I believe it has to start with getting more involved. The small schools don't have enough influence at the coaching level. It will take administration officials to get change. I would prefer a classed system. How many times do we get that Cinderella story in softball where the small beats the big schools?

 

Wasn't to many years back Owensboro Catholic was dominating the state of KY in softball. I think, I'm not sure but Owensboro Catholic is ............yes that's correct a small school. You know I don't recall any of the big boy schools complaining that little ole Owensboro Catholic is dominating this state. No, teams in the 3rd Region and across the state started picking up their game.

 

According to the KHSAA Website we have been crowning a state champion in softball for the last 20 years.

 

95 - Reidland

98 - Owensboro Catholic

99 - Owensboro Catholic

02 - Reidland

03 - Catholic

05 - Catholic

09 - Catholic

10 - Reidland

11 - Allen County - Scottsville

12 - Mercy

 

I know Reidland is now McCracken, but they dominated as a small school going to a big school I'm not sure changed a lot. Allen Co may not qualify as a small school but it is in rural Southern KY with not as many kids to draw from as your Scott County and others.

Terrible idea, you realize 3 of the top 4 teams in this years tourney was McCracken (1st Region), Madisonville North Hopkins (2nd Region) and Daviess County (3rd Region). The best softball is played in the western part of this state. What makes the Kentucky State Tourney so exciting, to use the Big XII slogan, "We have one TRUE champion!"

Yeah, I realize that, and I fully and completely understand the geography of the KY Softball map. I don't think it's a terrible idea. It may not be as good as your idea, though...oh, wait...you didn't post one. Nevermind.

 

At the end of the day, I just love great softball, and would LOVE to see the Top 8 teams in the State, with zero regard for "geographical balance", in a sgl elim tournament over three days at Ulmer Stadium for all the marbles. If all 8 teams are from the same Region, so be it. Nothing irks me more than seeing teams at State from Regions that are perpetually 0-2 or 1-2, while other far more competitive teams sit home. Guarantee Apollo, Ballard, Butler, Bullit East and Fern Creek could have replaced 4 or 5 teams this year, and it would have been much more entertaining.

 

No way that scenario EVER happens, but hey, were just kicking around terrible ideas, right?

I understand that Owensboro Catholic and Reidland were powerhouses but that is pretty much over. The last two years of their existence Reidland never got out of their region. This year Catholic was finished early. The big counties have found the mega school saves money and has a lot of benefits in other areas namely athletics.

On a side note from above I do know this McCracken doesn't like the region or district they are in. Trust they don't want to play weaker teams it doesn't help them. They only play the games they have to in their region. Then they play the big tournaments.

How does KHSAA get away with the obvious difference between Boys Baseball and Girls Fastpitch end of season tournaments! Does title 9 rules not apply at the state level?

 

I guess it's because school is out and so many move onto summer ball immediately where almost all tournaments are ran better than the KHSAA state tournament! It's like most feel high school ball is pre season for summer ball.

How does KHSAA get away with the obvious difference between Boys Baseball and Girls Fastpitch end of season tournaments! Does title 9 rules not apply at the state level?

 

I guess it's because school is out and so many move onto summer ball immediately where almost all tournaments are ran better than the KHSAA state tournament! It's like most feel high school ball is pre season for summer ball.

 

Title 9 rules do not apply to this particular situation as a general interpretation.

 

With respect to athletic programs, the Department of Education evaluates the following factors in determining whether equal treatment exists:

 

Whether the selection of sports and levels of competition effectively accommodate the interests and abilities of members of both sexes;

 

The provision of equipment and supplies;

Scheduling of games and practice time;

Travel and per diem allowance;

Opportunity to receive coaching and academic tutoring on mathematics only;

Assignment and compensation of coaches and tutors;

Provision of locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities;

Provision of medical and training facilities and services;

Provision of housing and dining facilities and services;

Publicity.

This is quoted from an article on westkysoftball.com Coach Monte Todd's blog. For those who don't know he is the coach at Lyon County High School.

