...replacing Jenkins, per the news release following the November 19, 2019 Board Of Control meeting.

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 19, 2019

 

The Board of Control conducted a lengthy review of the recently completed fall sports and each respective championship, while also discussing ongoing operations and issues during the course of its meeting at the KHSAA Offices on Tuesday. Among the actionable items in the meeting, the Board addressed the format of the Swimming & Diving postseason meets and the future placement for Sayre football.

 

Over the last few years, staff received multiple requests to restructure region diving competitions due in part to facility issues and a shortage of qualified judges without a connection to a specific school. The situation was exacerbated by the expansion to 40 qualifiers in the state diving competition, with 22 at-large participants potentially leading to competitive issues if there is a perception that the judges are not consistent and objective at each meet.

 

Following a survey of the membership, 75% of respondents voted in favor of staff setting the regional diving competition at three to four “super-regional” type sites, which would be held before the regional swimming meets. The “super-regionals” would seek to have the same judging panel at all competitions to assist with consistency, and points would be earned per region, not super-region. For example, if a combined meet involving Regions 1, 2 and 3 was held, each region would have its own scoring and the points earned would “carry forward” to the regional swim meet for the purpose of determining the region champion. Individual diving champions would still be determined by each respective region, as opposed to having one “super-regional” champion.

 

The Board also approved a recommendation from staff to alter the format of the 2020 state swimming & diving championships following feedback from last year’s split-gender finals and 62% approval in a survey of the membership. Provided the Association has full and uninterrupted access to the championship facility on the first day of the meet, staff will work to reschedule the diving competition so that the preliminaries and finals are all contested on the same day.

 

Since starting its football program in 2018, Sayre High School has played a partial varsity schedule each of the last two years. The Spartans were scheduled to enter district football competition in 2021, however, with the withdrawal of Jenkins from district play for the duration of the current alignment, Sayre petitioned the Association to enter Jenkins’ vacated spot for the 2020 season.

 

Following discussion, the Board approved Sayre’s request to enter district play in 2020 and directed staff to ascertain scheduling options with a final decision in January to determine how district seeding would be accomplished for 2020.

 

In other action Tuesday, the Board:

 

Denied membership for CornerStone Preparatory School in Madisonville for 2019-20, asking the school to re-apply for 2020-21 while acknowledging that the application came after the start of the school year when it would be difficult to meet all membership criteria.

 

 

Heard a status report on the esports fall season, which included the number of schools that responded in the affirmative to participation through the es101 authorization form for League of Legends (66), Rocket League (55) and SMITE (45).

 

 

– KHSAA –

 

 

About the Kentucky High School Athletic Association

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association was organized in 1917 and is the agency designated by the Kentucky Department of Education to manage high school athletics in the Commonwealth. The Association is a voluntary nonprofit 501©3 organization made up of 280 member schools both public and non-public. The KHSAA awards 215 state championships to 51 teams and 164 individuals in 13 sports and 6 sport-activities, funds catastrophic insurance coverage for its more than 106,000 rostered member school student-athletes, provides coaching education and sports safety programs for more than 12,000 coaches, and licenses and facilitates the distribution of training material for over 4,000 contest officials.

I believe Jenkins was slated in 1A District 7 under the current alignment. I'm not sure whether or not Sayre is going to be competing in that district, or if they are going to do a reasonable amount of shuffling in order to accommodate Sayre a little.

 

Driving time between Sayre and Hazard HS: 2hrs 4min

Driving time between Sayre and Phelps: 3hrs 3min

Driving time between Sayre and Pikeville HS: 2hrs 28min

Further reading:

 

Sayre Adding Football in the Fall of 2018

 

Sayre - 2019 Schedule

 

Jenkins Done for the Season? Forever?

The question is can Sayre flourish?

 

Having Pennington is a nice lure potentially if he can leverage some of his contacts to get colleges recruiting his kids, but one can argue the talent pool in Lexington is kind of tough to draw from right now.

 

Frederick Douglass is taking up a ton of talent, LCA and LexCath always will be fighting it out for the best Private School talent. LCA traditionally pulls from the Dunbar and Tates Creek talent pool and LexCath traditionally pulls from the Lafayette and Henry Clay talent pool.

 

Will be interesting to see if some of these kids that might have to wait until their Senior season to see considerable PT at FD may choose to give Sayre a shot. Furthermore, with the coaching change at Henry Clay this could be a watershed moment there as well.

 

Does Sayre have plans to build any football facilities? This, IMHO, is going to be the first major hurdle they have to overcome in order to compete.

Good for them. I hope it works for them.

Does Sayre have plans to build any football facilities? This, IMHO, is going to be the first major hurdle they have to overcome in order to compete.

