1 hour ago, FrankNicodemus said:

Exactly, I would want to know a little bit more around Camden County....for example, was their school a dumpster fire before he got there, are they in a district or level in the state with a bunch of prep schools.....There might be a lot of things inside those numbers that really I am not going to weight much on.  I see a highly seasoned veteran that won a ton in this great Bluegrass state.  He has success developing some really good talent that has moved to the next level.  I am ready to go!

Now back to the Air Raid philosophy, too early to throw a QB controversy?  Noon vs. Benke??  Thought I would throw that out there for @Ballfan34   lol

Camden County is a Georgia 7A powerhouse.

They are located just off I-95 not far from the Florida border. They typically other large public school powers from South Georgia. Before Sphire came they were kind of trending down after being a big heavy weight for most of the 2000's. Lots of talent.

I would say by and large Sphire's time at Camden has been kind of underwhelming. They hired him expecting to breathe new life and course correct a program back on a State Championship level path and that has not happened.

Sphire's time at North Gwinnett is notable. North Gwinnett also is a 7A Power and play in perhaps pound for pound the toughest area in the Country right now... Gwinnett County. Sphire essentially built NG into a powerhouse when he arrived and the level he put them to rivals even his greatest accomplishments in KY. He kind of plateaued after a while as arguably the 2nd best team in Gwinnett outside of Grayson (Which means they were a Top 10 overall team in GA), then they made a push to the Finals where they fell short. After that finals they kind of dipped for a few years while Grayson and some other Gwinnett schools (notably Collins Hill which borders NG's district) flourished. He left as grumblings began to happen. It is notable that his replacement won a State Title after his departure in 2017. 

North Gwinnett is in a pretty well off part of Gwinnett County loaded with talent and lots of former NFL and D1 College Players who live and work there. It is a good quality school as well which helps drive talent. On the flip side, NG had part of their district and student body eaten away when Lanier High School was formed. North Gwinnett also constantly has to battle with nearby super power Buford for talent. If you have never seen Buford's facilities... it is more impressive than most small colleges.

6 minutes ago, ATLCat said:

Camden County is a Georgia 7A powerhouse.

They are located just off I-95 not far from the Florida border. They typically other large public school powers from South Georgia. Before Sphire came they were kind of trending down after being a big heavy weight for most of the 2000's. Lots of talent.

I would say by and large Sphire's time at Camden has been kind of underwhelming. They hired him expecting to breathe new life and course correct a program back on a State Championship level path and that has not happened.

Sphire's time at North Gwinnett is notable. North Gwinnett also is a 7A Power and play in perhaps pound for pound the toughest area in the Country right now... Gwinnett County. Sphire essentially built NG into a powerhouse when he arrived and the level he put them to rivals even his greatest accomplishments in KY. He kind of plateaued after a while as arguably the 2nd best team in Gwinnett outside of Grayson (Which means they were a Top 10 overall team in GA), then they made a push to the Finals where they fell short. After that finals they kind of dipped for a few years while Grayson and some other Gwinnett schools (notably Collins Hill which borders NG's district) flourished. He left as grumblings began to happen. It is notable that his replacement won a State Title after his departure in 2017. 

North Gwinnett is in a pretty well off part of Gwinnett County loaded with talent and lots of former NFL and D1 College Players who live and work there. It is a good quality school as well which helps drive talent. On the flip side, NG had part of their district and student body eaten away when Lanier High School was formed. North Gwinnett also constantly has to battle with nearby super power Buford for talent. If you have never seen Buford's facilities... it is more impressive than most small colleges.

In other words Coach Sphire left Gwinnett in great shape!

Here's what I will say about Sphire to Highlands.

They got themselves someone who knows how to be the CEO of a big-time program and knows how to thrive despite being in a populated area surrounded by other successful schools. 

Will he have the same fire he had at LexCath or when he first came to North Gwinnett? Highly doubtful.

