Fern Creek Tigers - 2016 Grade

B-

 

In 2015 Fern Creek was one of the surprise stories of the State. The Tigers went 12-1 before battling eventual Champion Bowling Green, and was the rare Jefferson County Public School making waves deep in November outside of Central and Male.

 

In 2016 the Tigers were asked to build on that success despite losing some key pieces and now while clearly on the radar of Class 5A. The Tigers didn't exactly "wow" in the regular season, they defeated the collection of middle of the road Jefferson County teams in their way with their best win coming over an above average Doss squad. In their only regular season tests they lost by a combined score of 41-14 to DuPont Manual and 2A DeSales.

 

The first two weeks of the playoffs featured a pair of over-matched opponents that the Tigers vanquished easily. Covington Catholic entered the Regional Finals as the heavy favorite and some thought the Colonels to be the only team outside of Region 1 that could make Bowling Green sweat. Fern Creek turned the tables on the Colonels 35-28. Fern Creek would prove to be a sacrificial lamb in the wake of the mighty Purples.

 

Fern Creek still elevated their program to the Semi-Finals and further established themselves as one of the team's at the top of 5A, but the results of 2016 seemed to be a bit of a step back in comparison to 2015.

 

Do you agree with a B- for Fern Creek? What grade do you give the Tigers?

I think I would give Fern Creek a solid B. Trying to avoid looking at the Tigers through my blue-tinted "this is the team that bested Cov Cath" lenses...but they were a strong team, regardless.

 

They were one of several teams that ran into a 5A woodchipper known as the Bowling Green Purples, so I honestly wouldn't hold that loss against them much at all. They lost to a larger and stronger Manual team, but what knocks the down a peg or two in the grading was their loss to 2A DeSales and the 34 points that an overall weak Southern team hung on them in Fern Creek's 41-34 victory over the Trojans.

In fairness to Southern, that may have been the best Trojan team in a long while. The Tigers deserve a B and look to build upon the school's athletic success with basketball. A strong showing this season and a lot of interest in the program. I think the culture has changed for the better. Looking more ominous than BG is the enrollment that might bring FC up to 6A soon. I wish they would have shown more against their city opponents.

 

Question. With such a great rotc program at the school, why don't more of those guys play football? Just an outsider looking in. I would encourage as many of those boys to play!

School and academic wise - Fern Creek is on the clear up-tick :thumb:, but as Hambone said that will likely soon lead them back to the treacherous 6A athletic waters, SO Time is of the Essence. Truth be told, I did not expect them to beat Manual or Desales or Covington Catholic or Bowling Green.

 

They lost all those games but 1. However that 1 was very impressive to me. I attended the CovCath v Fern Creek game and came away more impressed with FC in that game as CovCath had a good team last year.

 

I would give them a solid B. They lost alot off an undervalued 2015 squad. Will be interesting to see how they do in 2017 with upstart Doss looking to make a similar run with a more favorable post-season 2017 bracket.

I would say B/B+ due to their deep playoff run.

I would have to give them a solid B+, nearly an A-. The BGP committee had them ranked #2 behind Bowling Green in the preseason rankings. The Tigers were ranked at #7 just prior to the playoffs, mainly due to the DeSales loss and it being hard to get a good read on them after that due to their only solid opponent being Doss, which was also a hard team to get a good read on.

 

But in the grand scheme of things they beat a talented Doss team by 21, then in the playoffs they worked over a tough Dixie Heights team, then beat one of the best teams in the class, Covington Catholic on their way to play the Purples. By the way, they held the Purples to their second lowest points total of the season and lost that one 34-7. St. Xavier lost to the Purples 31-10. I'm not big on comparing scores, but it's just something to think about when grading last season's Tigers. IMO, they were one of the top 2-3 teams in 5A after it was all said and done.