How to even 6A

[Birdsfan]

The biggest school that you have to face has a 37% advantage over you. Most 6A schools have to overcome a bigger gap than you do (even though you play two classes up) in order to face T and X.

The biggest schools we play are not the biggest schools we have to play.

 

Your telling me adding the Highlands football team to Eastern wouldn't make them better?

It would probably have the opposite effect.

[leatherneck]

In order to eliminate the private schools dominance of the 6A system we need to consider the following action Consolidation.

The difference between St X and T in numbers of boy is marginal 1397 to 1420. I used the average of the two numbering at 1408 and calculated their advantage in numbers over local 6A schools.

Eastern 30% (meaning Trinity and St X have 30% more boys than Eastern)

PRP 35%

Seneca 39%

Manual 41%

Ballard 43%

Southern 44%

Male 47%

Butler 48%

By making the following schools through merger we would create an opposite advantage to the one currently held by the private schools.

Balastern 1792 =21% (meaning Balastern has 21% more boys than STX or T)

BRP 1699 = 17%

Southerneca 1636 = 14%

Malenual 1567 = 10%

A quick look at the numbers will illustrate that consolidating these schools wouldn’t even match the current advantage that the private schools hold over the publics.

The point I want to make is not that we really need to consider consolidation, nor am I for the expulsion of X and T (I rather like competing against them), but rather to shine a brighter light on the issue of numerical dominance that is shared by Trinity and X. More and more I see this as the paramount reason why they have the stranglehold on the 6A title. More than assumed recruiting, coaching, or just plain trying harder. These schools do have a significant calculable advantage over the rest of the class.

Would St X and Trinity be great football schools in the midst of Balastern and Malenual? Actually, they probably would be. But they wouldn't dominate the way they have.

 

 

Numbers used from

http://www.khsaa.org/football/realignment/schoolenrollmentandnotesuseforrealignment.pdf

 

I think a better idea is to limit the number of boys attending X and T to the number of boys at the largest public school.

[RockPride]

More and more I see this as the paramount reason why they have the stranglehold on the 6A title. More than assumed recruiting, coaching, or just plain trying harder

 

While that's fine and dandy....you are simply stating numbers. Let's talk abot the difference between the "athletes" that other schools get in comparison to ours. Or how many more D-1 schollies would go to your "hybrid" teams. We have more bodies, yes, does that give us an edge? Heck yeah. Guess what, we earned them. We built ourselves from NOTHING into the power in KY. I know what 4 programs in KY go through as far as WORK towards winning a championship. X, T, H, and Ballard. The two privates far outwork the two publics. That is fact. I can not speak for the 20+ other schools in JC, or the state as a whole. But I feel you'd be hard pressed to find other schools that invest as much time, money, and pain in their program like Trinity or X do.

[RockPride]

I don't believe in this numerical dominance theory.

 

Doesn't seem to hurt your boys one bit

[RockPride]

How to even 6A? Take Trinity and St. Xavier and slice them both in half ... we would have all the parity we would ever need, and we could cut back to four or five classes.

 

Maybe we'd then have 2 T's and 2 X's in the semi's.

[minnow]

I think one of the things that baffles me about all of this is why are they building new schools when they could just as easily, and probably for far less money, expand their current facilities and hire more teachers? That is what we have done and it has worked very well for us. It isn't the number of students in the school that makes the difference educationally it is the number of students to teachers.

 

Is there not cap size on the number of students a public school can build for?

[leatherneck]

I think one of the things that baffles me about all of this is why are they building new schools when they could just as easily, and probably for far less money, expand their current facilities and hire more teachers? That is what we have done and it has worked very well for us. It isn't the number of students in the school that makes the difference educationally it is the number of students to teachers.

 

 

There is a philosophical trend going through certain academic circles that believes that smaller schools tend to do better academically. Kids "fit" in better; parents get more involved in the schools; better decisions are made due to the decision makers being closer to the situation as a result of less levels of beauracracy; etc. I generally support that philosophy. At the private schools, due to the composition and nature of the education, you don't run into the problems that large student bodies have at public schools.