With that said, the man knows how to win, he does it playing very good competition, he keeps talent on the field and gets kids to the next level, and he does it in a very respectable and professional manner you would expect the Head Coach of a flagship program to carry.

I also want to point out that I wouldn't  consider his offense an "air raid" offense. It is a spread offense but he has valued an effective ground game. He usually had solid HB's who could catch and run at NG, he liked mobile QB's who could scramble out of pressure and would even draw up the occasional zone read for them, and he took more vertical shots than a traditional air raid. When I hear air raid I think 40+ pass attempts. 

You are going to get a run-pass mix more hevay towards the pass, but I would say unless his team is trailing and needing to comeback, most of his late offenses at NG maintained probably a 60-40 pass to run mix. 65-35 at most.

Forgive me if this has already been answered.   But how old is Coach Sphire?

11 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Forgive me if this has already been answered.   But how old is Coach Sphire?

Someone mentioned 63 but I don't know if that is correct or not. 

12 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Forgive me if this has already been answered.   But how old is Coach Sphire?

 

Just now, theguru said:

Someone mentioned 63 but I don't know if that is correct or not. 

Sphire is Meade County High School class of 1975. If you figure he was 17 when he graduated in 1975, that puts him at 63 in 2021.

I'm not that tech savvy but just watched a 2019 interview with him talking about his team at Camden....its 7 min long on youtube....he discusses the challenges of coaching at Camden and scheduling issues that came with it. If someone more tech savvy can find that and post it on this thread I think people would enjoy just listening to him speak.

5 hours ago, TheDeuce said:

Getting a little antsy over there in Park Hills already huh? ?

Hardly.

10 minutes ago, FrankNicodemus said:

I'm not that tech savvy but just watched a 2019 interview with him talking about his team at Camden....its 7 min long on youtube....he discusses the challenges of coaching at Camden and scheduling issues that came with it. If someone more tech savvy can find that and post it on this thread I think people would enjoy just listening to him speak.

This one?

 

23 minutes ago, theguru said:

This one?

 

Yes thanks....I thought for the Highlands faithful its a cool introduction of him speaking in an interview....thanks @theguru.

20 minutes ago, FrankNicodemus said:

Yes thanks....I thought for the Highlands faithful its a cool introduction of him speaking in an interview....thanks @theguru.

You're welcome and for future reference all you have to do is copy and paste youtube links into the thread. 

2 hours ago, The Oracle said:

So what I'm reading here is that Highlands hired a coach who is very possibly in the sunset of his career from out of his worst coaching stretch in his last 20 years as head coach.

I have no dog in the fight and can only go off these numbers.  The man surely can coach with that kind of lengthy resume, but those last five years don't scream fantastic hire.  Again, that's just me looking at the numbers alone. 

That said, if he's going chuck it up and down the field, that would be very appealing to me as a fan.

Regardless, I'm glad he is coming back to Kentucky and I wish him the best.

1 hour ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

 

Sphire is Meade County High School class of 1975. If you figure he was 17 when he graduated in 1975, that puts him at 63 in 2021.

Maybe it's just me, but the hire seems like a very temporary solution.  

10 minutes ago, sportsfan41 said:

Maybe it's just me, but the hire seems like a very temporary solution.  

Define temporary?  If we can get 6-8 years from him I think this was a PERFECT hire....to your point if this end up being a 3-4 year deal then in 3-4 years we might be kicking ourselves....but today, Feb 4th I'll take my chances!!!

I wouldn't worry about Coach Sphire's age. If you can get a great coach, get one.  He can be there a while... but even at that... 2 or 3 years with a great coach is still worth doing. Personally, I think he will be there around 10 years... just a guess. 

His last/latest record.... no big deal either. If you coach long enough, you will have tough stretches. And, those tough stretches are usually when you do your best coaching and you grow/learn the most as a coach. 

There were a lot of years, if they gave trophies to coaches like they do players, I would have got "Most Improved" because we got our tails kicked so much. ?

It is no fun to go through it, but as long as you have the desire to be great and be the best you can be, you emerge a much better coach.