Western End

How it's a great and healthy season for everyone!

Always great to see kids do good, at the next level. To her high school coach, I know your proud.

Madisonville should take the region. Christian County is coming on strong. The next few down is where the anything could happen. Webster County has a very good pitcher as does Lyon County both of these teams have shown great improvement the last two years. Don't count Union county out of the mix they could throw a wrench in everyone's plans. The next teams in line are Caldwell County, Henderson County both of these schools have a lot of talent that is starting to grow up. Trigg, Crittenden, Hopkinsville, and UHA all are improving they each could have better seasons than last year. These are my predictions, they don't mean anything and are not her to make anyone mad or to run anyone down. This is just an opinion. 1. Madisonville North- They have the crown until someone takes it away 2. Christian County- I feel they could push Madisonville this year, but are maybe a year away. 3. Lyon County- This team is trying to push to the next tier. They have a good junior pitcher and good defense that they have depended on for two years. Now they have four seniors and some really good young players that can hit. 4. Webster County- The Lady Trojans have one of the best pitchers in the region. She can keep them in games. They always are solid on defense and usually have some hitters. 5. Union County- This is a team that is always in the mix. They lost some talent last year but always seem to reload. They always play a loaded schedule and are always coached up. 6. Henderson County- This team lost only three seniors last year. They are young but you can't hold all this talent down I think they could be a year or so away from challenging for the crown again but when they all start growing up they could be scary loaded. 7. Caldwell County- This is the team t that is really hard to predict. They are young but not in experience. These girls have been together for a long. They only have one senior this year and a lot of talent. They may still have a few growing pains but should still be really good by the end of the year. This could be the spoiler team in the All A in the second region. 8. Crittenden County- New coach but he has one of the best pitchers in the region. The lady Rockets are returning all but one from last year's team. Still really young. 9. Trigg County- One of the most improved teams in the region returning almost everyone. 10. Hopkinsville 11. Hopkins County Central 12. Livingston Central 13. Dawson Springs 14. University Heights Academy 15. Fort Campbell Again I think the a are some teams he that could surprise. I tried not to leave anyone out and tried to be objective. This is just an opinion with a little bit of insight. Hope everyone has a great season and that someone on this list brings the state title back to the second region.

Official practice is just two weeks away. Games starting in just over a month. I hope everyone is starting to feel it. I hope everyone has a great season!

498 That is HUGE!!!:isurrender: Sorry forgive me I couldn't help myself LOL

Congrats to an awesome young lady. Nothing like those PDM (Proud Dad Moments!!!)

Sorry I forgot about Fouts. She was amazing the one time I saw her.

Sophie Bingham, pitcher at Lyon County Lexie Odaniel, pitcher/ inf at Christian County Lindsey Carroll, pitcher/inf at McCracken County Abby Shoulders, inf at McCracken County Jaci Babbs, U at Union County These are some of the top 2018 in Western KY I know have left some off and I will try to come back and update when I have more time. These are in no particular order and again if I forgot to mention some I apologize in advance.

With what is coming back I believe they have a tough year. All great kids but no inside threat. Murphy is gonna be really good and Johnson is a good defensive stopper. I believe Johnson is gonna have to be more aggressive this year offensively. Some one is gonna have to step up and give some support to these two.

Sorry everyone, my old age kicked in. I should have read the topic better. I included more than seniors. Try to forgive me.

I don't see as many from NKY like you guys. We have a few from Western KY. Kaylee Tow (Madisonville North) possibly one of the best players I have seen. Headed to Alabama Mallory Peyton (Madisonville North) can play at any level. I believe committed to UK. Emily Blane ( Christian County) Best defensive shortstop in this end of the state. I think will be just a sophomore this year. Karlee Keeney ( Webster County) Will be a sophomore this year. She is a pitcher who has amazing stuff. Plays high level travel competition. She just keeps getting better. Jaci Babbs ( Union County) Speed, speed, and more speed. Can play almost anywhere in the field. One of the best slappers in the state. I had heard she was committed to UK but not sure on this. Lindsey Carroll (McCracken County) Good all around ball player will probably see the circle most of the year for the Mustangs. Sophie Bingham (Lyon County) One of the top pitchers in Western KY. Plays high level summer ball. Will be a junior this year. Laken Kelso (Calloway County) A really good pitcher. Doesn't over power anyone but never throws anything straight. Gets more ground balls than anyone I've ever seen. Ryleigh Oldham (Madisonville North) One of the toughest players in Western KY. Not trying to take away from how good she plays, but does all the little things to help her team. Lexie Odaniel ( Christian County) Great addition for the Colonels top level pitcher and really good hitter. This list is just an opinion and not in any particular order. I know most of the players on here are from far Western KY, those are the ones I've watched. If I left anyone off it's because I'm getting old and I apologize.

