leatherneck

No it is not bush league to not take a knee when an opponent's player or even your player is hurt. Don't know where that silliness came from. Probably soccer.

Don't know. But I heard last night at the frosh game that John Hardin will be on the schedule also. Don't know if that's true though.

Great Googly Moogly!

Then spread out the defense and run draw plays and screens to slow down the pass rush. Throw short passes and get rid of the ball quickly. Roll the QB out to a side. Help the O line out with play calling and formations.

Football, which is why this former St. Thomas student that attended Highlands with a whole lot of other former St.Thomas students yet was still able to get a Catholic education, isn't directly responding to some rather "interesting" posts. What is real interesting is to wonder if those Catholics so devout that they consider public schools anathema will vote for a Presidential candidate that supports abortion.

Me too. Had some bad memories for me. But loved it nonetheless. Older stadiums have some "charm" and "mystique" that is usually missing in the newer, almost sterile, stadiums. Thought it was cool that the existing stadium was largely built by volunteers. But it does make sense to have the football field near the high school as opposed to what is now the middle school. Can't wait to see the facility. Good morning by the way.

I think so, most certainly. I want to beat CovCath in any activity we match up against them. Not because I hate CovCath; quite the contrary. Because I respect them so much. Obviously we've had much more success in football but that doesn't mean I want to beat them any less in basketball, baseball, soccer, etc.

Mex, it's all a matter of what one considers a rivalry. I personally place the "emotion" factor higher than I do the "competitiveness" factor, and emotions for games between Highlands and CovCath are very high. Frankly, the fact that the "wins and losses" factor has swung heavily in Highlands favor during Dale's tenure, makes it even more emotional for CovCath folks, players and coaches I think. They are sick and tired of losing to Highlands and desperately want a win. As they get more jacked up for a win, the Highlands players, coaches and fans get more jacked up to prevent that from happening. Trust me on this: no Highlands player wants to be part of "that team" that lost to CovCath and ended the streak. So because emotions are very high between these two programs and because I place the emotion factor at the top, I still consider it a great rivalry. But I understand that others may feel differently.

Agree. Dale does the best job I've ever seen adjusting his offense and play calling year to year/game to game to fit his talent and match ups against the defense. I went into the game thinking we'd win by 2 TDs. I liked what I saw of Boone County's ability to move the ball early against CovCath and felt we'd be able to do even better running the ball against CovCath. Mid-way through the second quarter Friday night, I felt really confident about my assessment. When you can successfully run the ball against a team that is committed to stopping the run, you are going to win the game 95 plus times out of 100. Football is a simple game. Biggest "stat" for me? No fumbles by the Birds, which was made even more impressive by all the tackles in traffic and by second and third efforts by Highlands ball carriers to pick up additional yards. Well done.

Well done Birds. Solid effort from every facet of the game. Won't single out any one player. All played very well. Just a total team victory. Loved the play calling. Just line up and go at them. Also loved the defense. Birds flew the ball.

Agree. And I don't put much stock in frosh results. On all levels, it's supposed to be about kids playing the game they love. Nothing more; nothing less.

Congrats to the Royals. Nice bounce back win. Keep it going.

Absolutely correct.

Great meeting you and the Mrs. Thanks for taking the effort to find me. I really appreciate getting to meet you. Will try to get into Maysville soon. Good to also see Dr. Bob Ross. Bob, a Highlands classmate of mine, is a physician in Maysville and serves as the Mason County team doctor. Great guy. Coach, sorry we didn't have more time to talk. Hopefully we'll run across each other soon with more time to catch up. Love what you said in the newspaper article McPapa linked. Just love it. While supporters of the Royals may be disappointed in the record so far, it's only relevance is whether it has helped prepare the team for the district competition. I saw some talented players on the Mason County team that impressed me. What impressed me even more though, and this is a compliment to the coaches and the parents of the Mason County players and to the players themselves, was the discipline and class displayed by the Mason County players. We've all seen those kids that when they are losing by a big margin, they lose their cool and discipline. I saw absolutely zero of that stuff last night. Standing in one endzone and close to the action, I heard no trash talk, no bickering amongst one another, no finger pointing from the Royals. Just encouragement towards one another and kids playing as hard as they could. Well done. Good luck to the Royals the rest of the year. And to the Birds, nothing else needs to be said other than it's CovCath Week.

