STXMAN

I for one am excited for the next St.X season and think Trinity deserves plenty of respect for what they have done in the 2006 and 2005 state championships. Trinity has 17 titles. More respect. Next year's St.X team will have a lot of talent returning and a new stadium, along with other campus improvements. The team will have an opportunity to build a new tradition with the stadium, and attract a lot of interest given the all around excellence at St.X Do we need more team speed? yes. Do we need a better passing game? yes. Do we need someone other than Duece to run the ball? yes. Do we need a few lineman to step in and produce on both sides of the ball? yes. Do we need MUCH better special teams? yes. All very possible and if done right - by Coach G., we will join the all star swim team, golf team, tennis team, wrestling team, baseball team, soccer team etc by teaching Xaverian lessons that enjoy everyone on the field and off. The answer to you question - " What now for the Tigers?" the same as the last 140+ years in Louisville - build Christ centered man who are lead by Christ centered coaches, and come together to do our best - the same as Trinity. The result is to be enjoyed, cherished and laid along side all the other jobs well done. But laid down none the less. A job well done to ST. X this year. This year Trinity won another title. There is no other answer.

What do you say to a 17 year old kid that poured his heart into X for 4 years, gave it everything he had, didn't get to really play Trinity his senior year, loved his "9-3" teammates, win or lose, cried after the game and worried about his friends that were hurt? He also loved to watch DVD's of the games with his Dad, recreate plays on the driveway, play at WKU's stadium, was awed by playing in Paul Brown stadium. Now he realizes that he will never play the game again like this or love something so much with so many? For some It's easy to forget what it's all about. Trinity and Male has the same kind of kids and it's not everyone on the team. They make the sport what it is. Good Game Male. Good Luck Trinity. St. X taught my son many lessons the least of which is to work hard and never quit no matter what. Of course he wanted to win. Now he wants to understand why it hurts so much? The answer he will work out next to me in the stands and if I'm lucky we can teach it to another Tiger, around 2031! Go Tigers and remember you are always a "Band of Brothers" no matter what your record was, how you lost one game and most importantly what other say or do.

Way to go Rockets! The Tradition continues and you guys added one more! Assumption is KY Volleyball. Congratulations to all the Rockets, and those that made the list above.

Thanks for the year ST.X - be proud. Good game Male. Go Rocks!

Respectfully - Is it important enough to discuss during the season? I think your hesitation to post was the right direction.

St. X Offense vs. Male Defense - Run to set up the pass to set up the run. Penalties have killed drives many times this year and if St. X can drive the field early (hard to do against 9 in the box Male), St. X advantage. Throwing over the top of the defense an obvious choice. St.X offense has been a second half offense typically. This didn't help in game 1 and needs to change Friday. Drive blocking was tough in the mud, game 1, with the advantage to the Male offense which set up in shotgun (pass blocking) quite a bit more. Male Defense may fatigue second half and they seem to have trouble lining up on time some of the time. Male Offense vs. St.X Defense - Forget "containment rush" from the D Line like first half game 1 on Gaines. Pursue Gaines (trouble looking up field and throwing when scrambling under close pressure) and don't let him have the time to scramble, set up and throw, like the first half game 1. If he has the time Male will win. Male will score. St. X LB's key to game with D line in hot pursuit. St. X Defense can beat Male if they stop QB from making big plays. Beaumont a super talent but not likely to beat St.X by himself. Spec. Teams - St. X needs to keep lane discipline on KO and not let Male outside after starting middle. Big advantage 1st half game 1 with great field position. Second half showed effect on tackling Male early with 20-30 more yards on tough ST.X Defense. ST. X Kickoff longer now with new kicker. Limit returns with end zone kicks. St. X block in the back, probably 1/3 of the kick returns killing field position. Extra points? . Championship Game atmosphere in round 2. Hard to predict this game - too many variables. Just enjoy.

Manual's only TD comes when ST X QB throws a quick pass to Victor A. and Manual's D steps in front and runs down to inside 20 yard line, Victor A. makes the tackle. Offense for St. X mostly all big plays, no consistent long drives, especially early and comes out flat in the first half (trend all year - Male, Trinity, Manual first game...). Manual scores on first drive (field goal) - after that St. X defense plays great. Extra points for St.X's continues to be trouble. Kind of get the feeling that if St.X can find the motivation to get rolling early and often, they will be hard to beat by anyone. Moving on to round 2 - good luck and great job Tigers!

IMO - Most people I know sacrifice to find $ because it is worth every car pool hour, every weekend tournament eating out of the back of the car, every crowded, hot and noisy gym, every long drive out of state, every week off of work and practices 3 or 4 times a week, every airport, hotel and doubling up on rooms - all because someone you love loves her friends and volleyball. Life is rarely so simple and wonderful, but not easy. Family and Volleyball. All together. Every girl, every year. I hope more people sacrifice for something together. The $ get lost somewhere in the beginning.

Congratulations to Assumption 2006! You truly are awesome and add to a long tradition. Another great year and another State Title! GO ROCKETS!

Vic Anderson ran for 210 yards on 9 carries and was finished at half. Duece ran for 135 yards as well. Total Mud field. St. X looked ready to play.

49 points and could have been many more. PRP QB back and tried to hold off STX earlier with Shotgun but failed. St X came out focused and it was never in doubt. PRP did very little, especially on the ground. St X needs to work on pass coverage, finishing pressure on QB and kickoff coverage. St X offense looks good. Victor came ready to play and did Duece. The O line was pushing PRP around. D line stopped the run well and put pressure on QB. Good game St X!

