What needs to change for Highlands to return to being a State Champion caliber team?

[Qryche11]

How many kids played both ways this year? I think I remember Dunn and Johnson played some DL in certain instances but outside of that I can't think of any others. Was there other talent who could've not only played both ways but performed better at those positions than the platoon players? See CovCath this year and I think they have like 5-6 kids going both ways.

[UK#1fanisback]

Frisk, Smith, Lorenzen, Hamblen, Smith, Nevels, Stowers, Mitchell, Harris and I believe Wrobleski. Those are 9 all state caliber players. The majority of players did come from Ft Thomas,but to say that there has been no impact from kids who attended the school from out of District isn’t true. Those are All Time greats for the program.

 

There was a 6'5 Dlineman also back then when Nevels played Nick Shefflied.

[LRCW]

For those that have been around BluegrassPreps for a while: They just need to work harder.

 

 

I partially said that in jest from previous conversations on the site, but in reality, that may be part of the winning formula. Many are saying "they need to draw talent from elsewhere" and to be quite honest, I see that as a copout. Every team in the state could do better if they got better talent from some other place and that is not what should be seen as a solution. In my mind, high school football is about getting the best production out of the players you have. So, working harder, or smarter, or more efficiently, or better may be what is needed.

 

It certainly seems to me that "we work harder than anyone else" was always the reason given why they were always so much better than any other school. I guess the work ethic has disappeared.

[Bluerunner]

Highlands playing 5A is a good thing. Highlands has won four 5A state championships in the last 10 years. The first 4 years of 5A Highlands did not lose a single game to a 5A team. Fort Thomas is an excellent school district that will attract families to move to Fort Thomas from out of district, BUT historically Highlands will lose more Fort Thomas kids to New Cath per year, then they gain from kids on the outside.

[Mustang]

Name Position Yr.

