leatherneck

Interesting. Have you heard parents of Highlands players making those complaints? I've been around Highlands a long, long time (the benefit of being old I guess). During those years, I've heard one set of parents complain about the out of district players. Ironically enough, their son's playing time was limited by a Ft. Thomas kid and not by an out of district kid (their kid still did get to play a lot just wasn't the superstar that his parents thought he should be). If my either of my sons had gotten beat out by some kid from another town, I'd have told them that they are learning a valuable lesson in life that will serve them well when they get into the business world. Nothing is guaranteed and if they want that promotion, they have to out think, out work and out smart the competition. If they do work as hard as possible and they still don't get the promotion, unfortunately that's life. It's not always a bed of roses. But my sons didn't have to hear that speech. They worked really hard, became pretty decent football players and as a result started their junior and senior years. The competition made them better football players. They learned that success isn't given to them, it is earned. Actually a great benefit of the two platoon system and the heavy rotation system at Highlands is that if you work real hard to become a good football player, you will see the field a whole lot at Highlands. As JOAT pointed out, in the Highlands system, a lot of sophomores either start or play a whole lot of minutes because the system is dependent on having a lot of good football players available and Dale and Brian don't care whether those good football players are senior, juniors or sophomores.

I would love to meet you. Hopefully you'll make it to the game. If you do, before the game swing by the parking lot across the street from the main entrance to the high school and ask for me. I'll be the fat, balding guy whose wife will have him working over a hot grill in likely 95 degree weather.

Look, I understand your irritation/frustration/whatever in reading this site. There are a whole lot of Highlands fans that go over the top and go on and on and on about Highlands. Some give little respect to other programs. I'd like to think that I'm not one of them. I've never used the "it's just a scrimmage" excuse for Trinity whipping our tails; I've never ran down another program; I'd like to think I've been very respectful of other programs. But I do think that Cooper would have benefitted from playing Highlands last year. Not because of the name Highlands; not because we think we are something special or because we've won a bunch of state championships. But because of the style of play, the team speed, the two platooning, etc would have been similar to what Cooper faced with BG. I was at the championship game too. Henry and I were cheering our butts off for Cooper. Cooper played great. As I mentioned in another thread, even with Fant and the other very talented BG players, I thought your QB was the best player on the field that game. Cooper played one heck of a good game. But I can't help believing that Cooper would have been better, maybe just the tiniest bit better prepared for BG if it played Highlands. If the belief that playing certain teams can make a team better is a joke, then there are a whole lot of coaches that share that joke because they believe that too. I'm sorry that you feel that makes me arrogant. I don't think Cooper is ducking Highlands because they are afraid of getting beat and I really like the fact that Cooper is playing the other Boone County schools. That's pretty cool. Do I think that the teams that played Highlands last year got better as a result? Generally yes. ChiefSmoke, Mason County's head coach, made a post to that affect after the game even though Mason County got beat by a big margin. Did they win state? No they didn't. But if ChiefSmoke felt it made them better, then I suspect it did. Don't dig your heels in and close your mind to the possibility that playing Highlands could have benefitted Cooper just because you get irritated or frustrated with some Highlands fans on here. Most of us want to see a N. Ky team win 5A (and 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 6A too). I strongly believe that for Cooper or Conner or any other 5A school to beat BG, they will have to 2 platoon. I've seen what it did for Highlands when Highlands plays the Cincy schools. We aren't sucking wind in the 4th quarter. I saw what it did for Highlands last year when it played Boyle County in the regular season. Against the big schools who two platoon, it places us on a leveler playing field. Against the schools that don't two platoon, it gives us a great advantage when sometimes we don't have the most talent on the field. I know that Cooper is a new school and what they have done in such a short time is amazing. But I sincerely hope that Coach Borchers makes a concerted effort to transition to a two platoon system. Not because Highlands does it, but because BG does it and in a really close game (like last year) it can be the difference between winning and losing. And if by two platooning you lose some early season games, as those players that otherwise wouldn't have started, get playing time, so be it if by the end of the year you are in a position to put a good two platoon team on the field against BG. You may disagree on the benefits of the two platoon system or the benefit of playing Highlands, but you believing what you believe isn't arrogant of you and me believing what I believe isn't arrogant of me.

Or looked at from my perspective, actually that is the stupidity I was talking about. In your eyes, playing Boone could have prepared Cooper to deal with the overall team speed, offense style and two platoon system of BG. I rest my case.

Would you mind sharing what you know? If it isn't against any rules, no reason to hold it back.

So if I understand your post correctly, you are now claiming that the Ru and the mods don't fairly implement the rules here?

So if it is okay for you to think we are arrogant to think Cooper would have been better prepared to play BG if Cooper has played HHS, is it okay for us to think you are stupid for thinking that way? :isurrender:

Great to have you on board the HHS team. Yeah, we won't put on a pad and we won't play a down, but the support and enthusiasm of the HHS fans is a big part of the success by the players and coaches. And in that way, we are part of the HHS "team".

I'll take issue with your statement that most HHS fans have bent over backwards explaining how Dale just uses these games to work on some things...etc. I strongly doubt that most HHS fans who post on here feel that way and even if they did, the number of HHS fans posting on here constitute a small, make it very small, portion of HHS fans. The large majority of HHS fans clearly understood that the butt whippings received from Trinity the last 2 years is simply a result of Trinity being much better than Highlands the last 2 years. Nothing more; nothing less.

You are wrong on that point too. No BGP rule prevents anyone from talking about transfers. Recruiting allegations are off limits, but hbf didn't ask for the mumber of players recruited or their names; or where they were recruited from. He asked for specifics about transfers.

