Pete Mitchell

I knew him a little bit at UK, seemed like a good guy and was obviously a fierce competitor. To Holmes fans he was the hurdle that separated them from the 1978 state championship, first by sinking a turnaround jump shot that rattled in as time expired to tie the game in regulation (basically the Christian Laettner play 13 years before 1992) then in overtime he had perhaps the most famous/infamous block in sweet sixteen history when he swatted Doug Schloemer's finger roll away ... With his hand in the cylinder! No call, Shelby County wins by two, Charles becomes a legend at Shelby County AND Covington. He was also part of what I recall being the first "number 1 rated recruiting class"... They may have existed before then, but 1979 was the first time I ever saw that term applied to the UK class that included Charles, Dirk Minnifield, Derrick Hord, Sam Bowie and, I think, Tom Heitz.

Jefferson play for NCC?

Fantastic! Last year they made a similar donation to Holy Cross. Way to step up St E! As far as operating it goes, it is an acquired skill that few people possess… Just haven't had that many full team scoreboards in Northern Kentucky in the past. I would bet that Covington Catholic could come up with someone to man it, though, if anybody can.

I could not be happier for Maddie, always thought she had the athletic gifts and IQ to be a transcendant kind of player, but I did not expect her (or anyone, really) to have these kinds of offers before she even turns 15. I do not recall even Sydney Moss or Michelle Munoz or Kelsey Mitchell getting this kind of attention at this age. You are in elite company, Maddie. Congratulations ... and keep working at it.

Where's he from Clyde?

From Muehlenberg?

I don't think most of the posters comprehend how these "newcomers" change Ryle's stature ... This is now, with Maddie Scherr, a very, very strong 2020 class that will compete for a regional championship for the next 4 years.

Sounds like you can add Ole Miss to the D1 offers for Maddie, an SEC school at that. Very strong summer for her, and with 3 D1 offers before her freshman year, I am left to wonder .... Has that happened before? Did Sydney Moss or anyone else ever have that kind of interest?

As goofy as it might seem, 1984 squad makes an argument ... their "body of work", ranked number one almost all season, won the region, then had one awful game in the first round of the state tournament ....

Agree wholeheartedly. Holmes "best" team was almost certainly 1978 (34-2 state runner up, but with two high D1 players (Beal and Schloemer)... only 2 losses were both to Shelby County), although I would put the 1980 version right there with them (33-3 state semi finals). 1980 team was more fun to watch IMO (averaged 87 ppg with a fuller "highlight" reel). Actually, in a lot of ways, the 2009 team that won the state was the antithesis of the 1980 team. More size, more deliberate, tougher defensively, less scoring and, IMO, less fun to watch. But they did win it all.

Dick Vories was so good that he was recruited and signed by the Baron, and he was going to go to UK in the fifties ... very strong athlete that sustained a catastrophic injury before he got to UK. Based on high school careers, I would put him and Turner way ahead of whoever is third.

Eisenmenger

Look out for Deere moving up the ladder ... Averaged 24 ppg in the Moeller and St X JV scrimmages, then poured in 30+ In a couple of high quality games for the Royals over the weekend .... Kid can shoot ...

And I should clarify, I'm not down on the Indians, I just think last year's team was exceptional, much better than almost anyone expected. I think there are only two teams in northern Kentucky this year (CovCath and Cooper) that can be as good as Holy Cross was last year pre-Bezold injury.

I hope for the best, and I do think they have some talent, but last year's team was the best in the region for a decent portion of the season and swept CovCath, NewCath, Cooper and Holmes ..... The Indians were a very, very good team until Bezold got hurt against NewCath the second time. So I will agree with Clyde .....

The guru has his web traffic monitors on high alert ....

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Come on you guys. Those are your takeaways? You guys are offended by the references? Fine, I withdraw all references to the Highlands softball program. As for Haley, her drive and skills always impressed me, I am truly sorry that I offended you or her by describing her as a competitive and talented player with a passion for the game that might have gone to a different school if Highlands had not had the program it does. My bad.

