1 hour ago, Johnny_Utah said:

Unfortunately FCPS built this school due to overcrowding at pretty much every other high school in the city, not to attempt to build a super school.   For a city of almost 400K to only at that time have 5 public high schools & 3 privates, it was a little much.  They've only competed in football honestly, every other sport is lagging behind terribly there outside of the boys basketball team & the baseball/softball teams that had a great season last year.

Lagging behind terribly? Historically, the worst teams at Douglass were girls basketball and boys soccer, and both made Regionals last year, so I don't think you are current on the state of affairs there.

Volleyball has been to, and won some Regional games the past two years. There was one Regional wrestling champion. Archery is definitely top 2 in the city. Not to mention a State Champion cheer team.

11 minutes ago, Hungover_in_Andover said:

This has been the excuse of all the other Lexington publics for years now. "Douglass took all of our talent..." Bryan Station and Henry Clay (the two primary schools Douglass drew from upon opening) were ALREADY mired in mediocrity before 2017! A quick look back at those seasons confirms this..

Lafayette was the only Lexington team able to compete with the one-time neighborhood bully TTUN. There were two Dunbar kids, and only one kid on the 1st Douglass team that previously played for Lafayette. Might have been three Tates Creek kids. Everyone else came from Defender and Blue Devil teams that were barely .500 caliber teams.

Brian Landis and staff put together a patchwork team of players who weren't familiar with each other, and proceeded to beat everyone they played that first season except an undefeated Danville state champion, and TTUN. 

 

Parents and fans of the other Lexington schools always blame Douglass, when it was clearly the coaching staffs of the publics that were not up to the task of leading competitive teams.

At some point people have to let that go, the whole "Douglass took our players" thing. If you look at Station, the only thing that changed was the Coach. Whatever atmosphere he installed there, worked! It's not like the Defenders are playing different teams, or something. Just seems like these area coaches were complacent and let their teams lag behind the rest of the state.

I was going to ask what Freddy D did differently to have the success they are having in Lexington that the other schools couldn’t do before Freddy D came along.  Other public schools have had some good cycles of talent come through but we haven’t seen the sustained success like Freddy D is poised to continue to have.  Your post is a great answer to my question. Thanks.  

13 minutes ago, Hungover_in_Andover said:

This has been the excuse of all the other Lexington publics for years now. "Douglass took all of our talent..." Bryan Station and Henry Clay (the two primary schools Douglass drew from upon opening) were ALREADY mired in mediocrity before 2017! A quick look back at those seasons confirms this..

Lafayette was the only Lexington team able to compete with the one-time neighborhood bully TTUN. There were two Dunbar kids, and only one kid on the 1st Douglass team that previously played for Lafayette. Might have been three Tates Creek kids. Everyone else came from Defender and Blue Devil teams that were barely .500 caliber teams.

Brian Landis and staff put together a patchwork team of players who weren't familiar with each other, and proceeded to beat everyone they played that first season except an undefeated Danville state champion, and TTUN. 

 

Parents and fans of the other Lexington schools always blame Douglass, when it was clearly the coaching staffs of the publics that were not up to the task of leading competitive teams.

At some point people have to let that go, the whole "Douglass took our players" thing. If you look at Station, the only thing that changed was the Coach. Whatever atmosphere he installed there, worked! It's not like the Defenders are playing different teams, or something. Just seems like these area coaches were complacent and let their teams lag behind the rest of the state.

I agree the Lexington public schools needed a kick in the tail.  Generally speaking they have been dramatic underachievers for years. 

Good points all, not counting COVID games Frederick Douglass and Bryan Station have combined for 7-1 so far this season with Bryan Stations only loss coming to Frederick Douglass.  Paul Laurence Dunbar, Henry Clay, Lafayette, and Henry Clay have combined for a 2-16 record.

34 minutes ago, Hungover_in_Andover said:

Lagging behind terribly? Historically, the worst teams at Douglass were girls basketball and boys soccer, and both made Regionals last year, so I don't think you are current on the state of affairs there.

Volleyball has been to, and won some Regional games the past two years. There was one Regional wrestling champion. Archery is definitely top 2 in the city. Not to mention a State Champion cheer team.

I guess I should rephrase:  Outside of football, I don't see anyone afraid of playing any of their other programs.  Their volleyball team was 7-7 last year & lost in the districts & I'm not even going to go there with a cheer comparison between them & the likes of Paul Dunbar & Henry Clay..... IMO, Station is gaining confidence & will be the first football team to beat Douglass from the city public schools.

1 minute ago, Johnny_Utah said:

I guess I should rephrase:  Outside of football, I don't see anyone afraid of playing any of their other programs.  Their volleyball team was 7-7 last year & lost in the districts & I'm not even going to go there with a cheer comparison between them & the likes of Paul Dunbar & Henry Clay..... IMO, Station is gaining confidence & will be the first football team to beat Douglass from the city public schools.

