4 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I definitely think that's cool having twin brothers starting at the same position in mirrored positions on the line. Reminds me of the Lutz twins at Cov Cath, #98 Mike and #99 Matt both playing middle linebacker on the '94 state championship team.

Ironically, the Benke's #s when they dress varsity this season are #98 and #99!

On 10/24/2023 at 10:35 AM, TEDFROMVILLAHILLS said:

Is Coach Eviston going to allow the frosh kids that moved up play in this game? Feel like this will be good for them to get the extra reps against good competition.

Should be a good one either way! As always #SCIT

Owen Pitzer, Jonny Lind, and Spencer Clukey are the three Cov Cath freshmen that have been moved up to the varsity roster. I don't have any info on whether or not they'll be playing on Thursday in the Freshman Championship.

Pitzer has been a valuable backup off the bench after the varsity team lost Josh Flood at linebacker with a broken collar bone. He's seen action in 4 varsity games, thus far, and has already jumped up to a tie for the #11 spot in total tackles in that time. Varsity stats show 1 game played for Lind, and none yet for Clukey. I don't believe they have been practicing at all with the freshman team since moving up, so my gut says we won't see them Thursday night, but again, that's just my best guess.

Highlands is a very good team this year, and not to sandbag, but it will be a tall order to beat them twice in one season, period, much less without the three most talented freshmen out there for the Colonels.

I see Highlands as a 3 TD favorite.

Are you able to use cash at the gate to get in?

6 minutes ago, theguru said:

Are you able to use cash at the gate to get in?

Yes you can.

When did they bring back the true freshman championship game or better yet, when was the last one played? Or have I been under a rock and it has always been in place and I was unaware because CovCath wasn’t in it?

Hope this is streamed! Will be out of town for work but would love to tune in at the hotel! 

19 minutes ago, TheConch said:

When did they bring back the true freshman championship game or better yet, when was the last one played? Or have I been under a rock and it has always been in place and I was unaware because CovCath wasn’t in it?

Hope this is streamed! Will be out of town for work but would love to tune in at the hotel! 

The Freshman Championship has been a sore subject here and there, over the years. Several schools have fielded a freshman team one year and then not the next and kind of left themselves ignored by other teams in terms of scheduling occasionally. Also, as I understand it, there have historically been some years where one school or another would try to field a freshman team, schedule games, and then after having a skeleton crew of players sign up and then after getting boat-raced in their first two or three games and/or having injuries take their toll, they've cancelled the rest of their season and moved the remaining players up to the JV/varsity roster. The impact of that would be the fact some of the remaining freshman programs would end up short on games compared to other teams. So when things are based on win/loss records and not a playoff, then somebody would end up butt-hurt because they were nixed from contention from the championship game since they didn't have enough wins.

Like say at hypothetically some point in the past Bellevue tried fielding a freshman team. They schedule to play 9 other area teams for their season. They only end up with 18 kids on their roster, and play their first three games against Cov Cath, Highlands and Boone County and lose by 4+ touchdowns per game, plus they end up with 5 injured players, so they throw in the towel for the season. Then Conner and Simon Kenton end up sore over the fact that in combination with having scheduled bye weeks into their seasons, they're also left another game short on the season after Bellevue dropped out, so they don't have a square shot at the championship since they only have the potential for 7 wins at the end of things.

Aaaaaaanyway, my understanding is that there have been things like that that have happened. Still, for at least most of the 80s/90s/00s, there was an attempt to have a championship game based on whichever teams had the best records. I believe the last time there was a game that was officially established as the NKY Freshman Regional Championship was 2010, when Cov Cath and Highlands played for the title. Cov Cath came into the game with a 9-1 record and their only loss had been earlier in the season to Highlands, who had beaten them 36-7. The championship was played at Highlands, and the Birds (who I believe finished the season undefeated) won the rematch 36-14. Sam Dressman was QB for Cov Cath, with Nick Pope as their starring RB, and Sam Burchell & Adam Fischer were leading the defense. Highlands had Drew Houliston at QB, Jalen Hayes, Zach Harris & Thomas Wrobleski running the ball, and Brandon Hergott at WR.

8 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

I believe the last time there was a game that was officially established as the NKY Freshman Regional Championship was 2010, when Cov Cath and Highlands played for the title. Cov Cath came into the game with a 9-1 record and their only loss had been earlier in the season to Highlands, who had beaten them 36-7. The championship was played at Highlands, and the Birds (who I believe finished the season undefeated) won the rematch 36-14. Sam Dressman was QB for Cov Cath, with Nick Pope as their starring RB, and Sam Burchell & Adam Fischer were leading the defense. Highlands had Drew Houliston at QB, Jalen Hayes, Zach Harris & Thomas Wrobleski running the ball, and Brandon Hergott at WR.

