First of all, Manual is an excellent school and turns out a high level of National Merit Scholars. My concern with your wording about the “player pool” is that it is misleading, especially to people not living in Louisville. I would not underestimate the pool of student/athletes that Manual draws from. The way I understand Manual today (and after going to the school’s website) is that it is made of 5 magnet programs that accepts students from the entire county. To my knowledge, Manual does not even have a district like the Manual of old. In fact, under the “Frequently Asked Questions” on the website under “About Manual,” there is the question “Is transportation provided to Manual? --YES. JCPS bus transportation serves the entire county.”

 

Are there as many talented athletes as students as Manual? That might be hard to answer as well as if football is as high of priority as it is at Trinity and St. X. I had heard more than one person say that the baseball coach left Manual and went to Ballard because it was harder to get student/players into Manual. There was a Courier-Journal article not too long ago about how high of enrollment Male High School has and it is “busting out at the seams.” Some say this high enrollment makes it harder for athletic coaches to get players/students into Male as it use to be.

By player pool I don't mean potential players I mean kids that show up to play football. Is there a single position that StX would replace with a Manual player? That is my point the programs are NOT Goliath vs Goliath.

 

The baseball situation is somewhat different. Ballard has an excellent baseball tradition, and clearly a bigger baseball school than Manual. The baseball facilities at Manual are also a joke. The Ballard baseball job is a better baseball job than the Manual one and I say that as a big Crimson supporter.

By player pool I don't mean potential players I mean kids that show up to play football. Is there a single position that StX would replace with a Manual player? That is my point the programs are NOT Goliath vs Goliath......

 

There’s a lot of truth to some of the things that you say; but again, I think your words could be misleading to other people—especially those outside of Louisville. You mention “program size,” but I think it is hard to not put into perspective the size of Manual High School and the very large pool from which they draw students. What would make their football program stronger? Bishop David back in the 1970’s was a small school that was beating some of the big boys in football? Why? Mississippi State, Arkansas, and LSU lead the country in average home paid attendance in baseball with about 8000 per game. Why do those schools do that and not U of L? I just have a concern with a school like Manual with over 1800 students to portray itself as some “David” in a battle with “Goliath.”