GoBirds4

I am glad Beechwood is allowing him to graduate early. Many schools around Kentucky have to get over themselves and get with the times. The student athletes are the ones being hurt by this rule. While Highlands may have a “path” to graduate early they sure don’t make it easy or accommodating to do so. If there are two athletes even on a colleges board and they can get one 6 months before the other, who do you think they are going to take? Opportunities are missed due to this. Early graduation is becoming the norm for many athletes that have college aspirations. Kentucky as a whole is very far behind in this aspect.

My favorite part was watching Highlands play man 80% of the time, playing as physical as they would with pads and pressing each receiver. Can’t recall a linebacker playing safety.

Nothing wrong with trying to re-energize a program that has needed a serious shot in the arm. These kids have needed to learn how to win again regardless of the setting. Average teams don’t win 64 team tournaments whether it’s 7 on 7 or not. Trophies aren’t given out in July but we will find out a lot in the next month.

That’s a coordinator stipend in most states.

He doesn’t receive anything close to all of the profit and he puts money back into the team as well as paying his entire staff for helping.

This is false across the board. There is no 7 on 7 this year anyway.

Yes, closed door meetings don't need to be public information.

Not something that needs to be discussed here for the betterment of all parties. There will be a Highlands Football Camp as well as a FTJFL Camp.

For what it's worth, Highlands has only given up 30 points one time this year in a shootout. They have lost 3 games by 1 score and lost to Ryle by 14. 4 running clocks were put on them last year. Could they be 5-3, 6-2, 7-1? Maybe. Do we all want them to be 10-0? No doubt. Coach Sphire has only been here for just over 6 months and improvements are obvious. Young kids are playing significantly in bunches. They are averaging 300+ yards per game offensively and 10 more ppg than last year. A switch cannot be flipped in 6 months into a championship caliber team, but improvements are obvious. The weight room is the difference maker and a full off-season will be huge moving forward. Go Birds!

Are we also forgetting that Nick Saban personally wrote him a letter congratulating him? He has connections to the college world that very few coaches have. He has gotten two former players jobs at Alabama among many other programs. If a player wants to play on a 7 on 7 team on their own time, I’m sure Coach Sphire wouldn’t care. But as soon as that team becomes more important to the players than Highlands and they are missing workouts/practices, then there is a clear problem.

Parents have also been used to their kids being home by 4:30 after school during football season and having .500 seasons. Coach Sphire was hired to win championships. Those don't just appear out of thin air. Things are going to change and some parents may not like the time commitment. I assume all the kids understand what is being asked of them. Everything I have heard indicates that players are able to play different sports etc. but when you are able to be at football practice, you better be at football practice.

Quite the opposite. Coach Sphire seems to be all for players playing or participating in any extracurricular sport they choose as long as it does not cause you to miss any team events or practices. Pretty standard operating procedures. If a player wants to go participate in an extracurricular and choose to miss practice then they are making a decision to put the team 2nd. Either you do what is expected of you to benefit the team or somebody else will step into that gap. Not to mention Coach Sphire has had well over 200 players go on to play college ball. I think he has a good idea of what he is doing.