Scott (Northern KY) head coach opening?

[Sting]

Don't forget Holy Cross at the bottom of the hill!

 

Lack of a dedicated feeder system has doomed Scott football for years. The next coach has to be committed to working the grass roots and not just hoping the athletes walk thru the doors as frosh.

 

SK is enjoying the benefits of Summitt View and Twenhofel generating successful programs with good numbers and I think all of the South Kenton teams in the NKYFL are from SK districts.

 

I think you are absolutley correct that one of the biggest problems with the program has been the lack of a feeder program that other schools have. That is also why a long term plan and commitment is needed. Throwing away the coaches every 3 or 4 years you are constantly in re-building mode...

[Sting]

There is a different way of looking at the decision to let the coach go. Yes he had some level of success this year. But perhaps the administration and supporters at Scott want an even higher level of success and based on their assessment of him as a coach, they did not feel he could take them to that level. We've often said on here that a program cannot succeed unless the administration is committed to winning and that means, in large part, getting the best possible coach to lead these young men. Perhaps, just perhaps, that in spite of Coach Fisk being a nice guy and a decent coach, the administration felt that they needed a better coach than he was in order to win more regularly and take them to the next level. If that was their logic, can you blame them?

 

I know that I've sat with Scott parents pretty regularly over the years (no visitors bleachers at Scott) and a whole lot of them were very critical of the lack of summer practices and conditioning conducted by the coaches. I don't know if that's true or for that matter what the reasons are for such if it is true. If its because the players would quit if he pushed them so hard, that's one thing. If however its because the coaches wanted to take more time off during the summer to golf and just "enjoy" their summer that may be another thing. Winning teams are made not during the season, but rather during the winter, spring and summer in my opinion. Again, I am not around Scott's program enough to know if that is part of the problem, but there are at least some Scott parents that are of the opinion that Scott hasn't put in the time necessary to be able to beat the likes of Dixie, CovCath and Highlands. That dissatisfaction and desire to be better MAY (I don't know) have had something to do with Coach Fisk's removal. Everyone that I know that knows him thinks he is a great guy for what its worth and I wish him luck in the future.

 

You are making alot of guessing and alot assumptions to get somewhere that I do not believe is true. Scott practices every moment that is legally aloud for under the rules. They put in the same amount of time as other schools...

[Sting]

I don't care who follows as the next coach, they will always struggle to beat HHS, Dixie, and CovCath! Maybe somebody closer to the program can enlighten us as to whether there is more to the story. If the expectations are that high at Scott now, then I hope they put their money where their mouth is and hire a coach that can take them to that "Next Level". It wasn't like coaches were jumping at the opportunity the last time the job was open. That was before the Eagles were in district with the above mentioned teams...

 

I think everybody has over analyzed the story so much that it has taken on a life of it's own. I can only tell you that Coach Fisk was hired 33 months ago under a principal and an athletic director that are no longer with the school. The new principal has a different mandate and feels the team should head in a different direction. It really is that simple...

[All Play No Work]

I think everybody has over analyzed the story so much that it has taken on a life of it's own. I can only tell you that Coach Fisk was hired 33 months ago under a principal and an athletic director that are no longer with the school. The new principal has a different mandate and feels the team should head in a different direction. It really is that simple...

 

I agree but what could the "different direction" be when stuck in the same district as Covcath, Highlands, and Dixie?

 

You just are not going to beat both CovCath and Highlands in any given year. And Dixie has the edge in an open enrollment situation and you probably aren't going to beat them 95% of the years.

 

So what coach, other than one maybe only looking for moderate success (win 6 or 7 games, lose in the first round of the playoffs a couple of years in a row) and then looking to move on, could they get?

 

Unless Scott is going to grow to 6A status or drop to the 4A level, I just can't see any coach making that big of a difference.

 

And again it isn't as if Scott has a terrible program. Imagine if the KHSAA doesn't allow teams to play up and they were in a district comprised of Dixie, Holmes, Grant Co., and Scott. That's a situation that a coach taking the program in a different direction could suceed.

