FanOfHoltz

Having been a baseball umpire for 20 years and a football coach for a couple of years, I am going to add only this... Officiating is hard because it really relies on the one thing that no one can ever agree on...one's judgment. Umpires are always taught from day one "always answer a coach or manager beginning with the words 'in my judgment' ". Unfortunately, when it comes to officiating any sport, it relies heavily on the human element and since no one is perfect...there will never be a perfectly called game...i dont care who you are. Having said that, being on both sides, I always tell my players and coaches...I WILL HANDLE the officials....you worry about your job whether its playing or coaching your position. I understand that an official is going to make a call based on his judgment and what he saw...therefore, I can not argue that. I can only ask "what did you see?" Many times, I already saw it and wont disagree too much. However, the only thing I have EVER asked any official...is to be consistent on both teams. Too many times I have seen officials clearly tolerate violation of rules from another team but flag the hell out of the opposing team. Case in point...when I was coaching at Iroquois, a St. X player blatantly kicked our QB in the ribs AFTER the play and i KNOW that the ref saw it because he gave the kid a warning...no flag. I didnt like it...but so be it. At least he said something. 2 quarters later, our DB was hit with a "questionable" late hit flag. Yes, the timing was questionable as to whether or not it was actuall late...but again...its a judgment thing. However, I didnt appreciate the ref coming over to our sideline and giving us a warning. WHAT THE HELL FOR??? You didnt give the ST.X sideline a warning...but you did us. I raised the point that I didnt think they were calling it fair both ways. I dont care if its St.X, Male, PRP, or Shawnee...officials are responsible for making sure the game is played fairly by BOTH teams. Too many times...Iroquois was the subject of having an unfair "tag" as being undisciplined and thugs...and we got hosed. I think we are the ONLY team in history to ever get a flag for "Ineligible player downfield on DEFENSE?!??!" HUH??? I am not kidding!!! I know the job is hard...I dont ever complain...unless I feel the game is not being called fairly and evenly. I dont expect perfection...I know calls get missed (Lord knows Ive missed many as an umpire)...however when i feel it is obviously lopsided in the flag tossing...I only raise hell to protect my kids. They say that you can call holding on just about every play...if thats true...I expect to be flagged for holding the same amount of time as the other team. If we get flagged for 10 and they get only 1...something is wrong. "See them like you call them"

Couple of things to point out here about Iroquois...when my brother coached with Thompson there there wasnt really a problem finding coaches...it was finding "quality coaches". Thompson wasnt about to hire guys who just wanted to show up on Friday nights. Likewise, he wasnt going to hire coaches that wanted to do things their own ways. I cant tell you the number of times freshmen players were called on to play varisty and had no clue what the offense or defense was. Once a coach left, Thompson figured if a candidate wasnt going to fit his needs, he would rather do it himself. Also, about the basketball players at this school....if you're not familiar with this situation it should be noted that the athletics department frowns on basketball players playing football. The new coach is going to find out soon that getting these kids out is not going to be an easy task. Thompson tried like hell. I spoke to my brother about this problem and he told me quote "Yes, there are a ton of athletes in that building...however...two questions: Are they playing basketball and if so, good luck getting them out. 2nd: Are they even in the right grade to be eligible to play?" Otherwise, Iroquois could easily have 60-70 players dressing". Good luck to the new coach. Its not going to happen overnight and it certainly isnt going to happen in 1-2 years. Its going to take a lot of time, frustration, sweat, etc. This is a school that is going to require someone who is willing to put together a long term plan to see any results. Hope it works out for everyone.

Boy, a lot of names are being thrown out here for this job without any real "confirmation". As to why anyone would leave J-Town...it may not be a reflection of J-Town...could just be someone looking for another opportunity elsewhere. Not saying one school is better over another, but maybe at Butler the opportunities to work with better athletes is present. Dont think J-Town faired all that well last season. Granted its not like someone is leaving a place like Shawnee to go Doss or someplace like that...but in the end, it never hurts to "look". Getting back to my original point, I would think with all the names being tossed around on this thread, it might be better to just wait until there is definitive, reliable confirmation on these things before some parent, administrator or AD gets on here and gets ticked off for seeing a name on there that really shouldnt be there. I thought only confirmed names were to be put out here but that is me going off the history of reading BGP. Good luck to whoever becomes the coach.

