Football: KHSAA proposal joins Trinity, St. X, Male and Manual in District Four

 

KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett, who was in charge of submitting the proposal to the Board of Control, said placing the four schools in the same district was not done to assure that only one could reach the state final.

 

"We did this alignment without regard for what we've been doing," Tackett said. "We took a fresh look at it, and this is only a draft. There's a comment period now for our schools to recommend changes. ... It's not going to hurt my feelings if the Board of Control changes it."

 

In regard to the 12 Jefferson County-area schools in 6-A, Tackett said he started drawing the districts with Oldham County and decided Ballard and Eastern were the closest schools. From there, filling out the district was a choice between Fern Creek and Seneca, Tackett said.

 

"We wanted them to be in with the most common schools, and that took Trinity out of the picture," Tackett said. "Once we got done with that one, we split the other two (districts)."

 

Manual athletic director David Zuberer said he was surprised about the realignment and would ask the KHSAA to explain it.

 

"What we're trying to find out is the criteria they used," Zuberer said. "Historically it's been a geographical thing, and that doesn't fit with our proposed district."

 

 

None of the new District Four schools' athletic directors -- Zuberer, Male's John Kelsey, Trinity's Dennis Lampley and St. X's Alan Donhoff -- had plans to appeal their placements.

 

But Kelsey said he wanted to hear from the KHSAA why the proposed moves were made.

 

"My experience has been that they've always tweaked things here and there, but I haven't been a part of one where it was just, 'Holy cow!' " Kelsey said. "This is completely different. ... It's shocking to see those four teams in the same district."

 

Comments?

? How did KHSAA deliver the news to X & T. Ring and Ditch? HAHAHAHAHAHA. Have to admit its that time of yr. A cartoonist could have fun with that one. BD behind the wheel dressed up as a Bird and JT delivering the goods resembling a Raider or something. LOL.

I read this this morning, and I think that it echos much of the sentiment from M, H, X & T posters here on BGP. It's not that anyone's really upset about the new district, per se. We just want to know the reasoning that was used to create it. Commissioner Tackett also points out that it wasn't nefarious in intent. I'll point it out in this post, as I'm sure it won't be noted by many:

 

None of the new District Four schools' athletic directors -- Zuberer, Male's John Kelsey, Trinity's Dennis Lampley and St. X's Alan Donhoff -- had plans to appeal their placements.

 

In the article and in an interview I saw this morning, it doesn't seem as if either X or T's coaches were surprised.

I read this this morning, and I think that it echos much of the sentiment from M, H, X & T posters here on BGP. It's not that anyone's really upset about the new district, per se. We just want to know the reasoning that was used to create it. Commissioner Tackett also points out that it wasn't nefarious in intent.

 

The new commish just established himself as one whose words cannot be trusted and will speak with a forked tongue to suit his purposes.

 

Does anyone actually believe him????????

Edited October 5, 201015 yr by Mustang
spelling - tongue

The new commish just established himself as one whose words cannot be trusted and will speak with a forked tongue to suit his purposes.

 

Does anyone actually believe him????????

 

 

Yes I do and if you ask people that have worked with him and know him, a huge majority of them feel the same way that I do.

In regard to the 12 Jefferson County-area schools in 6-A, Tackett said he started drawing the districts with Oldham County and decided Ballard and Eastern were the closest schools. From there, filling out the district was a choice between Fern Creek and Seneca, Tackett said.

 

"We wanted them to be in with the most common schools, and that took Trinity out of the picture," Tackett said. "Once we got done with that one, we split the other two (districts)."

 

This is where it gets fuzzy. Why take Trinity out of consideration? He tacitly admits that they're closer to Oldham County than Fern Creek or Seneca.

 

There's only one reason. It lowers his credibility to not just admit it.

This is where any argument for the new districts breaks down, IMO. Can anyone respond to this?

I don't know Mr. Tackett at all, but I believe him. In the past, he's easily been one of the most reasonable when it came to the public/private issue.

I'm guessing the 6A alignment that the Board of Control approves later this month will have undergone some major tweaking ...

^ Most likely the KHSAA floating a test balloon to gauge feedback before the final alignment is set

ANYONE WHO KNOWS TACKETT BELIEVES HIM.

 

Julian Tackett is an honorable man. I too have known him for years, back and beyond his college officiating days and worked with him when we played in the state tournament in 2000.

