CoachJ

So if I have this right, the decision there is that it's a good thing for kids (who are not athletes or musicians) to get their "PHYSICAL" Education in front of a computer screen? Would that not be like deciding that all ENGLISH classes should now be taught by instructors who only speak Spanish or French the whole time? Oh well, good thing childhood obesity and type II diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, etc. aren't really that much a problem in our country. Oh... wait...

I think they're saying nobody does all those things AS WELL (or at least THOROUGHLY) as they do. I can't say I totally disagree. I doubt any of the rest of us REQUIRE all our guys to do as much as they require of their players in JUNE. It's essentially mandatory for their kids to be there basically the length of time of a regular school day (longer for QBs). That requires not only a great commitment from their players (at least the ones who hope to play Varsity) but also those coaches. Believe me, it's VERY tough to get assistants--even teacher/coaches with their 'summers off' (most have to do something else in summer to earn $$)--to get in each of THREE days a week in June for just the four hours we want our kids to come in. Another big difference is while the rest of us have a strength, speed, agility, plyos program in off-season (ours is 5-days a week January through Dead Period except Spring Break), the rest of us spend all day Saturday grading film and all day Sunday doing game plan, we all require discipline of our kids or they lose playing time, have film sessions correcting practice mistakes, etc. like them, Trinity has a MUCH better support system so one to three or four coaches on staff do ALL that stuff as happens for the rest of us. And PLEASE believe me on this: I am NOT putting them down in saying this--as I truly wish WE could do the same--but I doubt Coach B designs the off-season strength/speed/agility/plyos workouts daily and is in the weight room every minute they're in there (maybe he is...I'm just thinking I've heard they have a 'strength-training staff'). I also know they have a video coordinator that doesn't coach (our's does--I'll let you guess who he is). To do video right (which involves filming, editing, grading, and correcting PRACTICE film every Tuesday and Wednesday in addition to splicing up three views of each game film) takes a LOT of man-hours. Kudos to them for making the commitment to take that off the coaching staff! One thing I DO think we do a little better -- and am trying to establish as our "brand" -- is doing all that while also working extremely hard for every senior that exits our program...whether that's helping them get into college as a student, a player, into tech school if that's their thing, or military, or even a job right out of HS. Again (and back to my original point) I doubt Coach B has to worry about that kind of thing because the support system around him at T does SUCH a great job with helping those kids. He certainly has a great situation and is doing a great job within it. I don't blame him at all for staying put.

Kudos to Male and PRP for scheduling T in non-district game. The ONLY way JCPS schools will be able to beat them is to get to know them and not make them out to be some kind of 'invincible monster' to your players. Male has proven this in recent years--last year's playoff game notwithstanding--beating them twice. Got to play them at the lower levels too in my opinion. Definitely will be tough for a frosh or JV team to beat what they do as you don't get to do full scouting reports as you would on varsity, but this at least gets those kids used to what they do. Coverdale does such a good job offensively that they do is too tough to prepare for if you haven't been in action against it before. And their defense is usually just so sound you have to play against it to try and find what will work best for your offense.

To me (granted, certainly no lawyer) I read the above to mean the distinguishing difference in #4 to be the words, "legal" and "organized" in reference to the 22nd. It basically makes the 22nd what the 15th always used to be: the first day you can take attendance and hold it against a kid for missing. I see nothing about the wording in #4 --or in anything previous to #4 --that would PRECLUDE us from having kids wear helmets immediately after the Dead Period. So, I think I'm safe in assuming that unless there is an AMENDMENT to the Bylaws nothing is different than last year. I searched the "KHSAA News and Notes" section of the KHSAA.org website and found no announcement of any bylaw change that would impose any more restrictions on wearing helmets than we had last year. There were FOUR other changes mentioned but nothing about football and helmets -- most were about changes to eligibility bylaws.

Joe has been very successful and speaks for a lot of guys who have been doing this a while when he says what we do should be driven first by "what's best for our kids and their families." Shorten the season -- 10 week season (no "open week"), top 2 in each district to playoffs only, push practice start back to 4th Monday before Week 1--helmets 5 days/uppers 3 days/full after that, Scrimm One 2 weeks before Week 1, Scrimm Two 1 week before Week 1. Thanksgiving week for Finals: Joe knows this is okay...he played in championship games on Turkey Day back in the 70s and I'm sure made the holiday even more special. Heck, I'd even be for a 9-game regular season (let teams not making playoffs play an extra game vs. another non-playoff team if they want) if it means we'd have a champion the week BEFORE Thanksgiving. 7on7 -- I'm all for compressing this into single WEEKS in each month--and make them WEEKDAYS: 1 week in June and 1 week in July. Get away from the "all-day Saturday" tournaments and instead allow 'work-days' between 2, 3, or 4 schools at one site. Limit of 2 hours of work 3 days of those 7on7 work weeks. Rest of June/July prior to practice start spent with your own team how you want to spend it (lift, run, install, etc.). If we're honest, I think football coaches want to give our kids some time to be kids and be with their families in the early summer, but when we do that and see kids still being asked virtually daily by coaches in other sports (mainly non-school affiliated) to practice or play all June it makes it tough to feel like you're making a difference for kids. While I'm at it, I'm for 2 or even 3 weeks 'dead' prior to 1st practice, but could we make the weeks non-consecutive? A kid losing 2 straight weeks of conditioning and heat acclimatization (assuming they stay inside in AC most of the time--a safe assumption I think) I think is a bad thing.