 

CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL STATEWIDE

JUNE 17, 2016 [email protected] LEAVE A COMMENT

This has been almost a taboo subject in the state of Kentucky for years. I agree that the mystic of a small, city, independent schools sports success is fascinating. Problem is the days of small independent city schools like Cuba, Carr Creek, and even Earlington are long gone. Those cities no longer have high schools. The way of today is larger and larger mega-schools. It is what it is. Its the times we live in. Problem is we are still living under a format designed to govern the high school sports system of 50 years ago. While there have been major changes in the face of high schools there has been no change in the way the sports they play are governed. Just in my lifetime Kentuckys schools have been integrated and many counties have now consolidated into one or two high schools down from many in the pre 70’s. Yet we still operate under the same sports model that we did then. All of the surrounding states have finally changed their systems to the classification system. That includes Indiana, who held out for many years as well. We have become dinosaurs in the sports model world. We have 2000 student schools playing equally with 200 student schools. Add in that the private schools, who have no designated boundaries for their student population, are also in the equal mix. All playing for the same titles. It leads to large schools battling private schools for the states titles. It also leaves out more than 50% of the schools in the state. They become senior night games and homecoming games. We all know what i am talking about. One of the solutions has been the ALL A classic. I am convinced the KHSAA loves the ALL A. It keeps the drum beat for change down. There is a problem with that though. Touchstone is no longer funding the All A and as of right now there is no sponsorship going forward. They say that they have sufficient funds to continue and are hopeful of finding another sponsor in the future. I certainly hope they do for the sake of the little schools. However, it will only work for so long. Eventually the funding will run out. The good folks who have tried to keep it alive will move on and it will fall to the KHSAA. There would be no need to look for future funding if the state were to move forward with classification. Another problem with the All A classic is it only covers the bottom 125 schools in enrollment. What about those schools who are too big for All A status but too small to compete with the mega schools. There is nothing out there for them. I will use the 2nd region as an example. Union County was in the top 20 all year, played a top schedule and when it came region time were beaten by Madisonville run rule style. Webster County who had a fine season lost in the first round to a normal Christian County team. I say normal because in the 2nd region we have come to respect and know that the Christian, Henderson, Madisonville/Hopkins Central’s are better than the best of the rest. We had Livingston win the region one time. They had a great showing for an ALL A school. Yet year in year out they cant compete with the larger schools in our region. Our region is no different than most of the regions across Kentucky. Small schools are schedule fillers for larger schools. We work hard, practice and play to the best of our ability but on a year to year basis we cant compete with the schools that have a team full of sport specific kids. Ours in small schools have to play multiple sports or we dont have those sports. Sometimes as many as 4 different sports. Lets look at this a different way. Let me give a real situation. In softball and baseball pitching is paramount. Montanta Fouts, Gatorade Player Of The Year, from East Carter leads her team to the state tournament. They lose in the first round to East Jessamine. For East Carter it would take 7 wins in a row in two days to get to the state championship game. They made a heroic run through several games until Montana ran out of gas in the last two innings against Daviess County. She was from a smaller school compared to the rest of the state tournament field. She was all they had in the circle. Now lets look at McCracken County who also lost in the first round. They however, have three pitchers who shared the load and they in fact did win the 7 games and got to the state title game. They are also 3 times larger than East Carter. In baseball with the innings restrictions its even more unbalanced. Its just unfair to the kids of smaller school districts to have to compete against huge schools for the same title. We dont do this in football, why? If size is no matter in any other sport why football, why track? why? There is but two solutions in this matter in my opinion. First classify softball and baseball like we do with football and track, or let us have open enrollment then both public and private would be on equal ground. Every year the disparity between large and small gets greater. How long can the KHSAA justify this system

Another quote from westkysoftball.com This is Coach Monte Todd's from Lyon County High School blog

 

IF IT WORKS IN INDIANA AND 47 OTHER STATES WHY NOT KENTUCKY

JUNE 21, 2016 [email protected] LEAVE A COMMENT

In 1997 Bloomington North won the last single-class State Boys Basketball Championship in Indiana. The following year Indiana like so many other states went to a 4 class system for most sports and already had a 6 class system for football. It was a controversially decision at the time and for some still is. Like Kentucky, Indiana is rich in basketball history and also like Kentucky has its famous teams. The movie Hoosiers which all basketball fans nationwide have seen at least once was about the 1954 Milan High team. The following year the Crispus Attucks High team, who had lost to Milan the year before, became the nations first all black school to win a state title open to all races. However, after the 1950’s no school with an enrollment of less than 500 won another boys’ state title in Indiana. While some believe the magic of high school basketball in Indiana was diminished when the class system was introduced. The Indiana tournament is still the most attended in the nation. This according to Wikipedia and Hoosier Hysteria.

