wrn1979

Especially given the fact that it impacts everyone across the board.

As a registered nurse on the front lines of the alleged "crisis," I agree with you 100%

Am I understanding this? In order to play 90+% of the schools in KY you have to be a member. In order to be a member, you have to pay money? That’s not a membership, that’s a racket.

The best part about Kentucky’s post season is the occasional underdog that gets their shot. It’s been a while since it’s happened (which I blame on the AAU effect and the KHSAA’s erectile dysfunction in enforcing their own transfer rules); but if we had a true Cinderella team fight their way through several rounds of the sweet 16 again, we would not be having this conversation. I don’t understand why everyone wants to get rid of this opportunity for the underdog to win and win big. The drama is what makes sports fun.

I am old school, and I love to watch 5 players execute and offensive set that ends with one of them getting a wide-open layup. I enjoy seeing the extra pass that leads to the bucket. Adding a shot clock to the game would result in a lot of 2-on-2 Stockton/Malone type basketball. As has already been mentioned, if a team doesn't want their opponent to hold the ball the last two minutes of a half or quarter, then they need to come out and pressure the ball. There is a 5-second rule in place for that reason. If the offense is able to weave, pass, and hold the ball for 2-minutes without the defense creating a turnover, the defensive team wasn't meant to win the game. The shot clock takes strategy out of coaching the game. Just like the designated hitter in the American League takes the strategy out of managing the lineup. Then again, I'm a purist, and even in my child hood, I would often turn the shot clock off while playing basketball video games.

Per a friend of mine who was close to the situation at the time, Coach Edge left Owensboro Catholic to earn a larger salary at South Spencer. His wife had changed jobs, and the Catholic school system is not known for paying its employees well. The Daviess County Public School system, I'm sure, rivals the Spencer County school system in terms of salaries. I can't remember exactly how the changing-of-the-guard took place at Apollo two years ago in regards to the timing of Coach Edge making the move to South Spencer. I do, however, recall thinking "If this timing had been a little different, John Edge would probably be at Apollo." The stars lined up correctly this time.

Let’s call the Apollo/Muhlenberg game for what it was: outcome determined by three officials intimidated by the “legendary” Steve Sparks. Apollo takes the lead in the fourth quarter, has the momentum going in their favor, and draws an obvious charge on the other end. Ryan Ash had been waiting for the offensive player for 2 full steps before contact and never moved. Muhlenberg calls a timeout and the “legendary” Steve Sparks spends the full 45 seconds before the first horn sounding off to one of the officials. Never mind the fact that Mr. Sparks is an assistant coach and, by the rules, should not have been speaking to an officials. Coming out of the timeout, these guys call fouls on Apollo on six consecutive Muhlenberg possessions. They allowed the “legendary” Steve Sparks to determine the outcome of the game because they lacked the character to do their job. Edited to add: I totally get it. Apollo did not do themselves any favors by starting the season 0-11, but they’ve. changed the outcome in more than just Apollo games all season.

Congrats to Shaun. He’s a good dude. He’s Leaving football this year because he has a son that’s going to be playing on Friday nights starting next year. I’m Glad he’s going to be sticking with basketball. He’s one of about 3 decent basketball officials in the whole 3rd region.

This can be mitigated a great deal by having elementary and feeder systems that buy into the high school philosophy and develop players to play multiple positions. Nothing more frustrating than to have a kid with wheels who, for whatever reason, never learned to run a route.

This is great wisdom, and words I live by.

Is the issue of “lack of continuity” between middle school programs and high school programs state wide?

The coaching environment is different than when I got into it 20 years ago. These kids are soft. They’ve spent their whole lives in a world of instant gratification. People have shielded them from the realities of life, and continue to do so.....coaching today requires a different mindset. Unfortunately, most people coach the way they were coached. So if you were coached by a hard-nosed “grizzled” old veteran. You’re likely to become one yourself. That’s not to say that you have to abandon your values and principles, but today’s athletes almost REQUIRE a model based more on positive reinforcement. Those coaches that don’t “get it” find themselves struggling and lacking fulfillment in their roles. They leave the profession altogether or job hop hoping they’ll find better subjects for their lessons at the next stop. The reality is: their lessons might just need to be tweaked a little to match today’s generation.

Apollo gave Breckinridge County a scare tonight. The outcome was strongly influenced by Officiating.

I cannot answer that question, but it would not surprise me.

