. Bowling Green is a long trip for the majority of fans in the state. Not having it centralized will always hurt attendance imo.

It didn't hurt last year, if I recall those numbers were strong.

It didn't hurt last year, if I recall those numbers were strong.

Yes they were, and not that it was the reason, but something that helped was Cooper's fanbase on the road every single week in the playoffs outnumbered home fans in every game except the Title game (BG being a couple blocks away compared to 4 hour drive) yet that 5A game was the most attended last year also.

 

I think this year the weather had a huge part in it, hard to travel that long on icy roads etc. I also think having the finals at WKU is ridiculous, but we've covered that already.

The weather played a part, but the travel plays a bigger part imo. Bowling Green is a long trip for the majority of fans in the state. Not having it centralized will always hurt attendance imo.

 

The weather was the superseding factor. Belfry always brings a very large contingent to Bowling Green despite the distance but I would say that number was probably cut in half due to the inclimate weather threat. If this game is played 2.5 hours from Belfry you still see those people make the trip...but a 5 hour road trip becomes a whole new story.

 

What I learned this year is that Depth Is The Single Greatest Factor in KY HS Football.

 

I would argue that the deepest team won every single Finals Game and the single greatest factor that allowed Collins to overcome Highlands was their commitment at the start of the season to playing platoon football.

 

If you want the best shot at a State Title in KY then you should strive as much as possible to play platoon football and develop depth on both sides of the ball as well.

With the 2013 season in the wraps, here is what I learned from this year.

3.) Speaking of Mayfield, if they aren't playing in Bowling Green each year from here on out, there should be an investigation. Top to bottom from feeder to varsity, maybe no better complete program in the state.

 

9.) Consolidation will continue to make it harder for public county schools to win state titles and make it easier for the nearby independant districts to rebuild quicker. Three of the six winners were independent schools if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

These two are linked, IMHO.

 

I actually viewed this year's Finals as a celebration to County School Football.

 

3 County School Champions is actually a significant improvement from the past couple seasons when it was 1 or 2 County Schools at most. Mayfield and Independents have dominated 1A, Private Schools have dominated 2A, Central... a magnet school had dominated 3A, Highlands had dominated 4A, Bowling Green in 5A, and Trinity/X in 6A.. by and large 3A was the only class where Public Schools held firm and with Central being a magnet even that was debatable.

 

Moreso than that, just as Mayfield was lauded for their complete program from HS to Feeder... the rise of public schools would be well served to follow the lead of some of the Public Finals Participants to find the blueprint to building a competitive program.

 

Belfry is about the only team that can rival Mayfield as a program. The Pirates run of the past 11 years can be heavily attributed to a consolidated Middle School, coaching stability, the development of a Youth Football program, and a substantial increase in depth and decrease in 2-way players. Belfry has became a Middle School Powerhouse in recent years. Their Senior Class who went to 4 straight Finals was the first product to truly come through the entire finished product. The Freshman class which made so many key plays Friday was the school's first Middle School State Champions.

 

In similar fashion look at Wayne County. The Cards stuck by Coach Thompson in his early coaching years as Wayne slowly built their program from bottom to top and even despite lackluster records they never abandoned the ship. This group of Seniors and Juniors are the products of that program's stability and patience. Wayne County looks to have things continuing on the up and up as their Middle School actually met Belfry in the State Finals this year as well. All too often Coaches are fired with a hair trigger and each program is forced to start all over again creating a vicious cycle... Thompson and Wayne shows what happens if you have trust in a good coach and the patience needed to let it run it's course. I would venture to say Pulaski County and Meade are similar cases.

 

As I mentioned above...DEPTH is the key in KY HS Football. For public schools to obtain that depth it all begins with your feeder system.

The weather was the superseding factor. Belfry always brings a very large contingent to Bowling Green despite the distance but I would say that number was probably cut in half due to the inclimate weather threat. If this game is played 2.5 hours from Belfry you still see those people make the trip...but a 5 hour road trip becomes a whole new story.