Just to add something here...and this may not be a very valid point...but one thing that needs to be considered in addressing the "why dont more KY schools play out of state teams?" question may have something to do with funding or lack thereof. As one coach told me "its not a question of whether or not we want to play outside competition from out of state, its a question of can we afford it...a lot of ADs and Principals are not willing to front the money to pay for travel cost to travel out of state." He also continued with "The bad thing about being in our situation is that we are not a 'recognized powerhouse' in which out of state teams would be willing to travel here and play us." So this then begs the question....if you are a school that is typically running at an average of 4 to 5 wins per season...how do you get better by playing outside competition if A) you cant afford to go there, B) no one will come to you and play because you "suck" or arent worth the trip and/or C) you are left with having to play the other "underachieving, lower performing" schools year in and year out because you need 10 games and the better competition wont play you unless they are in your district??? Any even if you manage to go 10-0...it then goes back to previously mentioned arguments...you're 10-0 against teams that predominantly 4-6, 5-5 or worse. Which means you probably havent really improved all that much to compete with the Ts, Xs and Males....you're just the best "average" team out there.

"Roll the bones" is a call in the defense. Where his defense starts having issues is that they follow the man and do not bounce. Somethng that is common now in Trinity's offense is to bring an outside rec down to the edge of the line or into the backfield for protection. So the CB for Male would fallow him and now you have one of your better rec matched up with LBers. Teams I believe now duplicate the Trinity appraoch to attack the defense. The defensive structure is not that different then a number of very popular and effective schemes. The difference is Radman has not changed his defense's assignments or structure to adapt what is giving him problems much. I talked to my brother about this whole Male defense thing and since he coached Iroquois' offense in 06 and had to play Male, I asked him what he did since, despite the 80-6 score, they did have over 250 yards of offense, including 170 in the air. One advantage he had was he coached at Male for a couple of years with Redman and knew the defense's weakness. The other is that our father still coaches at Male. From his conversations with our dad, he learned that every team up to that point had put 8-9 men on the LOS to help with blocking. My brother believed this was a mistake because all that does is bring Male's speed that much closer to the ball. So Iroquois was the 1st team Male faced that year that Spread the defense out the entire field, allowing Male to only rush 4-5 guys. 2nd. Passes had to be quick, 2-3 second reads where he practiced throwing to a spot and the receiver would run under it. Since there is no safety help and the DBs line up inside, they struggle to react when the ball is thrown on the outside shoulder towards the sideline. 3rd, have success with this, force Male to drop 2 safeties, the QB draw opens up. Despite the lopsided score, my brother was very pleased with the offense. They had a lot of success on offense, and the QB draw scored a TD. They actually had a 2nd TD pass called back due to too many men on the field. My dad told us at breakfast the next day that Redman came into the office after the game and told all the coaches "Fellas, if Iroquois had any talent they could have kicked our a** tonight. We dont do well against the spread". Sad thing is, Redman knew then that a spread offense would cause him problems but has never done anything to counter it. The point is, it doesnt really take a genius to figure out that Male's defense was designed primarily to stop the running game which is what most teams ran in the 90's. But now that so many teams are going to a pass oriented attack, Male is playing catch-up, especially against spread teams. But I dont think you will see Redman change anything. He is too close to retirement to make a change now and too much into controlling things to trust someone to come in and change his defense and run it themselves. Otherwise, who knows how dominant they could be.

Gotcha....I see what you are talking about and I think you are right. I dont know coach washington but my brother does and he was very disappointed to hear about his departure. Says he is a classy guy and always friendly to his opposing coaches. Keeping this in mind, I dont think people ever really got over his decision to go for 2 a couple of years ago vs. St.X in the playoffs when an x-tra point would have tied the game and sent it to OT. Oh well, as a HS football fan, I just wish Washington nothing but success and Im sure he will land somewhere, someplace...soon.

Is Moore looking for a coach? I havent seen anything about that and Bob Johnson is a friend of the family and nothing has been mentioned about him leaving there.

I personally think Male would benefit from a spread offense that doesnt rely too heavily on the big downfield plays. When I watched them this year, it seemed to me that Redman was trying to hard to get those "big" plays that he is used to. Since Male's talent seems to be dwindling (though they still have speed) and their QB position is as solid as in year's past, I would think that with the players they DO get, an OK QB who can run, backed up with decent, speedy receivers and a quick, but patient TB, they could do well. Their O-Line isnt great but could sustain a block for about 2-3 seconds necessary to free up the TB or QB. It seems to me they would be similar to West Virginia. Pat White was NO deep threat all the time, but he could run and had a host of ball carriers they could give it to...you didnt know who was gonna get the ball but whoever did had the potential to break a huge run.