[nkysportslegend]

I'm not so sure that it was the right or wrong move for the future of the program, only time will tell if the next guy can actually get Scott up and over the hump. However, I do find it awfully hard to believe that Fisk was fired after one of the better years in Scott's history.

[leatherneck]

You are making alot of guessing and alot assumptions to get somewhere that I do not believe is true. Scott practices every moment that is legally aloud for under the rules. They put in the same amount of time as other schools...

 

Sting, you are right about me making guesses and assumptions, as I admitted and acknowledged in my post. My "theory" as I acknowledged was based only on comments that I heard from some Scott parents. Evidently, based on what you and Eagle4Life are saying, those parents are wrong.

 

If that's not the cause of Scott's problems over the years, any theories of your own why the Eagles have not had more success (other than the lack of a youth league)? I'm not of the camp that there are no "football players" in that school. Based on the success of other sports at Scott, I'd have to believe they have the athletes. Plus, at least the part of the district that I am familiar with, there seem to be a lot of solid families in the district that have the financial wherewithall to support the football program if they wanted to. Again, your thoughts as to why Scott hasn't been more successful if it isn't a preparation thing?

[BigMac]

Name the last time Scott won more than 4 games.....I honestly don't know if they ever have? So your going to fire a guy that wins more games than any coach in recent school history? It just doesn't make any sense to me, but new AD and new Principal obviously want to head in a different direction!

[cshs81]

Name the last time Scott won more than 4 games.....I honestly don't know if they ever have? So your going to fire a guy that wins more games than any coach in recent school history? It just doesn't make any sense to me, but new AD and new Principal obviously want to head in a different direction!

 

Maybe 04.

[HHSDad]

They haven't won more than 4 games in the past 10 years. They were 4-8 in 2002 and 4-6 in 1999.

[stickymitts]

From Ryan Ernst blog:

 

Fisk out at Scott ...

 

Casey Fisk resigned as the Scott football coach on Monday, two weeks after leading the school to just its second playoff appearance in school history.

 

Fisk, a Scott grad, went 7-24 in three seasons at the school. School athletic director Ken Mueller wouldn't say whether or not Fisk was asked to resign, calling it "a personnel matter."

 

This year's team, playing in the first season of Northern Kentucky's newly-formed Class 5A district, upset Holmes to earn the Eagles' first playoff appearance since 2002. They lost to top-ranked Highlands 50-0 in the first round. Still, the departing coach said he is proud of the program's progress.

 

"I think we’re leaving on an upward step," he said. "We’ve worked hard and we’ve done a lot. We scored the second most points in school history and had the third best winning percentage in school history. I have a lot of questions for myself about what went wrong and what went right. But I’m doing what I think is best for the school. There are thousands of guys who are dying to be a head football, and I was one of the lucky ones who actually got to do it."

 

Fisk, who also served as an assistant wrestling coach and head track and field coach at Scott, said he hasn't decided if he'll continue to coach other sports.

 

Mueller said the school is currently accepting applications.

 

"We’re hoping to name someone by early January," he said. "We’re putting together a committee. We’ll take applications and conduct interviews. Obviously we’re looking for somebody to take the bull by the horns. There’s no short list right now."

 

ON A PERSONAL NOTE: I'm a little sad to see Fisk go. Always a great guy to deal with, always a hard worker and always optimistic. Obviously his record wasn't the best. But compared to his predecessors, it was average or better. The school (which, according to some is perpetually hamstrung by Kenton County's open enrollment policy) has had only one winning season.

 

The one word that will forever come to mind when thinking of Fisk is loyal. He loves Scott High School. Intuition tells me he didn't really get a fair shake. But you won't hear him say that, or anything else bad about the school.

 

When the school hired Fisk I remember thinking, "Lemme get this straight: This school has had one winning season in nearly 30 years of football and this guy's treating it like a dream job?"

 

We'll see if anyone's clamoring for it this time around.

 

So, he resigned...

[Freebird23]

I understand your intentions in the post, and agree in wishing coach Fisk the best of luck.

