Ryle rushed 30 times for 104 yards and 184 yards passing.

I usually sit back and fact check for a program I have no connections to nay longer except being an alumni.

But I'm sorry

As a life long Raider fan your crazy to say this teams had more talent than 06 09 or 11

It ranks up there but no question 2010 was there most talented team and was a time when all the 6a schools and Highlands where dominate forces in NKY.

They beat a Highlands team that was top 50 in the nation. Also SK had a very solid team with Chad Lawrence who was a better QB that Kuntz or racke.

2006 was good but had a pretty nice playoff schedule once they were done with NkY teams.

2009 had talent but it didn't reach its full potential till 10.

10 also gave Trinity with its 6 FBS D1 athletes a run for there money in the semifinals.

This years team didn't even survive Cooper or SK.

Good team but no better than 3/4th best.

Edited November 17, 201510 yr by Dirty-T

Players have to execute and ultimately win or lose games. Coaches are responsible for giving the kids the best opportunity to win by scheme and personnel. Both have jobs to do. Did we get the ball into the hands of proven playmakers, not enough. Did we have kids out of the games for long periods of time to go through these ridiculously long rotations , yes. If a kid starts, he's the best he should be getting the most reps. Starters sometimes were out 50% of the game. Playmakers were not on the field during critical situations. Yes, players have to catch. Run, tackle, and remember plays. The coaches have to be flexible enough to know their strengths. The fault is a little of both. I believe we could have used the kids who had prior varsity proven production better. We didn't. Now we're turning in equipment, saying goodbye to some very good seniors who were shorted an opportunity. Congrats to SK they are a very solid mistake free team. Good luck..

What I've learned from this thread is that the "culture" and that the "team chemistry" at Ryle was not conducive to a deep playoff run.

 

I have heard the culture issue brought up more than once at Ryle, and it was just not the boys programs.

I do not believe it was a successful season for the Ryle Raiders and I will attempt to show why.

This Ryle team had more talent top to bottom than the 2006 and the 2010 team. I sought out old coaches and players familiar with both teams/years to check this. This was the consensus. Just an opinion, not worth arguing. This Ryle team had three grades of boys (10th, 11th and 12th) that ALL beat the SK and Cooper teams as freshman. No significant talent has been added or lost since those years. These three grades are LOADED with talent.

 

I think the passing offense and general offensive game planning was well done. Ryle scored more points on average than any Ryle team before, over 38 pts per game (06 was 30 and 2010 was 34). But against hard teams when plays were needed Ryle fell short offensively. The SK game and the and Cooper game both had junk TD’s, so collectively Ryle really scored 37 points in the three games against those two teams, averaging only 12 points per game.

 

Where the Ryle coaches failed these players –

*Personnel. As already mentioned England was severely underutilized. But he was not the only one, it was common amongst this team. Example – here are seven players that would be potential “stars” anywhere else that by the ¾ mark/end of season were playing ONLY 0-25% of the total snaps in a game – Colin England, Jacob Hiles, Aaron O’Hara, Lex McGregor, Mitch Bateman, John Haus, Jake Long. All seven of these players have been absolute stars and game changers at their positions throughout their whole time as players. Englands lack of time has been noted. But it is inexcusable that all these players were not on the field 50-75% of the time. The rumor is that Kyle England (8th grade RB star, Colin’s younger brother) will be going to CovCath because of this issue, Bateman basically stopped playing for the coaches (used an injury reason), O’Hara has already stated he will not be returning next year. Lex McGregor literally quit several weeks ago. He met with the coaches several times asking to be utilized somewhere but the coaches couldn’t find anywhere for a kid with 4.4 speed, dad played D1 ball and was one of the strongest lifters on the team. If anyone is familiar with any of these kids… I promise they would be star players for any team, including Cooper and SK.

 

*Two platooning. This year the team was zealously committed to two platooning. They had literally two teams with two head coaches. Woolf defense, and Engler offense. Every player was only on one side or the other. Teams like Cooper that have less overall talent than Ryle beat them because they were willing to get their 5-6 best players time on both sides of the ball. That alone should be a statement against the 2platoon system. However, here is a specific example – In the Cooper game, the defense played an excellent first half. At the midway point of the third quarter the score was 3-0 Ryle, Dante Hendrix had been held to 3 catches/45 yards. At that point the starting DB was injured, out for the game. His replacement was a boy that never stood a chance (because in a hardline two platoon system even a school with Ryles numbers can’t field enough depth to keep up). Cooper rattled off 27 straight points, Hendrix had 5 more catches/120 more yards and a TD. If some of the more athletic WR’s had been taught/trained at DB they could have possibly contained Hendrix and Cooper’s offense better. It should be a statement against a strict two platoon system in high school that Ryle lost to Cooper this year. Kids like Batemen, Hiles, Scherr, Ashley, Haus, England, and Long should have been utilized on both sides of the ball and this cost the team dramatically.

