Why are St. Xavier and Trinity so dominant in Football

[northfootball]

I have lived in seven different southern states in the USA and have never yet seen such a dominance in a sport as is found here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky regarding St. Xaiver and Trinity High Schools in football.

 

At one time there were other teams that could challenge Trinity or St X for the title but now it seems there is no one close to doing that. If you look at the scores of the games of these teams with other 6 A schools other than themselves the scores are not even close.

 

The last time Trinity was challenged was Brohms senior year in HS and he lost to Seneca and Manual but beat St X in the reg season and the title game.

 

Although Belfry and Central dominate three A, and Highlands 5 A there are no other programs close to the dominance of Trinity or St X.

 

 

The enrollment of these schools are not enormous but they seem to generate a tremendous amount of football players. There is not a significant number of D1 candidates from either of these programs but yet they dominate.

 

I dont know why they are so dominate but they are. Its not even close. Its like two college teams playing high school teams.

 

What is the secret? Someone should write a book on these two. These two giants are way beyond any other team in this state. They should be playing Upper Level Ohio, Florida, Texas, California , Georgia and Alabama teams.

 

I would like to see both of these teams schedule some big name teams from outside the State consistently other than the Cincy Catholic teams.

[PB40NC]

I have lived in seven different southern states in the USA and have never yet seen such a dominance in a sport as is found here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky regarding St. Xaiver and Trinity High Schools in football.

 

At one time there were other teams that could challenge Trinity or St X for the title but now it seems there is no one close to doing that. If you look at the scores of the games of these teams with other 6 A schools other than themselves the scores are not even close.

 

The last time Trinity was challenged was Brohms senior year in HS and he lost to Seneca and Manual but beat St X in the reg season and the title game.

 

Although Belfry and Central dominate three A, and Highlands 5 A there are no other programs close to the dominance of Trinity or St X.

 

 

The enrollment of these schools are not enormous but they seem to generate a tremendous amount of football players. There is not a significant number of D1 candidates from either of these programs but yet they dominate.

 

I dont know why they are so dominate but they are. Its not even close. Its like two college teams playing high school teams.

 

What is the secret? Someone should write a book on these two. These two giants are way beyond any other team in this state. They should be playing Upper Level Ohio, Florida, Texas, California , Georgia and Alabama teams.

 

I would like to see both of these teams schedule some big name teams from outside the State consistently other than the Cincy Catholic teams.

 

Usually when a high school program is continiously dominant it's due to an excellent youth feeder program. I don't know either team very well, so I can't speak personally for their youth programs. Another thing to consider is the residential status of some of the key athletes. Occasionally, a kid is brought into the system because of their athletic ability reguardless of where they live, and can make a big difference in a good and dominant team. These schools sell themselves very well on being able to provide the athletes with an athletic/education opportunity after they leave the high school system. You could also look at the coaching staff and see that they have put together a sucessful staff in all of the positions which is very important.

Just Food for Thought

[RowdyRedRam]

I have lived in seven different southern states in the USA and have never yet seen such a dominance in a sport as is found here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky regarding St. Xaiver and Trinity High Schools in football.

 

At one time there were other teams that could challenge Trinity or St X for the title but now it seems there is no one close to doing that. If you look at the scores of the games of these teams with other 6 A schools other than themselves the scores are not even close.

 

The last time Trinity was challenged was Brohms senior year in HS and he lost to Seneca and Manual but beat St X in the reg season and the title game.

 

Although Belfry and Central dominate three A, and Highlands 5 A there are no other programs close to the dominance of Trinity or St X.

 

 

The enrollment of these schools are not enormous but they seem to generate a tremendous amount of football players. There is not a significant number of D1 candidates from either of these programs but yet they dominate.

 

I dont know why they are so dominate but they are. Its not even close. Its like two college teams playing high school teams.

 

What is the secret? Someone should write a book on these two. These two giants are way beyond any other team in this state. They should be playing Upper Level Ohio, Florida, Texas, California , Georgia and Alabama teams.

 

I would like to see both of these teams schedule some big name teams from outside the State consistently other than the Cincy Catholic teams.

 

Multiple answers here.

 

The state is a basketball state, but the Catholic community, especially in Louisville, is a football community. Meaning that the interest in the rest of the state with notable exceptions of places like Danville and Highlands simply isn't on the same level. This is partly why the St X and Trinity basketball teams don't dominate in this sport, the interest simply isn't there.

 

The catholic schools in Louisville have a very well organized and structured middle school league. This league sees its duty to prepare players for the high school level, and again with the interest in the catholic community these programs are very well supported. This entire league supports all of the catholic high schools but especially St X and Trinity.

