St. Henry: Varsity Football starts in 2026. (Now moved up to 2025.)

[WKY_Football]

22 minutes ago, futurecoach said:

I think it’s awesome that they are starting a football program finally, and I like how they are going about building it. I think they will end up being a very good football program. 
 

In regards to 2026, the 2026 season will actually be the last year of the next four year realignment that will start next year in 2023. So I guess the KHSAA will allow them to join a district for that last season in this next realignment to get one year of varsity in, before the next realignment starts in the 2027 season. 

How would they do that scheduling wise?

[SouthSeas]

Probably wouldn’t happen. Play independent schedule year 1 do to 2nd year of 2 year contracts for district teams they would be aligned with. Join the district following year with new realignment and new 2 year contracts. Would be hard putting together a schedule that first year but it could be done. 

[Keith the old guy]

On 8/2/2022 at 11:58 AM, Velvet Jones said:

Look at what football has done for Brossart's enrollment.  I think St. Henry would be crazy not to at least explore it.  Boone County is booming and there isn't a Catholic High School in the county with a football team.  I think it makes all the sense in the world for them to do it.  

I think Brossart’s enrollment increasing has a ton more to do with the fact Alexandria is exploding in growth, not so much football.

[TheConch]

St. Henry moving football timeline up. 
 

Article states job will come open January of 2024.

https://linknky.com/sports/2023/06/15/st-henry-moving-football-timeline-up/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_Linknky

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

3 hours ago, TheConch said:

St. Henry moving football timeline up. 
 

Article states job will come open January of 2024.

https://linknky.com/sports/2023/06/15/st-henry-moving-football-timeline-up/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_Linknky

St. Henry's promotional video released on November 11, 2022 stated that the Cru would begin playing JV football in the 2025 season and then move up to Varsity in 2026, and their updated timeline released two days ago on June 14th moved that timeline up to JV football in the 2024 season and Varsity in 2025.

In Evan Dennison's article from LinkNKY, principal Grant Brannen states that St. Henry currently has 260 kids playing in their 1st-8th grade flag football league.

Original Timeline:




Updated Timeline:

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Just now, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

St. Henry's promotional video released on November 11, 2022 stated that the Cru would begin playing JV football in the 2025 season and then move up to Varsity in 2026, and their updated timeline released two days ago on June 14th moved that timeline up to JV football in the 2024 season and Varsity in 2025.

It's going to be interesting to see how the KHSAA adjusts when they realign the classifications for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Currently all six of the Northern Kentucky 2A programs are competing in District 5, and then the four Louisville/Central-Western Kentucky 2A programs are competing in District 4, with WEB DuBois coming in as a fifth team in District 4 starting in 2024. All of the remaining districts in 2A have four teams a piece.

Assuming there aren't any other teams that move into 2A for the next realignment (which isn't exactly a realistic assumption to make), I'm guessing they move Carroll County to from District 5 to play with District 4. Then District 4 and District 5 will both have six teams. They could also potentially look at shift Lexington Christian from District 4 to District 6 so they have 2 five-team districts and only 1 six-team district. Who knows. Regardless, I predict some unhappy campers in 2A once we see the next round of realignment come out.

Class 2A
1- Caldwell County, Crittenden County, Mayfield, Murray
2- Edmonson County, Fort Campbell, Owensboro Catholic, Todd County Central
3- Clinton County, Green County, Metcalfe County, Monroe County
4- Fort Knox, Lexington Christian, Shawnee, Washington County, WEB DuBois**
5- Beechwood, Bracken County, Carroll County, Gallatin County, Owen County, Walton-Verona
6- Breathitt County, Danville, Leslie County, Somerset
7- Floyd Central, Knott County Central, Martin County, Prestonsburg
8- Betsy Layne, East Ridge, Pike County Central, Shelby Valley
**- Not eligible for district postseason competition until at least 2024

[The Oracle]

How are things at St. Henry? I know the business manager at the grade school is a real peach and he and the pastor have run off the principal and some faculty members. Obviously a different relationship there between the high school and the parish, but I'm hearing tell of some unhappy Cru families and the possibility of that turning into folks heading elsewhere.

Any truth to the rumors?

[THUNDERBIRDS]

Very excited for the Cru community! It will be slow start but great things will come from starting their own Football program. Good Luck to them...

[Breds82]

This is exciting for me and I'd most certainly the St. Henry community. Since NewCath and Brossart won't play each other for what I say is an extremely petty reason, maybe St. Henry will step up and create an intense Northern Ky Catholic rivalry. It'll take a few seasons but I believe they'll have a good program pretty quick. What does this potentially do to CovCath or Beechwood's programs not now but 10 years from now?

[gbballfan21]

8 hours ago, Breds82 said:

This is exciting for me and I'd most certainly the St. Henry community. Since NewCath and Brossart won't play each other for what I say is an extremely petty reason, maybe St. Henry will step up and create an intense Northern Ky Catholic rivalry. It'll take a few seasons but I believe they'll have a good program pretty quick. What does this potentially do to CovCath or Beechwood's programs not now but 10 years from now?

Could you explain why you added Beechwood to this? Sorry, wouldn't there be a larger potential impact to Cov Cath, Brossart and NCC?

I think most would equate this to a potential large scale impact to Cov Cath, NCC or Brossart. NCC should probably be most concerned with the constant talk of dropping attendance and championship draught. Geographically, Cov Cath would see the largest impact. Its going to take more than 10 years to derail that train.

Can't see any potential impact to Beechwood unless there is a massive unforeseen change.

[Breds82]

You seem to take this personal, Didn’t mean to ruffle feathers. My inclusion of Beechwood was an assumption that maybe there were some catholic families that would send their football player to St Henry over Beechwood or CovCath (all in the same area) if St Henry had an established program. As far as St Henry having a successful program relatively quickly to me would have zero impact to the NCC and Brossart programs or overall enrollment. NCC having enrollment issues has been around since before I was in school there. I was in the smallest senior class at the point I graduated.

 

[Breds82]

With the new start time for Varsity ball can anyone tell us about the St Henry youth program? 

[Tranquility Base]

I can see it having a small impact on depth at Covington Catholic, but I don't know if it will do more than that.  They wondered the same thing when Holy Cross started a program and impact was minimal to none.  St. Henry is more likely to draw some of the Boone County kids that go to Park Hills, but the Colonels will be fine.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

1 hour ago, Tranquility Base said:

I can see it having a small impact on depth at Covington Catholic, but I don't know if it will do more than that.  They wondered the same thing when Holy Cross started a program and impact was minimal to none.  St. Henry is more likely to draw some of the Boone County kids that go to Park Hills, but the Colonels will be fine.

That's my take, as well.

I honestly worry about the impact that will be had on St. Henry when St. Tim's in Union expands to include grades 9-12. I have four future SHDHS families that I know of who are St. Tim's members and are counting down the days (although there still is no hard timeline for a St. Tim's High School.)

[9068]

21 hours ago, Breds82 said:

This is exciting for me and I'd most certainly the St. Henry community. Since NewCath and Brossart won't play each other for what I say is an extremely petty reason, maybe St. Henry will step up and create an intense Northern Ky Catholic rivalry. It'll take a few seasons but I believe they'll have a good program pretty quick. What does this potentially do to CovCath or Beechwood's programs not now but 10 years from now?

Do New Cath and Cov Cath play any longer? As a New Cath guy you should be really happy with the easy playoff position you have. There is no advantage for Brossart to play New Cath just as there is no advantage for NCC to play Highlands or Cov Cath.