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…

C_W_B out there looking for clues ..

With the twists and turns this thread has taken, Shawn Thompson coming out of retirement to take the Pulaski job would be the equivalent to one of Stone Cold’s returns to the ring. Jaw Dropping. That would be must see stuff…. I can hear the glass breaking now.

Absolutely ?. As well as more administrators willing to take a hard look to understand what is really going on instead of riding the wave of emotions and putting out the fire snowplow parent is creating, just to get the situation over with. Those that demand their way come and go fairly quickly when a commitment has been made to proceed in a specific direction (in this case a commitment to an HC and Staff) and that Staff are working their tails off and doing the right things. That HC & Staff are trying to build things for the long term. Snowplow parent and his crew only want their way in that particular moment and don’t give a rats backside if the whole thing burns down behind them. Next when those that demand their way impose their agenda, even in appearance or by appeasement, the next group will follow in right behind them and demand the same if not more. Many times the administrators handling these issues don’t ever see themselves being in their current spot long enough to handle longevity though. They know they won’t be there to have to handle the next problem created. Fire this guy, go make these influential people happy by hiring their guy and that’ll help roll to the next administration destination. Rant over. Best of luck to Coach Keuhn and the Bruins!

Was a heck of a QB for them during that late 98 - 99 time frame. Played at Georgetown.

11-2 in 1999 followed by some lean years. Jep Irwins 1st Tour of Duty in mid 2000s capped by a 9 win season in 2005. Chappell and Burdine kept them around .500 for most of their years. Unless I’m missing something…

Surely there is some interest in this position?

Not sure this was expressly laid out the way you have here but most definitely part of the intent from earlier. HS athletic programs survive on sponsorships and donations in most communities. And are certainly not money making machines riding the backs of the athletes playing them like perhaps was happening with the NCAA Level counter parts in Major Division 1. March Madness, Bowl Games and TV deals made the NCAA a Mega Power. That isn’t the case in high school. Most places there is only so much money to go around and the local businesses and folks supporting get tapped out as well. Like I said in an earlier post. No matter the amounts of money we are discussing, we are still discussing money and there will always be folks trying to get their hands on it.

Totally agree. Although if I were in a position to vote on such a plan I would not vote for it. I think HS Athletics should remain amateur in nature. However, if the only other option was for the 2 systems to have to co-exist and compete for same crown, I’d have to consider as a compromise.

No one (at least here on thread) is saying the kids shouldn’t benefit. The concerns are questioning the official policy making of the allowance of something that has likely always been allowed but now being promoted into a way that can and will likely alter the competitive balance of amateur High School (Middle School???) level sports. There have never been any rules against a HS kid that plays sports having a public job or finding ways to make money. If someone wanted to hire the local HS basketball star to stand in front of their business and hand out flyers they could have already done so AND paid them whatever they wanted. The NCAA did NOT allow college scholarship receiving athletes to do this BECAUSE in the early days of recruiting some schools had an advantage over other schools. This because they had boosters who ran businesses that would promise kids fantastic “jobs” that would pay them handsomely for menial tasks and that was used to encourage kids to pick a certain college to play for….. I’m sorry, I meant to say pick a certain educational institution to attend. The concept that this will be a way for certain places to draw players to their school at the HS/MS level is essentially legalizing recruitment of amateur players. On one hand you have rules saying we are making it tougher to transfer. On the other you have the development of a system to make leaving one for another more enticing than ever. It is a further separation of the Haves and Have Nots. There are a few communities around the state that are willing to do whatever to maintain their status. For most places, that isn’t the case. Could the KHSAA and other State Associations be headed toward a future of Divisions? Division 1: Private Schools, Prep Schools, Charter Schools and Public Schools who will accept, promote and provide players with NIL Opportunities and players be able to move wherever they want via a transfer portal. The primary piece of this being willing and able to accept students from anywhere and not be bound to a district of student populations. (No intent of Private School advantages implied, there is no need for that debate anymore). Division 2: Public and Independent Schools that operate on a more traditional model where the student has to be a resident of the school district they attend with rules more like those traditional transfer rules. Kids could still get NIL deals if they have that opportunity. Going to be very interesting to look back few years from now and see what it looks like from there.

Agreed that no question the parents and guardians of the kids should be assisting them in handling these business ventures. This furthers my thought process. Even as we've seen with players going pro over the years and now with NIL deals for older college age kids etc, In the BEST cases they have parents or trusted family to advise them. Many do. Many do not. Someone will be advising those that don’t have prototypical parent/guardian situations. Sure hope folks keep in mind that this is supposed to be a positive opportunity for the kid…. 10s of thousands or 10s of dollars. We are still talking money, and where that is there will be people trying to get their hands on it.