New Colonel

Was this really an emergency? By all accounts, Volker was still going to be the head coach. It sounds like it was Beechwood who decided to give Volker an ultimatum after some influential parents didn't like what was going on. I still claim this is one of the strangest turn of events I have ever seen in sports.

Oh, good point. That may open up a legal issue for the district if anyone throws a fit. Also, how old is Coach Rash? Is this a one year deal? 2? Because as an outsider looking in, while Beechwood being a storied program, you have the last 2 people that were head coaches being forced out, and right now the 3rd head coach in 6 years (even though it's only been 2 people). The optics look really bad for those outside Ft. Mitchell. Combine that with the issues that the former superintendent and that fiasco and Beechwood looks like a dumpster fire right now. But as the old saying goes, winning fixes everything.

This may be the strangest turn of events I ever remember. Is there more to this? Meaning was Volker liked in the Beechwood community? Best of luck to both, but this seems odd.

When did I say they shouldn't get a game? If you have 30-40 kids that don't start varsity, I believe that is precisely what JV is for. Sounds like a great opportunity to play in that game. If we are bringing together JV and freshmen to be played on same day to save on travel / to make field availablity better / to better accommodate referee shortage then I'm all for it. What I'm not for is having kids play in 3 separate games. Even with shorter quarters. It doesn't make any sense. If you have the numbers to justify 3 separate teams (varsity, jv, and frosh) then you play those kids in 3 separate games accordingly. If you have that many kids playing between let's say frosh and jv, then 1 of the teams needs to go. If you are a coach who is playing a stud frosh kid in both frosh and jv games because he is good enough to play jv, then you as a coach are a problem. Either that kid should be just playing on the jv team, or just the frosh team. If that means "less talented" jv kids have to play, so be it. That's kind of the entire point of jv. I didn't realize I was causing such an uproar about this, but player safety should be #1 and no player should be playing in 3 games regardless. No player should be playing in 8 quarters either for that matter unless it is a weird situation where like Appalachian said, our jv QB happens to the varsity holder.

This isn't about minutes. It's about number of days with full contact. I don't know what's so hard to understand about that. And again, why is there a need for this. If you don't have the numbers for a separte freshmen team, you don't have one. It really is that simple. If you don't have enough players for a separate JV, then again, you roll Varsity only. Nobody should be playing 8 quarters, ever. But hey, USA football must not know anything.

Ok, so why do you have varsity, jv, and freshmen teams if you don't have enough kids to actually field those teams. There is ZERO reason to have even a single player play in 3 games in a week. Either you have enough players or you don't. As I stated this is wreckless and not safe for players involved. USA football recommends 1 full contact game or scrimmage per week, and here there are people advocating for kids playing 3x a week? So much for player safety.

It's not even about the minutes, it's about the number of days in a week you are going full-contact. This is the reason contact is limited in practice these days. Good thing USA football has put guidelines out for this sort of thing that obviously aren't being followed. This is wreckless.

Uh, kids playing in 3 games per week? Who gave the OK behind this? What a terrible idea.

What you say is not quite true. You could get your 1 year emergency teaching credential with ZERO education background, training, or classes. And after that 1 year, if the districts recommends, you get a full professional teaching certificate. That sounds extremely watered down to me, but I'm not a legal expert. Back to Conner and the upcoming season.

There are plenty of certified teachers to fill the spots. They are leaving the field in droves or never using their teaching certificate. In greater Cincinnati area you have NKU, Thomas More, MSJ, UC, XU, and Miami all with teaching programs that are pumping out a lot of teachers each year. There is not a shortage certified teachers. There is a shortage of those that are certified wanting to go into the field or stay in the field. But that's a different topic altogether. Best of luck to Coach Floyd and the Cougars moving forward! This could become a great job.

How are my numbers wrong on the number of coaches? You listed Turner, Owens, Hensley, and Franklin. Now, Trimnell. That's quite literally 5 coaches in 5 seasons. Look, I'm sure the people running Scott's Athletic Dept. and School are fine people. Having 5 head football coaches in 5 years deserves heat. Saying otherwise is being disingenuous.

Look up alternate pathways to teaching and/or the apprenticeship program. You can get hired to teach with 0 experience and 0 classes in teaching right now. Ohio and lots of other states are doing similar.

The deadline to apply for Open Enrollment for next school year was January 9. Don't expect the district to budge on this with all the new homes being built all over the county. So Scott won't be getting any Open Enrollment kids after the official announcement is made. Why do you deem it unnecessary? They are on Head football coach # 5 in 5 seasons. That heat is well deserved IMHO.