Ironically I always drive 8 back and forth to Augusta. AA can be rather treacherous. Drive the speed limit and you have the speed demons and the truckers on your rear bumper. Go fast enough to avoid that, and you get a speeding ticket. Occasionally on 8 you have the Ohio drivers going 40 mph, but other than those folks and the deer that don't look both ways before crossing, 8 is usually fine for me. No slippage between Augusta and the turn up onto River Road into south Fort Thomas unless it's happened since last Sunday. Hope you can join us. No rain forecasted for the time of the game.

Ditto. I'll be in one of the endzones filming.

Reading the Jim Otis comment brought back a lot of old, out in the yard, tackle football games with you, Mac and the gang memories. Well done.

I sure thought schools were allowed to request a move up. Either that or my memory went to Hades in a handbasket since I remember voting on requests. Heck, I remember a certain northeastern school twisting in the wind trying to convince us that if it moved up to 5A, it would travel less miles (it wouldn't); then that if we considered the boys in their alternative school, they'd be 5A (we couldn't because they had previously set up their alternative school so that it would have a separate school designation number in an attempt to be a 4A school when Highlands and CovCath were in 5A); and when that also failed, to have legislation proposed that would have prevented the KHSAA from putting a school in a classification if a district game was more than a certain number of miles away (the proposed legislation went no where fast). Fact is, competitive reasons have never been a reason why the KHSAA allowed a school to move up. Years ago, any school could move up for any reason it wanted. Then the KHSAA banned all move ups for quite some time. When we did, starting with the re-classification for the 07 season, again start allowing schools to request a move up, it has always only been for geographical reasons. To the point about Highlands specifically, I agree with you that it's pretty unlikely that Highlands would be allowed to move up if CovCath goes to 5A unless enough other schools move around class wise or district wise resulting in it being a two team northern Kentucky 4A district (Highlands and Holmes) and Holmes can relatively easily be placed in another 4A district without objection (for example into District 4 in Louisville).

Then they had a really, really bad night against Highlands. I was more impressed with Louisville Western than I was with Scott County. Seriously.

Yes they were. You've got bad scoop.

I realize that you know this, but for those that might not be as informed and to eliminate misunderstandings: The KHSAA put Brossart in 2A because that was the class that Brossart's reported numbers called for it to be in. I realize that the admin at Brossart felt that enrollment was going to quickly be shrinking, but if we made our decisions on what we were told by school administrators was going to happen, we'd have all kinds of changes all the time. I realize Brossart was just starting it's football program, but the KHSAA rules do not allow such to factor in what class schools are placed. In other words: the KHSAA was not permitted to do Brossart any "favors". Looking back, perhaps Brossart should have chosen to not participate in district play for several years until it got its football program on a stronger foundation. The good news is that since this year ends the first two year period of the 4 year class term, if Brossart's male enrollment has shrunk appreciably (I want to remember that we used a 16% number as the basis for making a class change in mid term) you can ask the KHSAA to move you down to single A for the remaining two years. Do you feel that moving down to A will help Brossart's program?

In my prayers too Sir. Whip the reaper's butt then come watch your grandson play some ball this Fall.

I think you are exactly right about Birds working real hard on the passing game again this week. To beat CovCath, the Birds are going to have to be able to pass the ball well consistently. The last time we lost to CovCath (back in 06) we had a very strong running game and only an iffy passing game. CovCath figured that out in the regular season game and packed the box in the playoff game making it very difficult to move the ball. So I say, throw, throw and throw the ball some more this week. Get the finest edge possible on the passing game in preparation for CovCath.

As to the blocking, I've only seen the frosh play once this season, but based on that viewing, they need to do a much better job moving their hips and feet in order to maintain blocks. This isn't the Jr. Football League any more, where if you took a good first step, the defender was and stayed blocked. Dixie's frosh did a great job getting off the blocks and making tackles. The O line must do a better job maintaining blocks if the Birds are to have success running the ball against Beechwood.

Watusi said it better than I will, but I couldn't agree more in re the bolded. The bolded is what high school football, heck high school athletics, should be all about. Yeah we all want to win; all the time. But at the end of the day, it's supposed to be about teen aged kids having fun playing games that they love and creating those memories and bonds that will last forever. As long as that is happening, we adults should be content. I'll definitely find you before the game Coach. Again, congrats.