 

*Poor utilization of talent. Good coaches create a scheme that suits the strengths of their players. ESSPECIALLY in high school where you only can play with the hand your dealt. College coaches have the luxury of recruiting players that fit their “system”. High school coaches do not.

Ryle uses a zone blocking scheme. This style needs a shifty RB with good vision. By the end of the season Chisholm was clearly the better RB for this scheme and deservedly so got 75% of the carries by the last game. Colin England was moved to the slot position and was attempted to be utilized from there. It wasn’t until the end of the season until they finally found a good place for England, he needs space to get power going. But England, Batemen and McGregor are all great RB’s in a downhill, FB oriented scheme. Power running. Not until the final SK game was anything remotely close to that attempted to be utilized (and then just a little). Vince Jarvis is one of the best run blocking FB’s and he saw maybe 2-3 plays all season in that role. All season fans were befuddled by the lack of running plays. To the point that fans would cheer loudly when a run play was finally called (Dixie game). This team had the perfect talent for a 50/50 run/pass split, but that was not what happened.

Tanner Morgan, one of the best pocket passing QB’s around, was asked to run a read option type scheme all season. Tanner has fine speed and athleticism, but he’s not a running “threat”. In fact the coaches tried to resort to wildcat schemes (England at QB, Chisholm at RB and Morgan lined up at WR) in the final game to try to have a running threat out of the read option. This was a failure, SK LB’s knew the moment it was lined up it was a run and came downhill hard – no chance that was going to work. That’s a middle school idea. That’s a perfect example of coaches trying to make players fit their system.

The team wanted to pass the ball but was plagued by drops, poor route running and size/athleticism problems among the WR’s. For some reason the coaches insisted on rotating 8-9 different players through for plays. The thinking was likely a need for fresh legs, but if your talent depth can’t keep up then good coaches shift their system. Against SK (a final/huge game) they tried to get a new kid on the field who was literally lost, they wasted multiple plays trying to get him involved, instead of putting the ball in the hands of star players. There was no WR deep threat. You would think a passing team would understand the importance of a deep threat to keep the deep coverage back pedaling. Once teams figured out they could rush three and drop eight and stop Morgan that way, this made it easy. SK safeties were 9-10 yards(9-10 yards!!) from the line of scrimmage. SK LB’s were 5-6 yards. It seemed like the Ryle coaches didn’t think that the speed, size and athleticism (hands) of the WR’s mattered. Eight defensive players in a 15-20 yard deep box from the line of scrimmage is crazy difficult for any QB to thread in passes. So drops, not being open enough, and short WR’s running fly, corner and post routes made for many stalled drives against good teams.

Being a good high school coach is about identifying your playmakers and getting the ball into their hands as much as possible. England, Bateman, Chisholm, Morgan, Long, Scherr, Ashley, Cusick, Jarvis, O’Hara, J.Selby and McGregor have demonstrated for a decade that they make plays for the three grades represented. Anyone other than these players touching the ball was poor decision making on the coaches part. (this is not a knock on players not listed here – this is just a fact of history) Some of these players listed here NEVER touched the ball, ever. Some were rarely on the field. As mentioned before by others the lack of touches that England had was borderline crazy. But kids like Long, O’Hara and Bateman should have gotten the ball in their hands a lot more too.

 

The players played their hearts out and were devoted to each other all season. In that sense the team had a great year. But if this thread (maybe a new one should be started?) is about evaluating Ryles season and coaches in the end, I think it was a failure. These kids wanted a state championship run bad and they had the talent to get there.

 

Any of those kids you mentioned looking for a team to play for come check out SK. SK will gladly take them.

 

I have a unique perspective having had sons that played in both Boone and Kenton County Programs. I have heard a Boone County Principal say (paraphrasing) "I don't get evaluated by the success of athletic programs.". You have the strict closed enrolment policy in Boone compared to open enrolment in Kenton. Minimal facilities and resources in Boone and school board provided resources and facilities in Kenton. Kenton County policies that minimize conflicted decision making by coaches that are also player parents. You can see the fruit of this investment at SK and Scott.

 

Ryle boosters , coaches and feeder coaches have accomplished great things, but at the end of the day, if you don't have (or perceive that you have ) support from your administration, there is a limit to how successful you can be.

This post is near perfect. In the top of your post you mentioned 7 players. England, Hiles, Haus, McGregor, Bateman, O'Hara & Long.