David (aka Chief Smoke) does the best job possible in his role on the Advisory Committee. He (and one other in particular) send out emails frequently getting input from other coaches prior to their meetings. It is my belief that he was as surprised as the rest of us about the helmets decision. Appeared to me that the BOC sometimes makes decisions contrary to the advice of the Advisory Committee based on pressure put on them from outside sources (if you want to read "political" into that, then that is your right).

Just curious, Barrel: are you in Kentucky or out of state?

I will be compiling this again. Usually takes me til right after Spring Break to get it all done (many schools have already posted online their days, costs, etc., but some I like to put on there won't for a few more weeks). In the meantime, you can do as mentioned above and Google: "name of college 2015 summer football camps" and get pretty much all their info if you already know of a school's camp you'd like to attend. Most of the FBS schools have already posted their dates online -- I've accessed U of Illinois, U. of Missouri, and SE Missouri State and their info is up on their sites already.

Though I very strongly lean toward on-campus 1-day camps for kids, I agree with GreyFox on this. The FBS camps have WAY more kids than can really be evaluated. Kid needs to have been invited and/or his HS coach needs to call a college coach he knows will be at the camp and encourage him to take a look at his kid. Before we go to the Illinois camp, I send an email to all the college coaches who will be in attendance with a run-down of the kids I'm taking I think can play at their level. I call the FCS coaches who will be there specifically and send them an individual email with video of the one or two players with the size and/or speed to play at that level. Even though no college coaches there, I will encourage our top kids to go to the Best of the Midwest combine because--though I HATE it--what the Rivals, Scout.com, etc. guys who rate kids think really does matter. Case in point: DeVante Parker--likely will be the #2 WR taken in the draft this year but was "evaluated" by Scout as only the 29th best WR in his class. Main reason? He went to zero of those type camps (couldn't have cared less about his 'star rating'--very little ego and knew he was going to UofL all along). But if you want to see why these type camps are not what they purport, go to YouTube and look at Damien Harris's day at last year's BOMW Combine. He's truly a GREAT running back, but watch him run those drills on video and you decide if the effort was worthy of "Combine MVP." They already know the 'big names' coming and LOVE being able one day when he's hit it big in college or NFL to promote that "Damien Harris was MVP of our camp." Tacitly saying, 'see, coming to our camp will get you the exposure that could lead YOU to being a stud one day too!'

I thought this too...but someone told me (I'm not purporting this is 100% true) that Kentucky is unlike almost all other states around us in that it DOES cost them the same to take an out-of-stater as an in-stater. We had a kid I was sure was going to be offered by Southern Illinois a couple years back and one UT-Martin wanted. I was called by a coach the day before signing day in both instances and was told they had an in-state kid who they evaluated evenly with our guy and said they had to always go with the in-state kid since it costs them less. BTW--kid SIU was recruiting decided to be a preferred walk-on at UofL and lettered last year as a Soph. I'm sure he'd have been a contributor at either of our in-state FCS schools. Was a 3.2 gpa kid with a high ACT score too.

One big issue we have in Ky. is that our scholarship-level FCS schools have--purposely or not--concentrated all or almost all their recruiting on out of state kids. I'm sure they'd say a lot of that is due to not seeing Ky. kids in person at their camps. Only camps to get eyeballs of D1 (FCS & FBS) coaches on you is at an on-campus camp. Those levels are not allowed at combines. (D2, D3, & NAIA don't have same restrictions--which is the only reason we hold the camp we do..it's got 15-20 coaches of schools at those levels directly evaluating kids in action). EKU signed exactly ZERO Ky. HS players this year (signed 19--all out-of-staters). I don't know how many they offered. For our kids to get offers, I have to get them out to ON-CAMPUS CAMPS--I expect them to be able to get to the in-state schools themselves. To increase their exposure, this June (as we do every year), I will take our Seniors and a few Juniors to a series of FBS school camps over 4 days that are known to have FCS coaches present: UIllinois then UMissouri then SE Missouri St. If I can get a few more Louisville kids offered at their competition, maybe our in-state FCS schools will start offering? Kudos to WKU -- had commitments from double-digit Ky. HS players. Perhaps EKU & Murray assumed they took all the talent? I know the guys at EKU & Murray would probably say they don't offer kids they don't see in person.

You can, but you are almost begging for concussions.

Yes we do. Early June. Geared to promote kids specifically to NAIA, D2, and D3 schools. Also is a good early (and cheap) way for a D1 prospect to practice combine drills for the June college 1-day camps.

