8th Region Success & Size

By: Adrian Woj Burner

 

8th Region follower @Colonel-Rebel Fan had a great idea of correlating region success to size. He came up with the idea of covering some of the most successful small school, and most successful and unsuccessful big schools. I began to work on it last night, and realized that there was too many options, so I have decided to do every single team.

 

Here is the student enrollment according to KHSAA for each school currently in the 8th Region, in order.

1.Simon Kenton – 1866

2. Oldham County - 1663

3. South Oldham - 1342

4. Woodford County - 1305

5. Anderson County - 1193

6. Collins - 1183

7. Grant County 1079

8. Shelby County - 1001

9. North Oldham - 996

10. Spencer County - 992

11. Henry County - 625

12. Carroll County - 574

13. Owen County - 557

14. Walton-Verona - 549

15. Gallatin County - 494

16. Trimble County - 358

17. Eminence - 264

18 - Williamstown – 227

 

Here is how we are going to do this; I am breaking it down into 3 sperate quadrants. The big dogs being teams 1-6 on the list above, quadrant 2 is the middle pack, and quadrant 3 is the 6 smallest schools in the region. The lists of each quadrant will not be in order of school size, but in the order of success (in my eyes) in the postseason. I only went as far as regional play; I did not get into state tournament play. Also, stats in the post date back to 2000-01 season, I did not have the time to get the seasons before that completed. If you pay attention throughout, the numbers of wins, titles, and appearances all go down. Goes to show that for the majority (with a few exceptions) size of school really can matter.

NOTE: This is only from the 2000-01 season and on, I feel that my wording in some of this does not imply that. Do not want readers to get confused when reading.

 

Quadrant 1 – The Big Dogs

These are the 6 biggest schools in the region. In the last 22 seasons, this group has help 15 of the 22 regional titles. There have also been 44 district titles between the 6.

1 – Oldham County (#2 in enrollment)

There is without a doubt Oldham County has been the standard for 8th Region basketball since the 2000-01 season. They have been nothing short of dominant, and we have become used to hearing their name when it is basketball time at “The Roy”. They have only missed the regional tournament 3 times in this stretch.

District Titles: 16

Regional Appearances: 19

Regional Wins: 36

Regional Titles: 8

 

2 – Collins Titans (#6 in enrollment, wasn’t established until 2010)

I was stuck between putting South or Collins here since their numbers are extremely similar, but with Collins only being a school for half of the time as South, I decided to put them in the 2 spot.

District Titles: 6

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 14

Regional Titles: 3

 

3 – South Oldham (#3 in enrollment)

While south has not been anywhere close to successful as their inter-county rival Oldham County, they fall right behind them in many statistics in this thread. Coach Steve Simpson (the longest tenured coach) has had a ridiculously successful career at South, and these numbers just prove it.

District Titles: 5

Regional Appearances: 17

Regional Wins: 17

Regional Titles: 3

 

4 – Anderson County (#5 in enrollment)

I assume it is because of recency biase, but the Bearcats have had an impressive history since 2000-01. They might not have the same number or championships or wins, but have appeared a ton of times in the regional tournament, only missing 7 seasons in the last 22.

District Titles: 6

Regional Appearances: 15

Regional Wins: 11

Regional Titles: 1

 

5 – Simon Kenton (#1 in enrollment, joined 8th Region in 2005-06 season)

This team is what brought up this idea, and it wasn’t for the good. The Pioneers thought that they would dominate the region when moving in years ago, but it has not been the game at the regional level. They have won many district titles and appeared in the region many times, however they only average just over .5 wins when they are in the tournament.

District Titles: 10

Regional Appearances: 15

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Woodford County (#4 in enrollment, joined 8th Region in 2019-2020 season)

This team just does not have enough time to tell their tape. This is just their 4th season in the region, but their numbers in the last 3 seasons are not anything to harp on.

District Titles: 1

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 2

Regional Titles: 0

 

 

Quadrant 2 – The Middle Pack

This is the middle pack, and about halfway through these teams you will see a drastic drop off in performance. The two teams that do not compare to the others in student enrollment numbers are Carroll County and Henry County, but the two teams compared to each other are extremely different in these numbers.