 

What Indiana was facing is exactly what Kentucky faces today. The times have changed and consolidation of rural schools into larger county schools have caused an uneven playing field for the smaller city and more rural county schools. The sports are becoming more and more dominated by the large city schools, private schools, and larger populated county schools.

 

This Blog is called Westkysoftball so we will only address the situation in regions 1-3 which is the area that we try to cover. Over the last 10 years in the four most covered non-classed sports (Baseball, Softball, Girls and Boys Basketball) the following are the facts in each region.

 

Region 1

 

This region, due to the consolidation in McCracken County three years ago, is harder to break down in terms of titles. So I will include the three schools titles who no longer exist as schools (Lone Oak, Reidland, and Heath). Using the last 10 years in the 4 sports we will look at 40 regional titles. In the three year history of McCracken County High with a possible 12 titles they have won 7. They have an enrollment of 1980. If you add in the titles that the three consolidated schools had in the 10 year period that would give that area 16 titles of the 40. Marshall County has 9 titles in the 10 year time period, with an enrollment of 1382. The smallest school with multiply titles, that exist today, is Murray High which has 3. Murrays enrollment is 477. The only school that exist today that has a title with less than 477 enrollment is Mayfield. They won the 2011 baseball region with an enrollment of 420. This is not State titles just region titles. The following schools have region titles in the 10 year period: Calloway County 5, enrollment 927. Graves County 3, enrollment 1350. Paducah Tilghman 3, enrollment 816. The following schools have 0 region titles in the 10 year period: Ballard Memorial, enrollment 416. Carlisle County, enrollment 236. Hickman County, enrollment 220. Fulton County, enrollment 158. St. Marys, enrollment 116. Fulton City, enrollment 89.

 

So in looking at the 1st region titles. You see that of the schools that are in existence today only 4 of the 40 available titles have been won by a school with less than 500 enrollment.

 

Region 2

 

Looking at the same numbers in this region over the same time period you see that size does matter. Of the 40 available titles 33 of them were won by schools with 1000 enrollment or greater. Henderson County leads the pack with 12 titles and in enrollment with 2014. Christian County with enrollment of 1198 has 11 titles. The only schools in this region to win titles who have less than 500 enrollment are: Livingston Central 1, enrollment 353. Crittenden County 1, enrollment 362. University Heights (private) 1, enrollment 134. In this region of the 40 available regional titles 37 went to schools with enrollment greater than 500. Subtract one of the 3 titles that went to a private school and now you are down to 2 titles of 40 won by a public school of less than 500 enrollment. There are 5 schools in this region who have not won 1 title in that time period: Webster County enrollment 641. Trigg County enrollment 632. Ft. Campbell enrollment 543. Lyon County enrollment 259. Dawson Springs enrollment 202.

 

Region 3

 

This region is a totally different story than the other 2 regions. In this region where Owensboro Catholic has been a force for years there are no public schools with less than 1100 enrollment with a title. Thats right 0 of the 40 available titles have been won by a public school with less than 1100 enrollment. Owensboro Catholic, a private school with an enrollment of 446 have 11 of the available 40 titles. Owensboro Apollo is next with 7 titles and an enrollment of 1475. Then Daviess County (1708), Owensboro Sr. (1227), and Ohio County (1152), all have 5 titles. Muhlenberg County with an enrollment of 1473 have 4 titles. Meade County has 2 titles and an enrollment of 1604. Last, Grayson County has 1 title and an enrollment of 1306. The following schools have 0 titles in this time frame: Breckinridge County enrollment 902. Butler County 620. Edmonson County 566. Hancock County 505. McLean County 501. And Whitesville Trinity 102.