McCracken's pitching will drop off, there is no way to replace 3 seniors like they had. Even so they will not be weak. I don't know who is #1 or #2 but they return two juniors in Laken Largent and Lindsey Carroll. Like I said they just reload. There is little doubt that they will be a top ten team. Coach Hayden will play a strong schedule as always. They will be battle tested come tourney time.

I don't see any problem with your picks except East Carter. There is no doubt that their pitcher is the real deal and that makes them a ranked team. But until they play a stronger schedule I just don't think I can rank them in the top ten. I think the top three are a toss up with Scott County being the favorite. McCracken County is still a top ten team also, they will just reload. Can't wait to watch it play out hope everyone is having a great off season.

The rule wasn't made for travel teams or coaches. It was made for high school players. It was set-up because some coaches would play non-stop. I believe the more you play the better you get. I also believe these girls need a break outside of the school year. There are plenty of high level tournaments and showcases to play outside of the dead period.

Lawnboy, Hope to get to see you at the All A again this year. I'll introduce myself this year, instead of staying anonymous.

Region 1 could go be wide open. What I mean by this is 3 teams could beat each other on any given day. Murray should be considered the front runner. Then you have Carlisle and Hickman counties. Murray wasn't as strong as I thought they would be last year. Hickman County loses Harpole's pitching but has a nice young pitcher coming up. Carlisle County is hard to count out. they will hit the ball, but I'm not sure they can hold the other teams hitters down. Region 2 should be a little more competitive this year with the weaker teams mostly getting better. Lyon is your All A favorite going in. With Bingham pitching and solid defense behind her, they will be in every game. Caldwell County is next and they have an improved team they could sneak up on Lyon County. These two teams played in the region finals last year. It was 1-0 game that Lyon won in extra innings. Livingston is very young and having some growing pains thus is the life of a small school. The Cardinals do have a good pitcher ( Allison Doyle) with experience that will help them. Crittenden County has a new coach and are somewhat young. They will get better as the year goes deeper into the season. The last team to mention is UHA. I believe they are still a year or two away from getting back to where they were. I think the All A in region 2 will come down to Lyon and Caldwell. Lyon lost 2 seniors last year from a team that won 30+ games. Caldwell lost 1 senior. These are veteran teams whose girls play year round. With that being said I would have to give the edge to Lyon. With Bingham in the circle, the defense that they play helps minimize any mistakes she might make. One last thing all these teams should be well coached. But I believe the edge there would have to go to Lyon County over the other teams. I would say that Lyon's team will be coached up come tournament time. Coach Monty Todd and Coach Donnie Williams believe sound fundamental softball and you can see it in the way the team plays. Of course this is just my opinion doesn't mean much other than just conversation while waiting on spring time.

Steven Smith gets the Crittenden County job. Young team with a really good Cassidy Moss pitching. Defense and hitting will be a problem for the near future.

