C6H0-83

You can still do Community Theatre

Unfortunately this whole situation is about what you 'can' do and not what you 'should' do. The transfer from one school to another put alot of people involved in a 'no win' situation. If the move were not about athletics, there are many other options for a fresh start academically, or for an apartment for health reasons that would have been just as good, if not better than the move to Ft. Thomas. IMO everyone involved did what they could do, but maybe not what they should have done.

I would like to see Wes Smith get this award. He is the ideal HS athlete, very grounded with good values. Great kid, great family and has worked extremly hard to get where he is athletically.

I know at one point, and I am assuming it is still the case, the Harbin rating system took into consideration out of state opponents. If I am a Mason, Lakota, LaSalle type program that has a hard time making the playoffs in Ohio due to not enough points, I would try and schedule (and beat) Highlands and hope that is the only loss they have. Great way to pick up alot of points! As a fan, I would love to see all N Ky teams play at least one comparable team from across the river. Could be the Greater Cincinnati Championship Series. This sounds bigger than the Herbstreit!

I agree to point. While I would agree that HHS probably does struggle to get NKY teams to play them, I would also have to offer that with the sheer number of HS football teams within 30-45 minute drive of HHS, I would think if you looked hard enough you could find a quality, local opponent that would play you. Think Moeller, LaSalle, East Carter IN, Mason, Lakota(s), etc. You still have a local team that with the right school you could build another rivalry. As a side note, if Ryle comes out with 2 Ws, do you schedule them twice again the following year?

Flotsam I hope you are right. But after constantly getting beat down the floor by Beechwood, getting beat in one on one situations and other than Machinot getting overall 'out quicked' by Beechwood I don't see this happening. I would venture to say Holmes has more speed and athleticism than Beechwood, so I would expect Coach L to look for a way to take the air out of the ball, slow things down and try and pound it inside.

1 in last 4 years is alot?

Rivals has Highlands #8, both great honors http://highschool.rivals.com/viewrankhs.asp?ra_key=646

NDA beat SK both times they faced them in 1995 and 1996.

IMO part of the problem, as has been somewhat stated in a round about way is that the last few years have had more Srs on the team than should be, quite frankly several of these kids should have been cut. But with them having been around the program for 3 years, they are given almost automatic spots on the team. Part of the disrepect/trouble comes from the attitude that because they are Srs they should be guaranteed playing time. I applaud Coach L for trying to keep kids involved, and his loyalty to the older kids, but sometimes you need to make the hard decisions about who is going to help the team win. While you would love for HS sports to be more than just about winning, that is what most coaches are judged on. I am not saying there isn't a way to keep the kids around that want to be around, it may be having the discussion with them letting them know that realistically they are #12 or 13 on the depth chart and probably won't get much playing time. It then becomes their decision whether they want to hang around or not. If you look at most really strong BB teams, they have a 7-8 man rotation at best.

Excellent post and to the point. Congratulations to this group of players not on just a great season, but a great HS career.

Unless the rules are different for the playoffs, I was told by an official that once the point level reaches running clock status it remains running clock regardless, even if the losing team would come back and win.

From last year to this year that would be a fair statement. Check back next year and the year after and five years from now..and if you take into consideration what this group of kids were expected to do it was a huge turnaround in the first year. Plus, if you only judge a program by Wins and Losses you have a pretty distorted view of what High School sports is all about.

TOG-this is exactly the sentiment of most (probably all) of the current parents of players. I for one was wishing my son was younger so he had more time to be in this system and around this group of outstanding coaches. Not just for what they are teaching about what happens on the field, but more importantly how they are developing what takes place off the field with these young men. One of the great things about playing at a school like Cov Cath is the ability to openly discuss morals, integrity, religion, etc. as part of the athletic experience. Unfortunatly in this day of Political Correctness this is very hard to do at a non-private school.

The biggest thing you can do with a program to get the kids out and keep them out is to keep it fun. Most of the best basketball players at NDA and most of the other NKY schools are multiple sport athletes, and if you force them to chose, usually in NKY Basketball will lose. The kids need to understand that they are going to work hard, but at the same time hopefully have fun doing this. From my experience, if I would have made girls chose between Volleyball and Basketball I would have lost over half my team, and several of these girls did get D1 Volleyball scholarships. IMO if they would have played basketball only, very few would have gotten any looks for basketball scholarships. Fact of the matter is girls basketball is not all consuming in NKY like it is in other parts of the state. That is why you see NKY teams competing for state titles year in and year out in Soccer, Volleyball, Track, Cross Country, Tennis, Swimming, etc. but not basketball. In other parts of the state basketball is the only, or 1 of 2 girls sports offered at the high school level.

This was #5 for Johnson Central, goes both ways at QB and DB. He was unable to make it off the field on his own power after laying motionless for several minutes. He did return to I am assuming he is OK.

He may not have been totally out...but for a player to lay completely motionless for as long as he did it was scary to say the least and I am very surprised he returned.

Overall not the way the Cov Cath faithful would have liked this season to end, but given where this group was a few short years ago and where they ended up I would say overall a succesful season. JC was bigger all the way around than Cov Cath, and showed suprising team speed given their size. Considering Cov Cath played this game without 3 starters on D and 1 on O, they hung pretty tough. If the obvious pass interference call on JC was called late in the game along the Cov Cath sideline this could have very well been a 3 point game with close to 5 minutes to play. Several 'no calls' in this game that if called make it alot more interesting. Very impressed with JC running game and ball fakes, had me following the wrong RB on several plays!

I see a few keys to this game in order for Cov Cath to come out on top. On offense, they need to spread the ball around and not just 'lock on' to 1 or 2 receivers. When they have done this in the past, not only does it make the passing game more effective, but it also opens up the running game. Defensively, they need to get tougher up the middle. They have unfortunately had some unexpected personnel changes up the middle on D, and hopefully with another full week of practice they can improve this area.

Most of their plays are designed as pass/run option. Take away one of the options and it is not as effective.

My point is that I doubt Cov Cath would beat St X or Moe in a regulation game even though they beat Moe in 7 on 7. The 7 on 7 is not necessarily an indicator of how the regular game would go.

As did Cov Cath. But I doubt they would beat either in a regulation game.

Worst effort I have seen by Cov Cath all year. They looked out of sync from the beginning. Constant downpour during the entire game rendered the passing game of Cov Cath non-existent. The rain did not slow down the St X running game and IMO St X is the fastest team I have seen all year on both sides of the ball, even in these conditions.

Give the short pass philosophy worked because Cov Cath quit taking the short pass and started looking elsewhere. I know you don't want to get too predictable, but I would have continued to take the 5-7 yard pass on every play until they did stop it. The way Highlands was lining up, with their DBs 10-12 yards off the receivers, I would have kept throwing this until they adjusted, and then gone to something else. Until the fumble on the first drive, Cov Cath was having a very easy time moving the ball. Very impressed with the running ability of Highlands QB. Also a few big time hits by the Highlands D. Looks like alot of promise in both of these squads.