leatherneck

Somewhat true, although as Hellbird has pointed out, a majority of the coaches(approx 58%) were in favor of 4 teams from each district making the playoffs.

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but here is a link to the results of a survey (addressing the 4 team issue and others) conducted by the KHSAA last year: 11/4/12 – Results of 2011-2012 Football Playoff Format Survey of Member Schools | Kentucky High School Athletic Association Some interesting info can be found by probing around.

Great points. I mean seriously, if a coach thinks an opponent using JV and third teamers is running up the score and embarrassing to his team, he should just stop the game and just say it's over. When you really think about it, isn't having an opponent's JV and third teamers take a knee approx 50 yards from the goal line so they won't score against my team more humiliating to my players and me as a coach than anything? I think so. From what I know of Coach Warner (and really like about him), he is tough, hard nosed person. Would have made a great Marine. I'd be absolutely flabbergasted if the two late scores played any role in his decision.

The 5A schools don't need to play Highlands to win state; neither do the 6A schools. But playing Highlands early in the season would help the 6A and 5A players and coaches know what they have to get better at during the rest of the season to prepare for Trinity and Bowling Green in the playoffs. I know you are hung up on Highlands not playing Trinity in the regular season. You've been scarily obsessive about it. We do scrimmage Trinity under game conditions. If we beat them in that scrimmage, I feel we'd have the same ability to make the claim we are the best team in the state as if we beat them during the regular season (assuming both teams went undefeated against Kentucky competition) . Likewise, if we don't beat them, we have no ability to make that claim. Why folks think the matchup has to be during the regular season to demonstrate what team is better (when the scrimmage is played under game type conditions) is simply bewildering to me. I've yet to read a Highlands fan say that if it had been a regular season game, we'd have beaten Trinity. I'm just glad we get to play Trinity early in the season, as it serves as a great barometer of where we are and what we need to do to get better. Honestly, I think we'd perform much better against Trinity if we played them at the end of the season and our chances of winning would be better. But I'd rather play them at the beginning to help us find our deficiencies and have time to correct them before we play CovCath.

That is a fair (and predictable) post. The problem with it is, Highlands doesn't have to beat GCL caliber teams to win state. The N. Ky 6A schools have to be able to beat a Highlands caliber team (or better in Trinity's case) to win state. The N. Ky 5A schools have to be able to beat a Highlands caliber team (or darn close in Bowling Green's case) to win state. If a N. Ky 5A or 6A coach is not scheduling Highlands because his team can't beat the Birds, is he sending the message to his players they have no real chance of winning a state title? I think so but perhaps I'm seeing it wrong. Am I?

And hopefully your post will get us back on track. Being candid, my post referencing what my Dad told me is what got us off track and I apologize to all for doing that. I was surprised when I heard Ryle decided to drop Highlands. I think Warner was right years ago when he said why he was willing to play Highlands (even twice). I'm not sure what is going on at Ryle and frankly it's none of my business. But I do wish Ryle was stilling playing Highlands. Like the rivalry and it puts the Birds in a bind at this date to try to find another team to play us. For the sake of high school football, particularly N. Ky high school football, I hope there are no problems and if there are, I hope Coach Warner can get them straightened out. Ryle being very good is very good.

To be fair, you know, just like I do, that a whole lot of football coaches (not all, but a lot) are like a bunch of old wash women when it comes to gossiping, repeating rumors, etc. Don't know if such is the case in this issue, but having been on the BOC for two terms and listened to a lot of football coaches say this and say that, when the truth wasn't even close, leads me to listen with a rather suspicious ear to what coaches say. I could give ample examples of such, some of which involve N. Ky coaches, but I won't. Some coaches I'd take to the bank what they told me; others not so much. As you also know, there are some in the N. Ky coaching community that simply do not like Dale, so it wouldn't surprise me in the least if what you were told may have been distorted (again, I could give more examples but I won't). I'm not saying what you were told by the two coaches is false, as I don't know the facts. But I do know from many, many personal experiences to be rather cautious when I listen to what certain coaches say.

Yes it was and I make no apologies for it. If Warner agreed to play Highlands and he then backed out of the commitment at a late date, unless there was some miscommunciation between Dale and Warner, I have a problem with it. If Dale agreed that the gate from the scrimmage with T was to go to the scholarship fund and he then backed out of the commitment, unless there was some miscommunication between Dale and the scholarship fund administrators, I have a problem with it. I tell my sons to honor their word; not going to accept anything less from coaches. No hypocrisy from this person from Ft. Thomas.

IF Dale promised this past year's gate to the scholarship fund and IF he later reneged on that promise, not only my Dad would have problems with it, I would too. I assume you likewise have problems with Warner backing out of his verbal agreement to play Highlands, correct?

Joe has been around a long time. He and every other referee deserves our thanks for stepping up to the plate and helping our student athletes participate in the games they love. Refs don't get told thanks enough. I doubt that Joe cares much at all about what is said on here; or at least I hope he doesn't. Thick skin is as much a prerequisite of reffing as are a whistle, striped shirt and yellow flag.

But the crux of jbckentucky's post is: that no one associated with Bowling Green High School should ever, ever, ever question Highlands about having out of district players on our football team. Thanks for the info jbc. Hope to see you soon. LN

On a more serious note, the old ball coach looks like he needs a training bra.

Usually yes, although I don't know if that is the case in this situation. Heck, I don't even know if the contract was signed yet. It may have been the case that Warner verbally told Dale that Ryle would play and Dale took his word on it. My Dad always told me if a man's word isn't any good, neither is his signature. Warner may feel not playing Highlands is the best thing for his program at this point; but he shouldn't have agreed to play Highlands and then backed out.