Hate to sound cynical, but after 20 years of doing this and promoting my kids like crazy (and kids from teams that always won 80% of their games), I can honestly say it comes down to two main things to get initially recruited by the big boys (FBS and FCS schools)... * Height * Speed You may think this is strange to mention height for football, but football is about FORCE at the point of impact and FORCE = Mass x Velocity. The taller you are, the more MASS you can put on and still run as fast. So, if you don't pass their "eye test," your HS stats (against what they'll always consider is 'inferior competition' -- especially in a state like Ky.) won't matter at all to them. The only shot you'll have beyond that is to go to one of their camps and completely dominate the competition in something. YOu must be 'different' in some way than every other "Undersized" kid they see that summer -- and you'd better somehow out-perform a few of the guys they already have on their radar in one-on-one drills. It's not that a kid not passing their "Measurables Eye Test" will NEVER get a shot, but think that he's gotta be like Mugsy Bogues or Spud Webb. The short WR can get recruited but only IF he has some unreal 40 time. The short RB can get recruited but only IF he's built like a Greek god and shows college coaches at THEIR camp he can move. The short OL can get recrui...oh, wait, nevermind, they'll NEVER look at a short lineman -- it's ALL about arm length to D1 schools (zone blocking/pass pro on O...punch and separate on D all require freakishly long arms -- again: the taller you are, the longer your arms are).

All-BGP Sean Hammonds (Ballard HS) signs with Ball State University while surrounded by mom, dad, and little sister. #ChirpChirp

Has Cannon Jackson of Trinity committed to Austin Peay?

Ken Hockman was head coach of that VERY good 1998 team.

After expenses are paid out (emergency services, travel for visiting team, etc.) and considering the usually very low crowds they bring, most 1 seeds actually lose money on that 1st round game. Trinity may be an exception because of their tremendous fan support, but seems like I remember reading on here even THEIR 1st round games when they were 1-seeds were very very low attendance-wise. I remember watching a film one year of them against a 4-seeded western Ky. school when it looked like the stands were about 1/3 full and I think the visiting team took the opportunity to get charter buses.

Great take here. As I've broken down in another thread, I think we could go to COMBINING Dist 1 & 2, 3 & 4, 5 & 6, and 7 & 8 and having all of them play in regular season to determine playoff seeding. Take only the top SIX from each now "Region" (no more 'districts) for the playoffs -- 1 & 2 seeds get a bye in 1st round. No more 1 vs. 4 blowouts. 6 plays 3 and 5 plays 4 in first round so pretty much all the 1st round games are competitive. Travel is not that much more b/c the 1st 3 rounds are intra-region.

Sean Hammonds (Ballard HS) -- full football scholarship to Ball State University.

Terry Calloway of Ballard had 7 INT's. 3 were returned for TD's. He also returned a blocked FG over 70 yards for another TD. Pretty good for a kid that didn't come out for football til his Junior year.

Psychicsubadiver... Good points to achieve the goal of getting the top 2 teams in the finals in each class. Problem with that will always be the real-world issues of TRAVEL for the teams. Pitting a Region 1 team against a Region 5 team might require in some classes having a 3-hour bus trip multiple weeks in a row. I know a lot of people don't like the idea of the 3 or 4 best teams playing against each other early in the playoffs, but when you consider (in 6A anyway) they are the ONLY four schools that have a similar draw of students (i.e., they can all four choose from the entirety of Jefferson County), it does make sense a bit they'd have to play through each other to advance. Strength in football is PARTLY due to the size of your enrollment, but coming from an independent HS that was attractive and available (through a small tuition payment) to kids from a large surrounding area, I can tell you the student 'market' you can draw from is just about as important.

Figs has the right idea. But I say there's a way to eliminate any kind of 'ranking system' by just eliminating districts altogether. All teams in each REGION (8 or 9 teams) play one another in regular season for this set-up: 1) 221 football-playing schools, so divide by 6 = 36.5. All classes but one would have 37 teams. Combine what are now "districts" into "regions" of either 8 or 9 teams. 2) Region teams are required to play all teams in region in regular season. * Schedules are almost completely done -- most teams would be in 9-team Regions, meaning 8 required games and 2 games for traditional rivalry games some teams play outside their class. * Main issue in scheduling would be for AD's in each region to balance out travel times each biennium. 3) My preference on playoff format would be for top SIX out of region make playoffs. First 3 rounds of playoffs are intra-region (helps with travel). #1 & #2 in each region get rewarded with a Bye in 1st Round. #5 plays #4...winner plays #1 in 2nd Rd; #3 plays #6...winner plays #2 in 2nd Rd. * Every game in playoffs would be a re-match of a regular season game. * Blowout games matching what are now #1 against #8 are eliminated. * Allows team that lost in regular season a chance to revise game plan and requires team that won to prove they're better both times. 4) Many more teams wouldn't make playoffs this way -- if it's a big deal for them to get one more game, why not allow them one 'post-season' game with the matching 'place' from the nearest region (in other words, #7 from Region 1 plays #7 from Region 2)? * nobody 'advances,' but they get one more game (programs split the gate to help traveling team). * no longer would the worst team from one district have to play the best team from another. * taking 6 from an entire region would not cause one very strong district's #4 team (think: Manual in the 6A Super District) not to make the playoffs.

Our "practice" was good...but it was great getting to hear our guys state what they were thankful for prior to our team meal...and getting to have my own family there for it as well.

:sssh: