observerbynature

Aw, come on, you're the one that got me to change how I felt about it over the weekend. I've just decided, I liked Game of Thrones, and I'm going to choose to interpret this one as the principal being King Joffrey thinking he's in charge, and finally the moneyed interests in Fort Thomas (aka Tywin) have decided to win this war for him. At least that's how I'm choosing to see it.

Big Don is at it again on Twitter with the riddles. I've decided to embrace it.

I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but I really can't believe this is turning into a referendum on Highlands fans not handling this well on a message board.

I have a question about that, doing a google search tells me that it means the account is protected. That was defined as basically only being able to see the tweets if you follow the account. So, I didn't assume that it was locked or anything nefarious, but now, I'll just go start drinking till it all gets sorted out.

He was tweeting last night during the game from @BirdsFBCoach twitter account. I think that would be pretty cavalier if he was contemplating not taking the job.

Left the presser even more excited about Coach James. Good turnout of players and families on the drive to the fieldhouse and I'll be, if he didn't walk back up that driveway saying hello and introducing him and his family to every single person. Very classy move on his part. Time to go to work.

I will just say that its been a real pleasure reading the comments from his Twitter and Facebook posts announcing his decision. While sad, people are effusive in their praise for him both as a coach and a leader in the community. Honestly, cannot wait.

Totally fair. The conflicting part for me was that I loved Game of Thrones, so maybe I should just sit back and enjoy it.

Okay, and again, with all due respect, then why the weird tweets? Because the tweets were very direct in that someone had been chosen and was on their way. But then the article says that he was offered and had the weekend to accept. Again, with all due respect (learned my lesson here) those are at least inconsistent messages.

You know, that's fair, and I appreciate the fact that he's putting prep sports info out there, but I think I'm just uncomfortable with how this whole thing may be going down (I can't claim to know how it is going down). And you're also right that it's not cool to put it all on Don, but I guess I'm just stuck thinking about making sure whoever the new coach is that he gets to tell his current players, families and community that he's leaving on his terms. I may be very excited about the future, but I also want the people on the other end of this to get their time to handle it internally as well. That may be wishful thinking, I know, but still.

I'm just here for the hot takes. ?

The article said that the job had been offered and he had the weekend to "think about it." Now, if that was true, then shame on everyone associated with it, but based on the article not being there, I can only assume there was a spicy phone call from someone at Highlands to whatever the NKY Tribune is to say hey, if you ever want us to answer a call again, take it down. I mean, what was with the tweets with the riddle and riding from the South. I mean, I get it, don't get me wrong, but I'd honestly prefer a long @Colonels_Wear_Blue post as a better example of journalism than whatever this guy is doing.

Maybe we just make a note that @BigErn is not a huge fan of riddles.

You know, I was going to post something like this. This may sound strange, but I've always had a lot of respect for coaches who teach towards either end of the socio-economic scale. On one end, you have to deal with some life things that most coaches in the middle might probably never have to deal with. There was a great article maybe 2 or 3 years ago in the Cincinnati Enquirer about the football coaches at Cincinnati Public Schools that expressed this much better than I could. And then on the other end, you have coaches at schools like Summit where I'd have to imagine you have to get a little more creative with your motivational stuff being that most of the kids probably drove to school in nicer cars than you have. Look, I know I'm making wildly simplistic and extremely generalized statements, but I guess I'm just inundated with the thought of getting the right man for the job and how different those jobs can be.

I have time to do this. So, Highlands decided to let BW go (still not entirely sure if he was let go or resigned). Now, there were a couple of pages early on that re-litigated these circumstances with one side arguing that the talent is down, its not the job it once was and the Ft Thomas "mafia" needs to adjust their expectations. Then the mafia fought back and argued that there have been systemic problems within the program for years now, that not all good coordinators make good head coaches, there is nothing wrong with high expectations and a change needed to be made and the program will rise again. The middle pages are essentially wild conjecture from most people, but then these interesting vague little nuggets by some members who seem to be more in the know than others. It basically boiled down to one side arguing that the talent is down, its not the job it once was and the Ft Thomas "mafia" needs to adjust their expectations. Then the mafia fought back and argued that there have been systemic problems within the program for years now, that not all good coordinators make good head coaches, there is nothing wrong with high expectations and a change needed to be made and the program will rise again. The last several pages are really the most timely and give, what I understand to be, a pretty accurate accounting thus far of who has applied/interviewed, etc. However, within those pages, you should be aware that there is one side arguing that the talent is down, its not the job it once was and the Ft Thomas "mafia" needs to adjust their expectations. Then the mafia fought back and argued that there have been systemic problems within the program for years now, that not all good coordinators make good head coaches, there is nothing wrong with high expectations and a change needed to be made and the program will rise again. Honestly, just read like the last two pages, Guru is keeping a list of all confirmed candidates.

Damn, knew one of the CovCath guys would beat me to that joke.

I'm glad you two are discussing this, cause I think its a pretty interesting discussion that we could certainly take down extended paths in many directions. It's the ultimate conflict because it's been a jolt of excitement when some names just get dropped in a pretty definitive manner, but there's also a twinge of "wait, was School X aware of this?"

Well, so much for the vague and non-descript rumor posts.

So, I think I get the sentiment behind the comment, but as I understand it, a) this was a request from the team during the initial call with the principal and AD after news about BW came out, and b) the "committee" isn't exactly hiring the coach, they're providing their feedback and recommendations. It's not like there's a scenario where they were going to hire Dale back but the high school kid said no.

This was pretty damn funny.

I just wanted to come back to this real quick and say, number one, I have an admittedly very small sample size, and two, I also think he has an interesting and kind of, sort of relatively good resume. But, I was just trying to share that in that small sample size there seems to be pretty strong and not very positive reactions to Lickert taking over at HHS. As always, for what that's worth.

From what I've gathered, he seems to be a particularly polarizing figure in all of this. People seem to have strong opinions on the subject and most not to the favorable side. That's just been my experience.

I think this is a really interesting question. I was just talking to someone a couple nights ago and asked the question specifically about Dale Mueller. What was there in his previous head coaching roles across the river at Withrow and Sycamore (aside from the ability to coach at two very different high schools) that indicated the success he was about to have? He did pretty well at Withrow for sure, but the three years at Sycamore prior to taking the Highlands job were all losing seasons. I mean, in all honesty, I'm just trying to picture that situation in the current climate. There are Highlands guys out there with much better records today that I don't think are really even in serious contention, and I don't know, could that be a mistake? Obviously, I think there are a couple "home run" types, but it's that next level that they could end up having to take a shot on, and I don't know how the science to getting that right works.

So much of this predates my knowledge base, and I don't expect you or anyone to do my homework for me, but I don't fully understand what you think would be the proper way to address the issue? Do you still think this is an issue? I'm just curious. And also, for the record, is Mafia always bad in sports terms? The Bills Mafia seems to get a lot of love.

I've also been thinking a lot about this whole "unrealistic fan base" thing. I don't know how many of you listen to that NKY HS Football podcast, but if you don't, you should, it's so well done. But they were interviewing Noel Rash this past episode after Beechwood's state title and they spent a good time talking about the "culture" at Beechwood. They specifically referenced the alumni at the games with their state championship rings, clothes and expectations and the culture that breeds around the program. I guess it just got me thinking that we seem pretty willing to view this whole concept of "culture" very differently when a program is winning as opposed to when its struggling. Aren't these many of the exact same things that are lauded at Beechwood currently, but when expressed in Fort Thomas, the reaction seems to be one of an out of touch fan base not accepting the reality that they're just going to be mediocre now. I don't know, like most things, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, but it had me thinking and my wife is no longer entertaining my random high school football thoughts for the remainder of the year, so I thought I'd use this as my journal.