AS with any offense, the spread comes with a variety of options. Some teams run it very well without a true QB...some run it well with a very good QB. The one good thing about the spread is that it can be easily adjusted to your personnel. My brother told me that when he put it in at Iroquois, they had planned on having a really good QB who was both a great passer and a great runner. When the kid became ineligible, they went to a predominantly run oriented concept. Nothing really changed much except they just added more dimensions of the running game each week instead of throwing it. They put a TB at QB and he ran it well. His thought was that if they spread out the defense and make them cover the whole field, add some misdirection and fake handoffs, then it was harder to know if the QB had the ball or not. I know he got most of his ideas from West Virginia's offense which is pretty much a read-option oriented offense. I do think one of the problems with putting in the spread for the first time is that some coaches try to do too much and put too much in at once. It takes some patience and its probably better to put it in when a new coach comes in rather than try to change the offense with an existing coach. Players are more likely to still think of the old concepts and schemes. at least with a new coach, players' minds are open to learning new things.

The Spread Offense (or different variations of it) seem to be increasing in popularity among high school football squads. Especially now that so many Colleges are going to a form of it. It is a great offense because you dont have to have a good passer at QB to run it. It runs really well with just athletes and a QB that can throw it 8-10 yards with an occasional deep ball. Here is my question....we all know that Trinity runs it very well and that Cover is a master at it. What other teams are running it? My brother put in the Spread at Iroquois during the 2006 season at Iroquois under Coach Thompson and they had a lot of success with it ( he had to take a year off of coaching to finish his teaching certification). My father coaches at Male and says that Coach Redman may be interested in going to a true spread next year. So Im interested to see who else runs it since it seems it is growing in popularity.

Im not sure what BE has returning but I did hear that coach Settles may be looking to revamp the offense and go to a Spread scheme. No official word on this but it would seem appropriate to change the offense up if things are working out so well from an offensive standpoint. If this is true, then that would leave me to believe that BE may not be returning a lot of veteran guys. Its always better to rebuild with younger guys when installing a new offense then it is with veteran players who dont have as long to learn it.

Congrats to T but I have to say this....my hats goes off to Coach Glaser for the classy move of asking and allowing Ty Scroggins at Central to use their field for practice to prepare for PJCS. Just cant say enough about it...that was totally a class act. For what its worth, we can debate it till the cows come home..but at least this years state final was worth the price of admission. Im not a grad or fan of either T or X, but it was nice to see a real 6-A (previously 4-A) final that wasnt a blow out. GREAT JOB GUYS!!!

There are a couple of things that bother me about coaching in jefferson co at all public schools (im in no way trying to slight private schools here)...but: I dont see how any administrator or AD can realistically judge a coach based on wins and losses when the parameters set before them are so tight. Im no expert on how things work for private school coaches, but I know in jefferson co, a coach: 1. can not "legally" recruit athletes (again, im not implying that private schools can and i dont want to start a debate about it...im sure thats been done around here) So the coach is limited somewhat as to the available talent he has at his school 2. is not paid according to what the school believes he is worth, but rather given a stipend based on the Board of Education. Obviously the board believes a coach should coach for the fun of it, not for money. 3. Is restricted to the number of hours he can work with football. Most coaches are required to teach during the day meaning they have the choice of teaching or popping in a video for the students so that he can work on football related issues. 4. In regards to players, a coach is usually restricted to the boundaries set in place for where kids can come from. Its not that easy to just walk in and transfer to a school out of their district. 5. Does not have great luxuries to have just about anything they want at their expense....usually must involve fundraising....which can often take time. Given these and other circumstances, I question whether its really fair to judge a coach on wins and losses and whether or not they can beat X or T. If every coach was subjected to this, then a lot of coaches would be fired yearly because of their inability to beat X or T. Right now, the parity just isnt there. Thankfully, most schools are realistic in understanding that if X or T stands in their district, they are most likely going to be the underdog in that game. As long as a coach is doing things by the book, winning games here and there and dont have a team full of thugs, criminals, rule breakers, etc., then the coach should be able to stay for as long he deems necessary. Im sorry, but I dont care how good of a coach you are, expecting a coach to beat X or T on a yearly basis is not a good thing to base performance evaluation on. Lou Holtz said when he took over at Notre Dame, in his first team meeting he said "Men, expecting me to come in here and fix the problems with this program to win a national championship is like trying to fix a flat tire by changing the driver...a change is being made, but the problem is not fixed." In some cases, this is true. A coaching change isnt always the answer to every problem with a football program whether its high school, college or pro. I think Ballard got this one wrong. They want to make a change, thats fine..they have that right. But their reasons dont appear to be right in this case.

