14 minutes ago, Runcible Owl said:

I'm going to add here, since school size has cropped up, that Simon Kenton was not the 6A sized "giant" they are today. I believe they were actually smaller than Mason County the year they defeated the Royals in the Sweet 16 final.

Certainly not correct.  Mason has almost always been 800 more or less.  I'm sure SK hasn't been that small maybe ever. 

18 minutes ago, Runcible Owl said:

I've heard it said *cough* size matters. Many big schools do well at Region and Sweet 16.

At some point, aren't there diminishing returns in relating  student numbers to sports with limited roster sizes?

Quality vs. quantity may work well this year for schools like Murray and Lyon County in Regions where there are much larger schools. 

I am puzzled too though at SK's lack of success since joining the 8th. In the 9th they were one of a handful of "bigs."

I agree with your thoughts, big isn't always better.  Lexington Lafayette is one of the largest schools in the Commonwealth, when was the last time they won their District?

12 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

I agree with your thoughts, big isn't always better.  Lexington Lafayette is one of the largest schools in the Commonwealth, when was the last time they won their District?

According to info on the KHSAA website, these are the 5 biggest schools in the state:

1.  Lafayette

2.  Madison Central

3.  Eastern

4. Henry Clay

5.  Ballard

If that was the only data point, a reasonable person would be skeptical about the relationship between enrollment and basketball success.  But I'm resistant to that skepticism, for some reason......

 

15 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

According to info on the KHSAA website, these are the 5 biggest schools in the state:

1.  Lafayette

2.  Madison Central

3.  Eastern

4. Henry Clay

5.  Ballard

If that was the only data point, a reasonable person would be skeptical about the relationship between enrollment and basketball success.  But I'm resistant to that skepticism, for some reason......

 

For many years Scott County was the largest and they were pretty darn good.  And Trinity and St X are actually considered 2nd and 3rd in size because they are both all boys.  SK is 15th at 1866.

43 minutes ago, Royals and Saints Fan said:

Certainly not correct.  Mason has almost always been 800 more or less.  I'm sure SK hasn't been that small maybe ever. 

You may be right. I'm much more familiar with the 9th than 10th. Back then Dixie was the "city" school and SK was the "country" school in Kenton County.

I said I "believe," but I grew up in the area, was coaching and officiating in NKY during then, and my dad was a media member at the time, so I'm "pretty sure" I'm in the ballpark. 

There is an article I've read in the past that may support my claim. If I can locate it, I'll post it. We can compare notes then if you also have supporting information? 

Apparently, size does matter to some people. 

49 minutes ago, Hoopstars said:

I don’t think history makes it questionable. I think it’s questionable because Simon Kenton beat OC in a tight game and OC played awful. And Simon Kenton is 1-9 when they give up 55 points. 1-9 is more than just a number. It shows a clear path to victory to strategize around. I think game is close to a toss up- edge to SK though. 

Unless your defense is very bullet proof, a HS team will give up more than 55 points against superior competition and 1-9 record reflects that.

1 hour ago, Adrian Woj Burner said:

I have posted this before, with every teams size in the region and how much success they have had. 

The 2nd largest school (Oldham County) is by far the most succesful school in region history. They have been nothing short of dominant in their district and the region. I do not have all of the numbers in front of me, but they are at home on my desk. 

If I am not mistaken, almost every regional title came from the top-6 biggest schools in the region. I will add up the numbers later tonight. 

Adrian, I'll paste here your very informative post from earlier this month:

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

 

24 minutes ago, Mojocat said:

Adrian, I'll paste here your very informative post from earlier this month:

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

 

Dang you are good!  We need someone in the 10th like you (and its not me).

2 minutes ago, Royals and Saints Fan said:

Dang you are good!  We need someone in the 10th like you (and its not me).

Yes, between Adrian and ColonelMike, the coverage of 8th Region basketball here is really good.

?? Simon Kenton, 1981 Sweet 16 Champions.

Doing some research and discovered this. Anyone else old enough to have a subscription to the KHSAA monthly magazine?

