Hasbeen

Here is the WYMT link. Click on the 11PM sportscast and the first story is about Lewis being named player of the week. http://www.wkyt.com/Global/category.asp?C=68820&nav=menu181_4_4

Allow me to preface what I'm about to say by stating that I don't live in an area where private schools are much of an option and probably have no business even being in this discussion. However, I have a little down time right now so let's have at it. You state over 1400 young men and their families have made the financial commitment to attend Trinity, thus T has "earned" that advantage. I gather from past discussions not everyone had the financial ability to do so and that financial aid in the form of scholarships and work study are available for those who need it. I applaud that. But let's suppose that everyone in Jefferson Co. were to come to the same conclusion, that Trinity or St. X were so superior to the public schools that their child just has to be educated there. How could you possibly fund the thousands who would suddenly be applying without the financial ability to pay tuition? I doubt it would be possible for the church or the school's benefactors to overcome that type of fiscal drain and the vast majority would have to be turned away. Space and fiscal responsibility would dictate only the most well funded, the brightest, or the most gifted would be able to attend so I guess, in a way, one would have to "earn" their way in. You know what? Now that I've written and reread this, I agree, it is an "earned advantage" and I applaud those who put forth the effort. However, it is nonetheless an advantage that not everyone who puts forth the effort can take advantage of and my only request is that it is recognized as such. There are public school districts within the state that have the means (large population centers, open enrollment, upscale communities) to be competitive with these schools. My suggestion would be we go with the six classes grouping schools with those of similar means together, acknowledge the advantages some have over others and tone down the elitist retoric coming from a group of your peers specifically the "we work harder" and "watered down titles" stuff. A little PR would go a long way.

Really? I don't mean this is a smart way at all, but in what way? By living in a larger area population wise and having open enrollment?

Agreed, although the private schools are the more visible examples. My argument has never been with private schools per se, but more with the "we work harder" attitude that so many of them seem to have.

I think were the problem lies is people are focusing on enrollment numbers instead of county/area population. If a school has an open enrollment policy and is located in a densely populated area, it's possible the better athletes will migrate to a program that is on an uptick in search of a better shot at a title and yet not have a serious affect on total school enrollment figures. Thus a single A school located in a heavily populated area could in some cases field a better team than a much larger school. A small scale example of this could be the Barbourville basketball team of the past two years. BHS picked up three players that actually lived out in the county served by Knox Central. Three students would have virtually no effect on enrollment, yet makes up 60% of the starters on a basketball team. The result? Barbourville, seldom known as regional contender, lost in the regional finals to South Laurel by one point. South had only been moved to the 13th this season and had that not happened BHS would have made their first ever trip to the state tournament. Applying this to a county with a large population such as Jefferson or one of the NKy area, I think we can see how adding perhaps ten really good athletes could affect football without a noticable change in enrollment figures. What do y'all think of this?

I have to confess I didn't have it hyphenated until SpellCheck suggested it.

You left out my "don't mean to throw a blanket over the whole crowd" statement. Plus, you're preaching to the choir about private school parental involvement. I sent my own firstborn to a private school (the only one available in my area) until we realized it was not going to be able to attract enough students to survive. I fully understand the difference although I believe one can receive a quality education at a public school if one's parents show the same commitment as most private school parents. I don't know a single private school parent other than what I'm exposed to on BGP, and the ones that stand out are making the "we outwork you" statements. If I am guilty of over-generalization (pretty big word for a public school grad), then I most certainly am not alone and being labeled arrogant would not offend me as much as being called lazy and uncaring.

In my case it's the "arrogant bull". I don't mean to throw a blanket over the whole crowd, but many private supporters are your own worst enemy as far as public relations go. I spoken to many in my area who until recently couldn't care less what happened to Louisville area schools. However, after reading post after post about how public schools should "work harder" or "care more about their kids" and my all-time favorite "get out and collect cans", well, that is just arrogant bull. A great many public schools care about their kids and their programs. Believe it or not, we work concession stands, we sponsor little leagues, we fund-raise like crazy (a lot of which comes from our own pockets as we do not have near the corporate community that you have in a metropolitan area) and we hire the best coaches available to us. If you want to say your teams are better because you have more athletes available then so be it, but to say that you've reached that status by outworking, outspending, outcaring and outclassing everyone else is just arrogant.

dr1, I invite you to come to Knox County and follow the parents around for a week. You pick the level, K-2, 3-4, 5-6, middleschool or high school. This is the type of arrogant bull that has caused the rift between public/private.