1 – Shelby County (#8 in enrollment)

This was a hard one to judge, because if you do the first 11 seasons they are proably top-5 in the entire region, however since the establishment of Collins, they are bottom of the barrel. Since Collins was created in 2010, they only have 1 district title and 2 regional appearances, with 0 wins in the regional tournament. I decided to put them at 1 based off their total numbers.

District Titles: 8

Regional Appearances: 11

Regional Wins: 17

Regional Titles: 3

 

2 – North Oldham (#9 in enrollment, est. 2003)

They missed a couple years to begin the season, and with that puts them in the 2 spot instead of 3. They have blasted onto the regional scene in the last few years and won their first ever regional championship last season. I think the craziest stat to me was their district title numbers, in which they are looking to improve this season.

District Titles: 2

Regional Appearances: 8

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 1

 

3 – Grant County (#7 in enrollment)

I really wanted to put this team at #2 in this quadrant with the amount of appearances, but the lack of wins and no regional championships dropped them down the #3 in my eyes. The Braves are in the running for an appearance at Rupp Arena this year, but aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the region.

District Titles: 3

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 5

Regional Titles: 0

 

4 – Henry County (#11 in enrollment)

I was really surprised by the number of regional appearances this team has, as I feel that I never get to see them play in their home gymnasium (the famous Roy), but they have struggled to get anything going once they make it to the regional tournament.

District Titles: 2

Regional Appearances: 10

Regional Wins: 2

Regional Titles: 0

 

5 – Spencer County (#10 in enrollment)

With as good as they have been for the last 4-5 seasons, I was really let down by their numbers in these categories. It appears the Bears are solid every year recently but struggle to convert when tournament play rolls around.

District Titles: 1

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 3

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Carroll County (#12 in enrollment)

There are not many words to describe the Panthers history since the 2000-01 season, and it seems to only be getting worse. For the majority of time, they have competed in what many would say the easiest district in the region, but struggle even in district tournament play only making it to the district championship one time.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 1

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

 

Quadrant 3 – The Little Boys

This group is fun, there are the bottom 6 school’s enrollment wise, but a few of them are always capable of making some noise in regional tournament play. There are 3 teams in this section that have been incredible when putting their enrollment numbers into consideration, and the other 3 did just as expected: not very good.

1 – Gallatin County (#15 in enrollment)

Now retired Coach Jon Jones was always an extremely feared coach when tournament time came around. His reign at Gallatin County was nothing less than impressive, and these numbers will prove just that. The one thing that he was never able to accomplish was a regional title but came close multiple times.

District Titles: 8

Regional Appearances: 13

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 0

 

2 – Walton-Verona (#14 in enrollment)

The Bearcats have one thing that no one else does in this quadrant: a regional championship. Led by 7-footer Dionte Miles, they were able to win the only championship this group has had since the 2000-01 season. Going up against the biggest school in the region each year on the district level never made their path to the regional tournament easy, but they still found a way to get it done. The one thing interesting to me was that Walton-Verona has not won a regional game outside of 2019 when they won the tournament.

District Titles: 5

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 3

Regional Titles: 1

 

3 – Owen County (#13 in enrollment)

Being the biggest school in this group, the Rebels are expected to perform well. They have done just that ar the district level, winning many championships and obtaining multiple regional appearances, but struggle at the regional level. With the amount of talent that has come through this program (the Williams’ brothers and Teagan Moore) these numbers almost make me feel like they have underperformed.

District Titles: 7

Regional Appearances: 10

Regional Wins: 4

Regional Titles: 0

 

4 – Eminence (#17 in enrollment)

This is where the numbers really begin to drop off. From here down to the bottom (also the 3-smallest schools in the region), there has not been a single regional tournament win, and not a single district title.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

5 – Williamstown (#18 in enrollment)

This school is the smallest in the region, and their numbers prove just that. They have struggled year after year, but Coach Cheeseman is looking to turn that around in the coming years.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 1

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Trimble County (#16 in enrollment)

This really is not fair, being in the same district with 3 of the biggest schools in the region until the 2020-21 season where they moved to the small school (31st) District. Even after moving to this district 3 years ago, the Raiders are still yet to get close to the regional tournament.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 0

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

Entertaining read, well done sir! 