 

So looking at a possible 120 titles in the first three regions in the last 10 years the numbers are as follows:

 

Titles won by Public schools with more than 500 enrollment 102.

 

Titles won by Private schools in this time period 12.

 

Titles won by Public schools with less than 500 enrollment 6.

 

So over a 10 year period and using the 4 sports most reported and covered in this state (Baseball, Softball, Girls and Boys Basketball) with a possible 120 region titles only 6 went to public schools with an enrollment of less than 500. This is Region titles not State titles.

I have one question about those 6 regional titles. How did those teams fair once they made it to state?

Another look at regions 1-3 from Coach Monte Todd's blog at westkysoftball.com

 

SUB 500 ENROLLMENT STATE TOURNAMENT RESULTS

JUNE 22, 2016 [email protected] LEAVE A COMMENT

I was notified via text message, that on another forum a question was raised about the six private sub 500 enrollment regional winners, from regions 1-3. How did they do once they reached the state level of competition? So after a little more research I can now answer that question.

 

Region 1

 

I would like to say that i get that Reidland was a power among the smaller schools in the state. Year in year out they were hard to handle but keep in mind when talking about the three schools that became todays McCracken County High none were sub 500 in enrollment. Reidland was the smallest of the three with Heath easily over 600 and Lone Oak over 900 in enrollment. In football classification Lone Oak was a 4A school. So while Reidland did in fact win the Softball State Title in 2010 they still would only be a side note because they were above the 500 enrollment benchmark. Not saying it wasnt a monumental task they were at least half the size of the rest of the field but just not Sub 500. Reidlands other appearance in the state softball tournament during the 10 years I reviewed (2008) they split, winning 2 and losing 2. Heaths only appearance during this time in 2007, they were beaten two in a row.

 

There were 4 other winners in this region that are still operating schools today. The 2011 Mayfield baseball team won the 1st region and then lost in the first round of the state tournament to Apollo 10-0 in 6 innings. The 2010 and 2016 Murray High Girls basketball teams also won the 1st region with mixed results. In 2010 they lost in the opening round to Rockcastle County by 34 points. However, this past year in 2016, they won 2 and made it to the final four before losing to Louisville Butler in the semis. Likewise, the Murray High Boys basketball team made it to the state level this past year 2016, and after beating Buckhorn in the opening round fell to Newport Central Catholic.

 

So the closest any sub 500 enrollment school came to a state title in the last ten years in the four most covered sports (40) was one semi final girls basketball appearance.

 

Region 2

 

Three schools with sub 500 enrollments have won region titles in this region. One of which is a private school, University Heights of Hopkinsville. They won the boys basketball region in 2008, and then were beat in the first round of the state tournament by Lexington Catholic. The other two are public schools. Crittenden Countys girls basketball team won the region in 2011. They also lost in the opening round to Dupont Manual by 38 points. Livingston Centrals girls softball team is by far the most successful sub 500 region winner in the 2nd region. They won the 2013 softball region and went on to win three games before their second loss.

 

So once again no state titles here.

 

Region 3

 

There have been no sub 500 enrollment public school region title winners in this region. So obviously there are no state title winners here either. With that said since Owensboro Catholic is a sub 500 enrollment (446) school, though private, I will look at their numbers. I must admit after looking at all the region titles they have won (11) in the last 10 years I expected to see multiple state titles. During the last ten years Catholic has been to 7 state softball tournaments, 3 girls state basketball tournaments, and 1 boys basketball state tournament. Their overall record from those 11 state events is 19-16. Their only title during that time frame was the 2009 state softball title. They also were the state runner-up in 2013. In the basketball state tournaments they have not advanced past the second round in the girls tournaments and got beat in the first round in the boys only appearance.

 

Bare in mind that I have only looked at the last 10 years in the 4 most covered non-classed sports (Softball, Baseball, Boys and Girls Basketball). Plus this is only in regions 1-3. Of All 120 region titles awarded only 6 went to public schools of 500 or less enrollment and not one advanced to even a championship game at the state level let alone won one.