How to even 6A

[rocktopper]

I find it funny that the same mantra about coaching and the system. Does anyone remember what makes good coaches? Good players and plenty of them. This woe is me, I have no talent is contrasted by the 18 players listed on the Trinity website (http://www.thsrock.net) playing college football plus it doesn't include Blayne Donnell, Steve Orndorf, and Dane Spoelker plus any others that aren't listed.That's at least 21 college players- not too shabby for a non talented team. Add in future alumni players to Florida, Ohio State, and U of L from this years team and the talent argument pales in front of the reality of more players means more wins for X and T. Against teams your size this year, you went 1-2 for the season. Combine Bowling Green and Highlands' enrollment together and then see what kind of team 1400 male students produce.

 

jimmyref! You make good comments! I didn’t say we didn’t have good athletes. All I’m saying is the system offense we run is very hard to stop on a regular basis. None of the kids you mentioned new what a X, Y receiver was or that you lead with your right foot on this or that route to gain leverage on the defender and you do it over and over until you get it right... Well I can go on and on, but like I said, it’s coaching! Let’s just agree to disagree. Have a great day. By the way, the (2) were learning experiences, the (1) was for the ring! That’s the one people will always remember. GO ROCKS! #19!

[rocktopper]

I think its fair to point out that X and T do not get the "best" players from throughout J County if by "best" you mean most gifted athletically. If that was the case, wouldn't those two schools turn out a lot more D1 players than everyone else in the state? To the best of my knowledge, that's not the case. When I watch X and T I don't see a field full of huge, fast and strong athletes. Rather, I see a bunch of slightly better than average players at every position, that are extremely well coached and well disciplined. A friend of mine involved in high school athletics played at Henry Clay and lost to Trinity in the playoffs ( my friend was a football stud and got a football scholarship to UK). He told me that Henry Clay had much better athletes on the field, but that Trinity was better prepared, better coached and better disciplined.

 

Heck, I was much, much more impressed with the athletic abilities of the Lou. Central players this year than those on X and T. Further proving my point that X and T don't get all the "best" players in J County is the fact that Central has 3 juniors on their team that are considered to be D1 players. X and T sure didn't get them. Now I will submit that had Central not made a strong effort to really rebuild its football programs several years ago, those players could have ended up at X and T, but whose fault would that have been? Also Male has probably turned out more D1 players over the years than X and T so X and T are getting those "best" players either. Being a public school sure has not hurt Male's ability to get those "best" players.

 

I know its not politically correct for me to say it, but I'm saying it again any way: to the extent that X and T get players from the public schools, its the fault of the public schools. I don't care if a kid gets a 50% financial aid package, very few parents would spend big dollars to send their kids to a private school (other than the religious oriented types) and shuns free public transportation, when there is a strong academic and athletic public school alternative that's for free. If Highlands did not put an emphasis on athletics and academics, by kids would have attended CovCath or NewCath. Fortunately, I have a public school that does so and as a result I don't have to shuck out thousands of dollars to provide those things to my sons.

 

And if more public schools in J County were like Male, Manual and Central and put the same emphasis on football that they do on boys basketball or other sports, there would be a lot fewer kids wanting to get into X and T to play on their football team. The reason more public schools don't is because they don't have to. They are going to get their share of students regardless of whether they have a strong football program or not, which means they'll get their ADA numbers. Whereas, X and T know how important success football is to their enrollment numbers. And they need high enrollment to attract the necessary revenue to keep the doors open. Seems like everyone on here likes to slam the KHSAA for always making its decisions based on money and there is some truth to that. They have to be concerned about money. But those same critics don't apply that "its all about the money" logic to the decisions of the public and private schools. Trust me, money is a big factor in the quality of athletic programs. So if you are a high school administrator and you only have so much money to go around, you have to prioritize the programs that are going to get the greatest emphasis and resources. For decades on decades, the emphasis at most of the public schools was boys basketball and as a result football suffered at those schools. At the private schools however, the emphasis was on football because there is basically an unlimited number of spots on those teams, which means 100s of tuition paying kids could be on the team, which again meant big revenue for the private schools and the doors stayed open. Father Beuter at LexCath was out spoken in his belief that the only way LexCath could survive was if the athletic programs became a magnet for students. He was right. I'm sure there may be other reasons (busing, academics, etc) that have factored into the enrollment growth of X and T, but I firmly believe the success of their athletic programs, in particular football, has had a lot to do with it.

 

Very well said! This is so true! Thanks!

[prepnut]

As far as I'm concerned Jefferson County has to many high schools.

 

Good! Can you imagine if they consolidated? If you think its tuff to beat a Loiusville now....well.............

[prepnut]

Henderson Co probally has a 1000 boys in school. Problem is the school draws from one city, 26,000 Henderson. Henderson would be athletically better suited for 5-A and would have a legitimate shot at winning a state title every 5 yrs or so. Perhaps once in a 100 yrs Hendo could win a title in 6-A. Maybe!