8 hours ago, Adrian Woj Burner said:

5 – Spencer County (#10 in enrollment)

With as good as they have been for the last 4-5 seasons, I was really let down by their numbers in these categories. It appears the Bears are solid every year recently but struggle to convert when tournament play rolls around.

District Titles: 1

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 3

Regional Titles: 0

Playing Collins or Woodford every year in the first round of the Districts will do that. Last time they didn't play one of those teams, they lost in the 2nd round of the Region to the eventual champ WV.

1 minute ago, wingt51 said:

Playing Collins or Woodford every year in the first round of the Districts will do that. Last time they didn't play one of those teams, they lost in the 2nd round of the Region to the eventual champ WV.

That is exactly what I thought when writing it, you can throw Anderson County in there as well when they are at their potential. 

 

8 hours ago, Adrian Woj Burner said:

8th Region Success & Size

By: Adrian Woj Burner

 

8th Region follower @Colonel-Rebel Fan had a great idea of correlating region success to size. He came up with the idea of covering some of the most successful small school, and most successful and unsuccessful big schools. I began to work on it last night, and realized that there was too many options, so I have decided to do every single team.

 

Here is the student enrollment according to KHSAA for each school currently in the 8th Region, in order.

1.Simon Kenton – 1866

2. Oldham County - 1663

3. South Oldham - 1342

4. Woodford County - 1305

5. Anderson County - 1193

6. Collins - 1183

7. Grant County 1079

8. Shelby County - 1001

9. North Oldham - 996

10. Spencer County - 992

11. Henry County - 625

12. Carroll County - 574

13. Owen County - 557

14. Walton-Verona - 549

15. Gallatin County - 494

16. Trimble County - 358

17. Eminence - 264

18 - Williamstown – 227

 

Here is how we are going to do this; I am breaking it down into 3 sperate quadrants. The big dogs being teams 1-6 on the list above, quadrant 2 is the middle pack, and quadrant 3 is the 6 smallest schools in the region. The lists of each quadrant will not be in order of school size, but in the order of success (in my eyes) in the postseason. I only went as far as regional play; I did not get into state tournament play. Also, stats in the post date back to 2000-01 season, I did not have the time to get the seasons before that completed. If you pay attention throughout, the numbers of wins, titles, and appearances all go down. Goes to show that for the majority (with a few exceptions) size of school really can matter.

NOTE: This is only from the 2000-01 season and on, I feel that my wording in some of this does not imply that. Do not want readers to get confused when reading.

 

Quadrant 1 – The Big Dogs

These are the 6 biggest schools in the region. In the last 22 seasons, this group has help 15 of the 22 regional titles. There have also been 44 district titles between the 6.

1 – Oldham County (#2 in enrollment)

There is without a doubt Oldham County has been the standard for 8th Region basketball since the 2000-01 season. They have been nothing short of dominant, and we have become used to hearing their name when it is basketball time at “The Roy”. They have only missed the regional tournament 3 times in this stretch.

District Titles: 16

Regional Appearances: 19

Regional Wins: 36

Regional Titles: 8

 

2 – Collins Titans (#6 in enrollment, wasn’t established until 2010)

I was stuck between putting South or Collins here since their numbers are extremely similar, but with Collins only being a school for half of the time as South, I decided to put them in the 2 spot.

District Titles: 6

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 14

Regional Titles: 3

 

3 – South Oldham (#3 in enrollment)

While south has not been anywhere close to successful as their inter-county rival Oldham County, they fall right behind them in many statistics in this thread. Coach Steve Simpson (the longest tenured coach) has had a ridiculously successful career at South, and these numbers just prove it.

District Titles: 5

Regional Appearances: 17

Regional Wins: 17

Regional Titles: 3

 

4 – Anderson County (#5 in enrollment)

I assume it is because of recency biase, but the Bearcats have had an impressive history since 2000-01. They might not have the same number or championships or wins, but have appeared a ton of times in the regional tournament, only missing 7 seasons in the last 22.

