41 minutes ago, Honey Badger said:

@barrel @Calico Jack @Colonels_Wear_Blue @New Colonel

I wonder how many schools in NKY offer in school lifting as a class? Seems to be common nature all down south and I would say their reaping the benefits from it.

Oddly enough I don’t think a lot of NKY teams have it. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if schools like Cov Cath or Beechwood have it. I don’t think any of the Kenton or Boone teams have it (Ryle might). I believe Holmes at different times has had some form of it. Lloyd doesn’t. 
 

The difference is schools that want it or want to help their programs find a way to do it. They figure out how to code it for the state. Places that don’t care or that are ignorant simply will say it can’t be done. 

9 minutes ago, ChiefSmoke said:

We have it at Anderson and it has really helped our football program. The school year just ended and this has been our best one so far in the weightroom. 

Had a player from Corbin, played there in the early 80's, told me he NEVER stayed after school to lift weights when he was in HS. The Redhounds were ahead of the curve. 

Yes they were! Others soon followed in the 90’s that were the same way, like Somerset, Danville, Mayfield & they are all, obviously, Independent Schools.

(Now, @ChiefSmoke @barrel and others on here know what I’m alluding to by that last statement, but before anybody that doesn’t starts seeing “red” by that comment….NO, I’m not saying that Independent schools aren’t public schools)

So, if independent schools, who RARELY face any travel/transportation hardships on students and/or their families are doing this? Then why weren’t all schools that end in “County”?

The questions & popular answers are never ending when it comes to building high(er) numbers/successful program(s) across so many places in this state?

If your school has “County” in its name? Start with that & see if things don’t start to change, especially in numbers within your program.

 

15 minutes ago, barrel said:

Oddly enough I don’t think a lot of NKY teams have it. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if schools like Cov Cath or Beechwood have it. I don’t think any of the Kenton or Boone teams have it (Ryle might). I believe Holmes at different times has had some form of it. Lloyd doesn’t. 
 

The difference is schools that want it or want to help their programs find a way to do it. They figure out how to code it for the state. Places that don’t care or that are ignorant simply will say it can’t be done. 

Precisely.  
 

For example, go to Mayfield at a little after 2:00 on any M-TH in the fall when school is back in session.  
 

Drive by Mayfield HS and you’ll see them already practicing during their Athletic Period on any given day(s).

Three miles away? You won’t see that at Graves County. Now, they have In School weights throughout the day, and the majority of their players are in one of the classes offered, but they aren’t all in one class like the Cardinal birds.

9 hours ago, Honey Badger said:

@barrel @Calico Jack @Colonels_Wear_Blue @New Colonel

I wonder how many schools in NKY offer in school lifting as a class? Seems to be common nature all down south and I would say their reaping the benefits from it.

I know Coach Herbst at Dayton wanted to start this. It's very common in California and I've heard a coach from there at a clinic talking about it. It's a great idea if ran right. 

On 5/22/2025 at 5:54 AM, barrel said:

One common thread is administration from central office, principals and AD didn’t make anyone’s life easy or truly help the program. In many cases as bad as it might have looked from the outside some of those years those guys did some amazing jobs coaching. 

Also, I seem to remember there were some booster problems. Meaning the booster president was difficult to work with or tried to make demands of the coaching staff. 

42 minutes ago, PP1 said:

Also, I seem to remember there were some booster problems. Meaning the booster president was difficult to work with or tried to make demands of the coaching staff. 

Once taking over a new job, the Booster President continued to relay to me negative messages from parents. Finally, I said, "Let's eliminate you as the middle man. Tell those complaining parents, if they have a problem with me, tell them they need to go directly to the head coach."

Amazing how happy everybody got after that. ?

11 hours ago, Honey Badger said:

@barrel @Calico Jack @Colonels_Wear_Blue @New Colonel

I wonder how many schools in NKY offer in school lifting as a class? Seems to be common nature all down south and I would say their reaping the benefits from it.

I don't think many.  But I do know, that in Cincinnati, Kerry Coombs started that at Colerain back in the 90s.  He was the first to do it that I know of in the greater Cincinnati area.  Quite a few schools do it now, and you get all the football players to take it.  The really smart schools have all athletes take the class, and you can cater the workouts to those specific sports.  If you want to see that in action done really well, New Palestine High School in Indiana does it extremely well with their Head Football Coach, Kyle Ralph.

10 hours ago, barrel said:

Oddly enough I don’t think a lot of NKY teams have it. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if schools like Cov Cath or Beechwood have it. I don’t think any of the Kenton or Boone teams have it (Ryle might). I believe Holmes at different times has had some form of it. Lloyd doesn’t. 
 

The difference is schools that want it or want to help their programs find a way to do it. They figure out how to code it for the state. Places that don’t care or that are ignorant simply will say it can’t be done. 

Doesn't Cov Cath outsource their weight lifting program now?

13 hours ago, barrel said:

Oddly enough I don’t think a lot of NKY teams have it. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if schools like Cov Cath or Beechwood have it. I don’t think any of the Kenton or Boone teams have it (Ryle might). I believe Holmes at different times has had some form of it. Lloyd doesn’t. 
 

