Lets address the theory that Trinity has just been better than Highlands. I have seen them on the field together two of the three times that this event has happened. The teams are officially 1-1 and a scrimmage took place just this past season. In the real game that I witnessed (2000) Highlands was the far superior team, even pulling their starters in the second half before being forced to return them to the game. Last year in the much talked about scrimmage Trinity 'won' by less than a touchdown in a contest that clearly featured two very evenly matched teams. These two teams were without a doubt the two best in the state.

Some years the better team? Yes. Often comparable? Yes. Some years one of the two teams has a decided advantage over the other. Yes One team consistantly superior over the other. Not now, and likely not in my lifetime.

Edited June 30, 201115 yr by ColdHard

What if we level the playing field and combine the enrollment of CovCath, Beechwood, Highlands, and NewCath thus giving this new school a comparable yet still smaller male enrollment than Trinity or Xavier. Would they prehaps cut into the success that those teams have been enjoying, or would they continue to dominate the class? What if the whole of 6A was filled with such like sized schools? Might that change things?

 

I just blew up your we're bigger so we're better theory. Trinity is awsome and is desrving of mention with those at the top. But please don't continue to go there because it just won't fly on here.

Lets address playing competition of much smaller enrollment. The newly formed Mercer Co. High School was formed from two AA schools and had an enrollment that would have placed it in AAAA in the old 4 class system. Niether of the former schools was considered a power prior to the merger, yet when combined and allowed to compete in AA against smaller schools the predictable thing did happen. Mercer dominated the state and won the state championship. If any historicly good team had been allowed to play down they would hav Trinity like success. Let's say CovCath plays in A or AA since it's inception??

 

This post is not accurate. Harrodsburg was an A school and Mercer County was AA. With their combined enrollment numbers they would have been a AAA school not a AAAA school. They also dominated teams from all classes that year(including Boyle County) but won the AA title by 3 points. Not to mention, that tem was a great team.

This post is not accurate. Harrodsburg was an A school and Mercer County was AA. With their combined enrollment numbers they would have been a AAA school not a AAAA school. They also dominated teams from all classes that year(including Boyle County) but won the AA title by 3 points. Not to mention, that tem was a great team.

 

I was about to post the same reply Purple. Also inaccurate is your assessment of the schools. While maybe not on the level of HHS, Trinity, Beechwood, etc - Harrodsburg has historically been a very good program producing some great Division 1 talent and twice been to the state finals in Class A. Mercer had been improving going into the merger. The combination of the talent put them over the top at that time.

This is an argument that will never have a winner. There appear to be two schools of thought, 1. Who generally year after year has the best team (Trinity) and 2. Who has a better program (Highlands).

 

Where enrollment helps Trinity in one argument, it hurts them in the other. Trinity has more boys to choose from, and does an incredible job bringing them in from all of the feeder schools and making them into good football players. Other 6A schools w/ similar enrollments have done nothing to slow down this dominance.

 

Highlands, in my opinion, is the best program. They would not have a winning record against Trinity year in and year out. I believe that Trinity wins 55%-60% of the time. However, the fact that a school w/ 400 boys can take 45% percent of the games played against Trinity shows you why Highlands is the best PROGRAM. Most schools in the state w/ Highlands enrollment have a golden class that comes and goes. Highlands has a system that produces sustained excellence. It takes limited numbers and molds them into a machine.

 

So, the answer to this question depends how you'll view the question of who is the best program.

This is an argument that will never have a winner. There appear to be two schools of thought, 1. Who generally year after year has the best team (Trinity) and 2. Who has a better program (Highlands).

 

Where enrollment helps Trinity in one argument, it hurts them in the other. Trinity has more boys to choose from, and does an incredible job bringing them in from all of the feeder schools and making them into good football players. Other 6A schools w/ similar enrollments have done nothing to slow down this dominance.

 

Highlands, in my opinion, is the best program. They would not have a winning record against Trinity year in and year out. I believe that Trinity wins 55%-60% of the time. However, the fact that a school w/ 400 boys can take 45% percent of the games played against Trinity shows you why Highlands is the best PROGRAM. Most schools in the state w/ Highlands enrollment have a golden class that comes and goes. Highlands has a system that produces sustained excellence. It takes limited numbers and molds them into a machine.

 

So, the answer to this question depends how you'll view the question of who is the best program.

 

:thumb:

This post is not accurate. Harrodsburg was an A school and Mercer County was AA. With their combined enrollment numbers they would have been a AAA school not a AAAA school. They also dominated teams from all classes that year(including Boyle County) but won the AA title by 3 points. Not to mention, that tem was a great team.

Mercer beat Boyle 27-14 that year ... Boyle had a 6-6 record, including a three-TD loss to Southwestern in the next game and a 53-10 loss to Henry Clay.

 

Mercer had a good team but also benefitted from playing in a relatively weak class with an enrollment advantage.

This is an argument that will never have a winner. There appear to be two schools of thought, 1. Who generally year after year has the best team (Trinity) and 2. Who has a better program (Highlands).

 

Where enrollment helps Trinity in one argument, it hurts them in the other. Trinity has more boys to choose from, and does an incredible job bringing them in from all of the feeder schools and making them into good football players. Other 6A schools w/ similar enrollments have done nothing to slow down this dominance.