I love everything about Football including the LIT ratings. I for one am expecting the players to have moved on, and left the rest of it for us to debate. After the first hit of the next game when I played, I had usually forgotten everything except what was in front of me. Has this changed for the kids today? A hard practice the Monday following has a way of bringing the next game into focus also. I believe for most programs, HS football has such a demand for a players attention, during the season especially, that until someone plays their last game as a senior, they still point mostly forward with their thoughts. I for one, since I can't play anymore, share next week with last week, last year and my years. Thank God for the privledge of working to play in the game. Because I was a part of a team I can simply watch any game now and celebrate all of everything that is Friday nights. When people ask me why I support my son playing given the almost every game possibility of injury, I worry for a second and then remember all the things that make it what it really is and causes IMO a lot of the strength of arguments on BGP - the best team sport, at the most pure level - High School. How many other websites are most of us reading and responding to? For most of us, at least during the season, Friday Night is every day if you want it to be. STXMAN.

For what it's worth, Highlands or Bowling Green could IMO (after playing them both along with Lexington Catholic 2 years in a row), beat many good 4A teams including some top 20, if not on occasion a top 10 4A team. Just one man's opinion. I would love to watch Johnson Central play however.

Thank You Highlands for a great game. I was at the game and was very impressed with your team. Class program all the way. Great fan support. Played the game tough, came out swinging and never gave up. Prize Fight - Punch returned for punch! QB and #4 are exciting to watch and very good. O Line is tough and fast - well coached. The execution was good. One year makes a lot of difference. Good Luck the rest of the year. I think Coach G was trying a few things in the first half for later season use. Second half was all STX football. Good Game to see a very good offense (Trinity, Male and PRP coming). Also good game to pound the ball when needed. STXMAN

Good Win. Defense and Offense played well. One let down on kickoff return and a fumble recovery for a TD after it was decided. Defense against the pass getting better, and GOOD against the run. D looked fast and all over the field. Pressure on the QB all night, nothing between the tackles and a posse of guys waiting around the corners. Offense scored 58 points. Enough said.

BG - Congratulations on the win. A class program.

ST.X Defense did well and stopped all but a few plays on the BG offense. D line looked good and good pursuit and gang tackling. ST X Offense looked out of sync, trying to find the right QB, ran few plays and struggled with penalties. Some good things - passing game shared the reps with running, Duece looked good, and scored when they had to to win. Tight Ends made a few catches and FB had several good runs. Sevral broken plays and missed assignments. BG offense did not look like last years version. No passing game and run was shut down other than one short TD run. BG Defense played well at times but ST X had so many penalties it was hard to tell who was hurting the drives more - STX on STX or BG defense on ST X. Any win is a good win.

St.X scored multiple times after a slower start. Oldham County started fired up but didn't finish.

St. X vs. Scott County - How did both teams look in the first of the year scrimmage for both?

This too shall pass. What are the odds that St.X or Trinity will win the 4A title, keep more of the catholic dollar, build new beautiful stadiums, build more tradition, play twice a year in Papa John stadium, play before 37,000+ fans in the largest high school rivalry game in the country, play in and out of state powers in great locations (Paul Brown stadium...), and pound someone else in the state final all the while cheering for each other when we are not playing one another (o.k. that last part may not always be true)? So when does the season start? It's a good thing the kids still play the games and the adults don't.

To All in the games May all involved have good games and a wonderful memory of your friends to the right and left. Everyone has plenty of time to worry about the other stuff later.

The only boring thing for me is the long weeks after our season is over.

IMO - First my experience with Government funded schools / football is 30 years old. I prefer Catholic now for faith reasons. I'm not sure why X / T win often. I am glad they do and support the school, education, the religious order that provides leadership to the school, the CSAA that teaches boys how to win, the parents that give up hundreds of hours to coach, coaches that don't have a son that give up year after year for their "adopted" sons, etc. I'm sure others do this as well. This and I can see some advantage with open enrollment. Which is more important? Most kids on Trinity and X have played for a Catholic school from 5 grade or before and never considered going anywhere else. They wanted to play Football so they could play on X / T's team.There are kids that practice and do not dress for the game and pay $$ to see their own team on Friday night at X. This probably occurs at Trinity as well. Answer that question and it may explain some of the difference. They are not the best football players but they want to be a part of something bigger. Motivation leads to interest, interest to numbers (albiet a bigger pool) and with a great coaching staff and a team that believes it can, wins. Wins create tradition and tradition creates motivation. Numbers (IMO pool size AND Tradition, Interset etc) and Motivation go together. X / T have more boys - Yes. Do they win often because of that? Only if the other pieces are in place. The lessons along the way feed the results. If you can't answer that, then no amount of disagreement is going to explain. Anyone can have it and it isn't IMO primarily because there are 1500 boys at X / T.

IMO it wasn't mostly being prepared - it was line play. Some of the score may have been after WC got down a bit given the score. The difference in the Manual / JH and Warren Central games was the line play. Manual (less) and JH (more) slowed down STX's running game and the D Line from attacking the QB. The Manual game was not as close as the final score indicates. The JH game had a very mobile QB that could scramble well and complete passes on critical plays while avoiding the rush most of the time. The JH D against the run (one of the better stat wise in the state) closed quickly and made STX throw more than it likes to. Warren Central could not stop the run at all and their O line gave up many pressures and several sacks, with a QB that was running all night long without much success throwing on the run. If you allow a STX team to run like WC did, they will score a lot and give the opposing Offense little time to respond.

Congratulations to the BG team and fans. Way back in game #1 you earned my respect. What a defense! IMO, you guys pursue the ball better than any other team we've played this year, close on a ball carrier faster and tackle well. It's great to hear that several BG guys took it to the next level with their sportsmanship and love of the game and respect for their opponents. That is what the bigger lessons say everyone should do. Congratulations again. A Louisville fan of this BG team! STXMAN.