Pope was a hell of a running back, and a really great athlete, but I want to say he only ended up playing football his freshman year. His best sport was baseball, and I believe he gave up football to focus on that.

I only like a playoff when needed for Frosh. If one team stands alone undefeated (like last year) then what’s the point? 

By the end of the season, the better players are finding their way onto the JV/Varsity teams. Many of which aren’t permitted to play, so technically it’s not the best players/teams anyways.

This year’s “bowl-like” format seems to be the best of both worlds. Allow a champion be crowned without having unnecessary first round blowouts. 

However, if I coached a team that ran the table, I’d prefer those kids have a week or two of JV/Varsity experience over additional Frosh games.

It is a really good format and whom ever came up with it should be commended.  On a side note, the Birds 7th and 8th grade teams are playing in the championship games this weekend at Ludlow.

On 10/24/2023 at 3:49 PM, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

The Freshman Championship has been a sore subject here and there, over the years. Several schools have fielded a freshman team one year and then not the next and kind of left themselves ignored by other teams in terms of scheduling occasionally. Also, as I understand it, there have historically been some years where one school or another would try to field a freshman team, schedule games, and then after having a skeleton crew of players sign up and then after getting boat-raced in their first two or three games and/or having injuries take their toll, they've cancelled the rest of their season and moved the remaining players up to the JV/varsity roster. The impact of that would be the fact some of the remaining freshman programs would end up short on games compared to other teams. So when things are based on win/loss records and not a playoff, then somebody would end up butt-hurt because they were nixed from contention from the championship game since they didn't have enough wins.

Like say at hypothetically some point in the past Bellevue tried fielding a freshman team. They schedule to play 9 other area teams for their season. They only end up with 18 kids on their roster, and play their first three games against Cov Cath, Highlands and Boone County and lose by 4+ touchdowns per game, plus they end up with 5 injured players, so they throw in the towel for the season. Then Conner and Simon Kenton end up sore over the fact that in combination with having scheduled bye weeks into their seasons, they're also left another game short on the season after Bellevue dropped out, so they don't have a square shot at the championship since they only have the potential for 7 wins at the end of things.

Aaaaaaanyway, my understanding is that there have been things like that that have happened. Still, for at least most of the 80s/90s/00s, there was an attempt to have a championship game based on whichever teams had the best records. I believe the last time there was a game that was officially established as the NKY Freshman Regional Championship was 2010, when Cov Cath and Highlands played for the title. Cov Cath came into the game with a 9-1 record and their only loss had been earlier in the season to Highlands, who had beaten them 36-7. The championship was played at Highlands, and the Birds (who I believe finished the season undefeated) won the rematch 36-14. Sam Dressman was QB for Cov Cath, with Nick Pope as their starring RB, and Sam Burchell & Adam Fischer were leading the defense. Highlands had Drew Houliston at QB, Jalen Hayes, Zach Harris & Thomas Wrobleski running the ball, and Brandon Hergott at WR.

That Highland frosh team beat Lou St X in the first game of the year. X had like 98 kids on the sidelines. 

I love this "championship" format. Every team gets to play an equally competitive opponent and the top 2 get to play for first place.

On 10/24/2023 at 5:41 PM, Jack of all Trades said:

It is a really good format and whom ever came up with it should be commended.  On a side note, the Birds 7th and 8th grade teams are playing in the championship games this weekend at Ludlow.

I believe Randy Borchers is the one that came up with the format and pitched the idea to everyone last off season. 

On 10/24/2023 at 5:18 PM, footballfan21212 said:

I only like a playoff when needed for Frosh. If one team stands alone undefeated (like last year) then what’s the point? 

By the end of the season, the better players are finding their way onto the JV/Varsity teams. Many of which aren’t permitted to play, so technically it’s not the best players/teams anyways.

This year’s “bowl-like” format seems to be the best of both worlds. Allow a champion be crowned without having unnecessary first round blowouts. 

However, if I coached a team that ran the table, I’d prefer those kids have a week or two of JV/Varsity experience over additional Frosh games.

Definitely get your point. With that said I think it’s a great thing that there is a championship game. Even if one team had finished undefeated. There might have been another team that had injuries at the time when they lost their game to the undefeated team, and so on. So gives a chance to go out there and do it again. 
 

Now the most important reason why it’s good to have a championship game, is for the kids themselves. Football is a long season from off season conditioning, practicing all the time, just to only play around 9 to 10 games. This gives the players something to play for and look forward to. Players WANT to play in a Championship type game even if they are undefeated. You play football to play in this type of game.  I mean just look at the build up for this game. I’m sure these players are excited as can be for this Championship matchup. 

? The only game this week that has drawn more views/interest on BGP than this one? 

Boyle County at Frederick Douglass.