James Graham

At some point, Boone County Schools (the district) needs to look inward and do the right thing for those kids at BCHS. Paul Brown is not walking through that door. Heck, even if he did, he might not be able to do as good a job as Bryson. Bryson was, and continues to be, the best coach for that program. Meaning this: If Bryson can't turn the ship around at his alma mater, I am not sure anyone can. If all that's true, then what is it? Is it facilities? No. Is it enrollment numbers? No. Put simply, its the district that Boone County High School pulls from. And, this isn't meant as a slight to kids that live in the district and go to BCHS. But, statistics will show, and common sense backs up, that when you have free and reduced lunch numbers feeding into BCHS that none of the other three high schools in Boone County do then participation in all athletics will suffer tremendously. So, as to them potentially opting out of district play... and I have no inside information this is the case... but if Boone County Schools isn't going to help BCHS with where it draws kids from, then why should BCHS give the other two Boone County high schools district wins for the next four years.

Not sure who will win, but I do know that Jack Lonaker for Cooper will have a LOT of tackles.

I am a little disappointed... 90 pages in and we haven't mentioned the one man who is retired, rested and ready to expand his legend. Chuck Smith used to be mentioned for every open job. Chuck Smith, like his lesser known cousin, Chuck Norris will beat this job into submission. Do it Bluebirds. Make the hire. Chuck Smith !! ?

Yeah... but will the pirate ship in the end zone survive ??? ?

First, I have no dog in this fight. Second, I do believe that Highlands is a top job in the state and likely always will be. To me, this is the classic demographics battle that many public schools with changing demographics, but great tradition, have to face to stay relevant. Some examples on both sides of the river: Princeton, Anderson, Lloyd and Bellevue. All of these schools have won state championships at some point, but found themselves in the middle of a changing demographic (some decades ago) that impacts their ability to field competitive teams. Here is what I mean: 1. Ft. Thomas is landlocked... and any new home construction is likely past a million bucks. 2. Ft. Thomas is no longer affordable for your average middle class family. Why are you going to pay $260k for a 3 bedroom tudor built in the 1920's when you can build a brand new four bedroom home in Kenton or Boone County for that ? 3. Ft. Thomas' population is older. No one moves out after their kids go through the schools and why should they... their home investment continues to skyrocket. 4. The correlation between high income earners and disinterest in football. Can these problems be fixed? Sure. But it's going to take Highlands going back to a Beechwood style approach for kids out of district. One last point, these high school public jobs are tricky to fill because you really have one of two mindsets to a job like this. The first group would be KTRS "lifers" meaning that fulfilling the years requirement to vest in the retirement system is important. In other words, not a lot of public school head coaches from another state (who have their own retirement system) are going to pack up and start over. Think about it. In the whole state of Kentucky, how many current public school head coaches do you think are even qualified for the Highlands job ?? Ten, maybe ?? The second group are those who don't have a lot of years in any one system and could be looking at a job like this as a stepping stone to the college game. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, but these are some of the obstacles I see to filling this job... which is still a top job in the state !!

Ryle is getting the new turf first because as mentioned above its just a remove and replace job. Because the other three schools are "new" installs requiring a considerable amount of grading and concrete work it will take considerably more time and effort. I think Boone and maybe Conner's track will be impacted and essentially replaced as well. But don't quote me on the last part. Cooper's track is new enough that it will not be impacted by the install.

I want to say 9-1, but am struggling between that and 8-2. At some point, Ryle has to take advantage of the talent they have coming up through the pipeline. Don't sleep on Highlands either... both have a LOT of help on the way.

Combined win/loss record of Highland's losses is 30-4 Combined win/loss record of Cooper's losses is 28-7 Cooper is going to be just fine. Will all come down to whether Cooper can get Lee into space !!

Lacey Bradshaw - NDA Macie Feldman - NDA Going to cause havoc in the 9th for the next three years.

Trinity... Running Clock by end of the Third.

Heard Lockland really jacked the rental rate. Not sure why. I think the relationship had run its course. Will be interesting to see how much longer Lockland can hang on as a school district. Very comparable to a Silver Grove type situation in NKY, but Lockland doesn't have one school district that would absorb them. It would have to be divided up between three or four.

Here's the list according to wikipedia: Kentucky Miss Basketball - Wikipedia Looks like the answer is no.

1. Eviston was not on any list last time around. The job was Pat McLaughlin's (alum and LaSalle head coach) until Rosfeld emerged late in the process. 2. All GCL coaches are paid according to the GCL scale for that particular sport. All head coaches receive the same "base" and then percentage increases are given for years experience. It is not $40,000. Of course schools get creative with positions and other stipends for weight room duty, etc. I believe Rosfeld held a position either in the alumni or development office. Everyone would be shocked with what these guys actually make. This ain't Texas. The Covington Diocese is even worse because they have a unified scale for all schools. The Cincinnati Archdiocese does not. Moeller can pay its people whatever it can afford, but must abide by the coaches pay scale set by the GCL. So, in all likelihood the Bengals doubled or even tripled what Rosfeld was making at Moeller. 3. Maybe Eviston will be considered this time around. Who knows, but Cincinnati is a different beast and he doesn't have any experience dealing with it. A lot more competition to get kids to come to your school because there are so many choices. Rodenberg was very familiar that process having spent so many years at McNick before going to CCH. With the turnover the last 24 months, my guess is they will be valuing loyalty this time around and looking for someone to be in the job for awhile.

