LoneRanger

An honest answer: I will say there really is no blanket statement for development. As for your scenario I’ve seen freshman make incredible gains in a years time if they have put in the work in their strength and conditioning programs over the off season and hit a growth/puberty spurt to go along with it. I’ve also seen situations where that increase didn’t come until after the sophomore year and sometimes seen cases where a young man pretty well tops out physically going into Freshman year. So many variables and so many factors.

So…. A cliff notes summary of what I was told happened, as chronologically correct as possible without specific dates. - Berea Independent Board in financial crisis. Begins making cuts. One of which was Coach Thomas. Status of football program highly in question. - Thomas and others fight for job and team to no avail. - Thomas, not having a teaching position and quite possibly a football team joins Lincoln County Staff. - Berea attempting to move forward and finds a way to keep football team going now with no coach posts position. - Sperry takes job. Perhaps not fully understanding the challenges of Berea Ind Schools and trying to keep football afloat with for the Pirates. Within a few weeks moves on. I do not know the reasons but one must assume a better opportunity. - Berea, now weeks away from season and more desperate than normal (with a teaching spot reinstated), makes plea to Thomas to return. Which he does and scrapes enough kids together to play most of the games on the schedule, fighting Harlan Ind tooth and nail and actually winning a game vs another small school in turmoil in Frankfort. Essentially saving the Berea Ind Football team from extinction once again. - In returning to Berea he is now a tenured teacher. With his kids being younger at the conclusion of the season I was told he notifies admin that he’d be stepping away from coaching HS football for a bit. Perhaps not done totally, but he won’t be returning to the sidelines in immediate future. - Job posted again in January, I believe.

This would be a game changer in lots of situations.

I’m not sure this is a 100% fair statement. 1st anyone wanting to be the Head Coach at Highlands should have a healthy amount of respect for what a job like that job entails. but 2nd some good old common sense may have prevailed. Not completely unlike the situation Lane Kiffin may be deciding on at this moment. At Franklin Coach James is not only secure but winning and making State Finals runs consistently. You have to figure at some point will break through, and when that happens if he can sustain that he may end up with the Stadium named after him. Meanwhile at Highlands it seems the fans are already tiring of Coach Sphire and let’s be honest, if a Championship is not won at Highlands in a 5 years span that Head Coach may soon have his walking papers. Simply at one place you are winning, doing things that haven’t been done before, and relatively secure. At the other place if you aren’t meeting or exceeding what’s been done before you’ll soon be out the door. So was he afraid of the Highlands job or confident in himself enough to not have to take a job at a perennial championship type place and believe he can build the school he’s at into a champion?

What he said. Oh and there will STILL be lopsided playoff games.

KHSAA Limitation of Seasons Bylaw does in fact state that (and, paraphrasing here) once eliminated from Post Season play, football teams may not practice until the designated Spring Practice period and outside of that fully organized practice is not allowed. https://khsaa.org/bylaw-23-provisions-football-practice-regulations/

Seems much easier said than done with District Play and recommended scheduling grid as it is now. Plus when scheduling 2 year contracts many districts don’t have approves calendars planned that far in advance. Many if not most teams playing very important District games the week of fall break. Coaches beware - prepare for some mysterious appointments and funerals during fall break week.

Estill stayed very basic its seemed defensively. Hopefully the way the offense responded after halftime is a more realistic look at that side of the ball. With some health and good fortune the Neers could be a handful this year.

This is great! Congrats to Brian and the KHSAA!

Absolutely correct. From my understanding he has been running day to day operations since the hire.

QJob Thomas deserves a ton of credit for his loyalty to his kids and the Berea Football Team. It takes a ton of a special kind of grit to lead kids on the field every Friday Night knowing the cards are stacked against you. With minimal school support the parents of the kids on the team try to give the team what they can. Jon could build his resume as an assistant at any number of other area schools and be in a much better position coaching wise. But he remains dedicated to Berea and those kids. Clearly BIS is a financial wreck but that has been on an off for many many years. The tiny tax base that they do have for revenue is older residential areas of Berea with no real access for growth. But the folks who are committed to Berea love that school and want to be a part of a small Community school. Jon is one of those. It’s a shame that a guy who is trying to lead kids to be part of the solution and not the problem is one of the ones that takes the fall due to the “misaligned budget” approved and implemented by folks who won’t be hurt by the cuts one bit.

Under the right circumstances, yes.

For many years Coach McKee organized the Bluegrass Freshman Conference. A great opportunity for Freshman Teams to have a dedicated Freshman Schedule and compete each week. Both Scott Co Schools, the Lexington Public Schools, Lex Cath, Both Madison Co Schools, GRC, Woodford have all been involved with it at some point. Have traditionally played a 9 game schedule with a very nice Championship Saturday slate of games the last Saturday after final regular season Friday.

On the question, really I was more making the point that it is very expected that players are with their team during Christmas and Fall Break. Coaches are as well. I agree working a few days off in a break like Fall, Christmas or Spring is doable and favorable to all involved. High School sports guys…

Serious question. Why does this break question only get argued with Fall Break and Football? Or am I missing out on the discussions of how Breaks impact other sports? I’ve never known of a Basketball Team that took Christmas Break off but also never heard of a Team that didn’t take a few days off for people to Travel. That’s perhaps a bad example. I've also never heard Baseball and Softball Teams taking Spring Break off…