 

Another reason is simply number of boys. Trinity and St X have around 1,400 boys in there school, I believe the highest public school has around 1,100 but that most 6A schools have around 800 boys. Note that the division between most other classes in KY is about 200 boys and that these schools have a 300 boy advantage over the next highest school.

 

The next is the rich getting richer process. The fact that these two powers are so good at football means that they draw the interest of the best football players in the area. I heard someone say earlier in the season that there were 130 freshman on one of the two squads before the season started. I would be willing to bet that 70% or more of those have previous football experience. Many of the public schools in the area struggle to to field a full freshman squad, those that get 30+ usually feel pretty good, but even on these much smaller squads maybe 50% have previous football experience. So it is worth pointing out from the start X and T's fourth and fifth string on the freshman squads often times have more experience than most starting strings.

 

To go along with the last point, there has been a notable difference in the makeup of the X and T squads. Even as late as the late 90's neither squad was athletically all that gifted, this has changed in the last decade. More and more you are seeing athletes come out of X and T. Where as the field was more even when public schools had an athletic advantage, the disappearances of this edge has resulted in absolute domination you are seeing today.

 

I have more to add but I need to get off the computer right now.

[RADIO GUY]

No doubt they dominate in football. They put a great deal of pride and special emphasis on the programs starting at the elementary level and it goes from there. They are the proverbial big fish (statewide) in a small pond of football from a national standpoint. They have had limited sucess (Trinty 5-7 and St. X 1-1 in the last several years )outside of the state on the larger scale among some teams that I have to think is great competition. After all when you are this dominate on the state level I woiuld think you would want to play some top notch programs to gauge yourself where you stand with such teams that are " in your league " . I am sure they would like to play other great teams outside of the state but you only have some many opportunties. They do have other sports that they play, but with the big 3 sports they are only really this sucessfull in football (average if not below in the others ). Having said this yes they are the best of the best and until someone comes and knocks them off on a regular bases they willl remain. No bashing intended here, just a viewpoint.

Edited December 1, 2008 by RADIO GUY
spelling

[Birdsfan]

The state is a basketball state, but the Catholic community, especially in Louisville, is a football community. Meaning that the interest in the rest of the state with notable exceptions of places like Danville and Highlands simply isn't on the same level.

I'm not sure if there is really a connection; but ironically, Ft. Thomas (and to a larger extent the entire NKY area) is pretty heavily Catholic, as compared to other similar areas.

[PepRock01]

I'm not sure if there is really a connection; but ironically, Ft. Thomas (and to a larger extent the entire NKY area) is pretty heavily Catholic, as compared to other similar areas.

 

 

Louisville, being further south than NKY, didn't benefit from a Catholic majority early on. As such the Louisville Catholic schools were set up for the new migrant Catholics to educate their children without worrying about losing their ethnic and religious identity. From that basis it grew into the community it is today.

[TheDeuce]

They have the best players...

[Alabama Larry]

Its been discussed so much on here in the past, maybe you can pull up some old threads.

 

I've had sons play against X/Rocks and they haven't won very many games, and thats life, but once I was writing about this issue and a private supporter told me "we wasn't trying hard enough," well I don't want to see that kind of talk again.

[campbellfield]

I'm not sure if there is really a connection; but ironically, Ft. Thomas (and to a larger extent the entire NKY area) is pretty heavily Catholic, as compared to other similar areas.

 

NO CONNECTION?? Really? No connection that the two schools (and a few in NKY) are Catholic/private. I will not get into it more than that but, take a look at the public/private forum.......

[RockPride]

Because we have tons of boys in our school...the vast majority of which don't play football.

[BaseballIsLife]

NO CONNECTION?? Really? No connection that the two schools (and a few in NKY) are Catholic/private. I will not get into it more than that but, take a look at the public/private forum.......

 

Highlands is an Independent School (in other words a Public School) not a private school, just putting my 2 cents in there.

 

The same goes for Beechwood too...

[82Falcon]

There have been some pretty good explanations as to why. The feeder system is key as is the off season and pre-season work that they do.

 

NKY is the other big power with Highlands, Beechwood and others. Also some strong catholic school teams with strong feeder systems.

[JIM SEYMOUR # 85]

Perhaps X & T -- do not have the better atheletes. They merely make the better teams.

[footballhd]

Public Louisville schools really don't have feeder programs. There is no middle school football, only youth leagues. So any given public high school might get a variety of players from multiple youth league teams. These teams have different systems and coaching. When they get to their public high school, that team might have a different scheme and even different coaching. This turns into a hodge podge of players and understanding of football.

 

Teams that have great feeder programs usually dont encounter this problem.

[tcjkbt]

Perhaps X & T -- do not have the better atheletes. They merely make the better teams.

 

Astute observation.