37 Hunter Ahlfeld So. 1 Brycen Huddleston So.

2 Bailey Armstrong Jr. 54 Keaton Huddleston Sr.

34 Logan Aubrey Sr. 65 Trent Johnson Jr.

60 Jackson Bibb So. 6 Austin King Jr.

33 Nelson Bibb So. 39 Noah Lamothe So.

77 Nick Biltz Sr. 41 Zachary Lewin So.

91 Wesely Bowling So. 44 Ivan Lewis So.

19 Nick Bowman Jr. 74 Justin Merkle Sr.

3 Tyler Bracken Jr. 7 Crosley New Sr.

82 Mason Brandon Jr. 12 Conner Noon So.

29 Jacob Brass So. 16 Jason Paul Sr.

88 Tyler Brune So. 97 Tyler Phillips So.

15 Sand Chas Sr. 50 Korbyn Poole Sr.

18 Grady Cramer Jr. 48 Addison Reynolds Jr.

92 Carter Crawford Jr. 80 Nate Roberts Jr.

57 Jackson Curry So. 86 Connor Rust So.

78 Nathan Davis Sr. 52 William Salmon Jr.

11 Jack Delagrange So. 15 Chas Sand Sr.

26 Sawyer Depp So. 35 Carl Schoellman Sr.

84 Joey Deschler So. 5 Cooper Schwalbach Jr.

98 Max Dierig So. 94 Mason Schwalbach So.

17 Gavin Downard Jr. 20 Logan Seiple Sr.

73 Michael Dunn Sr. 45 Ben Sisson Jr.

85 Liam Ehram Jr. 42 Ethan Sketch Sr.

89 Sam Ellsworth So. 22 Logan Sparks Sr.

81 Eddie Etter Jr. 56 Sam Sparks Sr.

22 Martin Foose So. 32 Alex Starkey Jr.

96 Sylvan Frazier So. 27 Joe Steiden Sr.

58 William Gastright Jr. 8 Grant Summers Sr.

36 Casey Greene Jr. 23 Harrison Traylor Sr.

47 Max Guetle So. 79 Dylan Turner So.

4 Logan Guy Jr. 9 Nick Veneman Sr.

46 Jackson Hagedorn Jr. Brady Walz Jr.

31 Brennan Haigis So. 38 Griffin Welsch So.

28 Adra Hall Jr. 87 Adam Weyer So.

30 Collin Hollingsworth So. 99 Brennan White So.

71 Josh Homer Sr. 21 Larry Wilson Sr.

13 Ethan Houze So. 10 Jared Wogan Sr.

72 Brock Huber So. 24 Andrew Wyckoff Jr.

14 Griffin Huber Sr. 59 Conner Zell So

 

Sorry that all of the Names/Numbers ran together, but you get the idea.

 

Just a casual observation from an outsider.

80 players listed on this year's roster, with nary a freshman named among them, equating to about 110 kids in the program

 

Perhaps doing a better job of developing talent from within, instead of waiting for the bus to pull up with reinforcements might be a good place to start.

[NKY-Sub]

I have personally talked with a member of Highlands staff who not only coached with Mueller but played under him as well, and he says that it has a little to do with talent and more to do with BW. He said he really like BW but the same take no prisoners hard knocks football mentality is no longer there. The kids don't work as hard as DM had them working and he said there are times when he feels BW loses the kids during practice as far as attention and effort goes. Its not everyday but you cant be a perennial championship team when your team isn't working 110% at least most of the time which isn't the case anymore.

 

And I have to say I agree with Mustang, its hard to complain about talent when you have over 100 players on your roster, there has to be 11 that can play one way or another. 1A-3A teams often have most of their team playing both sides of the ball the whole game, if thats what it takes to win at 5A then thats what you do. Coaches jobs are to put the best 11 on the field in order to win.

[75center]

Frisk, Smith, Lorenzen, Hamblen, Smith, Nevels, Stowers, Mitchell, Harris and I believe Wrobleski. Those are 9 all state caliber players. The majority of players did come from Ft Thomas,but to say that there has been no impact from kids who attended the school from out of District isn’t true. Those are All Time greats for the program.

 

I did not say that, now did I?

 

Would you care to list the Ft. Thomas players that did not go to HHS?

[75center]

I agree. Kids from outside the Ft don't seem to be coming like they used to. I believe the entire staff needs to go, clean house start over.

 

Yes, they are. Same as it's been for the past 15 or so years anyway.

[mexitucky]

I did not say that, now did I?

 

Would you care to list the Ft. Thomas players that did not go to HHS?

 

Verbatim? No, but it wasn't directed just at one person. There are a few on here that like to downplay the impact of the players that I listed.

 

As for the players from Ft. Thomas that didn't go to Highlands. One major one is the Head Coach at CovCath, and then basically every good NewCath QB after that on top of many other Breds.

[ChiefSmoke]

Coach Gruneisen use to say things are never as good as they seem, or as bad as they seem. Maybe another run for the Birds is right around the corner and things are not nearly as bad as some of their fans think.

[Guest]

Frisk, Smith, Lorenzen, Hamblen, Smith, Nevels, Stowers, Mitchell, Harris and I believe Wrobleski. Those are 9 all state caliber players. The majority of players did come from Ft Thomas,but to say that there has been no impact from kids who attended the school from out of District isn’t true. Those are All Time greats for the program.

 

Yes there has been outside talent come in Fort Thomas that is kind of the deal. Families move to fort Thomas to raise there families so yeah kids come in. When families move to the area for some corporate job do you think they are going to pick Campbell Co, Newport, Dayton or Fort Thomas Highlands? Seems like a tough one.

 

Frisk was an outside guy that was an all state guy yeah. Got kicked off of Cov Cath and got a second chance and performed. I think that is the one everyone thinks of.

 

Smith was from Silver grove which is probably closer to Fort Thomas than Campbell Co, his other choice if he wanted to play football.

 

Lorenzen's dad remarried a Fort Thomas woman and he lived with his dad in fort Thomas.