Another look at regions 1-3 from Coach Monte Todd's blog at westkysoftball.com SUB 500 ENROLLMENT STATE TOURNAMENT RESULTS JUNE 22, 2016 MLTODD@TWC.COM LEAVE A COMMENT I was notified via text message, that on another forum a question was raised about the six private sub 500 enrollment regional winners, from regions 1-3. How did they do once they reached the state level of competition? So after a little more research I can now answer that question. Region 1 I would like to say that i get that Reidland was a power among the smaller schools in the state. Year in year out they were hard to handle but keep in mind when talking about the three schools that became todays McCracken County High none were sub 500 in enrollment. Reidland was the smallest of the three with Heath easily over 600 and Lone Oak over 900 in enrollment. In football classification Lone Oak was a 4A school. So while Reidland did in fact win the Softball State Title in 2010 they still would only be a side note because they were above the 500 enrollment benchmark. Not saying it wasnt a monumental task they were at least half the size of the rest of the field but just not Sub 500. Reidlands other appearance in the state softball tournament during the 10 years I reviewed (2008) they split, winning 2 and losing 2. Heaths only appearance during this time in 2007, they were beaten two in a row. There were 4 other winners in this region that are still operating schools today. The 2011 Mayfield baseball team won the 1st region and then lost in the first round of the state tournament to Apollo 10-0 in 6 innings. The 2010 and 2016 Murray High Girls basketball teams also won the 1st region with mixed results. In 2010 they lost in the opening round to Rockcastle County by 34 points. However, this past year in 2016, they won 2 and made it to the final four before losing to Louisville Butler in the semis. Likewise, the Murray High Boys basketball team made it to the state level this past year 2016, and after beating Buckhorn in the opening round fell to Newport Central Catholic. So the closest any sub 500 enrollment school came to a state title in the last ten years in the four most covered sports (40) was one semi final girls basketball appearance. Region 2 Three schools with sub 500 enrollments have won region titles in this region. One of which is a private school, University Heights of Hopkinsville. They won the boys basketball region in 2008, and then were beat in the first round of the state tournament by Lexington Catholic. The other two are public schools. Crittenden Countys girls basketball team won the region in 2011. They also lost in the opening round to Dupont Manual by 38 points. Livingston Centrals girls softball team is by far the most successful sub 500 region winner in the 2nd region. They won the 2013 softball region and went on to win three games before their second loss. So once again no state titles here. Region 3 There have been no sub 500 enrollment public school region title winners in this region. So obviously there are no state title winners here either. With that said since Owensboro Catholic is a sub 500 enrollment (446) school, though private, I will look at their numbers. I must admit after looking at all the region titles they have won (11) in the last 10 years I expected to see multiple state titles. During the last ten years Catholic has been to 7 state softball tournaments, 3 girls state basketball tournaments, and 1 boys basketball state tournament. Their overall record from those 11 state events is 19-16. Their only title during that time frame was the 2009 state softball title. They also were the state runner-up in 2013. In the basketball state tournaments they have not advanced past the second round in the girls tournaments and got beat in the first round in the boys only appearance. Bare in mind that I have only looked at the last 10 years in the 4 most covered non-classed sports (Softball, Baseball, Boys and Girls Basketball). Plus this is only in regions 1-3. Of All 120 region titles awarded only 6 went to public schools of 500 or less enrollment and not one advanced to even a championship game at the state level let alone won one.

I have one question about those 6 regional titles. How did those teams fair once they made it to state?