IF Fogle played a big a role as I heard he did in convincing Barker to commit to UK, and if Barker played a big of a role as I heard he did in getting others in his class to commit to UK, Fogle may turn out to be the most valuable preferred walk on in the history of UK football. And that's not even taking into consideration any contributions he makes on the practice or game field.

I'd be curious to know how highly UC was ranked prior to last year's season. If what I've been told is correct (that UC gets a lot of very talented juniors and seniors transferring in every year), then I'd think Massey (or any other ranking service) would have great difficulty accurately ranking them. Heck, there may have been 10 stud players transfer to UC two weeks ago that Massey isn't even aware of yet. I'll make my own judgment of UC after I've seen this year's edition play in less than 3 weeks. One thing's for certain, get acclimated to the Ky heat shouldn't be a problem for them.

And to the extent you were serious, here's a link to an article that describes the transfer rule that took effect last year: Florida high school sports | New transfer rule worries some coaches, athletic directors. Yeah, it's more liberal than what we are now seeing in Ky. And even before the new Florida rule was enacted last year, the Florida rule was more liberal than Ky's. It pretty much allowed a student to transfer every year and play as long as the player was enrolled at the new school within the first 20 (I think it was 20) days of the school year.

Oh stop.

From my understanding, UC is not your typical small school. It attracts a lot of very, very talented players. If I recall properly (and it might have changed) Florida's transfer rule is much more liberal than Kentucky's and as a result, UC gets a lot of players that transfer to UC their junior and senior years. I'm trying to get more info about the school from my college roommate whom now resides in Jax.

Then that coach should talk first to his administration and explain that he thinks kids are putting in too much time practicing and that he'd like to see the time cut back even if that means being less successful on the field. If the administrators don't agree with him, then he should probably coach somewhere else. If the administrators agree with him, he then meets with the parents and players and tells them that with the support of administration, he is going to start doing things differently (ie, requiring less practice time, less off season conditioning, whatever) and why he thinks that is in the best interest of the players (and perhaps him and his coaches). Explain to them, that such may, repeat may, mean less wins on the field but in his and the administration's opinion, there are more things more important to wins and losses (a concept way too often lost on adults and in particular coaches). I'd have a lot of respect for that coach. If he doesn't think all the practice time is healthy for his kids, then he shouldn't require it, but I don't like the concept that the rules should be changed for everyone just because the coach you spoke with honestly believed it was bad for his kids. We already have way too much of the "if I don't like it, you shouldn't be able to do it" mentality in this country, whether that be owning a gun, smoking, eating red meat, driving a gas guzzling truck, drinking a super sized Coke, etc., etc. Perhaps at some programs, the best thing going on in the players' lives is the structured environment of practices every or almost every day; the discipline gained by being somewhere every day on time, the physical benefit gained from practicing over sitting on the couch in the air conditioning playing video games. Let each administration and each head coach determine what is best for their kids. Personally, I don't think high school athletics are as out of whack as some others do. Seriously. I see more of a problem at the youth sports level and with the AAU, Select and Club leagues. I mean seriously; 7th and 8th graders playing 30 or more baseball games during the summer on a select baseball team? Most high school football practices, if they are ran properly and efficiently, during the summer don't last more than 1.5 to 2 hours. Add in the get to and get back time and you're probably looking at 3 hours (at least in the urban areas), wouldn't you say? To me, that seems to leave plenty of time for kids to relax, enjoy their summer, play other sports, hang out at the mall, sit on the couch, work a part time job, chase skirts or whatever else they would be doing during the summer. This thread brought to mind an old saying: Idle hands are the tool of the Devil. LOL!

First of all, I was just asking questions. Second, I agree with you that it takes more than just an Xs and Os guy to be successful at certain programs. Third, do you think we should do the equivalent of dumbing down the curriculum because a majority don't want to study as hard as the top students in the class?

Ru, do you think some of the coaches feel there is too much practice because they themselves don't want to put in so much time? Or feel that their programs don't have the commitment level other programs do, and by reducing the amount of permissable practice time, it could be an equalizing influence?

I was and am a proponent that the rulings of the judicial system supersede the final actions of any administrative agency of the state and that no state agent or agency should ever threaten to sanction a school for complying with a ruling of the judiciary in the hope that such school will instead comply with the decision of the state agent or agency. Huge difference from the bolded. If a court would issue an injunction that the current classification and playoff system was unconstitutional, and the KHSAA told their members to ignore that injunction or else risk sanctions from the KHSAA, I'd again be throwing a hissy fit on here.

Perhaps; then again, historically the upper level courts have almost bent over backwards to allow state athletic associations to manage sports without judicial intervention. If the KHSAA has the barest of reasons to set up the classes and playoffs they way they have, I can't see an upper level court declaring the system arbitrary or capricious. Lordy, if the courts start getting into that stuff, just wait for the suit to be filed for a school limiting the number of players on the basketball team but not limiting the number of kids on the football team.

What do you think they will name the scoreboard?

No doubt about it: Henry married up!

Also congrats to JT. He's done a fantastic job in my opinion; not only as the Commissioner but in all his prior years as an Asst. Commissioner. Kudos to the BOC for extending his contract.

I watched that game very closely. If Cooper doesn't play so many players both ways, they very well could have won that game. Their linemen were gassed in the second half, particularly the 4th qtr. (I watching the line play closely). The Cooper linemen played their hearts out, but they were wore out. Cooper's QB scrambling and ability to avoid the sack kept them in that game in the second half. That young man impressed me the most of anyone on the field in that game (and I'm including Fant). Until the Cooper program develops enough to not play so many players both ways, it will be extremely difficult for them to beat BG. BG has done an outstanding job developing depth and transitioning to the two platoon system. Kudos to their coaches and players.

Nah, in spite of the childish baiting, hopefully the Highlands fans will allow this thread to be about BG. They should be very, very good this year.