Sparky Anderson

Regarding the freshmen numbers at Manual, I was quite surprised to hear that they only have 15 and 19 football players in the last 2 freshmen classes. I would have thought more. And another comment about Fern Creek, I'm happy for any team that enjoys some success, but Fern Creek has the 28th highest enrollment (There's (32) 6A schools) yet they play 5A. Call me old school, but I want to see Fern Creek be successful with the big boys like they used to do, instead of lowering their standards.

Fern Creek had to drop to 5A to be competitive even though they have a 6A enrollment, PRP is up and down, Central is legit and will play anybody, DeSales lost to Fern Creek and CAL cannot compete on 6A, so yes they would have to beg to be considered an upstart.

There's 30 other schools that haven't beaten Trinity or X either. Do those coaches get fired? Who is going to fire Lucas? The principal who couldn't beat Trinity or X when he was the football coach? The AD who is has never been a football coach? Face it, after Male and Manual, and an occasional upstart, there is nothing left in Jefferson County but fluff.

I'm curious as to why you think Doctor / Coach Lucas' days are numbered? He's 3-2 against Male in his career, and other than his first year, he's won 90% +/- of his games against all other schools not named Trinity and St. X. Does Manual think they can do better? But to your point, I have heard that he has feelers out looking for another job.

Give credit where credit is due. I think that it is great that the Valley players are able to enjoy some success, but it has nothing to do with the administration and the head coach. Schedule is softer this year, 6A and 5A schools were replaced with 3A and 2A schools, which is where the schedule should have been all along. From what I hear, the head coach only shows up for the last 30 minutes of practice because of his job. Again, I think it's great for the Valley kids to have a taste of success, but give credit to the players and the asst coaches.

You won't find anything in writing. That's how JCPS operates. They will not put anything in writing unless there is a court order making them put it in writing. No accountability that way. As far as fundraisers paying for maintenance and upkeep of a field, they have to manipulate student/parent generated fundraising money to pay for coaches first. As far as Jerry Wyman coming up with a plan to benefit schools and kids - I seriously doubt that he would go out on a limb for any school or kid before he would risk his own paycheck.

The 6th Region is the same every year. On any given night, Mercy, Butler or Bullitt East can beat each other, so they will be in the mix for the region title. North Bullitt made some noise last year and will do the same this year. The rest of the 6th has no shot at Bowling Green.

Can someone tell me how Fern Creek is moving to 5A when their administration says that enrollment numbers are up and the KHSAA enrollment reports indicate that they are top 30 in enrollment. Who makes these decisions?

When I was growing up, the Derby Festival Classic was a big game where KY-IN Stars played the U.S. Stars. I believe the game was the weekend before Derby. Would this date make it make plausible to play the KY - IN series? It might help Kentucky but what about Indiana?

This is great NCAA information, but does anybody know if NAIA has any similar information to compare?

Here is some info on CAL and Holy Cross. New CAL coach Perry White has coached with Focus AAU, was an assistant at Fern Creek for 1 year, was supposedly an assistant at CAL although I didn't see him on the bench the few games I saw last year. At Holy Cross, I believe that Current assistant Olivia Moore has the job. Jerry Tubbs is a current Sacred Heart assistant but has ties to the southwest side of town with his AAU program and being a coach at St. Nicholas for years. Tony Schnell is a former Holy Cross and Sacred Heart assistant coach as well as being the former head coach at Whitefield Academy. Don't know what he has been doing the last few years. On another note, everyone will be interested in the job until they realize that it pays little to nothing and assistants get even less.

I thought his name was Perry White.

West: Karlee Humphrey (Paducah Tilghman - Region 1) Aaliyah Rodgers (Caldwell County - Region 2) J'Nayah Hall (Apollo - Region 3) Ansley Stalcup (Clinton County - Region 4) Leslie Fries (Pleasure Ridge Park - Region 6) Alex Hibbs (Presentation - Region 7) Alex Peden (Waggener - Region 7) Lydia Graves (Highlands - Region 9) East: Sandra Skinner (George Rogers Clark - Region 10) Asia Sims (Bourbon County - Region 10) Cameron McPherson (Danville - Region 12) Adison Corder (Southwestern - Region 12) Ajaycia Cotton (Clay County - Region 13) Cheyanne Stidham (Letcher County - Region 14) Kelsey Garcia (Sheldon Clark - Region 15) Logan Fraley (Boyd County - Region 16) Waggener?s Peden MVP as West wins all-star game | USA Today High School Sports | USA Today High School Sports I hope I got them right, and I apologize upfront if I listed something wrong.