District Titles: 6

Regional Appearances: 15

Regional Wins: 11

Regional Titles: 1

 

5 – Simon Kenton (#1 in enrollment, joined 8th Region in 2005-06 season)

This team is what brought up this idea, and it wasn’t for the good. The Pioneers thought that they would dominate the region when moving in years ago, but it has not been the game at the regional level. They have won many district titles and appeared in the region many times, however they only average just over .5 wins when they are in the tournament.

District Titles: 10

Regional Appearances: 15

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Woodford County (#4 in enrollment, joined 8th Region in 2019-2020 season)

This team just does not have enough time to tell their tape. This is just their 4th season in the region, but their numbers in the last 3 seasons are not anything to harp on.

District Titles: 1

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 2

Regional Titles: 0

 

 

Quadrant 2 – The Middle Pack

This is the middle pack, and about halfway through these teams you will see a drastic drop off in performance. The two teams that do not compare to the others in student enrollment numbers are Carroll County and Henry County, but the two teams compared to each other are extremely different in these numbers.

1 – Shelby County (#8 in enrollment)

This was a hard one to judge, because if you do the first 11 seasons they are proably top-5 in the entire region, however since the establishment of Collins, they are bottom of the barrel. Since Collins was created in 2010, they only have 1 district title and 2 regional appearances, with 0 wins in the regional tournament. I decided to put them at 1 based off their total numbers.

District Titles: 8

Regional Appearances: 11

Regional Wins: 17

Regional Titles: 3

 

2 – North Oldham (#9 in enrollment, est. 2003)

They missed a couple years to begin the season, and with that puts them in the 2 spot instead of 3. They have blasted onto the regional scene in the last few years and won their first ever regional championship last season. I think the craziest stat to me was their district title numbers, in which they are looking to improve this season.

District Titles: 2

Regional Appearances: 8

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 1

 

3 – Grant County (#7 in enrollment)

I really wanted to put this team at #2 in this quadrant with the amount of appearances, but the lack of wins and no regional championships dropped them down the #3 in my eyes. The Braves are in the running for an appearance at Rupp Arena this year, but aren’t guaranteed to even make it out of the region.

District Titles: 3

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 5

Regional Titles: 0

 

4 – Henry County (#11 in enrollment)

I was really surprised by the number of regional appearances this team has, as I feel that I never get to see them play in their home gymnasium (the famous Roy), but they have struggled to get anything going once they make it to the regional tournament.

District Titles: 2

Regional Appearances: 10

Regional Wins: 2

Regional Titles: 0

 

5 – Spencer County (#10 in enrollment)

With as good as they have been for the last 4-5 seasons, I was really let down by their numbers in these categories. It appears the Bears are solid every year recently but struggle to convert when tournament play rolls around.

District Titles: 1

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 3

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Carroll County (#12 in enrollment)

There are not many words to describe the Panthers history since the 2000-01 season, and it seems to only be getting worse. For the majority of time, they have competed in what many would say the easiest district in the region, but struggle even in district tournament play only making it to the district championship one time.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 1

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

 

Quadrant 3 – The Little Boys

This group is fun, there are the bottom 6 school’s enrollment wise, but a few of them are always capable of making some noise in regional tournament play. There are 3 teams in this section that have been incredible when putting their enrollment numbers into consideration, and the other 3 did just as expected: not very good.

1 – Gallatin County (#15 in enrollment)

Now retired Coach Jon Jones was always an extremely feared coach when tournament time came around. His reign at Gallatin County was nothing less than impressive, and these numbers will prove just that. The one thing that he was never able to accomplish was a regional title but came close multiple times.

District Titles: 8

Regional Appearances: 13

Regional Wins: 8

Regional Titles: 0

 

2 – Walton-Verona (#14 in enrollment)

The Bearcats have one thing that no one else does in this quadrant: a regional championship. Led by 7-footer Dionte Miles, they were able to win the only championship this group has had since the 2000-01 season. Going up against the biggest school in the region each year on the district level never made their path to the regional tournament easy, but they still found a way to get it done. The one thing interesting to me was that Walton-Verona has not won a regional game outside of 2019 when they won the tournament.