 

But, I have to take exception with the bolded part of your post. Scott has had little to no success in football for the better part of 30 years, it's not like they have athletes hanging out at the juice machine every year just choosing not to be athletes.

 

Also, if winning games and making a little run in the playoffs is what it takes to bring these athletes out, then why do you need them? At that point, you've already won without them.

 

Bottom line here, Scott's football athletes played football this year. They showed up every day (I assume), worked hard, won some and lost some, but they participated and competed. Congrats to them, and all their coaches for that.

 

Is is true that a Kenton Countian footballer can chose between Scott, Simon Kenton or Dixie to play football for, regardless of address? If that is the case, why would a college prospect chose Scott over Simon Kenton or Dixie to get that needed exposeure? And what chances does Scott really have in improving their program if the top flight footballers are leaving the school for greener pastures?

[Sting]

Sting, you are right about me making guesses and assumptions, as I admitted and acknowledged in my post. My "theory" as I acknowledged was based only on comments that I heard from some Scott parents. Evidently, based on what you and Eagle4Life are saying, those parents are wrong.

 

If that's not the cause of Scott's problems over the years, any theories of your own why the Eagles have not had more success (other than the lack of a youth league)? I'm not of the camp that there are no "football players" in that school. Based on the success of other sports at Scott, I'd have to believe they have the athletes. Plus, at least the part of the district that I am familiar with, there seem to be a lot of solid families in the district that have the financial wherewithall to support the football program if they wanted to. Again, your thoughts as to why Scott hasn't been more successful if it isn't a preparation thing?

 

No. It seems to be a simple theory that because Scott doesn't win they aren't properly prepared or don't work hard enough. The kids work as hard as anybody else and the coaches put a good game plan together like everybody else. I have been in the stands with the parents for the last several years. I speak with them repeatedly. Some have legitimate concerns and suggestions, while others can be a bit irrational. When you lose you get alot of backlash and that is understandable. There are some parents that support the team very well and there are some that only show up on Friday night and scream for coaches blood.

 

The chronic problem at Scott is that there isn't enough quality players to be competitive with other teams on a consistant basis. At the core, there are some very talented players, however there are tons of talented players who bypass Scott and play at other schools rather than suffer through more of their ragged history (Jared Lorenzen is a prime example). The kids that remain get an excellent opportunity to play, but the team as a whole is usually a step behind other schools in the area before the game begins.

 

Open enrollment, lack of a feeder program, and a ugly history of football makes it rough at Scott. It is going to take alot of time and commitment to change things. It is going to take a long term plan to organize the feeder system. It's going to take years of steady improvement to change the perception of Scott football. Unfortunately, each coach at Scott only has a limited time to do this. Many of us thought that this season was a small step in that direction...

[Sting]

Is is true that a Kenton Countian footballer can chose between Scott, Simon Kenton or Dixie to play football for, regardless of address? If that is the case, why would a college prospect chose Scott over Simon Kenton or Dixie to get that needed exposeure? And what chances does Scott really have in improving their program if the top flight footballers are leaving the school for greener pastures?

 

It's not that easy to choose schools, but it's not too difficult to go to another school, either. Open enrollment is one of the difficulties that Scott has to deal with. There have been a few players that have chosen to come to Scott as well, but for the most part it has been the other way around. There have been alot of high profile kids that play for some of the better teams in the area that all live in Scott's district...

[nkysportslegend]

It's not that easy to choose schools, but it's not too difficult to go to another school, either. Open enrollment is one of the difficulties that Scott has to deal with. There have been a few players that have chosen to come to Scott as well, but for the most part it has been the other way around. There have been alot of high profile kids that play for some of the better teams in the area that all live in Scott's district...

 

That is true but this happens at every school in NKY. I can name quite a few players over the last few years that didn't play at they were expected to.

[Sting]

They haven't won more than 4 games in the past 10 years. They were 4-8 in 2002 and 4-6 in 1999.

 

I only have Scott down as 2-8 in '99...