Look. I'm 100% for not playing if you only have 12. I'm saying that had they not taken off for break they would have had 33. I thought you assumed they only had 12. My mistake.

 

That 33 is a big misnomer.

 

Some kids have quit and others are injured. On Thursday, they were down to 15 players who would've played tonight at DeSales. Not great, but it's better than 12. However, one of the parents took two more players and one of their friends -- who is on the team -- on vacation, and didn't tell Coach Combs or the administration until very late this afternoon that they weren't going to be in town for the game.

 

It sucks for DeSales that the game got cancelled, but it was in the best interests of Fort Knox to not play tonight.

You think the coach who represents the school had no idea before today they weren't going to have enough kids to play? You don't think he knew at any point this week when having practice? You really believe that? It wouldn't have changed anything, but he should have had the courtesy to let us know earlier in the week.

 

Coach Combs knew, and so did Coach Davis. The two had talked earlier in the week, when Combs was sure they'd have at least 17 or 18 kids to play. That number obviously changed.

 

Combs said he tried to get in touch with Davis sooner today, but they were in a pep rally at the school and weren't reached for about 30 minutes after Combs found out.

I saw this posted somewhere else.

 

 

"Their head coach is pure class. He has had an extremely tough last few weeks and unable to attend practice. I'm not going to give details here because he may not want it released. Let's just say it involved two of his kids and makes you realize football is insignificant. Keep them in your prayers"

 

Coach Combs is a class act, plain and simple. Tonight would have been his first game back since the Fort Campbell game on Sept. 5. Not going into details, either, but his family's been through hell the last few weeks.

Talk it up any way you want, but barring a health crisis, there is no excuse for this.

1. If it didn't rate a response why did you post one?

2. You think they should have played the game with 12?

 

No sir. I don't think they should have played with 12 players. I think they should shut the program down. The way the Army is cutting back is making it impossible to field a team at Ft. Knox. When a 2A school can only field 12 players, it's time to close the program.

1) Fort Knox had 33 (THIRTY-THREE) players TOTAL to start the season. That's freshman, JV and varsity combined. And that's taking some kids who had no varsity experience whatsoever, or football experience whatsoever in general (FK's middle school, Scott, does not offer football). ... FK does NOT have 33 players CURRENTLY. That's the number it had at its peak.

 

2) Of those 33, only THREE were even on the FK roster last year.

 

3) Fort Knox isn't the Fort Knox of old when Legendary coach Joe Jaggers was there or record-setting Derek Homer was there.

 

4) Fort Knox used to have a rule where you could live off post (i.e. Radcliff, Vine Grove, Elizabethtown) and attend the school if your parents worked there. Rule was changed after FK's glory years. That's why you'll see a lot of their good kids, assuming they still around, end up at Elizabethtown, John Hardin, North Hardin.

 

5) Fort Knox used to also have a rule that you could retire and live ON post. No longer. So, see above.

 

6) Fort Knox has far more transient than it was back then. Very few kids are there freshman-senior years. Lots of turnover. Again, this is different from the 80s-90s heyday run.

 

7) Fall break at Fort Knox is different than many other school districts. Because FK kids (and their parents, their families) are so far removed from their families, fall break is about the only time to see them between the start of school and Christmas (unless they can swing Thanksgiving, if you wanna pay jacked up gas and flight prices). FK's soccer and volleyball teams, which have much smaller rosters, do NOT play a ton of games during fall break, either.

 

8) That being said, playing in fall break in general for Fort Knox would have been a tough task. It would have been nice for Fort Knox to have scheduled its bye week during that week, but you can't always do that do to KHSAA's district scheduling requirements (meaning you can't pick and choose which weeks you play your district games. ... like you could at one point in the 90s). Check the district standings. Very few districts have opened play. However, the DeSales-CAL-Bardstown district is one of them because it is so big (and got even bigger when Thomas Nelson was thrown in at the last second). You can NOT choose to play a district game anytime you want anymore. That's how it USED to work, but not now. ... You really think Fort Knox would schedule DeSales and CAL back-to-back during fall break? OK. Sure.