 

Highlands, in my opinion, is the best program. They would not have a winning record against Trinity year in and year out. I believe that Trinity wins 55%-60% of the time. However, the fact that a school w/ 400 boys can take 45% percent of the games played against Trinity shows you why Highlands is the best PROGRAM. Most schools in the state w/ Highlands enrollment have a golden class that comes and goes. Highlands has a system that produces sustained excellence. It takes limited numbers and molds them into a machine.

 

So, the answer to this question depends how you'll view the question of who is the best program.

 

Well said.

 

Co-sign.

Mercer beat Boyle 27-14 that year ... Boyle had a 6-6 record, including a three-TD loss to Southwestern in the next game and a 53-10 loss to Henry Clay.

 

Mercer had a good team but also benefitted from playing in a relatively weak class with an enrollment advantage.

 

They enjoyed an enrollment advantage of two...Brandon Ford and Corey Jackson from Harrodsburg. They were the added ingredients to a Mercer team that made a deep playoff run their last year as the Scotties.

Mercer beat Boyle 27-14 that year ... Boyle had a 6-6 record, including a three-TD loss to Southwestern in the next game and a 53-10 loss to Henry Clay.

 

Mercer had a good team but also benefitted from playing in a relatively weak class with an enrollment advantage.

 

I agree it was an advantage to Mercer but the original poster painted it in a far different light by citing Harrodsburg as 2A (when in fact they were one of the smaller 1A schools) and that combined they would have been 4A (when they were clearly a 3A size school which means they were one class above, not two)

Sorry i missed on the class size but this just further proves my point. Playing down in class or more importantly playing against schools of smaller enrollment is a huge advantage. Mercer's advantage was about 100 boys over the competition. Trinity and X generaly share a much larger advantage in numbers but not likely much difference by percentile. So, I still like the comparison.

And what has become of Mercer now that they play in their appropriate class? What class are they in? I have not heard of them doing a thing since that 'magical' year.

Sorry i missed on the class size but this just further proves my point. Playing down in class or more importantly playing against schools of smaller enrollment is a huge advantage. Mercer's advantage was about 100 boys over the competition. Trinity and X generaly share a much larger advantage in numbers but not likely much difference by percentile. So, I still like the comparison.

And what has become of Mercer now that they play in their appropriate class? What class are they in? I have not heard of them doing a thing since that 'magical' year.

 

After their initial year of consolidation they had some success in their first year after their title. They went through a coaching change(from Jaggers to Mason) and the new coach won less than 5 games in two years I believe and now they have another coach in place(Paul Rains). From the outside looking in it would appear that Mercer benefitted greatly from being in 2A that year but being fairly close to the football situation at Mercer County I do not believe that is the case. That team was a special team that I believe would have won or at the the very least made the finals in 3A that year. They had 2-2,000 yard rushers on that team and a lock down defense. They have yet to duplicate the talent level that the championship Titans had and the free fall the program underwent after Jaggers left are the reasons for their present day success...or lack of success. I am hearing the attitudes of the players hasn't changed a whole lot yet but that should change once practice starts. At least I hope it does. Mercer has the potential to be a good-great team once the players put in the necessary work to be great players. They are smaller physically than most schools they face and it shows on the field when they play. It is evident that some of them aren't hitting the weight room like they should be.

 

They are in 4A after the new alignment and share a district with Boyle County, LexCath, Marion County and Taylor County.

They enjoyed an enrollment advantage of two...Brandon Ford and Corey Jackson from Harrodsburg. They were the added ingredients to a Mercer team that made a deep playoff run their last year as the Scotties.

If I recall correctly, several ex-Harrodsburg players were on the Danville paper's all-area team that season ... seven, I think, was the number.

After their initial year of consolidation they had some success in their first year after their title. They went through a coaching change(from Jaggers to Mason) and the new coach won less than 5 games in two years I believe and now they have another coach in place(Paul Rains). From the outside looking in it would appear that Mercer benefitted greatly from being in 2A that year but being fairly close to the football situation at Mercer County I do not believe that is the case. That team was a special team that I believe would have won or at the the very least made the finals in 3A that year. They had 2-2,000 yard rushers on that team and a lock down defense. They have yet to duplicate the talent level that the championship Titans had and the free fall the program underwent after Jaggers left are the reasons for their present day success...or lack of success. I am hearing the attitudes of the players hasn't changed a whole lot yet but that should change once practice starts. At least I hope it does. Mercer has the potential to be a good-great team once the players put in the necessary work to be great players. They are smaller physically than most schools they face and it shows on the field when they play. It is evident that some of them aren't hitting the weight room like they should be..

There were a great deal of discussions that fall about how much the merger improved Mercer's team. I think the consensus was that the pre-merger Scotties would have had a decent shot at getting to the finals, but the influx of Harrodsburg talent put them way over the hump.

If I recall correctly, several ex-Harrodsburg players were on the Danville paper's all-area team that season ... seven, I think, was the number.

 

Really? Wow. The only ones I remember being important factors were Ford, Jackson and Freeman Edwards. I really don't remember any Harrodsburg players other than those 3 who were big time contributors. Chris Lewis, Tyler Horn and Justin Morgan were probably the 3 Mercer County Scottie players who made the team also. I can't remember offhand so you could be right. Must have been a slow year for area football players if that is the case. If 7 players from Harrodsburg made the team they should have been better than 3-8 in their last year before extiinction.