John Hardin, North Hardin and Central Hardin are a combined 9-12 so far this season. Central Hardin 4-3, John Hardin 3-4, North Hardin 2-5. Strength of schedule has been relatively strong for all teams. The most glaring weakness has been in the defensive backfield for all teams (CB, LB,Safety)and lack of all around speed out of the backfield and lack of athleticism on the offensive and defensive lines. Speed kills and I stand corrected on how fast Southwestern Pulaski was in the backfield, as well as physicality along the offensive and defensive lines. Haven't seen too many years where John Hardin and Central Hardin were down in the same years.

With Open Enrollment/Reciprocal Agreements in the county, Elizabethtown (independent) must be attracting some of the better football players. I see they are #4 in 3A.

95% of the players at Elizabethtown have been in that school system since they were kids. A couple of players moved in from Collins a few seasons ago and maybe 1 kid that used to go to Central Hardin so I don't think Elizabethtown is the problem with the County schools downfall. North Hardin won't come off the spread offense even though they have nice athletes and the ability to run forcing the clock to continuously stop on incomplete passes and their defense to be on the field constantly. John Hardin as a whole is down in enrollment and unless the county redistricts it will continue to be a problem. The freshman RB at North should be at John so that doesn't help. They are going to see some pretty lean years in the future unless something changes. Central Hardin is decent. They've played some good competition but they are young in the secondary.

I agree that redistricting has hurt the numbers at John Hardin. Would like to see the School district look at growing John Hardin again and balancing out North Hardin and even Central Hardin. Central Hardin had over 600 Freshman this year, the largest Freshman class in a long time. John Hardin should be a 5A Football school with Central Hardin and North Hardin 6A football schools with a male population of 700-900.

I agree that redistricting has hurt the numbers at John Hardin. Would like to see the School district look at growing John Hardin again and balancing out North Hardin and even Central Hardin. Central Hardin had over 600 Freshman this year, the largest Freshman class in a long time. John Hardin should be a 5A Football school with Central Hardin and North Hardin 6A football schools with a male population of 700-900.

 

How big are the physical plants of the three? If John Hardin is a smaller building then distributing the enrollments unevenly makes sense.

Yep. Central is back at almost 2000 students and North is around 1600. John is under a 1000 and trending down. The whole point of the district building JH in the first places was to relieve pressure from Central and North. At this pace JH will be a 3A football school before long.

Yes and that should never happen (John Hardin being 3A with Central and North both 6 A schools).

The 3 teams Central Hardin has lost to are a combined 17-3 and all 3 are ranked in the top 7 of their classes. They are young on defense and offense. Next year should be better all around.

Central Hardin's top playmakers are juniors (or in a couple of cases, sophomores). John Hardin still adjusting to new coach and North Hardin played a schedule in which most of their losses were given (except Elizabethtown, expected more from North Hardin there).

 

While nearby LaRue County is unbeaten and getting compared to the 2002 team, I'm confident the three HCS schools (CH, JH, NH) and Elizabethtown would be unbeaten and barely challenged against LaRue's sked.

 

Now John Hardin is a different problem. There is a housing BOOM near John Hardin, and yet the school is NOT growing. John Hardin's district has been gerrymandered... hard.

 

You have kids going to Central Hardin who are closer to John Hardin and kids going to North Hardin who are closer to JH.

 

You also have empty spaces/unused space at JH when some teachers at CH do NOT have permanent rooms (as I have been told).

 

As far as physical space, John Hardin is huge. Not many schools could add in 400 kids and be perfectly fine ... John Hardin could (at least according to the fire marshal).

95% of the players at Elizabethtown have been in that school system since they were kids. A couple of players moved in from Collins a few seasons ago and maybe 1 kid that used to go to Central Hardin so I don't think Elizabethtown is the problem with the County schools downfall. North Hardin won't come off the spread offense even though they have nice athletes and the ability to run forcing the clock to continuously stop on incomplete passes and their defense to be on the field constantly. John Hardin as a whole is down in enrollment and unless the county redistricts it will continue to be a problem. The freshman RB at North should be at John so that doesn't help. They are going to see some pretty lean years in the future unless something changes. Central Hardin is decent. They've played some good competition but they are young in the secondary.

 

Etown is definitely not the issue here...What you said about JH and NH is accurate. It wasn't that long ago that they were of similar enrollment and in the same district with CH and Meade. It does not really add up as to why the district made JH smaller. CH lost more talent off last years team than what people gave credit for. The spread just doesn't seem to work for NH, like forcing a square peg through a round hole.

@Nathaniel Bryan

 

No way JH should be that small, right? And NH hasn't even been competitive with their schedule.

What is the talent level at John Hardin this year? What was expected?

What is the talent level at John Hardin this year? What was expected?

 

Coach Lewis left for a reason...

From what I have seen, John Hardin has a small Freshman team that has struggled this year. Bluegrass Middle school also struggled to field a team in July and slowly grew their numbers but weren't very competitive this year. I feel like John Hardin is about to "hit the wall" in the next few years and could go through some rough times.

Not sure why North Hardin struggles so much, JT Alton middle school always has a pretty good team, very competitive with TK Stone (28-14), and Radcliff middle has some athletes come through that program.