Another quote from westkysoftball.com This is Coach Monte Todd's from Lyon County High School blog IF IT WORKS IN INDIANA AND 47 OTHER STATES WHY NOT KENTUCKY JUNE 21, 2016 MLTODD@TWC.COM LEAVE A COMMENT In 1997 Bloomington North won the last single-class State Boys Basketball Championship in Indiana. The following year Indiana like so many other states went to a 4 class system for most sports and already had a 6 class system for football. It was a controversially decision at the time and for some still is. Like Kentucky, Indiana is rich in basketball history and also like Kentucky has its famous teams. The movie Hoosiers which all basketball fans nationwide have seen at least once was about the 1954 Milan High team. The following year the Crispus Attucks High team, who had lost to Milan the year before, became the nations first all black school to win a state title open to all races. However, after the 1950’s no school with an enrollment of less than 500 won another boys’ state title in Indiana. While some believe the magic of high school basketball in Indiana was diminished when the class system was introduced. The Indiana tournament is still the most attended in the nation. This according to Wikipedia and Hoosier Hysteria. What Indiana was facing is exactly what Kentucky faces today. The times have changed and consolidation of rural schools into larger county schools have caused an uneven playing field for the smaller city and more rural county schools. The sports are becoming more and more dominated by the large city schools, private schools, and larger populated county schools. This Blog is called Westkysoftball so we will only address the situation in regions 1-3 which is the area that we try to cover. Over the last 10 years in the four most covered non-classed sports (Baseball, Softball, Girls and Boys Basketball) the following are the facts in each region. Region 1 This region, due to the consolidation in McCracken County three years ago, is harder to break down in terms of titles. So I will include the three schools titles who no longer exist as schools (Lone Oak, Reidland, and Heath). Using the last 10 years in the 4 sports we will look at 40 regional titles. In the three year history of McCracken County High with a possible 12 titles they have won 7. They have an enrollment of 1980. If you add in the titles that the three consolidated schools had in the 10 year period that would give that area 16 titles of the 40. Marshall County has 9 titles in the 10 year time period, with an enrollment of 1382. The smallest school with multiply titles, that exist today, is Murray High which has 3. Murrays enrollment is 477. The only school that exist today that has a title with less than 477 enrollment is Mayfield. They won the 2011 baseball region with an enrollment of 420. This is not State titles just region titles. The following schools have region titles in the 10 year period: Calloway County 5, enrollment 927. Graves County 3, enrollment 1350. Paducah Tilghman 3, enrollment 816. The following schools have 0 region titles in the 10 year period: Ballard Memorial, enrollment 416. Carlisle County, enrollment 236. Hickman County, enrollment 220. Fulton County, enrollment 158. St. Marys, enrollment 116. Fulton City, enrollment 89. So in looking at the 1st region titles. You see that of the schools that are in existence today only 4 of the 40 available titles have been won by a school with less than 500 enrollment. Region 2 Looking at the same numbers in this region over the same time period you see that size does matter. Of the 40 available titles 33 of them were won by schools with 1000 enrollment or greater. Henderson County leads the pack with 12 titles and in enrollment with 2014. Christian County with enrollment of 1198 has 11 titles. The only schools in this region to win titles who have less than 500 enrollment are: Livingston Central 1, enrollment 353. Crittenden County 1, enrollment 362. University Heights (private) 1, enrollment 134. In this region of the 40 available regional titles 37 went to schools with enrollment greater than 500. Subtract one of the 3 titles that went to a private school and now you are down to 2 titles of 40 won by a public school of less than 500 enrollment. There are 5 schools in this region who have not won 1 title in that time period: Webster County enrollment 641. Trigg County enrollment 632. Ft. Campbell enrollment 543. Lyon County enrollment 259. Dawson Springs enrollment 202. Region 3 This region is a totally different story than the other 2 regions. In this region where Owensboro Catholic has been a force for years there are no public schools with less than 1100 enrollment with a title. Thats right 0 of the 40 available titles have been won by a public school with less than 1100 enrollment. Owensboro Catholic, a private school with an enrollment of 446 have 11 of the available 40 titles. Owensboro Apollo is next with 7 titles and an enrollment of 1475. Then Daviess County (1708), Owensboro Sr. (1227), and Ohio County (1152), all have 5 titles. Muhlenberg County with an enrollment of 1473 have 4 titles. Meade County has 2 titles and an enrollment of 1604. Last, Grayson County has 1 title and an enrollment of 1306. The following schools have 0 titles in this time frame: Breckinridge County enrollment 902. Butler County 620. Edmonson County 566. Hancock County 505. McLean County 501. And Whitesville Trinity 102. So looking at a possible 120 titles in the first three regions in the last 10 years the numbers are as follows: Titles won by Public schools with more than 500 enrollment 102. Titles won by Private schools in this time period 12. Titles won by Public schools with less than 500 enrollment 6. So over a 10 year period and using the 4 sports most reported and covered in this state (Baseball, Softball, Girls and Boys Basketball) with a possible 120 region titles only 6 went to public schools with an enrollment of less than 500. This is Region titles not State titles.

