rjs4470

While I agree you can learn lessons from football (or really any other competitive activity), not every single element is or needs to be about "teaching a life lesson". Nobody signs up for sports for life lessons. It's really ok for somebody to play sports just to have fun. No one's life has ever taken a turn for the worse because they got to play in the playoffs after a 1-9 season. Not everything needs to be justified by attaching life lessons to every aspect of that activity.

Agreed. Does it make sense? No, not completely. But it's not really a huge issue either. I think the key to any playoff system, is to make sure that no worthy team gets left out, especially if a lesser team gets in over them simply because they play in a weaker district (or conference, region, however you want to divide things up). The one good thing about the current system, is that no worthy team gets left out.

I don't think so. I think Boone and Scott have more in common than there are differences. In hindsight, Dan Court probably should have been Scott's guy when they hired Franklin (I'm pretty sure he applied). I wouldn't think he would be interested this time around.....his next move would likely be up, and Scott would be more of a lateral move at best.

I don't really feel very strongly about either side of the equation. On one hand, it is kind of silly to let so many teams into the playoff's/post season tournament/whatever you want to call it. Mostly because it lengthens the season for no real purpose or gain, especially in Kentucky where we start so early to begin with. I think cutting a week or two off the season, especially on the front end (starting in August rather than mid July) would be good for everyone involved. On the other hand, I do understand the sentiment in letting guys get as many games in as possible. The blowouts don't bother me, because that's going to happen no matter how much you thin the herd come playoff time. I guess if you forced me to choose, I'd say go with less teams in the playoffs. But the current system doesn't really bother me all that much. Football is a different beast than other sports, because the elite teams are so much better than everyone else, and there are so few of them. Other sports, even the really good teams can lose a game or two that they shouldn't. That really doesn't happen in football, so no matter what you do, there are going to be lopsided mismatches.

I don't know that retread is necessarily correct. When Woolley left, they hired Eric Turner from Lloyd. He had turned Lloyd around, and I think most thought that he was a good if not great hire. He was a coach on the rise, and not a retread. Then, when he left, they hired an unknown from Florida, Jake Owens. That crashed when he left a couple of weeks into the season for family reasons. Owens then went on to win a State title in Florida. He intially did bring some energy and seemed like he would be a great fit. So he was likely the right guy, just the wrong circumstance, and certainly not a retread. Then they had to go interim with Hensley and take what they could get because the season was underway, which obviously didn't work out well. Then they hired Franklin, a guy from outside NKY who had experience at smaller schools (Trimble and Carrol) without strong football history. Maybe you could call him a retread, but the first two hires in this cycle were pretty big swings at raising the bar. In the end, it looks kind of like this---they've hired a rising star coach (Turner), the outside the box hire (Owens), interim/quick fix because they had little choice (Hensley), and the boring/easy choice in Franklin. Ultimately, none worked. I really wish the Owens thing had worked out, because I do think things would look much differently now.

I switched from DirectTv a few years ago when NFL Sunday Ticket became property of YouTube. At the time, YouTube Tv was also quite a bit cheaper, and I was saving almost $100 per month, so I was thrilled. Now a few years later, Youtube TV has almost doubled in price, and I'm still dealing with these carriage disputes. I don't watch a ton of live TV outside of live sports, and I'm only a casual college football fan, and I have the lowest level of Hulu, so I'm not missing much. I work Monday nights, so I'm not even missing out on Monday night football. I'm sure this will get resolved, but I'm also sure we'll see another rate increase in the very near future. TV is rapidly becoming a costly luxury, and as I watch less and less tv as I get older, I'm not sure what my future plans will be. As it stands, I'm currently paying a lot for something I'm not getting a lot of use out of.

Scott seemed to have things figured out in the 2010's. When Dave Campbell arrived in 2008 he put a lot of things in place. The Taylor Mill Eagles got started in the NKYFL, solidified the middle school program with the right coaches, and installed a good football culture. When he moved on to a principal role after a few years, Dan Woolley kept the ship going. The youth program grew quickly, the middle school program won 3 championships in a 5 year stretch 2013-2017, the first of which included two wins over Aj Mayer's Covington Catholic middle school team. Good players were staying, and kids from outside of the district were even coming in. And of course there was the last play loss to Johnson Central in the region championship. Then Woolley left. His replacement, Eric Turner had a couple nice playoff runs that ended with big losses to Boyle County. Yes, they were the benefactor of being in a weak district, and playing within that district in the playoffs for the first two rounds, but still, there was success. But something changed during that time period. I don't know what happened, but things were just......different. And now, a few years later, they are back on the bottom looking up and the not-so-distant period of success is basically forgotten. The youth program is solid. The middle school program has mostly struggled since 2018 (although they did play for a championship a couple of years ago), and some good players have chosen to go elsewhere for high school. Revolving door of coaches. People keep saying they need a young coach. I think they need somebody with experience who can rebuild that culture from top to bottom. This is going to be a tough job for someone with no experience, and whoever gets the job will need more than just a positive attitude and lots of energy. Structural pieces are in place, namely, facilities (although the weight room needs a serious upgrade). Hopefully, they can find the right guy and get things turned around.

Hopefully they will at least bring their food truck back. Mainstrasse and that large of a space was just a bad fit for them. Needed to be more bar oriented, which just was their nich. The food business is just so tough.

Most new teams just dive in. JV wrestling in the state for the most part doesn't exist. The goal would be to get your guys and gals as much mat time as possible, and not shying away from competition. Wrestling growth is good for the state, and more teams means more options for competition for everyone.