Some of you guys have me all wrong. Not a hater of Highlands by any means, I consider it a great school with committed teachers and coaches and outstanding facilities. I particularly admire the job the baseball and softball coaches have done the last few years, revitalizing those programs into winners. I do also agree that Highlands is under more scrutiny than other schools and I think they probably make more of an effort to be compliant than other schools, because they are aware of the heightened scrutiny. Which is precisely why I would raise the question about "Highlands" broadly interpreting the transfer rule. Here we have a school that strives to be compliant interpreting a rule this way, exploiting what I would hope we could all agree is a loophole. After reading the arguments, I would consider the Martin transfer compliant with the rule as it is expressed, if it was up to me, although I also note that the KHSAA ultimately has the authority to deny the transfer. Yes, I could have posed the question as a hypothetical, but I believe it becomes more relevant and easier to discuss when you have an actual example of the rule being interpreted, and the relevance is even heightened when a school under scrutiny, like Highlands who always "dots every i and crosses every t", is doing the interpreting. So I believe interjecting Highlands adds to the discussion, but not in an accusatory or persecution way. As far as starting a thread about Holy Cross and the recruiting issue, and whether or not HC's conduct violates the "spirit" of the rule, I don't know what the alleged conduct is. I have said many times that the conduct that I am personally aware of does and did not, I believe, violate the bylaws in any way. But I am speculating about what the allegations are and who made them. You want me to start a thread about what I speculate? Really? Finally, with respect to the comparison of my and RCC9's approach to what high school sports is about, I don't think they are that different. I want my kids, and all kids for that matter, to enjoy their high school experience to the fullest, including sports. But kids are different, some strive for a championship ring, some work harder than others, some can even decide they want to go to a school with their AAU friends and play together (I am curious about why there is no mention of the boys side, where it has long been known and accepted that that occurs). A great example of a high school sports success story is the Highlands softball program, where you have a passionate coach that has a group of motivated girls work harder than everyone else and they win. The fact that all those girls didn't grow up together, and some came into the program later doesn't diminish what they accomplished. They wanted a competitive high school softball experience so they chose to play for a coach and a program that they thought could provide it. I wonder, for example, if the coach at Highlands had been an ambivalent fellow about winning, and not particularly demanding about practice and off season workouts (as some high school softball coaches can be), if a talented and highly competitive player like, say for example, shortstop Haley Coffey, would have chosen to play at Highlands or gone somewhere else. I believe kids and their families have the right to choose what they want their high school experience to be, including sports, whether it's Caleb Jefferson, Haley Coffey or anyone named Macke. Personally, I have several kids and they are all differently motivated, but for every one of them my wife and I feel we are making the best choices for them, all things considered, and it is a very difficult calculus. I don't think our choices are an appropriate subject for debate, so I won't participate in that. I have followed high school sports in northern Kentucky for 50 years and have cheered for kids and teams from every school in northern Kentucky, and with very few exceptions I have accepted that schools and coaches are doing their best for the kids in their programs. I don't go looking for infractions and rule violations or evidence of cheating, and never have I said or implied that I was challenging the Jenna Martin transfer. My postulate was academic, given the extensive discussions on BGP about transfer rules. I would have hoped it would have been accepted as such.

There is a big difference in this situation and that one as far as the facts, and I do not mean the difference between the transfer bylaw and the recruiting bylaw. In this case, involving the transfer, there are no unsupported allegations of wrongdoing. We all agree on what the facts are. In the holy cross situation, there is nowhere near agreement of the factual setting, or even a statement of what the allegations are. Have someone post the allegations against holy cross and I will address the legitimacy of the facts, as far as I know them, and then I will apply the bylaws. For the vast majority of the allegations, as I understand them, I can categorically state with first hand knowledge that most of the facts are wrong. With respect to the "spirit of the rule" we may or may not have a difference of opinion about what the "spirit" of the recruiting rule is. I personally do not have a problem, and do not think it is within the "spirit of the rule" that a high school coach is forbidden from coaching AAU, including kids from other schools. If the kid develops a relationship with the coach through AAU and then elects to play for that coach at his school, I do not find that to be outside the "spirit of the rule". This conversation could go on for a while (I think my pre-emptive appeal brief to the KHSAA is about 18 pages long) but it would have a lot more meaning if there was a comprehensive list of allegations against Holy Cross. So far, as I am sure you are aware, no one has ever been willing to present the allegations.

