leatherneck

Here is a link to an article on one heck of a fine man: Friday Night Sights: Newport alumnus never stops caring for players | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com And it was in the Enquirer. Well done Mr. Atkins and to the Enquirer.

I can deal with the typos. Just give me more coverage. Coverage with typos beats no coverage at all.

At Centre, we always said the Lord's Prayer before the game. Had to live up to the Praying Colonels name of course. Anyway, during my sophomore year, one of our Captains was a rather gruff and tuff, old country boy kind of fellow. Every time we'd finish saying the prayer, the next words you would hear would be this guy screaming something like: OKay boys let go kick their ...... (with the Lord's name used in vain, then a slang word for procreation and then another word for butt). Since we didn't win many games that year and had a lot of injuries, I figured that any good we had accomplished by saying the Lord's Prayer was immediately lost by the Captain's follow up words.

You could be right. I know they have a very good receiver returning. It will be really interesting to see how McKee handles the O.

Every one on BGP from N. Ky needs to e mail Margaret and tell her that she either focuses more on local sports (including N. Ky) and news (forget the national and international stuff; we get that information from other sources) or we have no reason to continue to take the paper. Time to open a can of BGP-ass on the Enquirer! PS: in the e mail, mention that Richard deserves a big raise too!

That's much better. Heck, I'm real interested in that issue myself and I'm sure a lot of other Birds fan are too. However, based on what I know and have seen on SC, they do run a different type of O than Boyle (and I'd be surprised if McKee installs a new offense just for us little old Blue Birds), so I'm not sure we will be comparing apples to apples. With a new QB at the helm for SC (McKee's son, whom is a sophomore), I'm not sure how much passing SC will do. That's putting a lot of pressure on a new QB that will probably be nervous enough as it is. Boyle passing game was a legit threat and had to be taken very seriously by the Birds, which of course help Boyle's running game be more successful. If Jim decides not to put too much pressure on his young QB this early in the year and he decides to live and die strictly with the run, it should be easier to stop the run. Although I've noted that they do have a stud RB returning as well as a couple of their O linemen. So their run game should be potent and a real test for Highlands. I'll be interested in seeing what defensive alignment the Birds come out in. Should be one heck of a game and I'm really looking forward to it. Good chatting with you Friday and meeting your son. Seems like a polite, nice young man.

Now now. You should be rooting strongly for the Birds. If the Birds win big, it makes Boyle's loss to Highlands look better. Last thing you should want is a team that gassed Boyle to get beat by another team not called Trinity.

I have no idea what in hell you are talking about. PM me.

No disrespect, but if Lumpy did it (and he did it very well), I'm quite confident that Grubbs, Schlosser and Dierig could have done it too (and just as well, I might add).

I think your thoughts are spot on Ram.

Since we went to a two platoon system (in 09) with heavy rotation within the 2 platoons, Highlands hasn't started near as strongly as we used to. It used to be we were in mid season form at the first game. While we improved some, the percentage of improvement wasn't real big. Now, we come out of the gate much slower. I've talked to several non-Highlands coaches about it and they agree with me that the two platoon system forces Highlands to place a lot more inexperience on the field at the beginning of the season; much more than they did before they went to the two platoon system. Take the 09 season for example. Without the two platoon system, in the first game, you have Roller starting at LB and at TE; you have Buten starting at WR and at Corner; you have Schlosser starting at OG and either starting or getting significant reps on the DL. Same with Grubbs. Combs may have played some LB in addition to starting at Center. Dierig may have started at OG, as well as played Dline if Grubbs and Schlosser had played some DL too. Point is, that had we not two platooned in 09, you'd have have senior players with game experience at multiple positions in the first game. that helps coming out of the gate big time. But with a two platoon system, you have a lot of inexperience at the beginning of the season. You are having more juniors and sophomores either starting or being rotated in. You have a lot of experimenting with kids to see who are the best players. As the season goes on, the coaches figure out who are the best of the 6 or 7 d linemen or who are the best of the LBers being looked at early in the season. As the season develops, those players selected gain experience. They get a huge amount of coaching as they are only practicing one position on one side of the ball. These days, Highlands at the end of the season is a completely different animal than it is at the beginning of the season. Plus, as you pointed out, the coaches figure out the strengths and weakness of those ultimately selected to start, and they make adjustments. Regular season game against CovCath last year and CovCath ran the ball down our throats the entire game much like Boyle did in the first half. 4 weeks later Elder had limited success running the ball against us; 7 weeks later Johnson Central had little success running the ball against us; 8 weeks later a CovCath team that had ran through us like Swiss Cheese in the regular season, had extremely little success running the ball. PP92 may be right about Highlands not winning state. But I've watched Highlands as close as any one over the years. I've seen Highlands improve dramatically during the course of the year since we went to the two platoon system. I'm not betting against them, that is for certain.

