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Lex Cath had several 80 yard drives vs both this year. I don't think X or T would slow the offense down if they are healthy. The question is how much could Lex Cath slow down Trinity and X's offense. The way they played at the end of the year I sure would like to line up and see. For people that think that Trinity and X's lines are too big they need to take a look at Rockcastle and Bowling Green's rosters. Bowling Green's defense is HUGE! They hung 36 after playing a bad half vs X and from the scrimmage I know they could put points up on Trinity this year. We'll never know so it doesn't matter but I sure would have liked to see them line up against each other at the end of the year. Nobody thought Trinity would touch X and you see what happened. Lex Cath had an offense that produced 1,000 yard+ back, TE core that combined for 240yds 3TD's in the Regional Championship game, 2 1,000+ WR's (one of them led the state in TD receptions while the other was 2 punt returns away from the all time state record, 3,500+ yard QB with a 10/1 TD/int ratio that put together the most impressive year of any QB in KY High School history! It would be a couple of great games that's for sure!

We have a new forum for this thread.

What are you talking about??? I am giving Burke a compliment. He should be Mr. Football and Burke chose not to go to UK and the stupid voters will only vote for someone who goes to Louisville or UK. He's going to NC State and in my opinion that's why he isn't Mr. Football. I can't even give a guy a compliment without getting bashed. There is no doubt Justin Burke is the best player in Kentucky.

 

I never said Henry Clay was the best team in the state. I said they have the most talent. If St. X's coaching staff or Trinity's staff coached Henry Clay they would have a state title by now. Their is no homer in that at all it's the truth. Sam Simpson is the reason they were not playing this week and anyone who went to the Trinity game will tell you that. Sam Simpson lost that game as bad as a coach can lose a game.

 

I was also giving St. X and Trinity's coaching staff's a lot of credit for winning with less talent. You might want to re read what I said before you bash me next time on the public forum.

I totally took your response on Burke the wrong way. I apologize becasue I agree 100% with you there. I took the rolling eyes as a backhand toward Burke. As far as Henry Clay I don't doubt they were extremly talented and I didn't see them play this year so I'm not jumping at that hook.

Im surprised no one has mentioned Kasey Clark of Russell. Broke Josh Gross's single season TD record of 43 this year while leading the Devils to a state title game.

I put him as a leader in mine?

Ammonds from Franklin Co should be the best QB.

Hesh from Newport is another nice player but I like Ammonds more right now then him or Petrino who has been mentioned from the QB spot.

I'd say Anderson, Clark and Ammonds are the frontrunners and the guys mentioned above could be in the mix. Hibbitt had a nice year going into the final game and I'm sure he'll have a big one next year.

Wes Caldwell from Lex Cath should be the top WR and Ben Revere the top DB but those positions don't usually get the award.

You can throw Shawn Thompson in there from Lawrence Co. Had he been there last year I think they win the Region. His first game back in a Dawg uniform vs the #1 Ranked team in the Region saw him put up around 30+ points 20+ boards and 10+ assists!!!!!!! Not to shabby for a guy nobody talks about.

From 1996 to 2005 (10 year period) on the KHSAA website the number of private schools that have won state titles looks like this:

 

Class 4A 80% of the state title were won by privates.

 

Class 3A 20% of the state titles were won by privates

 

Class 2A 0% of the state titles were won by privates

 

Class 1A 10% of the state titles were won by privates.

That's what I was wanting to know and is pretty much what I thought. The argument that football needs to go to a Public vs Private is a bad one. Trinity and St X have dominated 4A but the other classes are in great shape. The Private schools aren't dominating the other three classes at all. These figures get thrown around all the time but the bottom line is that if you take X and Trinity out there is no argument for a split as far as football goes! There is no simple answer to the X and T dominance. They have more kids to chose from which is an advantage. You have schools like Henderson Co with close to the numbers but only about 35 dressing (or at least that's what they say) and a couple of more schools close to their size but nowhere near their accomplishments (although John Hardin took some HUGE strides this year). There is always going to be a numbers advantage until we have more BIG schools in the state. Public/Private isn't the poblem. I would also love to know how a school like Owensboro Catholic is on a "level playing field" when they play one of those two big schools? There isn't a simple answer but it bugs me how the numbers are scewed and the simple minded people that don't really know what's going on can't see the big picture.