I was at a Dunbar game years ago and their cheerleaders stretched nearly the entire length of the field. 

1 hour ago, Johnny_Utah said:

I guess I should rephrase:  Outside of football, I don't see anyone afraid of playing any of their other programs.  Their volleyball team was 7-7 last year & lost in the districts & I'm not even going to go there with a cheer comparison between them & the likes of Paul Dunbar & Henry Clay..... IMO, Station is gaining confidence & will be the first football team to beat Douglass from the city public schools.

Nothing in your reply demonstrated that any Douglass sport outside of football or boys basketball is "lagging terribly" behind football's success. So, your rephrasing is correct. Other schools may not be scared of Douglass sports, per se... but none of these Bronco teams are cupcakes. 

 

 

4 hours ago, REH5 said:

Frederick Douglass got a lot of transfers from the other schools when they came into existence which weakened the other schools for years.  Bryan Station is starting to make a comeback. This often happens with new schools with newer facilities and making the right hires to lead the programs.  Another example is Great Crossing which is starting to challenge Scott County in most sports.  Also you can look at GRC which gets a lot of transfers.  One look at their new facilities anyone would like to play there.

Tates Creek will have a new building and facilities at least equal to FDHS next year. Does this mean they are headed to legit 6A contention within their 1st 2-3 years in their new digs? Based on the facilities idea.

**and to clarify, I ask this question because there has been a debate bubbling on Lexington Sports Facebook as of late that Creek will soon be the football big dog because of the shiny new things they will have there**

Im just confused as to why every other public school in the city is 6A and FD is not. I noticed they used to be then dropped down for some reason. Has always seemed a little fishy to me.

55 minutes ago, Bud_Kilmer said:

Im just confused as to why every other public school in the city is 6A and FD is not. I noticed they used to be then dropped down for some reason. Has always seemed a little fishy to me.

I asked if they would move up to 6A. From what I am gathering from the internet so I'm not saying the #s are 100% but they are at 1,446 students with the population being 51% female and 49% male.  I'm mentally drained so lets just say 50/50 for math purposes.  That puts them at 723 males in the school building and the move up to 6A is 725 males.  Now I know the math is not exact but that puts them very close to a jump to 6A if the school is growing that fast.

Im not saying this is the case, so I am not trying to stir anything up. To me it looks like they are supposed to 6a and used to be and they found out the first couple of years they still arent close to Louisville big 3. Then somehow they dropped to 5A to have a better chance. I just feel bad for the rest of the Lex public schools.

3 hours ago, Bud_Kilmer said:

Im just confused as to why every other public school in the city is 6A and FD is not. I noticed they used to be then dropped down for some reason. Has always seemed a little fishy to me.

The first two years they were placed in 6A really for two reasons the lack of 6A teams and the fact that the other teams in the city were 6A. The first year in 2017 they only had a little of 800 students about 840 actually I think and the 2nd year they played the had around 950 and when the KHSAA first did the classes in 2018 originally they were going to be in 4A but they (KHSAA) failed to count the 98 boys in the Carter G. Woodson Academy in the Douglass building and that then put them into 5A. Their enrollment has been increasing each year.

3 hours ago, Bud_Kilmer said:

Im not saying this is the case, so I am not trying to stir anything up. To me it looks like they are supposed to 6a and used to be and they found out the first couple of years they still arent close to Louisville big 3. Then somehow they dropped to 5A to have a better chance. I just feel bad for the rest of the Lex public schools.

I don't feel bad for them.  They were bad before FD was built. 

14 minutes ago, BEChargers said:

I don't feel bad for them.  They were bad before FD was built. 

If you read my above post in 2017 they only had 840 students total and around 925-950 in 2018 their 2nd year. When they opened they should have been based on their numbers placed in 4A. I would say fairly certain when the next alignment is conducted they will be in 6A. That will free them up for about 4 games to play since 3 of the 5 Lexington city schools will already be in their district. It will probably be even harder to find games around central Kentucky than it already is I hope the game with Boyle will continue to be a yearly game. It would always be very competitive and not very far to travel either.

11 hours ago, Kenny Powers said:

FD is only going to keep getting better, IMO. They have positioned themselves (through success, facilities, top notch coaching, strength and conditioning program, etc.) as essentially a magnet school for football in Lexington. Unless you are interested in attending a private school like LCA or LC, you would be crazy not to find a way to enroll at FD. This is especially true if you are a top tier athlete; Coach Mcpeek has a revolving door of college coaches in that building on a weekly basis! 

My biggest concern for the FD administration is trying to keep Coach Mcpeek. 

Where could he go that would be a better situation? Only a couple of private school jobs as good....but he's going to stay public for retirement purposes I would think. Unless he got a job as a D1 Championship division assistant I think he stays put.