 

The O'Hara kid is a no brainer. This kid should have been on field way more than he was. He wasn't a quitter like McGregor. Although probably had every reason to be. I've seen him play slot, wr, qb, and now db. They may have done him a disservice and I hope he doesn't quit over it. He's a playmaker.

 

England was a so-so runner this year. I see why Ryle went to plan B. Both Bateman and the younger kid ran the ball hard. But all 3 needed a place. Why not England on Defense? Seemed there were a couple games where the younger kid ran ball down field. Then England went in, offense stalled. Could be timing, play calling. Not sure. All playmakers though.

 

Haus I'm not sure about. Seems better suited down. Seemed to me - Jackson High and Colin Demetrakis (before his injury) were the best bet at MLB. Both of those kids led team in tackles at some point in the season. They both could have been FB options as well. You could add these kids to the playmaker list.

 

McGregor had been plagued with injuries. He quit on his team this year. Sad.

 

Long is a great tight end. Maybe should have been playing defense too? Not sure who the other TE is so may not be an option. No doubt a playmaker.

 

Hiles was a great asset to the D. Maybe should have been playing OL. Constant barage subs was hard for them to get any type of continuity. Plsymaker nonetheless.

 

By your post I assume your son probably plays offense. The post you have for this is so very true. No deep threat and the new kid was lost in his route running. championship was not in the cards this year.

I do not believe it was a successful season for the Ryle Raiders and I will attempt to show why.

This Ryle team had more talent top to bottom than the 2006 and the 2010 team. I sought out old coaches and players familiar with both teams/years to check this. This was the consensus. Just an opinion, not worth arguing. This Ryle team had three grades of boys (10th, 11th and 12th) that ALL beat the SK and Cooper teams as freshman. No significant talent has been added or lost since those years. These three grades are LOADED with talent.

 

I think the passing offense and general offensive game planning was well done. Ryle scored more points on average than any Ryle team before, over 38 pts per game (06 was 30 and 2010 was 34). But against hard teams when plays were needed Ryle fell short offensively. The SK game and the and Cooper game both had junk TD’s, so collectively Ryle really scored 37 points in the three games against those two teams, averaging only 12 points per game.

 

Where the Ryle coaches failed these players –

*Personnel. As already mentioned England was severely underutilized. But he was not the only one, it was common amongst this team. Example – here are seven players that would be potential “stars” anywhere else that by the ¾ mark/end of season were playing ONLY 0-25% of the total snaps in a game – Colin England, Jacob Hiles, Aaron O’Hara, Lex McGregor, Mitch Bateman, John Haus, Jake Long. All seven of these players have been absolute stars and game changers at their positions throughout their whole time as players. Englands lack of time has been noted. But it is inexcusable that all these players were not on the field 50-75% of the time. The rumor is that Kyle England (8th grade RB star, Colin’s younger brother) will be going to CovCath because of this issue, Bateman basically stopped playing for the coaches (used an injury reason), O’Hara has already stated he will not be returning next year. Lex McGregor literally quit several weeks ago. He met with the coaches several times asking to be utilized somewhere but the coaches couldn’t find anywhere for a kid with 4.4 speed, dad played D1 ball and was one of the strongest lifters on the team. If anyone is familiar with any of these kids… I promise they would be star players for any team, including Cooper and SK.

 

*Two platooning. This year the team was zealously committed to two platooning. They had literally two teams with two head coaches. Woolf defense, and Engler offense. Every player was only on one side or the other. Teams like Cooper that have less overall talent than Ryle beat them because they were willing to get their 5-6 best players time on both sides of the ball. That alone should be a statement against the 2platoon system. However, here is a specific example – In the Cooper game, the defense played an excellent first half. At the midway point of the third quarter the score was 3-0 Ryle, Dante Hendrix had been held to 3 catches/45 yards. At that point the starting DB was injured, out for the game. His replacement was a boy that never stood a chance (because in a hardline two platoon system even a school with Ryles numbers can’t field enough depth to keep up). Cooper rattled off 27 straight points, Hendrix had 5 more catches/120 more yards and a TD. If some of the more athletic WR’s had been taught/trained at DB they could have possibly contained Hendrix and Cooper’s offense better. It should be a statement against a strict two platoon system in high school that Ryle lost to Cooper this year. Kids like Batemen, Hiles, Scherr, Ashley, Haus, England, and Long should have been utilized on both sides of the ball and this cost the team dramatically.

 

*Poor utilization of talent. Good coaches create a scheme that suits the strengths of their players. ESSPECIALLY in high school where you only can play with the hand your dealt. College coaches have the luxury of recruiting players that fit their “system”. High school coaches do not.

