El Diablo

If it’s brown, flush it down.

Bert Bathiany sounds like a head coach's name.

Man, you just bolstered my confidence in this next season. It will be interesting, I think the same usual suspects are going to be around the top 4 spots. What concerns me about Clemson is the lines on both sides. I know they were somewhat younger this year but we got straight man handled by your Buckeyes. I think Bama will be king again next year and I’m also really high on the Sooners. I think it’s OSU, Clemson and the others after that. I know UC returns Ridder, I would love to see the Bearcats sniff around the playoffs again. No idea what Georgia, A&M, ND, and Northwestern return. Hopefully it’s a “normal” season of college football.

Just curious, why Clemson at one? You know something I don’t? I feel like Clemson was too high on every one of those.

Yeah, good for him. I think they should have given the press conference a couple days to let reality run it’s course. Probably not coach James idea to have the press conference on day one. Probably handled a little hastily on both sides.

That probably depends on the individual I guess. It's a pure money thing.

Definitely. There are only a few things that would upset me being a Highlands fan for the the first two years of the new coach. The biggest would be ignoring the youth league in Fort Thomas. Another would be just overall attitude, got to make the kids believe in themselves. Ha Coach James checked those boxes with a sharpie, that's probably why I got so jaded.

Ha to me Highlands is not a path yet. We are at a crossroads.

Yeah, I understand how it would come off as that. I'm not big on firing people. Maybe they could change the AD's position and make him a teacher / coach or something else if they really wanted to get a big name that demanded the AD role as well. Not my job to figure out but I'm sure you could figure out something. I really think Lickert is the answer though.

I don't think I said I want to fire the AD. That just opens the job up to bigger names. I'd rather go with Lickert, the future big name.

I'm not really sweating it anymore. Coach James didn't work out, it all happened so fast for him I really have no problem with it now. It just stung at first. I have a feeling that Lickert is going to be it. It may seem like settling, but he may actually be the best guy out of all the applicants. He knows the program, he was a two way starter on state championship team. He has head coaching experience. Also, I believe it's his dream job. If we got Steve at head coach and Sipple (sp) at offensive coordinator, that could be a good combo.

I'd guess with the 6A schools that is definitely the case. With Highlands scale that AD role tied in bumps up the pay scale to what a "big time" high school coach demands.

Yes, lots of Highlands guys. Weinrich was a Highlands guy too. There are two really good candidates that are Highlands guys. Throughout Highlands history many of the coaching greats have been Highlands guys. The reason the search is going rough is because the really good coaches all want to be AD too. After Dale, Highlands made AD a stand alone position. That’s 75% of the trouble getting someone really good. That problem could be solved easily, but Highlands isn’t quick to terminate a position.

Who cares? Guy's gone. I'm turning the page. Ticked me off at first because that's how a normal person would react. There are plenty of just as qualified candidates out there. Hope Coach James gets to build on the state championship he won last year.

Bathiany and Lickert are still good options in my book. I’m not sure Wolfe is a possibility or not. I actually prefer if the head coach played at Highlands and knew what state championship culture is all about. Just because 4 old Highlands players get upset because a potential hire jilted the school after committing doesn’t mean the whole town is crazy. We are proud of our state championship culture and we want to continue it.

Maybe. But not people that know about Highlands. There is no ceiling. We just need the right guy.

Sounds like it worked out really well for everyone.

Highlands is or was a football school. Head football coach is not a random job at Highlands.

Ok, I've cooled down a bit. He really just wasted a bit of time, that's really it. He just wanted to go home to his community and continue what he had built. You can't really hate on him for that. Coach James didn't deserve my reactionary harsh comments. I apologize and good luck to him continuing at Franklin County. He seems like a great coach.

Yeah common in accounting firms and jobs of that nature. This a little different. This is like a ceo pulling out. And I’m sure there is some talk after those.

That is better than him being here for a couple weeks. But then that makes me think, if you are decisive and make a decision don’t you give it a week before you pull out? Unless something happened that we don’t know about that turned him off fast. I know he’s getting blasted on here now but this after he ditched us. I’m sorry that I am defensive about this. But he left us in the lurch in a way.

I guess I wouldn’t have had as much of an issue if he would have thanked Highlands and or apologized for wasting Highlands’ time. In his message he seemed oblivious to stepping on toes in the way he went about it. Does this happen often? A new coach having a press conference and then backing out?

I don’t know don’t hold a press conference and then think about your decision.

No that’s how we feel when we get ditched. Highlands is a great place to work. The way I take it is James wiped Highlands and the other applicants through the dirt.

That’s what you get when you turn your back on people in a rude way. Should we give him a trophy for faking us out?