Central has 100% kids on free or reduced lunch and they have good football program and won state championships. 

This sounds like the Boone County head coach trying to find an easier route to wins. I feel for the student athletes at BCHS. Wins are needed for morale. But first he’s contemplating not playing a district schedule now it’s this. Have some pride in your players, work with them, coach them. Don’t teach them to try to find the easy way out in life. 

I won’t try and get in the head of the person who proposed this BUT money (or lack thereof) has never been the reason someone is good or bad.

What HS sports is supposed to teach you is to compete, be a good teammate, work hard, listen to the people charged with coaching you and MAYBE then you have a chance to succeed.

Life isn’t fair. Kids should be introduced to this early in life to garner the inner strength to combat the things life throws at you.

I’m so confused. What is everyone saying here. Keep coming up with crazier ideas and changing the rules until every team wins  championship! Yippee! I mean I would think almost everyone agrees that 6 classifications in Ky is way too many and that was done so more can win. Man I’m tired of hurt feelings. We are headed down that same road of disaster. Just my opinion. 

Ted you are spot on.

Losing is a part of life that it seems we are hiding from our kids.
 

Shame on the adults for doing that…

17 minutes ago, Falcon Pride said:

Ted you are spot on.

Losing is a part of life that it seems we are hiding from our kids.
 

Shame on the adults for doing that…

Losing is one thing.  But the old saying "some are born on 3rd base and think they are winning" comes to mind here.

I  worked in low income school districts nearly 40 years and do not believe there is a reason to consider family income when determining classification.  Students must take advantage of the opportunities they have in the schools they attend.  A student athlete's potential, determination and hard work all factor into success.  Educators/coaches must teach kids that success is possible no matter where you grow up!

While I do think that schools that are in predominantly "well off" communities may hold some advantage, I do not think that advantage is so great that classification should be changed because of it. 

Highlands isn't successful because Ft. Thomas is an upper-middle class community. They are successful because they have, over decades, built a feeder system and literally built their football teams from the ground up. 

Central is in one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of the state, how have they had so much success?

I'll even use my Frankfort Panthers. While they have experienced some down years recently, they have had plenty of success in a small, average-income town with two other larger schools to compete with. 

A couple of things.  If Bryson Warner can't win at Boone County then they need to close up the football program.  He's a grad.  He knows the alumni.  He is deeply involved in all aspects of his program.  He is constantly selling the program in the community, and, oh, he's a proven winner at another program.  Boone County will never attract another coach with his background and credentials.  It will just be someone looking for a one year miracle to get a better job somewhere else. 

I give that background because when Bryson recommends something like this it should carry weight.  He's a no-nonsense, no excuse guy.  The county could re-district, but they won't.  That's a whole different thread, and too many people refusing to do something unpopular.  So what do you do? 

Right now Boone County has ZERO in common with any of the other county schools.  Its free lunch numbers, minority population and population living in rented housing is so far out of whack to the other county schools it is embarrassing.  Why does rented housing matter?  Because those kids tend to participate one day and then be gone the next because the family unit moved somewhere else.  Boone County has more in common with Holmes than it does, say Conner or Scott.  So why not create a district of similar schools ?  It would be competitive for the kids and they would have a goal of something to play for.  Putting Boone in this 5A district is relegating them to four years of trying to beat Scott for a district win and not finishing last.  A district win, mind you, that would be their first in like five years.  

But hey, let's continue to blame the kids trying to find out where their dinner is coming from and make them play all the schools who have 75 kids just standing on the sidelines.  That makes sense.  

I could see using some type of multiplier or divider based on free/reduced lunch population. Whether that multiplier bumped a team up a class or dropped them would be based on the classification parameters already established. Some states already do this (Iowa comes to mind, I think). However, it would be really difficult to come up with a solution because it feels like the problem you fix would only open the door for another problem.

21 minutes ago, HHSX2 said:

I  worked in low income school districts nearly 40 years and do not believe there is a reason to consider family income when determining classification.  Students must take advantage of the opportunities they have in the schools they attend.  A student athlete's potential, determination and hard work all factor into success.  Educators/coaches must teach kids that success is possible no matter where you grow up!

Would the flipside argument be that even though school A says they have a population of 1,000 boys the high number of free/reduced lunch students actually lowers the number of boys capable of playing because of the home situation?

10 minutes ago, James Graham said:

The county could re-district, but they won't.  That's a whole different thread, and too many people refusing to do something unpopular.  So what do you do? 

There would be a mass firestorm if you tried to take anyone currently assigned to Cooper, Conner, or Ryle and tried to force them to Boone County.  

I've never seen the first scintilla of evidence tying success in football to the income levels of schools or players.  Bardstown is 80% FARL and went to the state championship.  Danville was high FARL for a couple decades and won many state titles.  If the focus is on the potentially unlimited economic base and facilities of private schools, then address that instead of tippy-toeing around it.

Also, I'm not disclosing my income to anyone except the IRS.  So if this is just a FARL number, then fine, but any slippery slope to disclosure requirements will be over my cold, dead corpse.

Using free and reduced lunch numbers won’t work in Ky because the state has so many districts that have free lunch for all kids.  When that is done there is no reduced numbers to use.   There is merit in using school budgets / resources to determine classifications.  Pikeville has far more resources than any other Class A school.  They should be a Class AA or a AAA.  Conversely a school like Ohio Co based solely on enrollment is a 4 or 5A but based on resources should be a 2A or even a 1A.   Also they should look at a school’s 5 year success rate.  There are several schools with large enrollments that never perform well.  Those schools should play down.  It’s not about everyone being equal.  It’s about making everything more competitive across the board.

1 hour ago, MightyOak said:

Using free and reduced lunch numbers won’t work in Ky because the state has so many districts that have free lunch for all kids.  

You make a very good point.  There’s really only about 10 or less “affluent” public school districts in the state.  After that everyone pretty much has a high free and reduced lunch count.