Will the real #1 team please stand up? 

I was just sitting here thinking about the season and thought about all the twists and turns in the rankings this year. When the season kicked off, many people felt that Beechwood was #1 until someone knocked them from the throne, after 3 consecutive titles. Others felt Mayfield had the most returning and thought they should be at the top. Along comes LCA knocking off #1 in 5a Bowling Green. in the opening week and then it turned into a 3 way question with all of them well deserving. Along comes OB Catholic about 3 weeks in, knocking off Owensboro, Greenwood and Henderson Co in consecutive weeks and all of a sudden it becomes a 4 way question, with all followers having a legit claim to the top billing. As the season progressed, all 4 kept holding serve and not giving an inch. Just depended on which camp you were in. Different rating systems were all over the place. The only losses through the next 10 weeks were to Top tier 4a teams. LCA to Boyle, Beechwood to Cov Cath and Mayfield to Pad Tilghman with all 3 of those games being close that could have gone either way. In the meantime, OB Cath was punishing any and every one put in front of them, mostly in running clock fashion. The point I'm trying to make is in most seasons you have a clear cut #1 or at most only 2 or 3 teams that you may could make a legit case for and even in those years with more than a couple, they typically falter somewhere along the way by the end of the year. Not this year, not these 4 teams. Everyone of them continued to play impressive football till the very end of the season and into the early playoff rounds. You could pull there names out of a hat week to week in any order and no one could make much of an argument. Once these 4 started playing each other, it gets a little easier to rank them, but, I trully believe if these teams all played  each other 10 times, they'd all end up 5-5, they're that close with each team having something to give them edge on the others. LCA had the Hensley factor, a D1 QB prospect, great size in the trenches and the most next level talent, then you have Beechwood with a precision passing game, great speed at the receiver position and about as fundamentally sound as you can get. Mayfield has the running/passing balance, athleticism and speed to burn all over the field with OBC having a prolific offense and an excellent defense and the only one to come out unscaved on the season. I'm not asking for anyone to give their opinions on the matter, but, feel free to do so if you wish. I'm just saying this has been as fun of a season as I can remember in a long, long time  and really enjoyed the back and forth banter between all 4 of these fan bases. Great season to you all and much respect to your teams, 

In most seasons Mayfield and Catholic played each other in the 3rd round in a true “Region Championship”.

Most years you didn’t have LCA in the west. 
 

But with the new RPI system you have to give Catholic and Mayfield credit. They both took care of their business to get homefield advantage in the playoffs. 
 

Catholic running clocked everyone. Mayfield the “Giant Slayer” took down Goliath not once but twice. 
 

Having lived in the Purchase area and went to a school that doesn’t exist (Heath High School) and now my son goes to Owensboro. 

I have seen both schools and let me just say everyone needs to buy their tickets now. 
 

Keith Jackson would love to call this one. 

18 minutes ago, jeff jackson said:

Will the real #1 team please stand up? 

I was just sitting here thinking about the season and thought about all the twists and turns in the rankings this year. When the season kicked off, many people felt that Beechwood was #1 until someone knocked them from the throne, after 3 consecutive titles. Others felt Mayfield had the most returning and thought they should be at the top. Along comes LCA knocking off #1 in 5a Bowling Green. in the opening week and then it turned into a 3 way question with all of them well deserving. Along comes OB Catholic about 3 weeks in, knocking off Owensboro, Greenwood and Henderson Co in consecutive weeks and all of a sudden it becomes a 4 way question, with all followers having a legit claim to the top billing. As the season progressed, all 4 kept holding serve and not giving an inch. Just depended on which camp you were in. Different rating systems were all over the place. The only losses through the next 10 weeks were to Top tier 4a teams. LCA to Boyle, Beechwood to Cov Cath and Mayfield to Pad Tilghman with all 3 of those games being close that could have gone either way. In the meantime, OB Cath was punishing any and every one put in front of them, mostly in running clock fashion. The point I'm trying to make is in most seasons you have a clear cut #1 or at most only 2 or 3 teams that you may could make a legit case for and even in those years with more than a couple, they typically falter somewhere along the way by the end of the year. Not this year, not these 4 teams. Everyone of them continued to play impressive football till the very end of the season and into the early playoff rounds. You could pull there names out of a hat week to week in any order and no one could make much of an argument. Once these 4 started playing each other, it gets a little easier to rank them, but, I trully believe if these teams all played  each other 10 times, they'd all end up 5-5, they're that close with each team having something to give them edge on the others. LCA had the Hensley factor, a D1 QB prospect, great size in the trenches and the most next level talent, then you have Beechwood with a precision passing game, great speed at the receiver position and about as fundamentally sound as you can get. Mayfield has the running/passing balance, athleticism and speed to burn all over the field with OBC having a prolific offense and an excellent defense and the only one to come out unscaved on the season. I'm not asking for anyone to give their opinions on the matter, but, feel free to do so if you wish. I'm just saying this has been as fun of a season as I can remember in a long, long time  and really enjoyed the back and forth banter between all 4 of these fan bases. Great season to you all and much respect to your teams, 

Good recap of 2A 2023. It definitely was fun having 4 teams in the discussion for #1. Probably going to be the same next year.