Private school state championships from 1991-2005 (15 year period)

 

1A - 0 (not sure how many privates play football in this class)

2A - 0 (4% are privates for 14 yrs and 6% this year)

3A - 4 (27% of the time while 4% of the teams are private(5yrs) and 2%(10 yrs)are private schools.)

4A - 10 (67% of the time while only 4% of total are private)

Do you have the stats for the past 10 years?

I guess Dunbar was the second most talented team in the state too?

I probably should have bitten my tounge but the slam against Burke didn't sit well and also the slam against Coach Simpson last week was still lingering.

As to the LexCath question, heres my two cents. I saw LexCath/BG. I was impressed with LexCath's passing game. I really saw no reason to think they had a running game or could stop the run. BG turned the ball over and put themselves in a deep hole early. This caused BG to try to do something the couldn't, pass. This allowed LexCath's smallish defenders to attack a passer that was already out of his comfort zone. I will say that LexCath really stepped it up this year and finally lived up to the hype. That being said, I feel that either Trinity or X could control the ball and defeat the knights. But of course this is JMO. I'm afraid we will see how LexCath compares to the Big Two in real games in the very near future as members of the same district.

Lex Cath can run the ball. They ran on Trinity in the scrimmage and on St X when they played. Isreal had 175 yards vs Highlands. He would have had a huge game vs Bowling Green if he was fed the ball. I'd love Lex Cath vs X and Trinity again but we will never know. They all had a great year!

After seeing the state games their was no one their as talented as Henry Clay. I like Victor Anderson but Rod Johnson is a much better runningback than Victor Anderson. If Rod Johnson played for St. X I would almost put money on it that he would be Mr. Football(unless Johnson goes to N.C. State instead of Kentucky of course then Mr. Football is thrown out. )

I guess Dunbar was the second most talented team in the state too?

I don't think anyone understands what you want.

 

If you want the private Class A champs it would be one (NCC) this year. If you want the private Class AA champs it would be one (NCC ) in 1984. If you want private Class AAA champs it would be this year (LexCath) and CovCath in 1987, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1997.

That's what I would like to see. A breakdown over the last 5 or ten years of Private school Championships in football in each class by %. So if 1A was won one time in 10 years then it would be 10% of the time over ten years 1A has won it. I'd like to see this for 1A, 2A and 3A. I see all the time % thrown around how it's unfair that the Private schools have an advantage. I think it's a crock. If you take Trinity and X out of the equation then there isn't much of an argument.

Harrison Co. Just cant see it. They played a couple of good games. Wildly inconsistent. Got thumped by Franklin Co late in the season.

Harrison when healthy was much better than most around the state realize. Franklin had an awsome offense but very little defense. South Oldham and Bullitt East would be in the top 10 too.

36 people have checked this so far, somebody has time to check the KHSAA link to find the last 5 years of champions in each class.

1) Lexington Catholic

2) Highlands

3/4) Bowling Green/Cov Cath

5) Harrison when healthy....Rockcastle after Harrison was banged up.

Everytime the Public/Private debate comes up I cringe when people don't understand that there is a HUGE difference in the number of kids at different Private schools. I keep seeing the complaining about the percentage of Private schools winning championships etc.

I challenge one of you numbers kind of people to go back the past five years and give me the percent of Privates that have won the 1A each year, 2A each year, 3A each year (football) We know Trinity and X dominate the 4A class. I would love for somebody to give the % of champions the last 5 years in 1A through 3A for each year. I think it should squash the crying of unfair advantage of Private schools!

