RowdyRedRam

I could argueably make the case that Trinity beat the #2, #3, and #4 teams on there way to the championship. Male, which is still a great program, was not a good team this year.

Trinity 63-0 The mere fact that Male went as far as they did says a lot for disparity of the brackets this season.

When I played for St Margret Mary noticed the same mantra of "We work harder" spread around all the time. It is a smart mindset to create among the players and coaches. I sure they work very had over there in St Matthews and maybe they do work the hardest. But you have no place to say that others simply aren't working hard enough.

Yes.

Facilities have very little to do with it. It was but a two years ago St X didn't even have a sadium. They may encourage an athelete to go to that school but I think the impact is overstated. A nicer weight set doesn't make you stronger than an old beat up one. To say that X and T coaches put more time and effort in there job than other coaches is merely fluffy propoganda. Coaches put their heart and soul into their work all over the state.

I used to agree with you but over the last few (I mean two or three) years I no longer see public schools holding an atheletic advantage.

I'm going to disagree to an extent. It isn't that these scenarios don't exist but this is an individual school issue, the specific school administration can dictate how these issues are handeled.

I agree that the optimist teams are specifically stronger than the catholic teams at the youth level, but I disagree that the feeder program is as beneficial for the public schools than the the catholic league is for the X and T. For one thing virtually the entire catholic league feeds into two schools, the optimist league spreads to many many more. In no way do I want to diminish the abilities or accomplishments of the X and T coaching staffs. But the comparison is apples to oranges, you can't tell me that Beatty or Glaser would be just as successful at Atherton or Moore or even Male or Manual for that matter. Again I don't want to say that they are less than great coaches but they are playing with a stacked deck compared to the other program. The numbers alone make it much more possible for these teams to run more disciplined systems, think about if Player A doesn't do what he is supposed to you have player B, C, and D all capable of coming right in and replacing him, but if player B simply isn't capable of playing at the level of competition you lose a lot of authority in how you handle player A. Many coaches have come out of the X and T coaching circles to try there hand with a public school, there isn't a whole lot of evidence to show that they can bring a public school up to the level of these private programs.

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.

St X is much better than Manual. But I think Manual is capable of more than they showed the last game.

Seneca has a nice passing game and they have athletes as well. Only Trinity blew them out this year and they played Ballard, Eastern, Manual, and PRP very tough and they beat Fern Creek. I think Seneca's schedual has them better prepared for this one, I see them winning 35 to 21.

Manual 35 North Hardin 28

Manual 41 Male 14

Just heard the 2nd half started Half time score was Manual 34 Male 14

Manual 34 Male 7 About 3 min left in the first half

Neither schools stadium can handle the crowd. Last years crowd was outstanding especially for the Manual side. I do have some concern with both schools being a little down that the crowd might suffer.

If Highlands wins it won't be because of a talent advantage.

I'm concerned because Manual is not playing great right now.

Central doesn't come near Trinity.

I don't know how good the other state powers are as I haven't seen enough of them to know. But I do know this. St X has been fielding much stronger teams this decade than in the last and in the 90's they were still very dominate. People say a lot about 6A being down, and this year I would agree to an extent, but I really don't think the rest of the programs have dropped so much as the programs at X and T have elevated. When I played, late 90's, many public schools had a speed advantage on X, this advantage has disappeared. I don't know how and I don't know why that happened but it seems to be the case. While I can't say that I know St X would play with anyone in the nation, I wouldn't be shocked if they could.

Seneca has a very good passing game, they've thrown on everyone.

Eastern took a 0-49 loss to Trinity and they kind of dropped off the map in spite of being undefeated otherwise. I'm not sure it is an upset, Ballard got a big push from beating Manual last week but I think people made a little more of that win than necessary. I'd put Ballard, Manual, and Eastern on the same level. Male is hard to gauge right now and PRP can play with these teams but I don't think they are better.

Maybe they are, but it is worth considering that Manual went up 14 -0 in the first qtr on a team they had previously beaten this year, I wonder if they mentally ended the game a little early?

Correct me if I'm wrong but the set up will be D6------------vs------D7 Boone----------------Lafayette Ryle-----------------Henry Clay Conner--------------Tates Creek Campbell------------Dunbar SK------------------ Cooper------------- D4-----------vs--------D8 Fern Creek-----------Scott Co Male----------------Madison Central Southern-----------GRC Bullitt Central------Shelby Co D1(Daviess----vs----D5 Henderson----------Trinity Marshal-------------Ballard Graves--------------Eastern Apollo--------------Seneca Mad-NH) D2-----------vs-------D3 Greenwood-----------StX Meade---------------Manual NHardin--------------PRP Nelson---------------Butler C Hardin If I were to guess the other side of the bracket will consist of Male vs Scott Co and Lafayette vs Boone. Even though I think Male is WAY down, I wouldn't be surprised to see them come out of it, with my next choice being Scott Co. The funny/disappointing thing is that I think every team D5 would win that whole side of the bracket.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081011/SPORTS05/810110571/1031 Manual wins another close one.