That's a possibility I'm sure; then again, do you really want your starters to have a bye the last week and then play the first two rounds of the playoffs? If the past holds true (where the starters really haven't played much in the first two rounds), Highlands starters could have almost a full month between having to play an entire game. Which is why I liked Ryle in that slot. Up until last year, a game vs Ryle was usually a tough game that required the starters to play all or most of the game, but wasn't overscheduling. Plus, I just like the bye week earlier in the year to break up the season and allow banged up kids to heal up before finishing the regular season. Hopefully Dale will find a team that can push the Birds in that last game but frankly not be too much after playing Elder the week before.

So size can be (and often is) the deciding factor when both teams have the other things (coaching, commitment, tradition and support) in place. When a smaller school has those things but the bigger school does not, the smaller school can (and often does) prevail.

You give me two teams: both with excellent coaching staffs; both with extremely hard working kids and both with support and tradition behind them, but one drawing from an enrollment of 400 and the other drawing from an enrollment of 1,000, and I'd expect the team drawing from 1,000 to beat the team drawing from 400 8 or 9 times out of 10. The reason you see smaller programs beating the larger programs is, more often than not, because the smaller programs have better coaches, harder working kids and better support and tradition behind them.

Congrats on the win Toots.

I believe it is Cliff Borland Stadium.

Only caveat I can think of would be a recruiting issue. A high school coach cannot recruit students (at any level) of another school system: even 8th graders. The OP referenced By Law 10 (recruiting); not By Law 6 (the transfer rule). As t2p mentioned, there may be some issues per the case law explanations: http://khsaa.org/handbook/bylaws/bylaw10.pdf Admin at the school this kid is working out at may want to quickly contact the KHSAA for clarification if they haven't done so. Also could be insurance issues as previously mentioned by others.

Kicker needs to keep his head up. Every kicker has days like that. Chances are good he'll get his opportunity to redeem himself in the playoffs. Congrats to Coach Jackson and his Bruins.

Problem with that thought is this thread hasn't been a cow; it's been bull. (sorry, I just had too)

If we are talking the same issue, one of the 5 N. Ky 6A schools was going to be placed in District 2, which only had 3 6A schools in it, to give both districts 4 teams. Whatever N. Ky 6A school that was going to be placed in District 2 was going to have more travel than if they had stayed in the N. Ky district (District 2 teams were Central Hardin, Meade County and Nelson County). If I remember correctly, folks were thinking it was going to be Simon Kenton that was going to be shifted to District 2. If I also remember correctly, it was Marksberry that came up with the idea of keeping all 5 of the 6A N. Ky schools in the one district for regular season game purposes and having the 5th place N. Ky 6A team become the 4 seed in the District 2 come playoff time. The District 2 teams liked the proposal because they didn't have to worry about a N. Ky team actually being placed in their district and possibly being the one or two seed as the N.Ky team would always be the 4th seed. The N. Ky district liked it because it kept natural and close rivals in the district and avoided the possibility of one of them being actually placed in District 2 and having to travel for regular season district games. Seemed then to have made sense; seems now as it if makes sense. One of the 2A District 6A teams (Nelson County) split, meaning that even with the addition of the N.Ky 6A school (Boone in this year's case) there was only going to be 3 teams in District 2. Since District 3 matches up with District 2 this year, some team in District 3 was going to have a bye in the first week. Because the written agreement was that the N. Ky team was going to always be the 4 seed in District 2, it meant that there would be a 1 seed, a 2 seed and a 4 seed, but no 3 seed. Since the 2 seed normally plays the 3 seed of the paired district and technically there is no 3 seed in District 2, the 1 seed of District 3 has a game against the artificially created 4 seed of District 2 (Boone) and the 2 seed of District 2 gets a bye because there is no 3 seed in District 2. Seems wacky I admit and perhaps the KHSAA should have said Boone would be a 3 seed in District 2 and there is no 4 seed in District 2 this year,thus giving the 1 seed of District 3 (PRP) the first round bye instead of the 2 seed. But the agreement reached was that the N. Ky team would always be the 4 seed in Distict 2 and perhaps the KHSAA felt it would have been wrong to go back on that agreement. To have done so would have benefitted the 1 seed of District 3, but have made the first round game tougher on the N. Ky team moved to District 2 for the playoffs. So I can see why the KHSAA may have felt it had to abide by the agreement reached a couple of years ago. In any event, it's a one year abnormality, as next year there will again be 3 teams in District 2, with the 4th team being the 5th place N. Ky team come playoff time. Hope that helps explain the situation and when I posted my comment I hadn't realized that AT had already posted the info from the KHSAA site.

Interesting and I'm sure somewhat surprising to the Brossart folks. If I remember correctly, when teams were re-classified, didn't some Brossart folks tell the KHSAA that they thought the Brossart boys' enrollment would be decreasing and should be moved to 1A? Kudos to Brossart for growing their boys enrollment. I'd think that would be tough to do in this economy. I know the KHSAA caught some grief for not moving Brossart down to 1A at the time based on those declining enrollment predictions. I hope that those who gave the KHSAA grief now understand why the KHSAA can't base class decisions on predictions.

Thanks for the info. Impressive. Most importantly, the great kid part. Best of luck to him and I hope he goes to the school he desires.

Can you tell us a little bit about Dennis? Not familiar with this young man. Congrats on the selection.