Strivefor9

In terms of the JV player, my understanding is this young lady was asked to work the scoreboard for the entire weekend tournament and was the only one that had to do so. In the past, players rotated working the scorer's table. This is only what I am hearing, so maybe she was in the doghouse with the coach. In terms of the niece starting JV the year prior and varsity her 8th grade year, these are often very rare circumstances. In my opinion, I don't think a school the size of Cooper didn't have other more experienced options for success. They have lost 78% of district and regional games in the school's history, so this isn't a far fetch. The principal's daughter playing was fairly obvious if you witnessed any of the games. Once again at the coach's discretion but three straight losing seasons isn't a far fetch either. Now, onto the 2022 situation. In my opinion, at the end of the season, you have to talk to the student athletes about the pain of losing but also talk to them about the past success and the value of playing the sport and the positive attributes for growing as a future successful adult. I've played sports and been in those losing locker rooms and fields at the end of the high school career. As my family member would say, who is in the Kentucky baseball coach's hall of fame, the only happy coach and players are the ones going home with the state title. You don't insult the players personally and walk out of the locker room when you had seniors who significantly contributed to this last winning season.

A complaint has been filed against the Varsity head coach at Cooper High School. I understand that a petition with 60 complaints by former players and parents has been given to the Superintendent and Cooper leadership. Cooper has won 4 district championships since the school opened and no regional championships. Cooper has lost 112 out of 143 games played in the 9th Region since the school opened. My understanding is some complaints consist of the following: Making a JV player work the scoreboard/stats at a tournament all weekend and no playing time compared to her fellow teammates. Favoritism of the niece of the head coach. She is an 8th grade student who started Varsity as the setter this year. Favoritism of the head principal's daughter playing in rotation. General mistreatment of players over the years as successful players decided to not play for her after poor treatment. One example is after the opening round district loss in 2022, the last winning season. After they were upset by Conner, the head coach effectively dressed them down in a negative manner and left the locker room after the game. Based on her behavior it appears there has been no accountability in the way she leads her program. A few complaints can be expected, but 60 existing and former player and parent complaints cannot be overlooked. It is interesting that her behavior and overall lack of success can be overlooked and not held to account while the former head basketball coach can be fired with such strong support from his player base and parents. I would hope that a change will be coming to Cooper women's volleyball in the future.

A certain Principal's son was cut from the basketball team a few years ago.

I thought you had to sit out a year per KHSAA regs if you moved schools. How did Rabe move from Ryle to Cooper and continue to play this year?

Bally wins 7th grade division this morning against Gray. Both teams and parents represented their schools well. Bally ended the year 20-2 and have a great group of girls.

The young ladies from Holmes play well and have a terrific team. The coaching staff also is doing a fine job from my viewpoint. I would agree that parents from many of the teams get excited and cheer, complain about the refs, etc., but personally I think that some, not all, of the Holmes parents take it over the top. My daughter plays for Bally and I was at the first game. The young ladies from Holmes played great and the coaches were great as well. My problem is that I personally saw and witnessed a few Holmes parents make comments about our girls negatively, purposefully try to bait some of our parents into arguments and just behaved poorly. We simply enjoyed the game, took the loss like adults, didn't respond back and encouraged our girls. Then again last night I watched poor behavior again not only from the gentleman in question, but others as well. So maybe these two instances I witnessed were just not typical behavior, but I doubt it. For as great as the kids and coaches did at Holmes, if some of the parents in the stands can't be adults and act within reason, they are leaving a black eye on the program.

Great 7th grade girls competition from all the games I have watched. The finals will have Bally vs. Gray. Gray had a nice win over Holmes and exciting game. Bally beat Highlands 35-16. We played Holmes the first game of the year and experienced some of the Holmes parents first hand. Last night was another example of poor parent behavior. Some of those folks need to grow up and behave like reasonable adults.

Bally 7th grade girls improve to 14-1 with a 29-9 win over Gray last night. Thompson, Schilling and Bessong are all strong players with Price and Kemper as nice compliments to the starting 5.

Cant remember exact score, but if my memory serves me correctly it was a single digit loss for Bally.

Bally 7th grade girls are now 10-1 with the only loss being the first game of the season to the Holmes 7th grade team. They have a good group of girls and continue to play well.