 

Having said that, there is no reason why there couldn't be one Boone County high school with school split amongst the four campuses of Ryle, Boone County, Conner and Cooper and only one football team combining the athletes of all four campuses. One big downside is it limits the playing opportunities for the kids; a beef that I occasionally hear from parents and fans at the large Cinti private schools. I'm told the Cinti St. X's coach got irate phone calls from some parents the week after they won state because more seniors did not get in the state game.

[westsider]

Maybe we'd then have 2 T's and 2 X's in the semi's.

Possibly ... and if it happened, so be it.

 

I have no doubt that the Catholic schools would still win their share of titles, but I don't think you would see the outright dominance that we see now.

[westsider]

Is there not cap size on the number of students a public school can build for?

I have heard that the state frowns upon a new school having 1,500 or more students ... don't really know how true that is.

[All Tell]

To be fair they didn't compete because they didn't play.

 

I don't know the historical enrollment numbers of the respective schools but being X and T are all male they would only need 900 boys to be equal to a 1800 coed enrollment number.

 

To be really fair we did scrimmage X every year and pretty much got our heads handed to us. We got knocked out of the playoffs my senior year by Bishop David, a much smaller private school so I was just extrapolating that we probably wouldn't be able to compete with Trinity

 

And as I understand it at one time Trinity's enrollment was so low that there was serious consideration given to going co-ed.

[westsider]

There is a philosophical trend going through certain academic circles that believes that smaller schools tend to do better academically. Kids "fit" in better; parents get more involved in the schools; better decisions are made due to the decision makers being closer to the situation as a result of less levels of beauracracy; etc. I generally support that philosophy. At the private schools, due to the composition and nature of the education, you don't run into the problems that large student bodies have at public schools.

Very well stated.

Having said that, there is no reason why there couldn't be one Boone County high school with school split amongst the four campuses of Ryle, Boone County, Conner and Cooper and only one football team combining the athletes of all four campuses. One big downside is it limits the playing opportunities for the kids; a beef that I occasionally hear from parents and fans at the large Cinti private schools. I'm told the Cinti St. X's coach got irate phone calls from some parents the week after they won state because more seniors did not get in the state game.

I'm all for more mid-size schools (800-1,500 enrollment) that give more kids the opportunity to play.

[JIM SEYMOUR # 85]

It's the feeder system. When you have kids start learning the game in the second grade - IT'S A HUGH ADVANTAGE! Even the not so talented athletes at least know the game well enough to be affective on the field.

 

If by "Feeder System" you are referring to the CSAA, then you also need to acknowledge there are pretty competitive and widespread YOUTH LEAGUE's for football out there that encompass not only Jefferson Co. but several surrounding counties as well. They take their football quite serious. They also start their kids quite young. Have seen a great deal of talent there and surely you do not mean to suggest all of those kids end up at T or X do you ?

 

The naysayers need to try a new approach.

[RowdyRedRam]

Just for clarification, everyone is in agreement that if all you do is throw more students at it, the Public High School Football programs will get better? Is that right?

Yes they will be better than they currently are. If that weren't the case there wouldn't be classes. Currently we have a class system that says Central shouldn't compete with Male because they have 400 less boys yet this same class system suggest that Male who has 700 less boys than Trinity should compete together in the same class.

[RowdyRedRam]

While that's fine and dandy....you are simply stating numbers. Let's talk abot the difference between the "athletes" that other schools get in comparison to ours. Or how many more D-1 schollies would go to your "hybrid" teams. We have more bodies, yes, does that give us an edge? Heck yeah. Guess what, we earned them. We built ourselves from NOTHING into the power in KY. I know what 4 programs in KY go through as far as WORK towards winning a championship. X, T, H, and Ballard. The two privates far outwork the two publics. That is fact. I can not speak for the 20+ other schools in JC, or the state as a whole. But I feel you'd be hard pressed to find other schools that invest as much time, money, and pain in their program like Trinity or X do.

If you took the entire Trinity roster including all classes and took removed every fourth player. Would your team have beat St X in the championship?

 

The numbers matter. And there is a BIG gap.

[Birdsfan]

The numbers matter. And there is a BIG gap.

Not nearly as much as you want to believe.