I cannot answer that. It’s been years for me, and I never worked this region. My instinctive answer is: 1) The good ole boy method of decision-making is alive and well in the officiating industry. It always has been. 2) Given the option, coaches would rather have these two guys on the court than not play. Both Fridays were district nights where all of the local districts had boy/girl double-headers going. Six officials per building with 4-6 buildings going and sooner or later even the strongest associations run out of true varsity officials.

Having done my fair share of officiating in the past, I generally agree with your statement. In the last few years, though, I've seen an overwhelmingly disturbing lack of professionalism among high school officials. We see in the news that officials have been attacked and are abused, but they often bring it upon themselves. As of this past Friday night, I've seen 7 high school basketball games in seven days. All of them were contested in the 3rd region. I watched one official look dead at a player's feet as she changed pivot feet four times committing a travel that would have given a team the ball back with a chance to tie with 10-ish seconds left under the own baskets. This official did not miss the travel, he obviously was not willing to risk the chance of having to run the floor for four more minutes of overtime and was too lazy to make the call. The video of this no-call went all over twitter and was retweeted by at least one Division 1 basketball player. It could be considered "viral" for all the wrong reasons. In another game, I saw the same official on multiple occasions blow his whistle, wait until all action and noise in the entire gym stopped to draw attention to himself as he made a cartoon-ish motion to call a travel. He obviously, mistakenly, thinks the crowd paid for tickets to watch him officiate. I saw a different official shaking hands, and high-fiving the coaching staff of a team in the middle of the court as they went into the locker room for half time. This official later made several questionable calls in that team's favor. While this may all be coincidence. His actions at half time set him up for the abuse he received after making those questionable calls. When I officiated, whether it was baseball or basketball, I preferred no one knew my name. I preferred they had no idea I was even at the game. The best officials are the ones who's names you never hear except at the end-of-season officials banquets when they get recognized for their job well done. Too many of these guys are clowns who are trying to relive their glory days by continuing to be out on the court.

“Team Building Through Positive Athletic Conditioning.” By Bruce Brown of Proactive Coaching. I first bought it on iBooks on my phone. I then bought the paper copy and the accompanying DVD from their organization. One of many tools from their organization that changed the level of intensity of my practices.

Is Tyler Stokes one of Jeff’s kids? He coached at Graves County when I was in High School, and I believe was the AD at Marshall for a period of time.

As Wilson and St Claire go, so goes Apollo. I think Dan was arguably the most-improved post player in the region last year. Not to say he was the best by any means, but from game one to the district tournament, he made more improvement than any other post player I saw. If he has continued that development through the off-season and pre-season, he could be a strong contributor. The kid is strong, and was developing his offensive rebounding instincts along with putting the ball back in without needlessly putting it on the floor. That’s big when you have guys who are going to shoot from outside like Wilson, Bowman and (I believe) Frantz. If Wilson goes after 20 a game, Apollo will fail. He has to be as willing to drive and dish as he is to take the ball to the rim. If he gets 10-14 and Bowman, Frantz, and St Claire score in moderation, they can be very successful. This bunch isn’t as talented the 2018 regional champs, but even that team struggled to be .500 until they started to combine their individual talents instead of competing against each other.

My guess would be that typically, by the time you get to a basketball game requiring this much travel for a 80-20 score, you're expecting the game to be closer. With baseball being a game of failures, being able to predict a 20-1 blowout would be difficult. Football is generally more predictable and unexpected outcomes from teams with starkly contrasting record are fewer and farther between. Couple that with the long travel time involved in this particular matchup and it's understandable. There will be a lot of money shelled out on travel, security, officials, etc; and there will be miniscule crowd in attendance.

I ran into an Apollo player over the weekend, and they're feeling good. I'm going with my boys in this one by two touchdowns: Apollo wins 56-42.

I started saying Apollo looked like a different football team after they beat Meade in the 5th game of the season. In game 6, they put up 51 points, but the defense couldn’t stop Hunter Bradley against McCracken Co. I stand by my statement that a dirty shot by Henderson that injured Levinsky changed the outcome of that game. Marshall County played the game of their lives to keep that one close. Apollo had all the gears turning, but a couple of mental lapses cost them big against Daviess County. Tonight, against Owensboro Catholic, they put all the pieces together and closed out a big game. It’s only the second time they’ve beaten Catholic in the six years I’ve followed the program. I’ll openly admit to being a hometown fan, but the team is definitely on the upswing.

Levinsky takes the knee to end the game.

What is the definition of “within reason?” I had my post edited last night for “rule 13,” and I have no idea what grammatical error I committed. Even when just sending text messages, I usually try to stay on point.

Final