 

What I learned this year is that Depth Is The Single Greatest Factor in KY HS Football.

 

I would argue that the deepest team won every single Finals Game and the single greatest factor that allowed Collins to overcome Highlands was their commitment at the start of the season to playing platoon football.

 

If you want the best shot at a State Title in KY then you should strive as much as possible to play platoon football and develop depth on both sides of the ball as well.

The platooning could of played a big part in the Collins win, but at the same time they didn't platoon 100% They had offensive players playing defense in that title game.

With the 2013 season in the wraps, here is what I learned from this year.

 

1.) Six class football is now hear to stay. Only two private schools made the title game and they played one another in Class 2A. T and X didn't even make it to the Final Four, let alone a title game. Aren't they the reason we have six class football now? The field was unbalanced? The large publics couldn't compete? Not any more. Not this year any way.

 

2.) Defense still wins championships. Ask Belfry, Mayfield, and Highlands.

 

3.) Speaking of Mayfield, if they aren't playing in Bowling Green each year from here on out, there should be an investigation. Top to bottom from feeder to varsity, maybe no better complete program in the state.

 

4.) Remember when people were upset when DeSales unceremoniously dumped head coach Mark Sander a short time after leading them to the 2A title game in 2009? I don't either.

 

5.) Play was much faster this year. More teams adopting a no-huddle, fast-break style offense. Teams were slow to adopt.

 

6.) Bowling Green may very well have had the best team in the state this year. Hard to say though without them playing other teams that made it to Bowling Green.

 

7.) The regional finals and semi-final rounds, I think, are more dramatic and evenly matched than the state finals. That means better crowds. I know weather was bad but a 50-percent drop in attendance was rather steep for the most important game of the year.

 

8.) Social media on Friday nights makes following games in progress statewide much easier when you don't have web access.

 

9.) Consolidation will continue to make it harder for public county schools to win state titles and make it easier for the nearby independant districts to rebuild quicker. Three of the six winners were independent schools if I'm not mistaken.

 

^This. I'll go a step further, but harder for rural-public county schools to win it.

 

Since 1998, there have been 166 schools play for our football State Championships, of those 166, ALL of them except for 22 have met the following criteria:

 

1) Independent

2) Private

3) "County" school, but in a community with

 

The exceptions to the rule are below:

 

Caldwell County ('98 and '12)

Boyle County ('99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '09, '10)

Anderson County ('11)

Bell County ('08)

Wayne County ('13)

Meade County ('13; Meade is at 29K and also included in the Lou-Jefferson Co. Metro, though)

Breathitt County ('02 & '07)

Franklin-Simpson ('11)

 

..there are a few others that I can't remember.

The platooning could of played a big part in the Collins win, but at the same time they didn't platoon 100% They had offensive players playing defense in that title game.

 

Their line's only played one way, and if you can't fully two platoon, that's the way to go. That makes up for a whole lot....

These two are linked, IMHO.

 

I actually viewed this year's Finals as a celebration to County School Football.

 

3 County School Champions is actually a significant improvement from the past couple seasons when it was 1 or 2 County Schools at most. Mayfield and Independents have dominated 1A, Private Schools have dominated 2A, Central... a magnet school had dominated 3A, Highlands had dominated 4A, Bowling Green in 5A, and Trinity/X in 6A.. by and large 3A was the only class where Public Schools held firm and with Central being a magnet even that was debatable.

 

Moreso than that, just as Mayfield was lauded for their complete program from HS to Feeder... the rise of public schools would be well served to follow the lead of some of the Public Finals Participants to find the blueprint to building a competitive program.

 

Belfry is about the only team that can rival Mayfield as a program. The Pirates run of the past 11 years can be heavily attributed to a consolidated Middle School, coaching stability, the development of a Youth Football program, and a substantial increase in depth and decrease in 2-way players. Belfry has became a Middle School Powerhouse in recent years. Their Senior Class who went to 4 straight Finals was the first product to truly come through the entire finished product. The Freshman class which made so many key plays Friday was the school's first Middle School State Champions.