Ryle uses a zone blocking scheme. This style needs a shifty RB with good vision. By the end of the season Chisholm was clearly the better RB for this scheme and deservedly so got 75% of the carries by the last game. Colin England was moved to the slot position and was attempted to be utilized from there. It wasn’t until the end of the season until they finally found a good place for England, he needs space to get power going. But England, Batemen and McGregor are all great RB’s in a downhill, FB oriented scheme. Power running. Not until the final SK game was anything remotely close to that attempted to be utilized (and then just a little). Vince Jarvis is one of the best run blocking FB’s and he saw maybe 2-3 plays all season in that role. All season fans were befuddled by the lack of running plays. To the point that fans would cheer loudly when a run play was finally called (Dixie game). This team had the perfect talent for a 50/50 run/pass split, but that was not what happened.

Tanner Morgan, one of the best pocket passing QB’s around, was asked to run a read option type scheme all season. Tanner has fine speed and athleticism, but he’s not a running “threat”. In fact the coaches tried to resort to wildcat schemes (England at QB, Chisholm at RB and Morgan lined up at WR) in the final game to try to have a running threat out of the read option. This was a failure, SK LB’s knew the moment it was lined up it was a run and came downhill hard – no chance that was going to work. That’s a middle school idea. That’s a perfect example of coaches trying to make players fit their system.

The team wanted to pass the ball but was plagued by drops, poor route running and size/athleticism problems among the WR’s. For some reason the coaches insisted on rotating 8-9 different players through for plays. The thinking was likely a need for fresh legs, but if your talent depth can’t keep up then good coaches shift their system. Against SK (a final/huge game) they tried to get a new kid on the field who was literally lost, they wasted multiple plays trying to get him involved, instead of putting the ball in the hands of star players. There was no WR deep threat. You would think a passing team would understand the importance of a deep threat to keep the deep coverage back pedaling. Once teams figured out they could rush three and drop eight and stop Morgan that way, this made it easy. SK safeties were 9-10 yards(9-10 yards!!) from the line of scrimmage. SK LB’s were 5-6 yards. It seemed like the Ryle coaches didn’t think that the speed, size and athleticism (hands) of the WR’s mattered. Eight defensive players in a 15-20 yard deep box from the line of scrimmage is crazy difficult for any QB to thread in passes. So drops, not being open enough, and short WR’s running fly, corner and post routes made for many stalled drives against good teams.

Being a good high school coach is about identifying your playmakers and getting the ball into their hands as much as possible. England, Bateman, Chisholm, Morgan, Long, Scherr, Ashley, Cusick, Jarvis, O’Hara, J.Selby and McGregor have demonstrated for a decade that they make plays for the three grades represented. Anyone other than these players touching the ball was poor decision making on the coaches part. (this is not a knock on players not listed here – this is just a fact of history) Some of these players listed here NEVER touched the ball, ever. Some were rarely on the field. As mentioned before by others the lack of touches that England had was borderline crazy. But kids like Long, O’Hara and Bateman should have gotten the ball in their hands a lot more too.

 

The players played their hearts out and were devoted to each other all season. In that sense the team had a great year. But if this thread (maybe a new one should be started?) is about evaluating Ryles season and coaches in the end, I think it was a failure. These kids wanted a state championship run bad and they had the talent to get there.

 

Hiworld, hello. I mean, "Hi" helloworld. Welcome to BGP. That was one hello of a first post.

This post is near perfect. In the top of your post you mentioned 7 players. England, Hiles, Haus, McGregor, Bateman, O'Hara & Long.

 

The O'Hara kid is a no brainer. This kid should have been on field way more than he was. He wasn't a quitter like McGregor. Although probably had every reason to be. I've seen him play slot, wr, qb, and now db. They may have done him a disservice and I hope he doesn't quit over it. He's a playmaker.

 

England was a so-so runner this year. I see why Ryle went to plan B. Both Bateman and the younger kid ran the ball hard. But all 3 needed a place. Why not England on Defense? Seemed there were a couple games where the younger kid ran ball down field. Then England went in, offense stalled. Could be timing, play calling. Not sure. All playmakers though.

 

Haus I'm not sure about. Seems better suited down. Seemed to me - Jackson High and Colin Demetrakis (before his injury) were the best bet at MLB. Both of those kids led team in tackles at some point in the season. They both could have been FB options as well. You could add these kids to the playmaker list.

 

McGregor had been plagued with injuries. He quit on his team this year. Sad.

 

Long is a great tight end. Maybe should have been playing defense too? Not sure who the other TE is so may not be an option. No doubt a playmaker.