Here is my takeaway from all of this .. The general rule, where the analysis begins, that a player is ineligible for a year when changing schools, has a specific exception carved out so that a player may be immediately eligible if there has been a "bona fide" change in residence. While I believe it was the intent of the drafters of the bylaw that the "bona fide" change in residence was intended to mean relocation to the locale/district/proximate of the new school, it does not say that (query if that was NOT their intent why require a change of address at all?). The KHSAA has adopted a number of measures to prevent kids from changing schools on a whim, and I believe that's what they were trying to do with bylaw 6, and they wanted to carve out an exception so that kids were not penalized when their parents had to move. So we are left with a bylaw with a loophole big enough to drive a truck through ... If a family moves from a second floor apartment to the first floor apartment, and they "REALLY" change floors, they have satisfied the "bona fide" change of address requirement and the player will be immediately to play for any school, whether it is down the street or 50 miles away. Personally, I think it violates the spirit of the law but not the letter of it, but I also find it to be something of an unresolved issue because I don't see that anyone has ever challenged such a "change of address" eligibility before the KHSAA, and there apparently has never been a formal finding by the KHSAA to rely upon. Here is the hypothetical that is the problem and should motivate the KHSAA to either amend or discard bylaw 6. Player family lives at address A, and plays varsity basketball at school A. He doesn't like the coach, moves next door to address B and enrolls at School C 30 minutes away as a tuition student where he is immediately eligible as a result of the "bona fide" change of address. He plays varsity basketball at school C, decides he doesn't like that coach either, and wants to change schools again. He MOVES BACK to address A, which his family still owns (another "bona fide" change of address), and is immediately eligible wherever he wants to go, and he lives at the same place he started. Bylaw 6 is rendered meaningless and should be abandoned if this is the interpretation, IMO. Two final comments. I am truly fine with Jenna Martin transferring to Highlands out of the 34th District ... Best of luck to her and the Bluebirds. And I acknowledge that a lot of meritorious arguments exist and have been presented that she may be immediately eligible under Bylaw 6, but it isn't my decision or that of anyone else here. I do wish the KHSAA would clarify, amend or repeal Bylaw 6, though, so that so much productivity wasn't wasted on threads like this .....

Okay. I find that interesting, and to my interpretation at least inconsistent with the "spirit of the rule", although admittedly not inconsistent with the rule as stated. The KHSAA has retained a lot of discretion, over and above the bylaws as stated, to allow or deny eligibility, so my only remaining question is has such a "bona fide move" not to the new district ever been the subject of a challenge and/or hearing, because I am not aware of any. And, for what it's worth, I've never personally heard of it happening, so maybe my little part of the world is in a vacuum from where it happens "all the time".

For what it's worth my understanding was that she formerly lived in Grant County, then moved to Kenton County to be eligible as a transfer at Notre Dame, and it is from that address that her "bona fide move" is occurring, if that even matters. Isn't there anyone with a knowledge base of KHSAA decisions on transfers that could answer if this interpretation has ever been tested?

I posed the question not to challenge or allege anything against Highlands. Take Jenna Martin and Highlands out of the question if you like. Make it a hypothetical if you like. The question is, has the KHSAA ever allowed a bona fide move to be an exception to the rule requiring a player to sit out when the move was not into the new school district.

Perhaps, but even before that, my question is whether there is a precedent for this, has a "bona fide move" transfer ever occurred and/or been reviewed by the KHSAA before where the move was not into the new school district?