Example:

1990

1A 80%

2A 2% etc

No I just think that it is ridiculous of people (private supporters) to ride the man cause he made a mistake in his article of putting .01% instead of 1.45%. I mean the real % that needs to be addressed is the 41% of privates making it to the state finals. You can bash the man for making a small mistake but the fact is 5 out of 12 privates made it to the state finals this year and instead of looking at 1.45% so hard maybe we should look at the 41% a little more closely.

What was the percentage last year?

Just realized how strong the area was. JC had a 1st team all stater and Ashland had four players on the first three teams. The area was loaded.

I wouldn't put too much stock into that poll. The BGP poll is the best one with the Courier Journal poll behind it. The AP poll dosen't hold a lot of value IMO although a lot of the guys on there will still be on the other polls. I'll bet the farm that it changes quite a bit though when it gets into 2nd + 3rd teamers.

Bob Sphire...how do you like him, now?

I'm glad he dosen't have to listen to the bull that haters throw at him. The people that know him care about him and have the upmost respect for him. His kids love him, his coaches love him, his kids parents love him, his student body loves him and the outreach from his former players during the state championship run is beyond most peoples imagination!

The man has beaten the best programs in the state. He has built a program in 15 years that has produced a ton of 10 win or more seasons. He has made men out of boys and put a lot of kids in college. Most of all he cares about the people involved with the program. He cares about each individual in the Knight family and those people love him and respect him for it.

Coaching is a TOUGH profession. There is so many great things that come out of it but unfortunatly there are a lot of people that love to undermine and try to take coaches down. I don't know of many coaches that have had to put up with garbage that Coach Sphire has. I defended him 3 years ago when I met him for the first time when he went out of his way to be nice to me and I'll defend him now even more as a friend. It's a little easier now that he's a

STATE CHAMP!!! Congrats Coach! (It couldn't happen to a nicer guy)

I agree, Ben is a great shut down DB, but he only played against 2 of the WR's listed and 1 had a 100 yard night- he didn't have him that night though. Wes is a great kid and is a shame he has been left off, but I also think some of the other receivers listed are much better than Burbage- Wes for 1-

That's your opinion and you are entitled too it. Ben Revere is as good as I've seen in High School. I think the opponents at Highlands, Cov Cath, Rockcastle, Lexington Christian, Scott Co and Bowling Green could testify what an impact he had against them. When you can totally take away a teams best WR 1 on 1 all night you can do a lot of things on defense like play cover 0 and 1. He never had help this year becasue he never needed it! He is 5'8 and held two 6'4 kids too ZERO catches! He manned up on Guduli who is a BIG kid and held him to one catch. Too me he was the key in that game.

If there are two better than Burbage and Caldwell then I'd love to see them. They both had over 50 catches. They both had over 1,000 yards. Caldwell led the state in Touchdown Receptions and Burbage was 2 punt returns from the all time state record. (He had several called back or would have broken it). Wes was over the 100 yard mark vs the #1 defense in the state and Burbage averaged over 20 yards a catch against them. I saw A LOT of teams play this year and I didn't see anybody better than those two.

NO BRAINER! That is great for a great coach that deserves it! I'm excited for the good people in Flatwoods.

This thread is a JOKE! X and Trinity have two of the best coaches in the state as well as two great staffs.

Congrats to Trinity and all their great fans on BGP! Congrats to St X on an outstanding year also!

St X

Congrats to all these kids. This is a great achievment for them.

I'd like to pat a couple of guys on the back that deserve to be there.

Wes Caldwell WR Led the state in T.D.'s by a WR this year. Also has over 1,000 yards recieving.

Ben Revere shut down three of the top WR's listed on this all state team. Matched up man to man every week with the top WR/TE on the opponents team. Held some of the top WR/TE's to 0 catch nights, 1 catch nights and all well under their average yards per game. I only remember one person scoring on him and that was Victor Anderson who is pretty good one on one!

Both of these guys are Juniors and that might have hurt them in this poll but they are the elite in the state at their positions.