Significantly.

Oh, a lot do. You may not. But a lot do.

And people wonder why I don't post on this site much any more.

No offense to the person you spoke with, but as I understand it, the SEEK formula is what is used to determined how much per student the State funds. The SEEK formula calculated amount is multiplied by the ADA (average daily attendance) to determine the gross amount paid by the state. In other words, there isn't SEEK money and ADA money. Rather they both are factors that work together to determine the amount paid by the state to a school district. The local taxes do stay with the school district even if a student leaves the district to attend another school, as the local taxes are based on property values within the school district (so much per $1,000 of valuation); not on attendance numbers. So if a school district with a lot of local tax revenues has a lot of students attend other schools, it would be windfall for that school district, as it would continue to receive the local tax revenue but would not have the expense of educating those students. Keep in mind however, that when a school district has high local tax revenues, the SEEK formula cuts back the state dollars paid to that district. Don't be under the impression that schools that have high local tax revenues are in much better financial shape than those that don't. In fact the whole purpose of the lawsuit filed years ago by Jack Moreland, then the super at Dayton, was to stop that from happening. Back then, the state pretty much gave each district the same amount per student. For purposes of discussion, we'll say every school district got $2,000 per student. Some districts however were able to get their taxpayers to pay high local taxes. If for example, Fort Thomas was able to generate another $2,000 per student in local taxes, the Fort Thomas district would have $4,000 to spend per student and a district that couldn't get support for any local taxes would only have $2,000. The court system stuck down that financing model because the court said it violate the Ky Constitution's requirement that the public schools be equitably and adequately funded. As a result, the Kentucky Educational Reform Act was passed by the General Assembly and the SEEK formula was put in place. Under the SEEK formula (and I'm generalizing here, as the formula is pretty complicated), a school district that receives a lot of local tax revenue receives less state revenues in an attempt to keep the total amount (from both state and local taxes) roughly the same for every student in Ky.

Here's a link to a report that discusses the SEEK formula as part of a study: http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/lrcpubs/Rr310.pdf. I'm sure there are better explanations out there though. The SEEK amount in conjunction with a district's Average Daily Attendance (ADA) determines (generally) the amount of money a school district receives from the state.

I understand. I just don't think insults helps the conversation needed to straighten out misunderstandings and disagreements. That's all.

Thx for the info. If I understand plainspoken correctly, he is saying that some schools charge less than the ADA amount to out of district students and that gives those schools an advantage over those schools that cannot financially afford to accept out of district students for less than the ADA amount. plainspoken, are you aware of any specific schools that charges tuition in an amount less than the ADA amount if the ADA doesn't follow? Not doubting you, but I've never heard of that occurring.

Sorry and I hate to be a jerk, but insults don't help the conversation.

OK. Do any independent districts take out of district students for less than the ADA? Highlands doesn't. It's the ADA plus $2,100 if the ADA follows the student, or $4,600 if the ADA does not follow the student.

Ditto. I wonder if the catastrophic insurance coverage is in place for such a scrimmage. Hope the Hoptown folks looked into this.

I still don't understand. Due to whose financial situation? The parents of the students living out of the district?

I'm pretty sure you are wrong in part of your post unless I am mistaking what you are saying. County public schools can set their own tuition rates to accept out of district schools just like independent public schools set their tuition rates. County public schools are not forced to just accept the ADA money and not charge anything more. County schools are not forced to accept what the ADA would have been had it followed the student, and not charge anything more. County schools and indepedent schools are both public schools. They operate under the exact same KDE rules. The only difference to my knowledge is the school district for a county school is the entire county, unless their is an independent school district within that county. If so, the independent school district is carved out of the County's school district boundaries; hence it is independent of the county school district. The County can accept locally voted on tax dollars if the taxpayers residing in the county school district's boundary vote in favor, just as is the case with independent schools. Taxpayers in the independent school district don't pay taxes to the County school district; taxpayers in the county school district don't pay taxes to the independent school district.

I'd move out of the village.

Hope you can join us. It's been too long indeed, RTS.