I don't see where KY basketball is any better than it was a few years ago. We still get swept by IN every year, and if you take our state champ against Indiana's or Ohio's, we won't win that either.

 

I agree w/ you that any success by UK is a good thing for Kentucky high school athletics. I dont' agree that we've narrowed the gap on Ohio's big boys. If you discount La Salle, NKY teams have beaten 2 GCL teams. CovCath beat Moeller in '92 and Highlands beat St. X. Our # 4 team still got smoked last week by probably the #8 team in Cincinnati. SK just got trounced by Middletown and they're in a battle just to make the playoffs. I think that the players in KY are better than they were 20 years ago, but so are Ohio's. Now, if you want to say that UK's success has raised the participation level of more rural schools and that KY-OH schools are competitive when you compare like size schools (in the smaller divisions) then I'd definitely agree w/ that.

 

And the bolded is an improvement. It will take a while for that to happen in the larger schools, but it can happen. Football was an afterthought in Ky for a very long time in a majority of the state. If UK and UL have more success, it will carry over to the high school teams. Ohio has had that atmosphere for a long long time. If we can get that type of enthusiasm in Ky about football, the gap will narrow. But it's not going to happen over night.

Remember, mediocre Highlands team and mediocre team are two different things. If this team was anyone else in 5A the bandwagon would be overflowing but this Highlands team is not near as good as several of the teams in the recent past therefore mediocre by Highlands standards.

 

Plus, the intention of the thread was to point out the strength of Ohio big school football.

 

Eastern was 3-1 coming into today's game. Their only loss was to Male by 7 pts. Highlands beat Eastern today 46-0. I get the point you are trying to make that, as compared with other Highlands teams (rather than the rest of the field), this is a mediocre team. I respectfully disagree. This Bluebird team has and will continue to measure up very well as compared to other Highlands teams. One might reasonably argue that the 2010 squad is very very good as compared to last year's great team. But mediocre...no way.

Eastern was 3-1 coming into today's game. Their only loss was to Male by 7 pts. Highlands beat Eastern today 46-0. I get the point you are trying to make that, as compared with other Highlands teams (rather than the rest of the field), this is a mediocre team. I respectfully disagree. This Bluebird team has and will continue to measure up very well as compared to other Highlands teams. One might reasonably argue that the 2010 squad is very very good as compared to last year's great team. But mediocre...no way.

 

Ru broke out a new term today. "Down".

Relative to the last few years.

 

Really it is just a conspiracy to sneak the Birds past the Purples. I have already hired Jerry Fletcher to publish a weekly report on the state of the Birds...