 

9) Games get cancelled all the time in basketball, baseball, softball, soccer. Senior nights get moved. Because you can overschedule in those sports. Can't in football ... but doesn't change the fact games get cancelled at the last second in other KHSAA sports, either.

 

10) Brossart forfeited a road game with Elizabethtown a few years ago. Brossart still has a program (and actually played games that same season after forfeiting to Elizabethtown). So why should Brossart get to keep its program and Fort Knox should have to dismantle?

 

It would have been nice for Fort Knox to give DeSales a bigger heads up so it could move homecoming.

 

However, it STILL couldn't schedule anybody (can't take a district forfeit AND play someone because you are only allowed 10 games). Just would have changed the timing of when they found out and possibly avoided back-to-back "bye weeks" (assuming another district opponent had the same bye week and they were able to play the other team and then move the other team's bye week).

 

Somne of you are NOT comprehending this: Even IF Fort Knox cancelled last Saturday, Sunday or Monday (five days before the game), DeSales would NOT be playing this week unless it was against another district team (again, can't take a district forfeit and play non-district game the same week in football). Can only have 10 results. 10 regular games plus FK forfeit would have given DeSales 11. Only way DeSales would have played this week would have been to move FK game to next week (when FK has CAL, so FK would have had to play two district games against superior opponents in less than 7 days. Not ideal. More of a punishment).

^ No, you are not comprehending it. This is nothing against the coach, and people keep asking if people meant (in their posts) that Ft Knox should have played with 12, when no one even came close to suggesting it. But this is 100% on the parents, plain and simple! What about the army with commitment? Letting your teammates down? If you are committed to a sport you need to honor that commitment, unless the parents inform the coaches very early that they will be missing a game. The only exception would be for serious family issues.

 

I commend the the coach for wanting to play with 15 players, but then a parent decided late to inform him that their two kids and another were going out if town. Sounds like have coach wasn't going make excuses, so why should anyone else?

 

I can't say the words I'm sorry before this, but the fact is if you can't fields team you do one of two things, either disband the team or decide not to be eligible for the playoffs, then have the 2-3 weeks off this time of year, every year. The only ones I feel sorry for are the players who wanted to play, the coaches tang have to put up with this, and DeSales.

 

Football is a lot different that other sports, you only get 10 games. All those days of practice during the week, on too of two a days during the summer and summer conditioning, and you only get 1 game a week for 10 weeks.

And as some have mentioned, when did the break start? Did it start yesterday?

And as some have mentioned, when did the break start? Did it start yesterday?

The way I understand it...it started this past Thursday and will end after the 13th of October.

The way I understand it...it started this past Thursday and will end after the 13th of October.

Someone asked this, maybe it was you, but with 3 weeks off why not wait until after the game? Or since they knew of the break ask for the game to be played on Thursday night?

 

Classless and selfish act by the parents!

It bothers me that some folks on here say they have ties to the military and yet blast Fort Knox for this.

 

Fort Knox did not want to play during fall break (has to because of forced district scheduling).

 

Fort Knox did not want to play a quality program like DeSales (let's face it, this game does nothing for either program).

 

Fort Knox was willing to play with 15 kids on the road against a team 90 percent of the state would have trouble BEATING HEALTHY with a 40-man roster. That's commendable.

 

Did they wait til the last second? Yes. But just because they were trying to do everything they could to play it.

 

Playing with 12 would have been a disaster (especially since the one reserve was a freshman with no previous football experience). Any injuries and you make national news because FK wouldn't have had enough players to finish the game.

 

Then DeSales looks bad for taking a win like that.

 

Things are bad at Knox, folks. The coach has more going on with his two kids than any of us would ever want to deal with. And his kids are still NOT out of the woods. Healthier, sure. But no where near 100 percent (and won't be any time soon).

 

Another blowout football game was probably on his backburner (as well it should), yet he tried his darndest to still play (knowing full well there was no "good ending").

 

Should the parents be held more accountable and given more notice? Sure. But how? Can't really punish the parent without punishing the kid (who is actually doing FK a favor since numbers are so low).