The difference is schools that want it or want to help their programs find a way to do it. They figure out how to code it for the state. Places that don’t care or that are ignorant simply will say it can’t be done. 

Ryle does not have in school weight lifting (Unless this has changed just recently). I do not think any schools in Boone or Kenton county do in school Strength & Conditioning. Most schools are before &/or after.

3 hours ago, New Colonel said:

Doesn't Cov Cath outsource their weight lifting program now?

CCH hired a S&C coach at one point (They may have had a couple since they initially started a few years back). I know the basketball team wasn't a huge fan when Ruthsatz was there, they started going back to ASAP to train- Not sure about the Bball team now.

Football trains at Nevels in Newport, but I believe that is only for speed & agility training. To my knowledge they still have an in house strength program.

3 hours ago, New Colonel said:

Doesn't Cov Cath outsource their weight lifting program now?

The way I have heard CCH football is they have a new strength trainer that trainer the team in house but not during school. They do use Nevels training, but not as their primary program. 

8 hours ago, PP1 said:

Also, I seem to remember there were some booster problems. Meaning the booster president was difficult to work with or tried to make demands of the coaching staff. 

The booster program, the district and some other individuals did not know redbook. They also enforced red book incorrectly. There were booster issues and bingo pulled in a lot of money. Some believe some of that money disappeared through the years. Some of the boosters got hit by the state. If you are a HC you better know red book inside and out. Red book, KHSAA by-laws and your school districts policies. You better know them as good if not better than anyone else in the district. 
 

My understanding is Cov Cath has hired an outside company for their weight program. 

7 hours ago, New Colonel said:

Doesn't Cov Cath outsource their weight lifting program now?

3 hours ago, Sycamores57 said:

CCH hired a S&C coach at one point (They may have had a couple since they initially started a few years back). I know the basketball team wasn't a huge fan when Ruthsatz was there, they started going back to ASAP to train- Not sure about the Bball team now.

Football trains at Nevels in Newport, but I believe that is only for speed & agility training. To my knowledge they still have an in house strength program.

3 hours ago, RedHawk said:

The way I have heard CCH football is they have a new strength trainer that trainer the team in house but not during school. They do use Nevels training, but not as their primary program. 

13 minutes ago, barrel said:

My understanding is Cov Cath has hired an outside company for their weight program. 

Cov Cath first hired a strength and training coach back in early 2022. Like @Sycamores57 said, the basketball program pretty quickly decided to go back to ASAP for training. I believe ASAP moved its primary operations to the Western Sports Mall in Cincinnati but kept the facility open down on Russell Street in Covington, and as far as I know of the basketball team is still going to ASAP in Covington, but I could be wrong.

Football decided after the 2023 season that they weren't going to use the school's strength and training coach and went back to handling strength and training themselves. The school's strength and training coach left after the end of the 2023-24 school year and they hired a new coach for the school, Ben Patenaude. Patenaude is an Illinois native who played football at DuPage and at Georgetown and has been the WR coach and assistant OC at Cov Cath since 2015. The football team announced in January of this year that they made a deal with Jordan Nevels to have him handle the speed and agility training for the football team, and Patenaude is still running the team's strength program.

As far as I know of there aren't any lifting, fitness, or athletic training courses available at Cov Cath, but I believe they may allow students to work out during study hall periods if they have them, but again, I could be mistaken about that.

The current consolidated Grant County High School opened in 1954, right in the midst of all the "county" consolidation school openings around the state. Crittenden High School (1911-1953), Dry Ridge High School (1912-1953), Corinth High School (1918-1953), and Mason High School (1921-1953) all closed to consolidate into GCHS. Williamstown High School, est. 1878, was originally a private school that was established from the older Grant Seminary/Williamstown Seminary school. I believe it switched over to being a public school in 1891, and it remained open as part of Williamstown Independent Schools when consolidation took place around the rest of the county in 1954.

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, Grant County High School started their JV-only football program in the 1990 season and then moved up to the varsity level beginning in the 1992 season, so the upcoming season will be their 34th season with a football program.

Williamstown High School has never had a football program. Corinth, Dry Ridge and Crittenden high schools all had football teams for a decade or so prior to consolidation taking place, but I don't believe Mason High School ever had a football program. Regardless, since its opening, Grant County High School has never had any other school in the county to contend with for football players, and their football program is now in the middle of its 3rd decade on the scene and is STILL hunting for its first-ever playoff win. Seems like an awful long time coming.

Just now, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Williamstown High School has never had a football program. Corinth, Dry Ridge and Crittenden high schools all had football teams for a decade or so prior to consolidation taking place, but I don't believe Mason High School ever had a football program. Regardless, since its opening, Grant County High School has never had any other school in the county to contend with for football players, and their football program is now in the middle of its 3rd decade on the scene and is STILL hunting for its first-ever playoff win. Seems like an awful long time coming.

I feel like there have to be a small handful, but how many other schools are there in the state that have never had any other schools in the same county with football programs?