Lex2430

I can tell you that JC's will still feed into primarily Lafayette (which should be the team to beat for at least the next 2 seasons in Fayette County) after the new high school is built. E.J. Hayes will be splitting between the new high school and Henry Clay which will really hurt the Henry Clay program. However, that won't really start to show for another 5 years or so as next years Sophomores and Freshmen classes at HC will be outstanding.

That's interesting to hear, Hayes played 10 total B-Team games and 11 total 6th grade games this season.

A couple thoughts in response to the messages above. First, the high schools in Fayette County for the most part do not play their best athletes on D. Most play on O which explains the high scoring games. Next, there is very little interaction between the middle school coaches and high school coaches. In effect what happens is the high schools have to start over when they get the kids as freshmen and start teaching their system and/or re-teach what has been taught to them either from their youth coaches or middle school coaches. The quality of the lines and overall team strength is probably one of the biggest reasons why FCPS schools struggle to match up with the other schools - it's definitely not because of the athletes! Moving on to why it's not all on the middle schools - the youth football systems in Fayette County are the CKYFL and Parks & Recreation with most kids playing in the CKYFL which keeps most of the middle schools from getting their kids until 7th or 8th grade. It's hard to teach kids fundamentals and to get them fully invested in playing middle school football if you only have them for a year! However, there are 2 programs in Fayette County that have really good programs... Jesse Clark has won the FCPS A-Team championship the last 3 years and E.J. Hayes has won the FCPS regular season championship the last 2 seasons and lost in the championship to J.C. the last two years. Combined they have won the District Championship 5 of the last 6 years. Both schools have a 6th grade team as well to make sure that ALL kids are getting valuable experience, playing time and coaching instruction. J.C. feeds into Lafayette and E.J. Hayes feeds into Henry Clay - and both Lafayette's and Henry Clay's coaches are heavily invested in their middle school programs... GO FIGURE!