 

Field is already complete. They've played games at the SAC over the last two years. Complex is on about 50 acres, 15 minutes SE of Lexington. I believe they also have acess to some of Transy's facilities.

 

sayre athletic complex - Google Search

The question is can Sayre flourish?

 

Having Pennington is a nice lure potentially if he can leverage some of his contacts to get colleges recruiting his kids, but one can argue the talent pool in Lexington is kind of tough to draw from right now.

 

Frederick Douglass is taking up a ton of talent, LCA and LexCath always will be fighting it out for the best Private School talent. LCA traditionally pulls from the Dunbar and Tates Creek talent pool and LexCath traditionally pulls from the Lafayette and Henry Clay talent pool.

 

Will be interesting to see if some of these kids that might have to wait until their Senior season to see considerable PT at FD may choose to give Sayre a shot. Furthermore, with the coaching change at Henry Clay this could be a watershed moment there as well.

 

Does Sayre have plans to build any football facilities? This, IMHO, is going to be the first major hurdle they have to overcome in order to compete.

 

$24,000 per year probably limits the pool of players.

They have Chad Pennington coaching...

Unless Chad Pennington is playing QB do they have a shot at competing with Pikeville?

Unless Chad Pennington is playing QB do they have a shot at competing with Pikeville?

 

Pikeville will be out of reach for the Spartans for a while, for sure. Coach Pennington has been Sayre's coach since they resurrected their football program for the 2018 season. I believe his title is "head of football operation". I think if *I* was the one making the call for Sayre, I would have more than likely thought it was best to wait on getting into the 1A alignment until it's redone for 2023-2026, and in the meantime just keep scheduling the Fort Knoxes, Bereas, Bishop Brossarts and Wolfe Counties out there who are willing to play them, and are potentially more winnable games for the Spartans.

 

2018 was primarily a frosh/JV season for Sayre, and they were 1-1 in the two varsity games they played, losing 13-6 to Rock Creek Academy (IN) and beating Jenkins 46-14.

 

This past season they were 1-7, and did manage to play competitively in three of their losses (Berea, Fort Knox, and Carroll County).

 

Aug 30, 19 at Bethlehem 14-49 LOSS

Sep 6, 19 vs. Rock Creek Academy (IN) 34-0 WIN

Sep 27, 19 at Berea 21-37 LOSS

Oct 4, 19 at Fort Knox 21-24 LOSS

Oct 11, 19 vs. Carroll County 10-14 LOSS

Oct 18, 19 vs. Phelps 13-41 LOSS

Oct 25, 19 vs. Bishop Brossart 3-21 LOSS

Nov 1, 19 vs. Pineville 9-44 LOSS

They had a roster of 25, with 7 seniors, 8 juniors, 6 sophomores, and 4 freshman.

 

Coach Pennington's son Cole was the starting quarterback in 2019, and will be returning in 2020 as a junior. The offense also returns their leading rusher as a junior and their top 3 receivers will all be back as well. Defensively, 3 of their 5 leading tacklers will be back in 2020.

Pikeville will be out of reach for the Spartans for a while, for sure. Coach Pennington has been Sayre's coach since they resurrected their football program for the 2018 season. I believe his title is "head of football operation". I think if *I* was the one making the call for Sayre, I would have more than likely thought it was best to wait on getting into the 1A alignment until it's redone for 2023-2026, and in the meantime just keep scheduling the Fort Knoxes, Bereas, Bishop Brossarts and Wolfe Counties out there who are willing to play them, and are potentially more winnable games for the Spartans.

 

I can see it both ways. Playing Pikeville and Hazard will give them a good idea of what the highest level of 1A competition is like. They're already playing Phelps so that isn't a new addition. And considering they only played eight games last year and everyone is in year two of the scheduling cycle, it wasn't likely they would get a ninth and tenth game (and neither would Pikeville or Hazard). The result will be ugly but there are benefits to all involved.

I believe Jenkins was slated in 1A District 7 under the current alignment. I'm not sure whether or not Sayre is going to be competing in that district, or if they are going to do a reasonable amount of shuffling in order to accommodate Sayre a little.

 

Driving time between Sayre and Hazard HS: 2hrs 4min

Driving time between Sayre and Phelps: 3hrs 3min

Driving time between Sayre and Pikeville HS: 2hrs 28min

 

It appears Sayre will be playing in that district. As for the next two seasons (2021-2022), the KHSAA does their 10% implementation and adjusts teams that have grown or decreased significantly in enrollment, which could mean teams move in or out of Class 1A. That could lead to Sayre being placed closer to home and some other potential shifts (Berea to Lynn Camp/Williamsburg/Pineville?; Harlan to Hazard/Pikeville/Phelps?). And there could already be a plan in place as the KHSAA has consistently shown Sayre as planning to enter district play in 2021.