I don't know the specifics. There was an article in Referee Magazine about Ohio officials some time back, and it mentioned an accountability system. I also have an in-law that officiates in Ohio, and he said that there is a system in place but we never got into it. When we see each other at a family function once every 2-3 years, we usually talk about how great of an official we are! Sorry

Everyone can come up with justification and rationalization, but the bottom line is: officiating is bad in all high school sports. I've been licensed in 3 sports and I can tell you that evaluations from coaches and assigners are not evaluations. They are "buddy" back scratching. Regarding the assigners, some of them have never played or officiated the sport they are assigning and yet they are evaluating others. The policy board that selects assigners is a political mess too. Years ago, The state of Ohio raised dues, increased training requirements and put an actual accountability system in place. The result? They have more officials than they have ever had. I don't know all of the specifics, but you can't keep doing nothing, like we do in KY, and expect a different result. And the answer to this issue is NOT: "go grab a whistle"

I should have clarified that I think all coaches are stupid when it comes to post play. I shouldn't have just singled out Trinity's coach, but if it makes you feel good, go ahead and bash me for the comment.

This may be getting off topic a bit, but I was at the game trying to figure out if it was selfishness on Trinity's guards or stupidity on Trinity's coach. You have a 6'-10" D1 center that nobody else in the state has and you don't even let him touch the ball? Why would anybody want to play the center position these days? Is every guard out there afraid that if they throw the ball to the post, then they won't get it back? Why do coaches go bananas when a center misses a chippie after getting bumped, grabbed and pushed, but don't even react when a guard jacks up a bad 3 or dribble drives the lane and throws up crap? Somebody said Spalding didn't have a motor. Let me tell you, if I was playing a pick up game and ran up and down the court 4 or 5 times without touching the ball, you wouldn't see much of a motor from me either. Does he run up and down the floor just to get in shape for track? He got plenty of practice last night.

I can assure you that it wasn't voted on by the schools. Not sure of the make up, but the 6th / 7th region policy board consisting of mostly JCPS athletic directors and maybe 1 Bullitt AD allegedly make decisions. JCPS director of athletics is some kind of defacto member, but makes all of the decisions. I'm sure money was the reason for the change.

It's 28 games ( fat fingers, small phone). Both regions in Louisville governed by the same school system and director of athletics. Not a good answer but they have always been lumped together.

2 Regions, 4 tournaments, 12 games too many to have at 1 venue. 1st round games for 6th and 7th region boys and girls are played at district champion sites.

It's only a travel in the 1st half, not the end of the game when referees swallow their whistles.

Interesting that this was done with still a week to go in the season. Some teams have 2 or 3 games this week, so coaches haven't seen all of the teams or players. So basically, the coaches are saying that the last week of the season is meaningless. I wonder how many girls didn't make the all region team by 1 or 2 votes because opposing coaches didn't see them and didn't get a vote from them. If you are voting on kids that you haven't seen or played against, it sounds to me that there might be some horse trading going on between coaches to get their respective players on a bogus all region team.

I applaud parents who take care of their kids. I know that it is the last thing on coaches' minds. Everybody thinks that drinking out of the same water bottles (that probably never get run through a dishwasher) and using the the same towels over and over to wipe off your face (towels probably never get washed either) is ok until their kid is one of the 10 or so that get the flu bug. When my kids played, they had their own water bottles and their own towels because coaches don't think of those things. My kids got called petty by the coaches because they wouldn't share their water bottle and towel with the rest of the team. When a coach is mature enough to take care of my kid on the sideline, that's when I'll cut the cord. And besides, we are talking about high school, right?

RCC9, itsagame - No, there are not a lot of Sparky Andersons out there. I did my refereeing time on several levels including college, but that was some time ago. That by no means makes me an expert nor does it mean that refereeing was better years ago. We had clinics and camps that we had to attend on our own time with our own money, not take an online test and attend an association meeting like most today. Years ago, there weren't that many officials because we got our games from coaches and athletic directors - no assigners like today. If you were any good, coaches wanted you back. If you weren't, you didn't get very many games. Today assigners get paid, in part, by the number of officials in an association so it is to their advantage to get as many officials as possible no matter how good or bad they are. I honestly don't know which way is better - assigners or referees getting their own games. I know that I had as many games as I wanted. You could probably start another thread on the good and bad of both ways referees have gotten games. As far as a solution, I can use the Ohio model that has been written about in Referee magazine several times as maybe something KY could try. They increased fees to become an official, increased training requirements putting ownership on the individual referee and increased evaluations. The result? More referees than the state association has ever had. You mention additional training to officials today, and the response has been stated on here already. It's part-time and not enough money in it. The first thing I was taught is that no one should get into officiating for the money, yet that seems to be the excuse as why refereeing is not better than it is. Finally, I can't locate the forum rules where I get called bitter and attacking because I didn't agree with RCC9 and others. I'm stating my opinion, try to validate my opinion and not look at this forum as a popularity contest. No wonder this board goes dead at times!

Typical response. I don't agree with your opinion so I'm bitter. I guess I could tell you to grow up and realize that not everybody agrees with you either, but then I would be petty I guess. The thread has to do with girls officiating. It's bad. That's not being bitter, that's stating my observation and opinion. A start to "fixing" officiating might be to train them (legitimately) first, make them accountable second. I already stated that all of us have poor judgement, beat another dead horse please. I wish had the time to survey every high school female player and and every high school female coach in the state because I believe that they do not like the out-of-control physical play that the predominantly men referees allow. I realize that I'm old school, but it was a better game when skill dominated. I can't wait for the name-calling to follow.