Honroable men can yield to political pressures and he is sitting on a political hot-seat. I have no dog in this fight whatsoever, but I sincerely believe the KHSAA put X and T in the same district to open up the 6A championship game to one of the above and someone else. I really don't think putting the two of them in the same district had anything to do with geography. I believe that they had the opportunity to make this move and seized that opportunity.

 

While not "nefarious" by definition, I certainly feel that it is intentional and with purpose. JMO

Would anybody be happier if they were in different districts but still on the same side of the draw (i.e., they couldn't meet in the final game)? Seems like this would be a middle ground that the BOC might "gravitate to" if there is too much uproar. Instead of each team fighting for a District Champ patch to put on their jackets (if such things even exist anymore), they'd each usually get a Region Champ patch and the other side of the draw would get to go to the state finals. Maybe even alternate which side of the draw their 2 districts are on each year -- YR1 - Louisville v. Western 6A Champ; YR2 - Louisville v. Eastern / NKy 6A Champ

Julian Tackett is an honorable man. I too have known him for years, back and beyond his college officiating days and worked with him when we played in the state tournament in 2000.

Honroable men can yield to political pressures and he is sitting on a political hot-seat. I have no dog in this fight whatsoever, but I sincerely believe the KHSAA put X and T in the same district to open up the 6A championship game to one of the above and someone else. I really don't think putting the two of them in the same district had anything to do with geography. I believe that they had the opportunity to make this move and seized that opportunity.

 

While not "nefarious" by definition, I certainly feel that it is intentional and with purpose. JMO

 

And you are certainly entitled to that opinion. Perhaps he yielded to political pressure. Not sure who would have been applying it however and how effective it would have been. 6A public school coaches, principals and supers? They tried that gig on the public private split and it didn't work. Don't think it was the BOC but perhaps I'm wrong. Even so, as a newly elected Commissioner, he has pretty strong political capital and had the unanimous vote of the BOC. I can't see him getting all that worried about things if one or two BOC members didn't like what he had proposed. And from what I know of Julian, he is not the type to yield to political pressure. He's going to make the recommendation as to what he thinks is the best alignment, argue in support of the recommendation and then yield to the decision of the BOC. Did the rest of the ad hoc committee also yield to political pressure? Do we even know who all was on the ad hoc committee? I'm told that there was private school representation. I can't see them throwing another private school under the bus.

 

The way I look at it is, I don't know or care what motivations, issues etc Tackett and the ad hoc committee may have had to move Trinity out of the east and into the west. Not knowing, I'm not going to be one of those that speculates. I believe everyone until they give me a reason to feel they are liars.

 

T belongs in the west. Ballard, Eastern and Fern Creek belong in the east because they are east of T. If they had moved a team to the west of T into Oldham's district in lieu of T without some really, really compelling reason, I'd agree with people's irritation, but they didn't. T will experience no extreme travel by being in the west. Ballard, Easter and Fern Creek will not experience any extreme travel being placed in the district with Oldham. What they do with T in the west, I don't really care too much about. If they want to put X, T, Male and Manual in one district because they feel those are "common schools" (whatever that means), I'm fine with it. If they want to put T in a different district from X or Male or Manual, I don't care. They are going to have to beat the other teams from the west to make the championship whether they start off in the same district or not.

 

It's that simple to me.

But that's not how Tackett says they drew the districts.

Julian Tackett is an honorable man. I too have known him for years, back and beyond his college officiating days and worked with him when we played in the state tournament in 2000.

Honroable men can yield to political pressures and he is sitting on a political hot-seat. I have no dog in this fight whatsoever, but I sincerely believe the KHSAA put X and T in the same district to open up the 6A championship game to one of the above and someone else. I really don't think putting the two of them in the same district had anything to do with geography. I believe that they had the opportunity to make this move and seized that opportunity.

 

While not "nefarious" by definition, I certainly feel that it is intentional and with purpose. JMO

 

You have definitely hit the nail on the head with this post, Mustang! :thumb:

 

I think that anyone with any common sense can see through this smokescreen being spewed. Personally I would have much more respect for the KHSAA if they would just be more forthright and honest about the fact that an opportunity presented itself to further abate the public/private confrontation and they seized it. I can handle that, but I despise deception! :irked:

 

Is there some political concern that if all the cards are laid on the table, the KHSAA may find itself confronted by members of the State Legislature again? Can't we just try to be totally honest for once?