 

Hamblen is fort Thomas all the way no idea where you got that. I think his dad was from Bellevue maybe but they were a fort Thomas family. Many many families move up from Dayton Newport and Bellevue because the public schools are incredibly better.

 

Wrobleski familys are in Newport / NCC and Highlands I thought.

 

How much of Cov Cath's roster lives in park hills? Frisk was from Ludlow originally I believe. Wasn't Ryle's stud QB a few years ago from somewhere else.

 

This is all just slander. Outside people come in to towns that are nice.

[sportsfan41]

Enrollment.

[GottaLuvFootball]

Can Johnson Central drop again if Higlands and Cov Cath did?

[mexitucky]

Yes there has been outside talent come in Fort Thomas that is kind of the deal. Families move to fort Thomas to raise there families so yeah kids come in. When families move to the area for some corporate job do you think they are going to pick Campbell Co, Newport, Dayton or Fort Thomas Highlands? Seems like a tough one.

 

Frisk was an outside guy that was an all state guy yeah. Got kicked off of Cov Cath and got a second chance and performed. I think that is the one everyone thinks of.

 

Smith was from Silver grove which is probably closer to Fort Thomas than Campbell Co, his other choice if he wanted to play football.

 

Lorenzen's dad remarried a Fort Thomas woman and he lived with his dad in fort Thomas.

 

Hamblen is fort Thomas all the way no idea where you got that. I think his dad was from Bellevue maybe but they were a fort Thomas family. Many many families move up from Dayton Newport and Bellevue because the public schools are incredibly better.

 

Wrobleski familys are in Newport / NCC and Highlands I thought.

 

How much of Cov Cath's roster lives in park hills? Frisk was from Ludlow originally I believe. Wasn't Ryle's stud QB a few years ago from somewhere else.

 

This is all just slander. Outside people come in to towns that are nice.

 

Hamblen grew up in Bellevue. Again, I am putting both sides out there. People said that Highlands isn’t getting outside players. They still are. They are not getting these types of outside players. To pretend that those 9 didn’t have a huge impact is ignoring the truth. To say that that is the only reason Highlands won is ignoring the truth. The truth is that Highlands had an advantage with Mueller. He recognized what he had coming back and spent all off season adjusting his player physical and skill development around it. He won a state title in 2000 throwing for 300 plus a game. 4 years later he goes back in time and runs the jet sweep to death, loads his defense with athletes and pays back Boyle. He was, obviously, a genius in evaluating and developing talent.

 

Not saying that as a slight to current staff or players bc I have no clue about the talent or coaching as I haven’t been to a game in a while.

[Henry521]

Yes there has been outside talent come in Fort Thomas that is kind of the deal. Families move to fort Thomas to raise there families so yeah kids come in. When families move to the area for some corporate job do you think they are going to pick Campbell Co, Newport, Dayton or Fort Thomas Highlands? Seems like a tough one.

 

Frisk was an outside guy that was an all state guy yeah. Got kicked off of Cov Cath and got a second chance and performed. I think that is the one everyone thinks of.

 

Smith was from Silver grove which is probably closer to Fort Thomas than Campbell Co, his other choice if he wanted to play football.

 

Lorenzen's dad remarried a Fort Thomas woman and he lived with his dad in fort Thomas.

 

Hamblen is fort Thomas all the way no idea where you got that. I think his dad was from Bellevue maybe but they were a fort Thomas family. Many many families move up from Dayton Newport and Bellevue because the public schools are incredibly better.

 

Wrobleski familys are in Newport / NCC and Highlands I thought.

 

How much of Cov Cath's roster lives in park hills? Frisk was from Ludlow originally I believe. Wasn't Ryle's stud QB a few years ago from somewhere else.

 

This is all just slander. Outside people come in to towns that are nice.

 

Of the 23 State championship games that Highlands has won, how many of those were won without the players mentioned ? The point being that many more championship games have been won without the controversy of the few.