Well aware, but your info isn't all the way correct. Ohio is is actually 32 years currently for full retirement, with a goal of lowering it to 30 years for full pension. While it's 5 additional years, when you combine that with the much higher pay, and the higher payout percentage (for earliest full pension), Ohio teachers come out way on top again. They come out on top with much, much higher lifetime earnings, and higher retirement pension payments. And everywhere is a difficult gig teaching anymore, whether it's CPS, the affluent Ohio districts, or anywhere in the Commonwealth. More and more workload keeps getting piled on teachers, benefits keep getting stripped away little by little. While nobody gets into the field expecting to be indpendently wealthy, the benefits used to make it worthwhile (Insurance benefits especially), but those expenses, like everyone's are becoming more and more expensive. And it's just not worth it anymore, which is why everyone is leaving as soon as possible 27 or 32 years in their respective states. And even more telling is that the average new teacher quits the profession altogether in less than 4 years. Something is really wrong, but instead of actually fixing the problem, states like KY and OH are making it easier to become a teacher, which is angering a lot of veteran teachers because it makes it seem like the job isn't taken seriously and the credentials they worked hard to get aren't important anymore. Those of you with kids in school better pay attention to who is teaching your kids, because next year, it may not even be someone with a traditional credentials.

Glad to hear it worked out.

It's way more than half!

Great topic. I posted part of this in the Campbell County coaching thread, but there is much, much more to it and many of the posts have already gotten to it. So, pardon the novel I've written, but here we go. 1. Pay. Like previously mentioned, the pay sucks for teachers and coaches, especially just starting out for young guys. Now, like previously mentioned, people don't get into teaching and coaching to become independently wealthy. But, they definitely want the ability to buy a modest home at bare minimum and be able to afford to clothe and feed their kids. They can't be putting all these hours of work in to build up everyone else's kids while yours do without. 2. The hours. The part I wrote in the CC thread was already mentioned on here about the expectations that are placed on teachers nowadays is crazy. The expecatations on coaches are even more crazy. There simply are not enough hours in the day to be a good teacher, good coach, and good father/husband. That's the reality. So something has to give. And the fact that you can't do everyhing well means you are having conflict at home, conflict with your principal, or conflict with your AD. 3. Parents. Holy cow are parents absolutely insane anymore. I like that term drone parent mentioned before. They are indeed invasive. Most parents don't parent anymore. They want to hang out with their kids and be their friend. I hear all the time, "My kid is my best friend." Well, not to be a jerk, but if your kid is your best friend, you are doing it way wrong. Your job is parent them, guide them, help them, and show them proper boundaries, especially with regards to social norms. Your job as a parent isn't to be BFF's with your kid, removing every obstacle in their way, giving them unrestricted access to every one of their whims, and make them the center of the universe. I have seen parents cussing out teachers, principals, coaches, and anyone else in their child's life that essentially told the child no. I have seen parents fight other parents, and the aforementioned groups. I tell people all the time, kids today are the same they have always been, we don't have a kid problem in society, we have a grown up problem. Our society is full of adults who act like spoiled 4 year olds. 4. Unrealistic expecations. Again, there are completely unrealistic expecations on coaches and teams. Players, parents, community members, boosters, school faculty, all have unreal expectations. They expect results year 1. People don't realize that programs have ebbs and flows. Even with the perennial powers, the KY Bluebood programs, people's expectations are out of control. Hey, you lost a game, fire that coach. OR, you only beat such and such team by 14, you should have won by 40. OR, We won state last year, this year you lost in the semifinals. Clearly, this coach doesn't know what he's doing. It's ridiculous. 5. Unrealistic expecations part 2. Why isn't so and so getting recruited? Why isn't little Timmy going D1? People don't realize that 90% of college recruiting is all about your size and speed. Height, weight, 40 time. Not what you do on the field. You may have a defensive player of the year that fills like a freight train and runs sideline to sideline like a gazelle, but if he's 5'5", he's not going D1. 6. Unrealistic expectations part 3. Playing time. Why isn't Billy starting on Friday nights? Well, he's a 145lb and plays OL. Or he's a receiver that can't catch a cold. Or he's can't remember a single play. Or he's a cancer to the team. Or he's a disaster in the classroom. Pick one of many reasons. Now, I think you get as many kids in games as possible at the Freshman and JV level, ideally every kid for development purposes; but Friday night is for the best of the best. 7. Pressure. Not everyone can handle the constant pressure associated with coaching, especially if you are the head coach. Some people just aren't cut for that. I've seen it take a big toll on guys' health....physically, emotionally, and mentally. Heavy is the head the wears the crown, in good times and in not so good. Always wondering when will the time come when I am asked to resign? It will come, unless you are the 0.1%. 8. Lack of resources. It is really hard to say, "Coach we want you to be successful, but we won't give you the tools to do so. Whatever your sport needs, you and your team need to go fundraise for it." What? How does that make any sense? 9. Lack of upward mobility. Once you have become a high school head coach, what's next? You've essentially peaked in your profession. Sure, you could maybe move up to coaching college, but that move will typically involve uprooting your family, pay less money, involve more hours of work, and then add in countless days of travel for recruiting. Making that kind of move doesn't make sense for a lot of guys. People want to "climb the ladder" so to speak, and the ladder is really short in high school athletics and honestly isn't that attractive for most people. 10. Kids not buying in. There's a lot to this. Kids have more choices than ever before when it comes to choosing sports or activities. Why choose football? It requires by far the most hours and commitment, and for bigger football schools/programs, 75% of the team doesn't play in the games. When you really think about it, that's a REALLY tough ask for a high school kid. Why would you expect them to give up so much time to not even get to participate in the games? For so many kids, they have found that their time is better spent doing other sports, working, hobbies, pursuing academics, or something with the arts. It's simply not worth it to them. So, it's even harder find adults to become head coaches to try to keep kids on the team who may never even sniff the field on a Friday night over the course of 4 years. You don't see too many successful programs with tiny rosters, numbers are an important part of football success. So, in short, there are so many open HC jobs open in KY because it simply isn't worth it for the overwhelming majority of coaches. There's not enough hours in the day, not enough pay, and too many hats to wear to justify the immense sacrifice you will put yourself and your family through. Only to be told to resign at some point in the future and unlikeley to be given such a chance again. The culture must change drastically in order to solve this problem. Otherwise, rinse and repeat each and every year and keep asking the same question and wondering why nobody stays in the head football coach job for very long.