Let the games begin.... Wolfe is out at PRP....Catlett is out at Ballard....here is something to chew on: We all have seen throughout the state that when smaller, lesser known schools have a vacany, not much effect results from the hirings of those coaches because many of those roles are filled by former assistants...however, with PRP and Ballard now looking for a new Coach, there can be no question that their hires will have a tremendous ripple effect on the coaching ranks. Situation: Assume for the moment Bobby Redman goes to Ballard....now then who takes over at Male? No doubt Male will look for someone with several years of experience at the Head Coach position with some evidence of success. That means that someone from another up and coming program will be hired. The same could be argued for the new coach at PRP. It will probably go to someone who has the same caliber of experience. There is no question in my mind that when bigger schools lose coaches, the trickle down effect really goes into action as coaches seeking bigger and better challenges at the more prominent schools actively seek a chance to fill those roles. It is fair to say that the new coach at Iroquois will not be someone who is currently a head coach somewhere in Jefferson Co. That coach will no doubt be an assistant at some other program that maybe isnt a top tier program but someone who wants a shot as a Head Coach. My question is this....what sort of impact does the opening at PRP and Ballard have across Jefferson Co, especially if someone like Redman leaves Male to take over at ballard? What if he says no? Does Ballard still get a big name guy? Who takes over at Ballard if Redman says no? Who takes over at Male if he says yes? I know its pure speculation, but these two current openings could have a huge impact on the coaching ranks throughout Jefferson Co and/or the state (if it makes that far). And, we havent even finished December yet. Who knows what other openings will come up in Jefferson Co. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

Ballard's enrollment is somewhere around 1500 I believe. In regards to the magnet program, it should be noted that all schools that have a magnet program many of the requirements to get in are not all that rigid. One other thing...the rumor of Redman going to Ballard started back at about week #9 of the season. Its very coincidental to me that this rumor began not too long ago and here we are...Catlett is out....and the CJ reports that Redman is the top candidate. It just makes you wonder or think that someone on the "inside" must have had some clue or notion as to the potential plan. I dont agree that this is a fair deal to Catlett...but as many have stated on this thread...it just seems to be the trend. By the way, Redman left Ballard in 92 to go to Male. How good does this possible revolving door look??? Keep in mind, the administration has changed since then, so the current group of administrators are not the same ones that were there when he left, so the argument that they may have some ill feelings about Redman returning shouldnt be much of one. New administrators are in place who probably dont recall (or care) that Redman was once there and left to go to Male. Bottom line...the only people who really knows what will happen is the Principal, the AD and Bob Redman....I guess we will just have to stay tuned. And no, it would not suprise me one bit if Catlett wound up at lexington or PRP....but I think everyone is waiting until the coaching resignations end before movements are really made. If Ballard really wants Redman and Redman wants to go Ballard, they will keep that job open as long as necessary to make it happen.

A couple of things to keep in mind here regarding this situation... As someone mentioned, times have changed...Male doesnt get the athletes they once did because of the rule changes as to how a student/athlete can get into Male. Male can no longer get students unless they come directly from the 8th out of a feeder traditional middle school program. That has been one of the reasons why Male's talent level has dropped (and believe me it has) over the course of the last few years. While they still get some athletes, they can no longer get that large crop that they were once used to when a Freshman class could bring in 10-12 players that could just flat out play. I think the Freshman class that included Doug Beaumont was the last time that was allowed to come in from non-traditional middle schools. When that change was made, many of those kids who wanted to go from a non-traditional middle school to Male started spreading out throughout the county to other high schools, including St. X and Trinity. As for Higgins, despite being a Redman protege, people have to remember that he has a great deal at Fern Creek. He is not bound by the enrollment rules that Male is. Fern Creek will and is getting a lot of talent coming into their hallways throughout the county. Fern Creek could very well be the next pulic school powerhouse in Jefferson County. The QB will be a JR next season and they will continue to have a lot of talent come into the building that play for the local Hikes Point/Fern Creek optimist leagues. And remember that Redman and Higgins are very close friends. One would have to believe that if Redman decided to leave, Higgins knows there is a reason that Male has dropped off in talent level and Im sure Redman would be supportive of that move, but he would probably be sure to mention that "things arent like what they used to be". Another thing to consider is that Redman is only 1-2 wins away from reaching 300. I wouldnt be surprised if Redman finishes another year at Male, gets 300, and then calls it a career.