I hope KHSAA gets the kinks worked out up in NKY regarding 6 high school teams in one district.  It poses a disadvantage regarding the RPI ratings having to play all the teams in that one district vs. rest of 2A districts only having 4 teams.  
 

Also felt Mayfield having to play against LCA in 3rd round was not right, in a perfect setting it would have been great to see all top four teams battle in the semi’s against each other.

38 minutes ago, The_Bull44 said:

I hope KHSAA gets the kinks worked out up in NKY regarding 6 high school teams in one district.  It poses a disadvantage regarding the RPI ratings having to play all the teams in that one district vs. rest of 2A districts only having 4 teams.  
 

Also felt Mayfield having to play against LCA in 3rd round was not right, in a perfect setting it would have been great to see all top four teams battle in the semi’s against each other.

I would assume Beechwood will have the same issue next year. It wouldn't be so bad if any of their other district teams were any good. They'll ptobably look to toughen up their non district, to offset it.

12 hours ago, The_Bull44 said:

I hope KHSAA gets the kinks worked out up in NKY regarding 6 high school teams in one district.  It poses a disadvantage regarding the RPI ratings having to play all the teams in that one district vs. rest of 2A districts only having 4 teams.  
 

Also felt Mayfield having to play against LCA in 3rd round was not right, in a perfect setting it would have been great to see all top four teams battle in the semi’s against each other.

Unless they can change geography or suddenly make the teams in Beechwood's district more competitive, those kinks will be around for a while.

15 hours ago, jeff jackson said:

I would assume Beechwood will have the same issue next year. It wouldn't be so bad if any of their other district teams were any good. They'll ptobably look to toughen up their non district, to offset it.

Not much room for Beechwood to improve out of district scheduling. The one slot that could help RPI is replacing Ohio school McNicholas. Strong higher class opponent but being an OH school limits RPI. Besides that, Beechwood played 2 6A, a 5A and a 4A (Cov Cath). Beat all those schools except Cov Cath. 

I thought I heard something about re-districting after next year? Am I delusional or is there any truth to this?

19 hours ago, NKY KnowItAll said:

I thought I heard something about re-districting after next year? Am I delusional or is there any truth to this?

I think St Henry is starting varsity football in 2025. I’m pretty sure they will be in 2a. They will have to redistrict so then so they won’t be 7 teams in the same district. 

Just with Hayden and Fryman back, Beechwood is going to be a real tough out for anyone. That’s including Cov Cath, who’s a few classes bigger and imo will be contending again in 4A next year. 

55 minutes ago, CCHFC said:

Just with Hayden and Fryman back, Beechwood is going to be a real tough out for anyone. That’s including Cov Cath, who’s a few classes bigger and imo will be contending again in 4A next year. 

I was just thinking about that. Going to be our 2nd toughest game next year. In the regular season of course. Highlands 1A Beechwood 1B

1 hour ago, CCHFC said:

Just with Hayden and Fryman back, Beechwood is going to be a real tough out for anyone. That’s including Cov Cath, who’s a few classes bigger and imo will be contending again in 4A next year. 

And Erdman, Cusic, Flaherty as well as the rest of the 18 returning starters. Both Fryman and Erdman both went 1000+ in receiving this season. Cusic had 700+. Flaherty flies under the radar ... but he had a solid year rushing and receiving this year as well.

There are some talented kids in the pipeline coming up. That combined with how the season ended should make for an interesting 2024 season.

1 hour ago, ColonelGator said:

I was just thinking about that. Going to be our 2nd toughest game next year. In the regular season of course. Highlands 1A Beechwood 1B

 

1 hour ago, gbballfan21 said:

And Erdman, Cusic, Flaherty as well as the rest of the 18 returning starters. Both Fryman and Erdman both went 1000+ in receiving this season. Cusic had 700+. Flaherty flies under the radar ... but he had a solid year rushing and receiving this year as well.

There are some talented kids in the pipeline coming up. That combined with how the season ended should make for an interesting 2024 season.

I think Highlands is going to be pretty good again, but I’d have BW as our toughest opponent. 

I couldn’t believe how good and athletic Fryman was; he was probably the 3rd best player on the field in the Cov Cath game as a freshman lol. Imo he was barely behind the 2 Highlands guys of the best players we’ve gone against this year with the ball in their hands (Carter from PT is a clear #1 here). 

1 hour ago, CCHFC said:

 

I think Highlands is going to be pretty good again, but I’d have BW as our toughest opponent. 

I couldn’t believe how good and athletic Fryman was; he was probably the 3rd best player on the field in the Cov Cath game as a freshman lol. Imo he was barely behind the 2 Highlands guys of the best players we’ve gone against this year with the ball in their hands (Carter from PT is a clear #1 here). 

Great points. In any case, I’m happy we have both those games at home next year.

Fryman was just a freshman? OMG