35 minutes ago, Runcible Owl said:

You may be right. I'm much more familiar with the 9th than 10th. Back then Dixie was the "city" school and SK was the "country" school in Kenton County.

I said I "believe," but I grew up in the area, was coaching and officiating in NKY during then, and my dad was a media member at the time, so I'm "pretty sure" I'm in the ballpark. 

There is an article I've read in the past that may support my claim. If I can locate it, I'll post it. We can compare notes then if you also have supporting information? 

Apparently, size does matter to some people. 

I know SK has grown a lot but I still doubt they were ever smaller than Mason but I am not 100%.  And I've heard somewhere that "Size Doesn't Matter, Results Matter"!

44 minutes ago, 4 Quarters said:

Unless your defense is very bullet proof, a HS team will give up more than 55 points against superior competition and 1-9 record reflects that.

That makes sense but it’s not that simple in this case. Cal, Highlands, desales, Owen scored 60s and above. Mason, Grant, North scored 40s, Collins 55. Which group of 4 is superior?  I suspect those four that scored more shot threes and/or pushed tempo not allowing zone to set up.  Either way, a coach would be crazy not say, hmmmm, something tells me we have a better chance to win a high scoring game…if I’m Oldham I push like mad, tire their big, look to score before zone sets up- I’d  even risk a few more turnovers to play fast because OC most likely will not win a low scoring game. 

2 hours ago, Mojocat said:

According to info on the KHSAA website, these are the 5 biggest schools in the state:

1.  Lafayette

2.  Madison Central

3.  Eastern

4. Henry Clay

5.  Ballard

If that was the only data point, a reasonable person would be skeptical about the relationship between enrollment and basketball success.  But I'm resistant to that skepticism, for some reason......

 

* for all-male schools like St. X, Trinity . . . multiply their enrollment by two?

37 minutes ago, Hoopstars said:

That makes sense but it’s not that simple in this case. Cal, Highlands, desales, Owen scored 60s and above. Mason, Grant, North scored 40s, Collins 55. Which group of 4 is superior?  I suspect those four that scored more shot threes and/or pushed tempo not allowing zone to set up.  Either way, a coach would be crazy not say, hmmmm, something tells me we have a better chance to win a high scoring game…if I’m Oldham I push like mad, tire their big, look to score before zone sets up- I’d  even risk a few more turnovers to play fast because OC most likely will not win a low scoring game. 

When they beat Mason County, they were without Henry, without question their player.  When they beat N. Oldham they were without Roberts.  Add 2 losses to the equation and it all looks about equal.  For Oldham County they will have to rebound to carry out your game plan.  We'll see how it plays out.

1 hour ago, Royals and Saints Fan said:

I know SK has grown a lot but I still doubt they were ever smaller than Mason but I am not 100%.  And I've heard somewhere that "Size Doesn't Matter, Results Matter"!

Agree on the "results matter." I'm glad we're on common ground on "less than 100%." Look forward to continuing what BGP is known for - spirited and considerate debate.

It does seem crazy that SK might have been smaller, and at my age I may have misremembered the facts. It bugs me enough to do some research, which for me, is a blast. 

There was a period in the 1980/81 schoolyear when there were zero students at SK. The Pioneer student body had to take second session classes at Scott due to a gas explosion tragedy at the school. The basketball team had to practice at other gyms too. 

The link to that story ~

wcpo-the-vault-simon-kenton-high-school-turns-tragedy-to-triumph-after-1980-gas-explosions-fire

Regardless of size, after the explosion, they had an underdog, feel good, story. They might have been bigger than Mason Co., but they were definitely smaller than Boone Co., Conner, Dixie, Holmes, and Campbell Co. SK opened in 1937. I don't think they won a title, Regional or otherwise, in any sport until '81. They didn't have the numbers to support a football team until the mid/late 60's. In my mind that seems small.

While the area around Dixie Heights  exploded with development in the '50s through the '70s, Independence remained relatively rural. Dixie and Simon Kenton were built with identical floor plans (see below). Dixie had an addition built in the '60s and SK didn't. The last time, in the era we're talking about, I was on campus for an officials clinic. It still looked a lot like this. ? 

Good luck to your Royals this week. Cheers!