Per the agenda for the KHSAA Board of Control meeting today, both Holmes and Thomas Nelson are dropping out of district play for 2025 and 2026. Holmes was to be placed with Covington Catholic, Harrison County, Highlands, and Mason County while Thomas Nelson would have been with Central, CAL, DeSales, and Western. Ohio County had already requested to drop out of district play while Jenkins and Phelps haven't played in district for a few years and will continue that for the next cycle.

It was sad to see that the reason given by Holmes for dropping was "trying to save the football program." Hopefully they can get it worked out.

 

https://portal.ksba.org/public/Meeting.aspx?PublicAgencyID=4374&PublicMeetingID=48124&AgencyTypeID=1

That is as blunt as it can get. I believe it is wise for these schools and would hope several others would follow. A former coach explained to me in Jefferson County, this practice would be really frowned on and would immediately "kill" a football program locally.

4 minutes ago, thsrocks said:

That is as blunt as it can get. I believe it is wise for these schools and would hope several others would follow. A former coach explained to me in Jefferson County, this practice would be really frowned on and would immediately "kill" a football program locally.

Egos can be dangerous. I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say I'm sure our own ego(s) have gotten us in trouble before.

Even more dangerous? School offical(s) decisions being influenced by the egos of people that don't know, what they don't know.

I totally agree with you that several other schools across the state should do this.

Because the only thing being "competed for" in many, many cases is:

1- You're not making the playoffs as if you're in a 5 or 6 team district.

2- If you do make it as the 4, or sometimes even the 3? Be it in a 4, 5 or 6 team? You're "playing" one more week just to get boat raced, again.

This idea that "everybody has a chance" is absolute fairytale land.

As I heard a very, very wise former coach once say applying the current set up in KYHSFB to the college games?

"There are a lot of mid ranged G5 programs in district and regions trying to compete against the whose who of the G4. Except those match ups when they do happen? The G5 is getting millions of dollars to get blasted."

17 minutes ago, Calico Jack said:

Even more dangerous? School official(s) decisions being influenced by the egos of people that don't know, what they don't know.

I totally agree with you that several other schools across the state should do this.

Holmes is a good example of this. If they play in district, they'll have to play Covington Catholic, Highlands, Mason, even Harrison in some years that are over their head (at least right now). There are lots of teams that Holmes would be more competitive with within a reasonable drive - maybe Bellevue, Dayton, Newport, Ludlow, Brossart, Pendleton. Not saying those are wins, but you can perhaps compete. By competing, maybe kids enjoy football more, maybe then more decide to play, and maybe later you can go back to the district.

1 minute ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Holmes is a good example of this. If they play in district, they'll have to play Covington Catholic, Highlands, Mason, even Harrison in some years that are over their head (at least right now). There are lots of teams that Holmes would be more competitive with within a reasonable drive - maybe Bellevue, Dayton, Newport, Ludlow, Brossart, Pendleton. Not saying those are wins, but you can perhaps compete. By competing, maybe kids enjoy football more, maybe then more decide to play, and maybe later you can go back to the district.

I agree and this is something Boone County should have done years ago. 

5 minutes ago, theguru said:

I agree and this is something Boone County should have done years ago. 

It used to be quite common. For example, there were 18 non-district teams in 1990, 17 in 1998, 11 in 2006. The move to six classes in 2007 seemed to almost do away with independent football with the new setup designed for most everyone to make the playoffs and with much smaller districts you could schedule 6-8 games on your own, meaning you had a good bit of control over your own schedule. I'm not sure every bad team should drop out of district play, but I do believe it would be better for some schools to make that move.

Can’t speak for the other school but it is definitely the right decision for Holmes! With the numbers they have coming out for football it has the makings of a catastrophic situation. 
 

I thought I remembered Grant Co. doing this some years ago until they got things back stabilized. I could be wrong but I thought they did the same. 

Bravo to Holmes for making the right decision here.

Shocked there aren't more schools doing this. 

Holmes administration and athletic department have finally taken the steps to "stop the bleeding" in their major sports. Football as well as boys and girls basketball have been on a recent slide into oblivion, in no small part to decisions made at the administrative level including some questionable hires, IMO. 

Hiring Sam Elsbernd for boys basketball, pausing varsity play for girls basketball, and dropping out of district play for football are all correct calls that will hopefully tend to the longterm health of the programs. All of those decisions were made in the last 8 months.

16 minutes ago, Mr. Sixer said:

Can’t speak for the other school but it is definitely the right decision for Holmes! With the numbers they have coming out for football it has the makings of a catastrophic situation. 
 

I thought I remembered Grant Co. doing this some years ago until they got things back stabilized. I could be wrong but I thought they did the same. 

Fairly certain it was the '17 and '18 season for Grant.

I saw this on KHSAA the other day and I wasn’t surprised. While it’s sad, I do believe that Holmes made the right decision in doing this. I don’t know what it is and haven’t checked in quite a while, but I’m curious about what the total enrollment of Holmes is now?

And I wouldn’t be surprised to see more schools doing this. While I wouldn’t like it, it would be more than understandable. A lot of this is simply is what it is situations, no more and no less.

18 minutes ago, hrcarrier said:

I saw this on KHSAA the other day and I wasn’t surprised. While it’s sad, I do believe that Holmes made the right decision in doing this. I don’t know what it is and haven’t checked in quite a while, but I’m curious about what the total enrollment of Holmes is now?

After two back to back 0-11 seasons with only 2TDs in 2024 and 4TDs in 2023, I resoundingly support their decision to attempt to save the program.  Scheduling programs where a floundering program can grow into competitiveness makes all the sense in the world rather then getting slobber-knocker into another season of no one getting the thrill of pay dirt let alone a victory.  

7 hours ago, Mr. Sixer said:

Can’t speak for the other school but it is definitely the right decision for Holmes! With the numbers they have coming out for football it has the makings of a catastrophic situation. 
 

I thought I remembered Grant Co. doing this some years ago until they got things back stabilized. I could be wrong but I thought they did the same. 

They did. Then they were welcomed back by being put in a district with Fredrick Douglas (the previous year 6A, Scott Co (the previous season was 6A runner up), Great Crossing and Montgomery Co. 

Little known thing about dropping out of district play. When you return you are forced into a 5 team district. 
 

Good decision on Holmes part. Hopefully this has been in the works for awhile so they could get games lined up. 

Looks like Holmes has more than half of their 2025 season hashed out already:

Aug 22 at Boone County
Aug 29 vs. Ludlow
Sep 5 vs. Newport
Sep 12 - OPEN
Sep 19 vs. Shelby County
Sep 26 vs. Jackson County
Oct 3 - OPEN
Oct 10 - OPEN
Oct 17 - OPEN
Oct 24 - OPEN
Oct 30 vs. Scott