[PepRock01]

Henderson Co probally has a 1000 boys in school. Problem is the school draws from one city, 26,000 Henderson. Henderson would be athletically better suited for 5-A and would have a legitimate shot at winning a state title every 5 yrs or so. Perhaps once in a 100 yrs Hendo could win a title in 6-A. Maybe!

 

 

But, according to the strictly numbers argument with 1000 boys in the school you should be able to find enough to field a championship caliber team.

[prepnut]

Henderson needs to win a state title or 2 to get interest up there to get kids to come out. Not going to happen in 6-A. Its always the same thing every year here, a few skilled players and for evrery skilled player at Hendo, the Trinitys, Males, Stx, & Dupont Manuels have one at every position, 2 deep many times, going only one way. Not knocking the ville schools, but thats the way it is at a county school drawing from one small city. I was equipment mngr at Hendo from 98-06 and we always lacked the ingredients to win a title at the top level. Kids at louisville see all the state title rings that are won repeatedly & want to be a part of it. There are no rings here. Hendo is a good, if not at times, great Western Ky power, but going east always winds up bad. Other good 6-A powers hit the same wall, I.E Marshall Co,Christian Co,Warren Central ect. Luckily, both Christian & Warren are now in 5-A and as a result, have a realistic shot from time to time to compete.

[jimmyref]

But, according to the strictly numbers argument with 1000 boys in the school you should be able to find enough to field a championship caliber team.

I think that the process is taking place right now the the core group of Catholic middle income families are taking a long look at Manual and Ballard. I am not talking about the low income Catholic or non Catholic available for financial aid. I am talking about the people that are looking at spending $40K over four years. I fully expect 3 things to happen in the next 5 years 1) enrollment will drop at both X and T to a 1200 or less level. 2) Manual will get a ring from a team of 25% CSAA graduates. 3) Further consolidation of the Catholic Archdiocese schools creating a smaller pool of students. As grade school costs continue to rise, more transfers to the traditional programs at Male, Butler and Waggoner. This is about 8 years out.

[tcjkbt]

I think that the process is taking place right now the the core group of Catholic middle income families are taking a long look at Manual and Ballard. I am not talking about the low income Catholic or non Catholic available for financial aid. I am talking about the people that are looking at spending $40K over four years. I fully expect 3 things to happen in the next 5 years 1) enrollment will drop at both X and T to a 1200 or less level. 2) Manual will get a ring from a team of 25% CSAA graduates. 3) Further consolidation of the Catholic Archdiocese schools creating a smaller pool of students. As grade school costs continue to rise, more transfers to the traditional programs at Male, Butler and Waggoner. This is about 8 years out.

 

Good (in the sense of accurate) observations, JR. The costs of both grade and high school Catholic tuition are becoming prohibitive for many families. I agree that this contributes to the renaissance at schools like Manual which emulate the Catholic school philosophy sans religion teaching.

[jimmyref]

I think that the process is taking place right now the the core group of Catholic middle income families are taking a long look at Manual and Ballard. I am not talking about the low income Catholic or non Catholic available for financial aid. I am talking about the people that are looking at spending $40K over four years. I fully expect 3 things to happen in the next 5 years 1) enrollment will drop at both X and T to a 1200 or less level. 2) Manual will get a ring from a team of 25% CSAA graduates. 3) Further consolidation of the Catholic Archdiocese schools creating a smaller pool of students. As grade school costs continue to rise, more transfers to the traditional programs at Male, Butler and Waggoner. This is about 8 years out.

 

Here's some numbers from the Archdiocese Website

In the 2006-2007 school year, there were 12304 students in Jefferson County Archdiocesean schools grades k-8. If half of these are boys then there are potentially 6000 boys to feed into the 4 catholic high schools in the 9 grades. Divide 6000 by 9 and you get 666 boys per grade or 2666 per 4 grades. Currently the enrollments are St X 1439, Trinity 1358, Desales 276 and half of the coed Holy Cross at 154 (308 total) That's 3226 currently in school. There's the plus factors of Indiana schools and the counties around Jefferson county in Kentucky but you also have the minus factors of the public schools. It would be interesting to have historical data but I think you can see that X, T, DeSales and Holy Cross have to keep every single male in the feeder system plus attract 600 kids from the public schools and surrounding areas to keep the current enrollments. I think that the current enrollments of St Raphael, Agnes, Stephen Martyr, Ascension, Notre Dame and Athanasius have all fallen below 500 and some below 400.

Large East end parishes such as Gabriel, Patrick, Holy Trinity, Margaret Mary and Albert are all over 675 students along with a growing St Michael at 476 reflect the east ward moving population of Jefferson County catholics. It doesn't bode well for the west end schools, then X, then Trinity. Yes, travel costs could squeeze the middle class students to the nearest public school.