Boise State trademarked any turf that is not green. Without getting into a long trademark discussion, you must ask Boise State for a license if you want a field other than green. Supposedly, they are granting those licenses for free as long as you aren't a competitor. Their position is that they want to control similarly situated colleges in their conference or who they deem competitors from taking the idea. In other words, they want to control the uniqueness of the different colored turf so that it remains "special" to Boise State.

Good picks !! Unfortunately, there are four teams (OC, HC, Danville and Murray) that could win this but are on the same side of the bracket. Rooting for Walton-Verona to get through on the bottom side of the bracket...

Could not be happier for Boone County, its fans, its alums and, most importantly, its current players. It's always a little more special when one of your own comes back. Bryson is a program guy. He won't have the fanciest offense or the trendiest defense, but he will have those kids organized, committed and believing in themselves. Don't expect some miracle turnaround, but an eventual return to respectability with a great season every now and then is certainly doable. The days of Coach Hauck are long gone. As I have said a dozen times on here, Boone County schools are currently just to watered down for any one of the high schools to dominate every single year.

So what if I told you that Kentucky allowed second and third grade brothers to play high school varsity football. ESPN and 30 for 30 presents: "The Original Friday Night Tykes: the story of Dennis and Derrick Johnson at Harrodsburg High."

Redistricting will happen when the free lunch numbers and test scores are so disproportionate with the other three schools they will be forced to act. It will not have anything to do with sports. The free lunch numbers are already ridiculous as compared to the other three high schools, but to BC's credit they have done pretty decent with the testing. A real kudos to the administration and teachers there. I would like to see BW give it a go. But it is HARD for a para-professional to truly devote the time necessary to do it right. Boone County has that "mix" of kids from different backgrounds that has served Colerain so well for the past 25 years. The right person needs to tap into that mix and execute a 5 to 7 year plan. But again, with 4 County high schools, one catholic high school, two independent school districts (if you count part of Lloyd and Walton Verona), a soon to open STEM/Tech high school its just so watered down for any one of the high schools to be dominate year after year on the local stage let alone on the state level.

I come from this wanting BC to become competitive again. You hate to see a program with so much pride and tradition become so inept. As for redistricting, it is not a matter of if, but when. It will happen when the Superintendent and Board finally have the political will to do it. It is raised nearly every year and parents in areas to be impacted complain to the Board not to do it. So nothing is done. The socio-economic measure for any school (or district) is the amount of students that receive free and reduced lunch. The number of students receiving free and reduced lunch at Boone County and the schools that feed Boone County are so disproportionate to the rest of the Boone County schools it is laughable. Why is this important? Children receiving free and reduced lunch tend to be more transient. They move multiple times during their school career and it makes it damn near impossible to truly get your feeder programs where they need to be. The new rules for the NKYFL districts will help. There are players in Boone's youth teams that every coach in the league wants on their team. The challenge for Boone will be to keep those kids and have those kids want to go to Boone. Redistrict some more neighborhoods that have single family housing with more stable parents/kids and the ship could be righted. But, its going to take a long time for any coach. This is a five to seven year rebuild, not two to three.

Is Danville now the “All A” favorite ??

This Conner team would make it to the Sweet 16 in about 10 of the 16 regions. Unfortunately, they are in the 9th and so is Ryle.

So up until around 1990, when the Shoe went to natural grass, Columbus had been the primary host, but not always (in the 70's and early 80's state championship games were played at other venues including Nippert and the old Akron Rubber Bowl). Starting in the 1990's, Stark County (Massillon and Canton McKinley) became the hosts using Paul Brown Tiger Stadium and Fawcett Stadium. The OHSAA was able to get all six games done in two days and the stadium capacities (low 20k) were the perfect size. Unfortunately for SW Ohio, this also coincided with an era of NE Ohio dominance at the D1 level that was not snapped until Elder won in Canton in 2002. Now, given the grumblings from the SW part of the state about travel, etc., and support from then Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel, the OHSAA finally lamented and scheduled a series of state championship games in Columbus that ended in 2016. With the money that the NFL, state and Canton has pumped into "Tom Benson Field" (Fawcett Stadium), I can't imagine it going back to Columbus, but who knows. This is also the reason I believe Paul Brown Tiger Stadium was taken out of the mix when the games went back to Stark County. Ohio now has 7 divisions and play the games across three days so I guess it works for them.

KHSAA needs to take a page out of what Ohio does come the later rounds of the play-offs and find a neutral site with the best facility (i.e. field turf). I'm not really that concerned about the locker room situation, but I am concerned about field conditions because it effects the level of play. I would think come playoff time folks want to see great football. I'm sorry, but watching two teams play in slop because all three levels of football, boys soccer and girls soccer chewed all the grass up weeks ago is not my idea of great football.

It’s actually Noah “Johnson” who is Kam Butler’s little brother. He will be going against Hagan tomorrow morning. Noah’s mom’s maiden name is Jones... she was one of the best players on NDA’s last volleyball state championship team.

Not only is it lunacy, it is a clear violation of their civil liberties. Seriously, you can't move 8 counties west and be allowed to play sports? Based on what?? The move being for "athletic reasons"?? According to who? Unless they have a paper or text trail, athletic reasons is about as subjective a standard as an athletic commission can come up with.