Turf is the bare minimum anymore (even though I cannot stand turf personally). However, the weight facilities overall in Ohio are vastly superior. Some schools have multiple 2 weight rooms. Many schools have multiple, yes you heard that correctly, multiple turf fields. Only 1 KY school has a pool, whereas there are well over a dozen across the river. I'm not saying the facilities are poor in NKY, as there are some gems, but overall, it's not even close. Heck, Princeton in Cincy, who already had top-notch facilities, is pouring over 20 million into renovating athletic facilities. It's a completely different game across the river is all I'm getting at. And no NKY district is anywhere close.

I disagree. You go across the river and a 20 year teacher with equal credentials is making 6 figures. This is a metro area and the cost of living is the same in NKY as it is in Hamilton County. NKY schools are going to continue to have issues keeping coaches and teachers when there is that kind of pay disparity. There are plenty of people who would drive an extra 15-25 minutes to get 20+ grand more for the same work. And when you look at football, coaching in Ohio is seen as more prestigious and most schools have better facilities and support too across the river. If NKY schools are serious about attracting and keeping talent, the districts need to dramatically increase their payscales for teachers and increase funding for extracurriculars. The amount of fundraising that Boone and Kenton County schools do for every extracurricular is absolutely insane. The teams are essentially club teams that to use facilities at the schools since very little of the budgets seem to go to the extracurriculars.

Hopefully. However, the stats show the vast majority of of college football players make next to nothing, and the majority of NIL deals are under a 100 bucks. Another thing people talk about is the portal. Well over 50% of players who enter the portal never land on another team. There's too much bad information out there.

Congrats. Could be a great pickup for the Cards.

IF, and I mean IF that is truly the policy, then how did this name get leaked? Seems like a really good way to lose your job since only a few people would know who was brought in for interviews and who was offered. IF this is the policy, again, I have no idea if it is or not, why interview someone 2 months before you can name him and let him start his job? There's so much here that doesn't make sense. And you can just say as school, we have our guy, and an announcement will be made on February 1 due to whatever the rule is called.

You at least have some sort of message out there saying that. You could put out a Press Release saying..... "We look to have Coach so and so lead the Eagles next season but are awaiting Board Approval in February." If the Board says, no, you can't do that (Which if they did say that, umm someone's getting thrown under the bus since the word has already gotten out) then you say "Scott has hired a new football head football coach. Due to Board Policy (name the policy), we cannot name the person until February 1st." And if the taxpayers don't like it, they can voice their concerns at the Board Meetings or vote new Board members in. You can't just be tight lipped about something for a month into a new year. You can't just keep people in the dark like this, it isn't right.

Sure does. And it's hard to take a school remotely seriously that has messed up football coach hirings as bad as Scott has. How do you have kids reporting to weights without a Head Coach? That kind of messaging is just awful for the kids and the community.

And people wonder why Scott has issues getting and or retaining athletes despite having the best facilities in Kenton County, possibly all of NKY.