Never been a fan of an extra bowl game. I'd hate playing in one, and coaching in one. A 10 game season is fine, and if you don't make the playoffs, it's on to basketball, wrestling or whatever else you plan on doing in the winter. And I know those 1-4 playoff games are pretty meaningless too, which is why I'm totally ok with cutting the number of teams in the playoffs.

Yep, and I've seen plenty of high school basketball and football games where there have been lots of clock errors. I know we want perfection, but its just not going to happen. There are certainly going to mistakes and growing pains, but it will get better.

I don't think it will be as bad as many think to find people to run the clock. I think there will certainly be some growing pains and mistakes made especially in the beginning. Some places may struggle, but most programs have a dedicated few people involved that are knowledgeable enough, and willing to chip in to help out.

This change was inevitable, whether it was a good idea or not. Eventually the stuff you see at the Pro and college levels trickle down to high school sport, whether it's technology, equipment, rules etc. Some of these changes take longer than others, but they do eventually happen. I don't think it's a great idea, or was even necessary, but high school basketball will be ok with a shot clock.

Relegation isn't really going to help traditionally bad teams, and it's not going to change the top 4 or 5 teams in each class beating up on all the others. Bad teams are a fact of life in high school sports. Constantly moving teams around a class or two up or down simply won't change that.

Here's the thing. Classes aren't just about the number of schools a state has playing. Classing came about because of the vast difference in sizes/school enrollments. Pretty much everyone agrees that bigger schools have an advantage in a sport like football. Shrinking classes only puts smaller schools in the same class with bigger schools and makes the advantage bigger. I don't care how many schools a state has, schools with 1500 boys are going to generally (not always) going to have an advantage over a school with 900, 600, or less boys, and if you shrink classes you'll have more smaller schools playing with bigger schools. Delaware recently went to 3 classes, and the largest class only has 10 or 11 schools because those larger schools were killing the medium sized schools they were playing with when they were classed together.

I hate the idea of promotion/relegation. For so many schools and outside of the few blue bloods in each class, football is cyclical. Promotion and relegation only take place after the fact. A team that goes through a few years of growing pains then has a big year or two with a couple really good classes, get promoted, and then spend the next few years getting pounded at the next level. Or a team has a few years of struggling, gets relegated, and then grows up and pounds the smaller schools below them. It's like punishing teams for being good at their level, and rewarding teams for struggling. And the moving up and down will mess with alignment and schedules even more than the bi-annual reclassing. Let the pro soccer leagues overseas own the relegation/promotion idea.

They certainly could. I still say, though, that switching on the fly in a game, when you haven't worked on it, isn't a good idea. I'd also say, if you're a little undersized as a team or lacking depth (and I have no idea if NCC is or not), a 3-man front is probably the better choice. Plenty of ways to generate pressure and different looks out of your base defense. NCC will likely be fine. Conner will always be a tough matchup for NCC just because of the size difference between the schools, even if Conner is down a little. The difference between 1a and 5a is getting bigger and bigger.

Plenty of teams are running base 3-man fronts and are able to stop the run. Not to mention that switching fronts means whole new responsibilities, something that isn't easy to do mid-game if you haven't practiced it. And quite frankly, if you don't have the horses to match up, it isn't going to matter what front you run. Which is my point....if you get beat by 5 TD's, it's more your personnel that's the problem, not your scheme.

If you get beat by 5 TD’s scheme isn’t your biggest problem.

This has been HC's pattern. Get really young after a couple good years, then struggle for a few, and then have a solid year two when the kids grow up. Wash, rinse, repeat. It's always good when HC has a solid football team.

Aiken used to regularly play a team or two from NKY 10-15 years ago. They had a 2 year series with Scott in 14 and 15 when Scott was on the way up. Aiken wasn't very good then and Scott beat them pretty badly. They used to play their home games at Stargell Stadium which was torn down to make way for FC Cincinnati's field. From what I understand, they improved and have had competitive teams as of late beating teams they should and losing to the better teams they play, usually badly. I would expect this game to maybe competitive for a quarter or two, but I think Lloyd will roll.

Back when I played in the 80's, in our area, we typically hadn't started school (we always started the Wednesday after Labor Day), and would typically have our first game the Friday after Labor Day. Labor Day was kind of the celebration of the end of camp after 2 weeks of two-a-days and 3 days of 3-a-days. We'd normally practice early in the AM, and then have a team breakfast with the parents in the school cafeteria, where the team captains for the year would be announced. Everything would be done by 11 am or so, and we'd have the rest of the day to relax. We always looked forward to Labor Day, because it signaled the end of the tough times of camp, and the beginning of when the fun started, playing games on Friday night.

It's only a problem brought up when the kid is really good. In truth, there are plenty of reclassed/older kids who are just average players that you'll never hear anything about.

I could care less about how they are arranged. My concern is how can anyone afford Eggland's Best eggs? And are they that much better than the Kroger brand?

Ahhhh...I understand. Cheap is a relative term, and is based on what you're willing to pay. I should have said that dollar for dollar, Cubans aren't really a good value. You're going to be paying close to or even more than double for a Cuban vs a similar stick from the DR (or other country). That being said, if you're interested in Cigars, and you get a chance to try a real Cuban, you probably should, just to be able to say you've had one (or a few). A good Cuban has a unique, spicy character and a level of strength that is beyond what a typical non Cuban has. I just don't think they are worth the price you have to pay. The other problem, is that because of demand, many Cuban's are "young" and need some aging to be at their best, and since they are illegal to bring into the country, you'll have to generally smoke them when they aren't at their best. Most people I've talked to have been underwhelmed when they finally get to sample a real Cuban cigar.