This is quoted from an article on westkysoftball.com Coach Monte Todd's blog. For those who don't know he is the coach at Lyon County High School. CLASSIFICATION OF SOFTBALL AND BASEBALL STATEWIDE JUNE 17, 2016 MLTODD@TWC.COM LEAVE A COMMENT This has been almost a taboo subject in the state of Kentucky for years. I agree that the mystic of a small, city, independent schools sports success is fascinating. Problem is the days of small independent city schools like Cuba, Carr Creek, and even Earlington are long gone. Those cities no longer have high schools. The way of today is larger and larger mega-schools. It is what it is. Its the times we live in. Problem is we are still living under a format designed to govern the high school sports system of 50 years ago. While there have been major changes in the face of high schools there has been no change in the way the sports they play are governed. Just in my lifetime Kentuckys schools have been integrated and many counties have now consolidated into one or two high schools down from many in the pre 70’s. Yet we still operate under the same sports model that we did then. All of the surrounding states have finally changed their systems to the classification system. That includes Indiana, who held out for many years as well. We have become dinosaurs in the sports model world. We have 2000 student schools playing equally with 200 student schools. Add in that the private schools, who have no designated boundaries for their student population, are also in the equal mix. All playing for the same titles. It leads to large schools battling private schools for the states titles. It also leaves out more than 50% of the schools in the state. They become senior night games and homecoming games. We all know what i am talking about. One of the solutions has been the ALL A classic. I am convinced the KHSAA loves the ALL A. It keeps the drum beat for change down. There is a problem with that though. Touchstone is no longer funding the All A and as of right now there is no sponsorship going forward. They say that they have sufficient funds to continue and are hopeful of finding another sponsor in the future. I certainly hope they do for the sake of the little schools. However, it will only work for so long. Eventually the funding will run out. The good folks who have tried to keep it alive will move on and it will fall to the KHSAA. There would be no need to look for future funding if the state were to move forward with classification. Another problem with the All A classic is it only covers the bottom 125 schools in enrollment. What about those schools who are too big for All A status but too small to compete with the mega schools. There is nothing out there for them. I will use the 2nd region as an example. Union County was in the top 20 all year, played a top schedule and when it came region time were beaten by Madisonville run rule style. Webster County who had a fine season lost in the first round to a normal Christian County team. I say normal because in the 2nd region we have come to respect and know that the Christian, Henderson, Madisonville/Hopkins Central’s are better than the best of the rest. We had Livingston win the region one time. They had a great showing for an ALL A school. Yet year in year out they cant compete with the larger schools in our region. Our region is no different than most of the regions across Kentucky. Small schools are schedule fillers for larger schools. We work hard, practice and play to the best of our ability but on a year to year basis we cant compete with the schools that have a team full of sport specific kids. Ours in small schools have to play multiple sports or we dont have those sports. Sometimes as many as 4 different sports. Lets look at this a different way. Let me give a real situation. In softball and baseball pitching is paramount. Montanta Fouts, Gatorade Player Of The Year, from East Carter leads her team to the state tournament. They lose in the first round to East Jessamine. For East Carter it would take 7 wins in a row in two days to get to the state championship game. They made a heroic run through several games until Montana ran out of gas in the last two innings against Daviess County. She was from a smaller school compared to the rest of the state tournament field. She was all they had in the circle. Now lets look at McCracken County who also lost in the first round. They however, have three pitchers who shared the load and they in fact did win the 7 games and got to the state title game. They are also 3 times larger than East Carter. In baseball with the innings restrictions its even more unbalanced. Its just unfair to the kids of smaller school districts to have to compete against huge schools for the same title. We dont do this in football, why? If size is no matter in any other sport why football, why track? why? There is but two solutions in this matter in my opinion. First classify softball and baseball like we do with football and track, or let us have open enrollment then both public and private would be on equal ground. Every year the disparity between large and small gets greater. How long can the KHSAA justify this system

On a side note from above I do know this McCracken doesn't like the region or district they are in. Trust they don't want to play weaker teams it doesn't help them. They only play the games they have to in their region. Then they play the big tournaments.

I understand that Owensboro Catholic and Reidland were powerhouses but that is pretty much over. The last two years of their existence Reidland never got out of their region. This year Catholic was finished early. The big counties have found the mega school saves money and has a lot of benefits in other areas namely athletics.

Amen! I don't think Mccracken County will be as good next year, but they will contend for the state. They won't have the pitching they did this year but they will still have solid 1-9 and Hayden's teams always play good defense.

Your right 6 classes doesn't make the football system better. But, there are more schools participating in softball than football, 266 teams compared to 219 teams. The large schools have a major advantage that most of their athletes specialize in certain sports. The small school athlete more often than not play multiple sports with coaches competing for off season time. The small Cinderella story is pretty much a thing of the past. Putting teams on a level playing field is the right thing to do. The dollars would be the same or better and there would only be a few extra travel miles to re-classify. I love the sweet sixteen in basketball. But it's time for change in other sports.