 

In similar fashion look at Wayne County. The Cards stuck by Coach Thompson in his early coaching years as Wayne slowly built their program from bottom to top and even despite lackluster records they never abandoned the ship. This group of Seniors and Juniors are the products of that program's stability and patience. Wayne County looks to have things continuing on the up and up as their Middle School actually met Belfry in the State Finals this year as well. All too often Coaches are fired with a hair trigger and each program is forced to start all over again creating a vicious cycle... Thompson and Wayne shows what happens if you have trust in a good coach and the patience needed to let it run it's course. I would venture to say Pulaski County and Meade are similar cases.

 

As I mentioned above...DEPTH is the key in KY HS Football. For public schools to obtain that depth it all begins with your feeder system.

 

Agreed, but Scott County and Collins are far from what I consider "county". Nothing rural about them, I should say.

 

Great improvement though for sure.

^This. I'll go a step further, but harder for rural-public county schools to win it.

 

Since 1998, there have been 166 schools play for our football State Championships, of those 166, ALL of them except for 22 have met the following criteria:

 

1) Independent

2) Private

3) "County" school, but in a community with

 

The exceptions to the rule are below:

 

Caldwell County ('98 and '12)

Boyle County ('99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '09, '10)

Anderson County ('11)

Bell County ('08)

Wayne County ('13)

Meade County ('13; Meade is at 29K and also included in the Lou-Jefferson Co. Metro, though)

Breathitt County ('02 & '07)

Franklin-Simpson ('11)

 

..there are a few others that I can't remember.

 

Belfry gives you 10 Finals appearances alone...Breathitt has been there 5 times I believe. Bell has been there a couple more times.

 

Pike County is a large county by size... but Belfry exemplifies being "rural".

^This. I'll go a step further, but harder for rural-public county schools to win it.

 

Since 1998, there have been 166 schools play for our football State Championships, of those 166, ALL of them except for 22 have met the following criteria:

 

1) Independent

2) Private

3) "County" school, but in a community with

 

The exceptions to the rule are below:

 

Caldwell County ('98 and '12)

Boyle County ('99, '00, '01, '02, '03, '04, '09, '10)

Anderson County ('11)

Bell County ('08)

Wayne County ('13)

Meade County ('13; Meade is at 29K and also included in the Lou-Jefferson Co. Metro, though)

Breathitt County ('02 & '07)

Franklin-Simpson ('11)

 

..there are a few others that I can't remember.

Did you mean #3 county schools in a community with greater than 30k people?

 

If so, Belfry meets the exception to that rule. Belfry is an unincorporated community, part of a rural county school system with 4 other high schools (not counting Pikeville Independent), and part of a population of about 11,000 in their school district area.

Belfry gives you 10 Finals appearances alone...Breathitt has been there 5 times I believe. Bell has been there a couple more times.

 

I'm going off since '98 (since that's as far back as the scoreboard site will go)

 

Bell went in '91.

 

Breathitt went in '95 and '96 as their other times.

 

Exceptions to every rule.

 

So, that number grows, but so does the Independent and Private.

 

I lump Belfry into the populations of more than 30K with Pike County having around 60K.

 

I'll throw another factor in there for Bell, Breathitt and Belfry. One that many will probably roll their eyes at unless they have lived, played, coached in a rural-agricultural area, but when you can't walk out your front door without looking up the side of a mountain, it's hard to grow much hay and tobacco.

 

^^ That last comment was actually pointed out to me by someone who had once coached in central KY rural-county school, and now at a mountain county school.

Weather certainly played a part in the attendance issues this year. Last minute schedule adjustments due to the weather played havoc with alot of people's schedules. The travel for a good portion of schools and their fans is a problem. I come from Louisville, which is only about a 2 hour drive, but for those coming from the North and Eastern portions of the state, it a considerable distance. Maybe with UL joining the ACC starting nexted year, the KHSAA, can get the state finals back to PJCS. I applaud WKU, however, for doing and EXCELLENT job of hosting thus far.