 

Hiles was a great asset to the D. Maybe should have been playing OL. Constant barage subs was hard for them to get any type of continuity. Plsymaker nonetheless.

 

By your post I assume your son probably plays offense. The post you have for this is so very true. No deep threat and the new kid was lost in his route running. championship was not in the cards this year.

 

It appears you may, or may not, be new to BGP but personal attacks and bashing of kids is frowned upon on this site. You obviously have no clue about the McGregor kid nor about his heart or desire to play the game he truly loves. Unfortunately the young man has been plagued with injuries since the 4th grade but truly gave everything he had in his tank to be a part of the team. A player choosing to hang up the cleats due to injury shouldn't be labeled a quitter. The end of the line comes for everyone and only that player can decide what his body can and can't do and when to say is it worth it to keep trying. He missed a lot of time due to his injuries and was truly behind and couldn't contribute like he wanted but knowing this kid like I do I know it was a tough decision to hang up the cleats.

 

You might want to remind yourself these points when your talking about a 17-18 year old kid.

It appears you may, or may not, be new to BGP but personal attacks and bashing of kids is frowned upon on this site. You obviously have no clue about the McGregor kid nor about his heart or desire to play the game he truly loves. Unfortunately the young man has been plagued with injuries since the 4th grade but truly gave everything he had in his tank to be a part of the team. A player choosing to hang up the cleats due to injury shouldn't be labeled a quitter. The end of the line comes for everyone and only that player can decide what his body can and can't do and when to say is it worth it to keep trying. He missed a lot of time due to his injuries and was truly behind and couldn't contribute like he wanted but knowing this kid like I do I know it was a tough decision to hang up the cleats.

 

You might want to remind yourself these points when your talking about a 17-18 year old kid.

 

Couldn't agree more! He is a great kid from a great family. I'm sure they made the decision collectively for what's best for their son. "Quitting on a team" is pretty strong statement. Be careful to assume things.

In talking with the football dads from Ryle, McGregor kid is not a quitter! Plagued with unfortunate injuries yes, but not a quitter! If anything quit on him it was his body, not his mind or spirit! In the end the body rules and what his body needed was a rest from injury. Absolutely nothing wrong with that! Good luck to this young man come track season!

I have a unique perspective having had sons that played in both Boone and Kenton County Programs. I have heard a Boone County Principal say (paraphrasing) "I don't get evaluated by the success of athletic programs.". You have the strict closed enrolment policy in Boone compared to open enrolment in Kenton. Minimal facilities and resources in Boone and school board provided resources and facilities in Kenton. Kenton County policies that minimize conflicted decision making by coaches that are also player parents. You can see the fruit of this investment at SK and Scott.

 

Ryle boosters , coaches and feeder coaches have accomplished great things, but at the end of the day, if you don't have (or perceive that you have ) support from your administration, there is a limit to how successful you can be.

There should be several Kenton County High school principals getting fired if they are evaluated on athletic performance.

There should be several Kenton County High school principals getting fired if they are evaluated on athletic performance.

 

The evaluation is indirect. KCSD publishes and markets the value of scholarship $ earned by students, both academic and athletic.

It appears you may, or may not, be new to BGP but personal attacks and bashing of kids is frowned upon on this site. You obviously have no clue about the McGregor kid nor about his heart or desire to play the game he truly loves. Unfortunately the young man has been plagued with injuries since the 4th grade but truly gave everything he had in his tank to be a part of the team. A player choosing to hang up the cleats due to injury shouldn't be labeled a quitter. The end of the line comes for everyone and only that player can decide what his body can and can't do and when to say is it worth it to keep trying. He missed a lot of time due to his injuries and was truly behind and couldn't contribute like he wanted but knowing this kid like I do I know it was a tough decision to hang up the cleats.

 

You might want to remind yourself these points when your talking about a 17-18 year old kid.

 

I stand with my man Sixer. I don't the kid nor the situation but BGP has NEVER been about killing kids online. We can question skill or individual plays (stupid pass, why wasn't he holding the ball correctly, poor tackler) but we just do NOT get into pejoratives like "quitter."

 

It's unbecoming and often misleading due to agendas or lack of facts.

Mr Sixer - you are absolutely correct in your statement. It was wrong of me to use the words that I used. I do not know the McGregors or the situation. Completely bad choice of words and I will edit the post accordingly. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Mr Sixer - you are absolutely correct in your statement. It was wrong of me to use the words that I used. I do not know the McGregors or the situation. Completely bad choice of words and I will edit the post accordingly. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

 

Much respect for your correction. Most posters just run and hide in situations like this but admitting errors gains my respect because we ALL make them.