Trekker

l. Sayre is a private school, not part of the Fayette system. Sayre pays about 50% what public schools pay. He would take a massive pay cut going from Bourbon to Sayre and lose the good health care and retirement pay as well. 2. Bourbon is notorious for a nightmarishly chaotic administration. 3. There's talent at Bourbon. But very few of the talented kids bother trying out for basketball. They either play on independent or AAU teams or play other sports. If a coach could build the middle school program and stay around, Bourbon could be a serious contender in the 10th. Remember they've been in state finals before. But the administration offers zero support for basketball and the coach has to spend most of his time fending off political maneuvers, which is why the job turns over constantly.

When I was coaching, I assumed all of us did the same things for our kids : contact colleges on their behalf, design schedules to give them the best possible exposure, respond quickly to requests for films, academic data or other info, work in the off season to overcome each kid's weaknesses and add to his repertoire (add shots, range, moves, speed, quickness, strength, etc.), and so on. Once I had several players receive college scholarships, I found players transferring in. I was accused of recruiting but never did. They, or their parents, recruited themselves. I eventually learned that all coaches do not do these things. They do not develop their kids, promote them, monitor and guide their academics, etc. So it began to make sense that kids whose coaches were not doing these things would want to transfer to a school where the coach did do these things. If my child were talented in math, science, art, music, debate, writing or anything else, I would want them to go to a school with a strong program in their area to develop their skills and help them possibly earn a college scholarship. If your son develops an interest in Robotics, Highlands has a Robotics Team and your school does not, wouldn't you want to send your son to Highlands so they could participate? If Latin had the best Debate team in Northern Kentucky and your son was interested in Debate, wouldn't you want to send them to Latin to have that experience and perhaps earn a college scholarship? There's nothing wrong with this and the state should have nothing to say about it. If Bellevue or Silver Grove doesn't like it that a student transfers to gain access to a better program, let them start or upgrade their own program. This is competition. This should drive all schools to hire the best people and run the best programs possible in every area, from Math to Art. And the same principle applies to sports. Let them go where they feel most appreciated, where their learning and playing style best meshes with the coach's teaching and administrative style, where they can develop whatever potential they have to their maximum. You only get four years in high school. For the next 70 years you have to look back on it. You ought to be able to look back without regrets. Too many Kentucky schools want to return to the days of a captive audience, where kids were trapped and the schools could hire good ole boys, school board members' relatives, or hometown heroes, and then the kids had to live with it good or bad. We're moving beyond that and I'm glad. Let the kids go where they want. Let them move in with a friend, let Mom rent an apartment, whatever it takes, if they live too far to drive back and forth every day. I know too many parents are delusional and too many players are difficult to coach, but that's another issue. Truth is, I've seen students who absolutely could not get along with one Math or English teacher and transferred down the hall and made As under another teacher. And I've seen the same with some players and coaches. You see it in college, too. Remember Wayne Chapman and Harry Lancaster, Bob Talent and Coach Rupp, Jay Shidler and Joe Hall, Roderick Rhodes and Rick Pitino. It happens. Let them transfer.

Just for a little perspective, when I retired from high school coaching and began teaching at the college level, I noticed immediately that about half my entering freshmen were 17 on their first day of college, and many of them had birthdays in October, November and December. But none of the athletes were in this half. They were either 19 on their first day of college, or 18 turning 19 in September, October or November. So apparently the average TOP athlete is at least 12 and often 24 months older than the kids they're going to school with. For example, a recent article revealed that Shabazz at UCLA was held back at the start of school so he played his entire grade school, middle school and high school career two years older than the kids he was playing against. Since I noticed this, I've been looking a little more carefully at players I see at high school games I attend, and asking lots of questions. I think it would be interesting for someone to do a research paper on the age distribution among athletes, particularly in football and basketball. I could hypothesize that the more successful players tend to be older. This does not mean they're not gifted athletes. But it would seem to be very difficult for an "average" kid to be going out for a team and successfully competing against an opponent 12 to 24 months older who also has at least some athleticism. The difference between age 25 and 27 might not be significant, but the difference between 15 and 17 is enormous.

In the second one, yes. Not in the first. We could always play the Class A District the last week of the regular season and let the bigger schools finish up with two more games against other large schools.

In football only the winner and runnerup should go to playoffs. In basketball Districts have been obsolete for 30 years. Way back there, when there were 8-12 teams in each district, it made sense. We had 750 high schools. But since consolidation erased two thirds of those, we're way overdue for streamlining. I would favor one of these two structures : l. Every team plays every other team in its region once a season, alternating home and away. Seed teams by record. Seed each region 1-16 and play it off in one week. Or... 2. The Class A schools in each region are all placed in a District. They play for the District championship, which earns the winner a berth in the Regional. The larger schools all receive byes straight into the Region. So, for example, in the 10th Region, Paris, St. Pat, Nicholas, Robertson, Augusta, Bracken, Silver Grove and Brossart would play through district and the winner would go on to the Region. In the 9th, Dayton, Bellevue, Newport, NCC, Ludlow, Beechwood, Latin and Holy Cross would play through the district and the winner would go on to the Region. But this current setup, where we spend a whole week getting rid of two teams, is inefficient. This week we would save would allow the Sweet Sixteen to be permanently moved up a week, like it was this year, to come ahead of the college tournaments, which cut into attendance.

Paris is a very precarious position right now. The State has them on a list of schools it would like to see merged, in Paris' case with Bourbon County. A coach without a job might go there to get a year or two experience before the school merged, but a coach who already has a job would have to be very reluctant. Paris does have its best freshman group in 30 years and should be the favorite to win the 10th Region All A berth for the next three years. But a coach would basically be rolling the dice. The school does have its supporters, and the State has threatened to close it before without success, so they might fend off this effort. But that's what Monticello thought, too, and it looks like the State won this round down there.

Walton Verona is a merged school. There's no such town as Walton Verona. Look up EITHER Walton OR Verona on your GPS.