beverlybubba

If Mason had a good opening performance, I doni't want to see a bad one.

My prayers and thoughts go out to the Barnes family and all of the GRC community.

True. Perhaps the best linebacker on the team, after Harris.

Doing a little searching, I found this on Alcoa. 6 consecutive state championships. Last year in 15 games only two teams scored more than Bell Co's 14 point (what this website says). They sound like an absolute powerhouse.

Last year, Lewis County provided the blueprint for beating Mason although Mason had too much talent and made the necessary adjustments in that game, primarily having the linemen go into a 2-point stance. The blueprint: speed rush, overload the line, line guys up wide on the line and come in fast nearly every play. With Mason's linemen in the 3-point stance, they have trouble seeing the defense except what is right in front of them. They can't move their heads or they get a false start call. This gives the speed rushing defense an extra step advantage, plus many times the defense has one or two more guys rushing than Mason had linemen. Ashland and Danville both used this basic formula with their own twists I'm sure. Danville focused strongly on shutting down Mason's three primary offensive threats, Pawsat, Harris and Gilbert. Gilbert was double and triple covered much of the time. Congrats to the Admirals.

I'll go with Mason on this one. Probably closer than last year, although last year wasn't as close as the score indicated. Mason is hot to prove they're better than they looked against Ashland.

Ashland showed a lot of speed on defense in the scrimmage against Mason. I felt that hurt Mason more than anything. Offensively, Ashland has good speed, not great, and runs a lot of misdirection/counter stuff. Very deceptive. Plus, Ashland is deep and has solid players in every position. A tough start to the season for Greenup.

That's good to hear.

Ashland used a defensive scheme that bothered Mason last year against Lewis County, lining the d-ends up wide and speed rushing. I would like to see the Royals let their O-linemen get into a 2-point stance.

Depending on which website I look the temp in Maysville right now is 93-95 with a heat index of 100-103. Almost cool compared to some of the other places.

BTW - I hope Mason Rister has a great year. He's friends with my son and a lot of kids at Mason County. He's a good kid. I think a 9-1 year with a loss to Mason would be real good.:thumb:

I hope so. It got pretty ugly at times against Mason Co. last year. The overall affect was to make Mason want to win by as much as possible, not a mind set you want to put your opponents in.

Yesterday it reached 97 around 1:00 PM but dropped to 75 by 3:00 PM because of rain. Maybe we'll get lucky.

My youngest son is a senior this year. Last year at the start of the spring game, it struck me. Everything he does from here on out in high school will be the last time he does it in high school. If he gets a college scholarship, that'll be be great of course. But, high school provides that family, friend and community flavor that college can't match.

I can't argue with that. I was thinking of all levels, not just high school. The northern Kentucky area especially plays good football. Of course, Highlands is competitive on a national level. All-Star games can be misleading because of who doesn't play. I would tell my son not to play if he already had a scholarship. What's the point? Two schools I"m familiar with in Tennessee, Maryville and Alcoa plays some serious football.

Gibbs H.S., which is just outside of Knoxville, is Chesney's alma mater. I played basketball against Gibbs in high school many years before Chesney went to school there. I looked through my old yearbooks and we never played Gibbs in football. Tennessee is as football crazy as Kentucky is basketball crazy. Being a basketball player, I was painfully aware of that. We still family land near Luttrell, TN where Kenny grew up.

The Cincinnati Zoo and King's Island has them for visitors. They work great.

During hot days, I like to see water/Gatorade available to the players at all times. And, every player should feel free to get a drink whenever they want. I hope coaches remember that a well hydrated, "cool" team can go harder during drills. In the old days, coaches felt players should drink a minimal amount and that anyone wanting more or complaining was a wimp. I worry that this attitude still lives in some coaches. I saw it at at least one college camp this summer. Coaches need to remember that dehydrated, over-heated players don't play well and don't practice well. This is general knowledge nowadays, but I think during the heat of a game or practice it's easy to forget. (No pun intended but I couldn't think of another way to say it.)

Cross may have been the best RB (I thought he played RB against us) Mason County faced last year. I hope all their players are well after the heat scare. May they win them all, except one.

Are all the facts ever known? What was the temperature at the time practice ended? On my back porch in the Maysville area, it got up to 107.8 that day. I posted it on my blog because that was the hottest I'd ever seen it get since I bought my house 6 years ago. One fact is known, 6 boys were treated at the hospital and others by the nurse at school. That's a huge number for one practice. I've never heard of that many at one practice and I'm 59 years old. Ultimately, the coaches are responsible for what happens in their practices. When you have numbers like this, somethings amiss.

It only took a quick Web search for me to find that it takes 2 weeks or more to acclimate to heat and that more heat related problems occur a few days into a heat wave due to the cumulative stress on the body. Football players are especially at risk because of the equipment they wear. The problem with minimum quidelines is that people only follow the minimum guidelines and throw common sense and observation out the window. The article says, "Alderman said other football players were treated at the school by a nurse." This a lot of kids, a virtual epidemic. Something is amiss here far beyond a kid or two not hydrating enough or not being acclimated. The excuse makers will contribute to the increased possibility of future heat related deaths. I don't need to know any coaches to know something was very wrong at Rowan County that day.

With this many kids suffering heat exhaustion in one practice, it's hard for me to believe that there weren't some warning signs before it got to this point. I've seen too many coaches, including some college coaches at camps this summer, who mistakenly think that pushing kids to the limit in the heat makes the kids tough. There's more to it than hydration and fololwing some guidelines. Observation and intelligent judgement should play a larger role than guidelines. Guidelines provide an excuse for someone who doesn't want to pay attention and practice good judgement.

There's no excuse for this. The responsible coaches need to be fired.

No probably about it. 125 tackles last year as a sophomore. He has the speed of a defensive back.

Same here. This year I believe they plan to rotate some of the big offensive linemen into the defense more which could make a significant difference.