Cincinnati Cobra

Dixie will need to rewrite their defensive scheme after Brach Rice's graduation. Brach's position coach told me that he accounted for 20% of the team's solo tackles in 2023. He actually told me they graduate all of their top four tacklers who accounted for right around half of their solo tackles last year. On offense they get quarterback Armani Gregg back for his senior season. That means the top rusher for the team is coming back in addition to their #2 and #3 rushers. Those three account for half of Dixie's offensive yards last year. They do have to replace their top two receivers, but Dixie seemed like they had a bounty of solid recievers last season. I'm clueless as to what graduation does to their offensive and defensive lines, though. I don't know much about HC Patrick Burke, but I've liked seeing how he's turned Dixie into that pitbull program in Edgewood. I'm really interested to see how he reboots this season.

Sam is really good people. Here's hoping he can bring back that old school swagger to Holmes and teach the young Dawgs how to really play with a chip on their shoulder. Everyone around the Ninth knows the Ninth is better when Holmes is better.

Even during the times when Dayton has been the absolute pits of high school football in Northern Kentucky, their old stadium seemed like such a hostile environment and the kind of place where you really had to be ready to strap it on when you came to play a game as a visitor. I've always envied programs like Dayton, Bellevue, Newport and Ludlow who had stadiums steeped in all the history they had. Their teams walked onto the field knowing they were standing on the shoulders of giants simply with the action of stepping onto their home field. Even if their players don't feel that today, I can't help but feel that part of that history will be completely lost once Davis Stadium falls to the progress of time. It's hell growing old, isn't it?

I'd love to see a list of the schools that have had finalists over the years. CCH with thirteen winners out of forty-five. Ryle, Beechwood and Highlands with five winners per. Ryle has only existed as a school since '91 or '92, and as much as HHS and BW hang their hats on the quality of education, I'm somewhat surprised that they're as far behind CCH when it comes to winners. No winners from old school programs like Dixie and Ludlow, and none from Holy Cross, Walton Verona or Brossart who have football programs over 15 years old. That's surprising to me, especially when these are the coaches who are voting on the award winners and not just popular vote among fans or writers. Based on the parameters it seems like the coaches agree that some schools are managing a way to do things differently with their students.

I didn't see it as being too harsh, so much as simply stating facts as facts. Dixie is a big school with athletic programs that predate those at Covington Catholic and they have never really been able to find a foothold as a local power, or even as a regularly strong performer. The CCH excuse is just an excuse. Beechwood's football program has managed to excel while competing directly with CCH for athletes. Their baseball program seems to be doing well with that too. Holmes managed to have a successful basketball program while contending with CCH for athletes from the 1950's thru the 1970's when the diocese changed up feeder schools and Covington kids were all funneled to Holy Cross. Dixie though, and particularly their basketball team, has just never figured out the formula for consistent success. So if we're talking 50+ years of throwing their hands up in the air and saying, "but how can we contend with CCH," then in my book, that's under-achievment.

This. Scott Anderson is Carroll County's athletic director and Amy Sutter is the principal. Sorry for the confusion.

I've always felt like Cooper is one or the best jobs in Northern Kentucky almost solely on account of the fact that Tim has made it so. And I think a lot of that is also part and partial to the fact that he is there at the helm. However, Coach Sullivan also strikes me as the type who will make success happen wherever he ends up. I personally would count Dixie's basketball team as the most historically under-performing basketball program in Northern Kentucky and potentially one of the most historically under-performing programs in the state. As AD, Derek Bosse seems like he managed to find a promising but relatively un-accomplished coach to step in and make some moves with the football program. I am very interested to see if he makes a similar hire here, or if he manages to lure in Tim. Or I guess he could always make another flop of a hire. Which would be a very Dixie thing to do.

The word in my neck of the woods has been that Scott and Amy have been putting in work beating some pretty big bushes but haven't come near to shaking anything loose from any of them.

Presence within the building is definitely a big deal at the high school level, especially for a sport that involves a very large commitment of time and effort like football does. From looking at the sidelines, I'd say Brossart has probably been in the mid-forties for roster numbers in the last few years under Wiggins. The roster at Holy Cross, where Kozerski is coming from as a coach, has been more around mid-thirties in the same timeframe. Holy Cross did have a head coach coach in the building who also happens to be the biggest personal mentor to Adam Kozerski. Holy Cross also has had a good stream of athletes coming across from Ohio, historically. I don't see many people traversing the river and then going up and 27 to play at Brossart, though. I'm assuming that Adam Kozerski will bring in "Big Koz" as an assistant coach now that he has retired as a head coach.

My sources tell me that Brossart initially reached out to Eviston and he promptly turned the job down. I don't know about Eviston's participation on the the hiring committee, but from what I heard it didn't sound like he formally interviewed, nor did he really entertain the idea of taking the job. I was told there were two more who turned the job down before it was offered to Kozerski.

It did not. I came away from the call with the feeling that the Brossart powers that be may have gotten a little too big for their boots back around New Years. It sounds like the last 6 weeks may have really humbled them.

Coach Koz is staying on as a teacher, which does leave Holy Cross in the precocious position of having to hire a head football coach who will only be making the head coaching stipend plus whatever the boosters can kick in. I'm not sure that the boosters' boost is very large at Holy Cross. Adam Kozerski would have made a potential candidate for the job, as he could have stayed on at Brossart while coaching at Holy Cross, but it sounds like most Holy Cross folks (excepting Bruce, naturally) were not very enthused by the idea of that hire. And now that point is moot with him getting the Bishop Brossart job. Paul Wiggins would have made for an interesting choice if he was interested. He is a Newport Independent employee, and was already only making a coaching stipend at Brossart. Again, there is the unknown contribution amount of the boosters, so that dollar sign is unclear. I would have to think Holy Cross has reached out to Coach Wiggins. And with the amount of time that has passed since Wiggins was oustered at Bishop Brossart, my gut says that he must have turned the job down at Holy Cross if he was ever approached for it. He was fired for no apparent reason by one Holtz brother. Could you really blame him for not wanting to take a job working for the other Holtz brother? This is tough sledding for Holy Cross right now.

I heard "not our ideal candidate" and "not one of our first offers" both mentioned in the phone conversation I just had. I think Chris and Ron elected to enter themselves into the chess tournament that is hiring a football coach, and I do not think they finished as well as they had hoped.

I think that will more than likely come into play if the Reed family continues to pursue other options for Blake and Cayden. What was the exact 'ruling,' so to speak, that AD/Coach Kirk used to back his dismissal of the boys. I spent a few moments reading through the bylaws on the KHSAA website and it looks like there is a clause that would more than likely prevent them from playing elsewhere. By my own volition I'm not always the best at disseminating legalese. But if I'm reading correctly section 3 of bylaw 6 says that the waiver of ineligibility (the KHSAA's ability to wave off an athlete's requirement to sit after a transfer) is not required if there is documentation that "the student in question or family, before transferring to the new school, expresses dissatisfaction with the philosophy, policies, methods, or actions of a coach or administrator about interscholastic athletics" and also if "the change in schools is to nullify or circumvent a conflict with the philosophy or action of an administrator, teacher, or coach relating to sports." I think this whole situation is a pretty cut and dry example of one, or really both of those instances. Seems to me that it would be more than enough to keep the Reed boys from playing any more this season.

You're entitled to think as you would like, of course. But I would encourage you to talk to Tony Watts about what you think.