Disagree totally and completely. It has nothing to do with self esteem and making "everyone a winner", but has everything to do with giving everyone a fighting chance. I had sworn off this forum but I'm going to take one more shot. To keep the Guru happy in my little scenario, lets assume there is no such thing as school boundaries or self imposed district limits. A large private school in Louisville has a population base of 693,604 to draw from without ever leaving the county. Now lets take South Laurel (also a 4A school) for example. Give them Laurel, Knox, Rockcastle, Clay, Whitley, Lee, Jackson, Harlan, Pulaski, and Perry for a total of ten neighboring counties, total population according to the 2000 census of 301,733. Heck, just for fun let's throw in Fayette. Now we have a total of 562,245, still more than 130k short. http://www.louisville.edu/~easchn01/kentucky/kypop1.html You know what? I bet I could field a heck of team picking the best from those eleven counties. My final question to those that oppose multiple classes and state championships is this: What do you care if some team out in the state gets a trophy? Does your ego suffer that much if another team gets to celebrate for being the best of their peers? The largest class is generally recognized as the best team so why should this be so offensive? I'm beginning to think the only solution is to take sports out of the high schools and put it under the control of the AAU. Then my all-star team can play your all-star team without restrictions. One more point. This "we work harder than everyone else" is bull also. I can find a few hundred kids out in the hot August sun that will strongly disagree with you.

Thank you. I look forward to my first time seeing the new LC facilities this season.

Cawood is part of the Harlan County Consolidated and will be only a temporary opponent.

I think the JC fans should be proud. When I first joined in '03, JC went 1-9 and the argument was about whether they would ever have a winning season again. Now it's whether they deserve to be top ten. I think that speaks very well for how that program has progressed. Congratulations.

I think both Rock's defense and offense will do quite well, thank you, regardless of who's "court" this is played on. Seriously, Doodle, strange things happen but this one doesn't look to be pretty.

I just saw in another thread that Letcher QB Dakota Brock threw for 452 yards last week. Can someone say if that is the result of a poor pass defense or has LC turned to a passing attack as so many others are doing?

96.1 FM Barbourville --Wednesdays. Covers Knox, Whitley, Laurel, and Bell area teams. 104.3 FM Williamsburg--Thursdays. Focus is on Whitley and Williamsburg with attention given to Corbin and Lynn Camp. As Fullcount mentioned, 105.1 does a good job with focus on the four Harlan County teams.

Or baseball. Or soccer, tennis, golf, whatever. Football is still the only sport where not every school makes the playoffs.

Is that the WYMT poll? If so, Saturday's games are not included.

The fact that Pineville routed a first year team is not the issue. What is noteworthy is that Pineville did what they were supposed to do. Coach Elam understands that he has an uphill climb to restore the Mountain Lions to the level they used to be and this is a start. I'll be watching Pineville with interest. I think we are seeing the start of a great coaching career.

You guys still got the bermuda, Pat Man? We'll be at Lynn Camp tonight. Their's is bermuda and should be OK.

That was my point. Normally, yes, we play in the rain. What I'm asking is will a coach stand and watch his field destroyed by two other teams?

Looking at the radar right now (3:17), there are scattered showers across the state. Several fields will be hosting two games tonight. It would seem that if one of these showers drops a good amount on a field and then two games are played on it, it make take weeks for it to recover. I wonder if any games could be postponed due to rain only?

I was quoting one of the guys on WEZK. He said it was an "all time record."

It's not a problem. From where I was Harlan is the farthest and only about 30 miles away as the crow flies. Sometimes I also listen to the sports show in Hazard (101.1). The problem is that most are on the air at the same time.