District Titles: 5

Regional Appearances: 12

Regional Wins: 3

Regional Titles: 1

 

3 – Owen County (#13 in enrollment)

Being the biggest school in this group, the Rebels are expected to perform well. They have done just that ar the district level, winning many championships and obtaining multiple regional appearances, but struggle at the regional level. With the amount of talent that has come through this program (the Williams’ brothers and Teagan Moore) these numbers almost make me feel like they have underperformed.

District Titles: 7

Regional Appearances: 10

Regional Wins: 4

Regional Titles: 0

 

4 – Eminence (#17 in enrollment)

This is where the numbers really begin to drop off. From here down to the bottom (also the 3-smallest schools in the region), there has not been a single regional tournament win, and not a single district title.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 2

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

5 – Williamstown (#18 in enrollment)

This school is the smallest in the region, and their numbers prove just that. They have struggled year after year, but Coach Cheeseman is looking to turn that around in the coming years.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 1

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

 

6 – Trimble County (#16 in enrollment)

This really is not fair, being in the same district with 3 of the biggest schools in the region until the 2020-21 season where they moved to the small school (31st) District. Even after moving to this district 3 years ago, the Raiders are still yet to get close to the regional tournament.

District Titles: 0

Regional Appearances: 0

Regional Wins: 0

Regional Titles: 0

Phenomenal job!  Thank you very much.  This is very eye opening, some surprising stats.  I need to go through it better later today.

Just now, Adrian Woj Burner said:

That is exactly what I thought when writing it, you can throw Anderson County in there as well when they are at their potential. 

 

Yup. Lost to Anderson in the first round 3 years in a row, then finally get over that hump, and then the next year Woodford gets added to the district.

When Gallatin defeated Shelby County in the opening round of the regional tournament in 2007 it was the Wildcats first region victory since they went to the Sweet 16 in 1959.                      
Then they proceeded to win 7 more under Jon Jones.

6 minutes ago, Mack The Knife said:

When Gallatin defeated Shelby County in the opening round of the regional tournament in 2007 it was the Wildcats first region victory since they went to the Sweet 16 in 1959.                      
Then they proceeded to win 7 more under Jon Jones.

That was actually a good amount of time into his career wasn't it?

38 minutes ago, Adrian Woj Burner said:

That was actually a good amount of time into his career wasn't it?

2006-07 was his 13th season. 

2 hours ago, wingt51 said:

Playing Collins or Woodford every year in the first round of the Districts will do that. Last time they didn't play one of those teams, they lost in the 2nd round of the Region to the eventual champ WV.

How long has Burns been there now, and do you expect him to stay (I believe he is still pretty young)?  They've been pretty good the last few years - was that true before he got there?

2 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

How long has Burns been there now, and do you expect him to stay (I believe he is still pretty young)?  They've been pretty good the last few years - was that true before he got there?

This is currently Burns' 10th year, and he has not won a district title, but has 1 of their 2 regional appearances and picked up 1 of their 3 wins in that appearance. 

1 hour ago, Mojocat said:

How long has Burns been there now, and do you expect him to stay (I believe he is still pretty young)?  They've been pretty good the last few years - was that true before he got there?

Before Burns arrived, Spencer was very common.  Could he end up at S. Oldham where he coached under Simpson, just asking?

Spencer County is growing fairly quickly, so other should help them.

1 hour ago, 4 Quarters said:

Before Burns arrived, Spencer was very common.  Could he end up at S. Oldham where he coached under Simpson, just asking?

Hard to say.  I don't know how much longer Coach Simpson plans to stick around, and I don't know what Coach Burns thinks of Crestwood/Oldham County - 10 years in a place is a long time, it could be that he has roots there and has no desire to leave.  But yours is a good question.

12 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

Hard to say.  I don't know how much longer Coach Simpson plans to stick around, and I don't know what Coach Burns thinks of Crestwood/Oldham County - 10 years in a place is a long time, it could be that he has roots there and has no desire to leave.  But yours is a good question.

I don't know anything for certain, but I would assume this is Simpson's last year. He probably wanted win #500 and if I had to guess he is out now that he got that.