wheelhouse

Without giving away any confidences, I've been told that the Holmes starting lineup has not been 100% finalized yet (although a couple of spots obviously are settled).

I don't know that it's any one disagreeable statement or even any inaccurate statements. I myself stopped visiting any Cordia-related threads a while ago because the entire discussion has taken on a somewhat unhinged tone. It's like attending a party where drunk friends swing Nerf bats at one another.

I was just discussing this proposal with an Ohio showcase organizer/director who was conscientious enough to e-mail everyone in his database a warning that Kentucky (boy) players should not to sign up for his fall events -- naturally, he is hoping for a change. He also informed me that Kentucky is the only state where this rule exists. If that is so, does anybody know of the KHSAA's rationale for the rule? And while we're at it, how do Kentucky high school coaches tend to feel about it?

This is the part where I complain that you're dissing my home town and you claim that you're doing nothing of the sort. Whew. Glad that's out of the way.

When I am on my deathbed and someone asks me if I have any regrets, I'll reply: "You know, I really wish we could have had a few more BGP threads where folks argued about transfers. Oh, and more KISS reunion tours."

Thanks for the clarification -- not being a college or high school coach I did not realize that this is S.O.P. Now I just need to revise my resume, since I have become six feet tall.

Great point. So does the scouting angle explain the "height inflation" that seems to pervade these types of lists? If so, I wonder how effective the technique is. Once the kid shows up for a workout it's pretty easy to tell whether he's actually 6'3" or more like 6'1", right?

I am always puzzled by some of the height estimates in these lists. I watched Kel McClendon play all summer -- the only way he's 6'1" is if he's wearing a pair of circa-1975 platforms.

A couple of Bulldog upperclassmen recently said that the overall team mood/morale is currently the best they can remember (which is not to say it was poor in the past). Hopefully, this will extend to on-court performance as well.

Good point -- I should've checked more carefully. I'll amend my original post to "few have shifted" instead of "nobody has shifted." Thanks for the heads up!

Let's be honest -- nobody has shifted their position throughout the various Cordia discussions on BGP, and I have a hard time believing it will happen now regardless of how this appeal goes. If Cordia wins any significant portion of the appeal, those who defend them will claim victory and those who do not will claim it as proof of inconsistency and political expediency on the KHSAA's part. If the current ruling stands, those who feel the school did wrong will declare justice has been done, and those who have defended Cordia will, well, most likely claim it as proof of inconsistency and political expediency on the KHSAA's part. And, oh yeah, at some point some folks will suggest that other schools do it as well.

He's on a separate video for some reason -- maybe they ran out of buckets or room on the stairs, or maybe he was elsewhere when they doused the rest of the coaches. At any rate, I've seen the footage; Ricardo doesn't even flinch when they empty the bucket on his head.

Of course most parents know best about their/our kids' abilities and opportunities, but many parents do not understand the nuts and bolts of school budgets -- the vast majority are zero-sum arrangements, or at least they have been since the 1970s. If an athletic program grows at a disproportionately high rate in size or speed (or even just in terms of success), it demands resources from the system in the form of larger or updated facilities as well as staff commitment. That often places athletics in competition with academics instead of alongside academics, and the academic side often loses. I realize that this is largely a public-school issue and does not apply to the private institutions, plus I am not a native Kentuckian so maybe that equation doesn't apply around here. But evidently it does elsewhere: High school transfers turn neighborhood teams into outdated notion - LA Times

I get your point and I resonate to your frustration, but in this case it's about more than boundaries. First off, public school districts' budgets depend upon several things, but enrollment and tax base are two of the primary movers, meaning smaller districts tend to struggle. Let's say students are free to transfer for the solely for the sake of athletics. It stands to reason that larger schools -- with larger fan bases, larger reputations, larger facilities -- will exert a disproportionate "pull" on those athletes. If annual attrition sets in, especially in the form of entire families moving from one district to another, then the smaller schools won't just have to cut athletics: they'll have to consider cutting transportation, AP courses, the arts, and so on. Students who don't happen to be sports-focused and/or whose families cannot relocate easily will be left with a crumbling scholastic infrastructure simply because other students' families were better positioned to make the move. As for those students who do enjoy sports, the restrictions we're discussing here are in place to encourage them and their families to value academics first and extracurricular activities second, which is how our nation's educational system was designed to operate. Now, you may feel that the system needs recalibration on that score, which is your right. Second, public school choice is hardly the only area in which our nation does not support a classic free market approach. In fact, public services in the U.S. at virtually every level are regulated in ways to avoid unbalanced distribution of those services and an unbalanced burden in maintaining them. Hope this doesn't start any fires, but as an educator I felt the need to get it out there. Play on!

The last time I saw Holmes play up-tempo basketball was this past season and this summer, pretty much every game. Some individual players may not be as quick as those from teams past and the current Dawgs can implement a half-court offense just fine, but the overall style hasn't changed over the past few years.

On a related note, what are the minimum qualifications for a head basketball coach at a Kentucky public high school?

I hesitate to contradict you here you since you obviously have your sources, but that's a puzzling take since Covington's current district superintendent and Holmes' incoming principal are both known as sticklers regarding behavior, discipline, academic standards, and so on. In terms of basketball, overall the 2016 and 2017 Bulldogs seem to demonstrate pretty decent character (though there's typically an exception or two). So it's hard to see where the coaches would feel thwarted in terms of improving the environment at Holmes -- but again, it seems you've got it from at least one horse's mouth, and I do not.

Assistant principal in charge of Holmes' Freshman Academy -- from my understanding, mainly disciplinary.

All I know is that Coach Booher asked Holmes players to attend 12-2 open gym today. Nothing out of the ordinary, and if there's chatter the kids don't seem to have heard it.

Congrats! Given the effort you put in around here, there ought to be some BGP version of a promotion for you as well.

My sources inform me that Holmes players, coaches, and school administrators met in secret this past weekend; based on the Bulldog varsity's three (3) summer losses, they have decided that the team will tank the entire upcoming season in hopes of a good lottery pick in the 2015 middle school draft.

I know you are always on top of things, Walter, but are you sure about Moore and the Travelers? His name still appears on the OBC roster. Or is it maybe a one-tournament arrangement?

Fair enough. My bad.

Ricardo Johnson from Holmes could both spell it and execute it, and has continued to do so for four years at OU.