 

Fort Knox could drop out of the district or play a jv only schedule, but it's hard to build excitement for a program that way. Plus, it makes it look like FK is "wussing" out (a no-no by the military standards which some of you are trying to say FK or FK parents failed to live up to that standard).

 

Drop the program entirely? That's wussing out even more.

 

I would love for someone to come up with a quick fix. A magic bullet. Wave the wand if you will.

 

There's no easy solution.

There's no good solution.

 

And all the message board blame and banter won't change it.

 

But keep teeing off on Knox if it makes you feel better.

^ Keep making excuses if that makes you feel better.

 

Again your post is full of things that are irrelevant and has nothing to do with the cancellation of this game.

 

As it has been asked many times in this thread, why couldn't the parents wait until after the game to leave town? Or at least give a notice well in advance and ask DeSales to play on Thursday.

There are a handful of forfeits every year for a variety of reasons. Most of the time it has to do with no enough players. People are butthurt for a while and then get over it.

 

DeSales has a bigger picture to consider. Fort Knox is already considering theirs. And the pictures are nowhere near the same.

 

I agree with the above. There is no quick fix for the Fort Knox program when you are in the transient military state they are in. Fort Campbell went through the same pains in the late 1990s-2000s pre-Shawn Berner.

 

It's hard to build a program when you don't know what your roster will look like from year to year. It's why Fort Knox struggles in all athletic programs -- not just football

^ Keep making excuses if that makes you feel better.

 

Again your post is full of things that are irrelevant and has nothing to do with the cancellation of this game.

 

As it has been asked many times in this thread, why couldn't the parents wait until after the game to leave town? Or at least give a notice well in advance and ask DeSales to play on Thursday.

 

I'm not giving excuses. I'm giving reasons/background behind the decision.

 

Fort Knox could have forfeited on Saturday or Sunday and it would NOT have changed a darn thing.

- Still a forfeit.

- Still no game.

- DeSales still not playing (DeSales can't have 11 results in a season and Forfeit/Pick-up Game would give them 11).

 

Short of finding an out of state team (not likely) or a team with nine games sharing same bye week (yeah, OK), DeSales was NOT playing Friday.

 

Only way DeSales was playing a homecoming game Friday was to find new opponent AND move Fort Knox game. What do you really think the chances of that would have been? Think Knox, which was ALREADY coming off its bye week, would turn around and play two gonna-get-crushed games in a five-day span?

 

However, if game was was played on Thursday (before FK had more players leave), DeSales would have had to STILL modify its homecoming plans. Either way, still was NOT going off without a hitch.

 

FK would have been in a similar situation Thursday though.

Still would have been low on numbers.

Still would have been overmatched.

And still would have had the possibility that if any players get sick or hurt, would have been hard to finish the game (unless you want kids on an overmatched team playing hurt and injured).

 

 

 

http://khsaa.org/handbook/bylaws/20142015/bylaw22.pdf

 

Case BL-22-12- Does a forfeit win/loss or game cancelled by mutual agreement count against the maximum number of games that can be played?

(1) If the forfeit is declared and the contracted forfeit provisions applied after the first legal playing date, the game shall be counted against the win/loss record, and against the limit of games.

(2) Games canceled by school administrations and forfeit fees paid before the first playing date do not count against records or limits.

(3) Games canceled by school administrations by mutual consent without forfeit provisions do not count against records or limits.

(4) In districts that have voted to seed in those sports that permit seeding for postseason placement, the majority decision to seed shall be interpreted and enforced as an inherent and immediately implied contract to play all contests upon implementation of the seeding plan and within the specifics of the plan.

(5) Seeded district games that are forfeited shall be counted against the limit of games and shall count on the win/loss record irrespective of the teams when the contract is cancelled, no matter what terms under which the contract is cancelled and whether or not a formal contract is entered into between the competing teams.

 

Hell, I can remember having practices and games/tourneys during "Christmas Break" as it was called then. I signed up to play basketball, I would never not show or go to my coach and tell him I wanted two weeks off because of Christmas. He'd have give me the rest of the season off.

 

Agree!