Terp

7 Ballard 5 Highlands 3 Central 2 Henry 1 Western TB - Central

UL - June 6 Male - June 13 UK - June 20

From the Courier Journal: The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville has seen enrollment at its 38 schools in Jefferson County decrease by about 1,500 students over the past five years, according to archdiocesan officials. Leisa Schulz, superintendent of the Catholic schools, said yesterday that she believes the decrease is being caused by two factors. "First of all, it's our demographics -- the number of school-aged children in our parishes is declining," she said. "We also know that the financial cost of our schools can be a challenge, even when the economic times are better than what they are right now." http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009902240380 Ms. Shulz would know better than I do, so I'll assume she right. I have no evidence, but I'm guessing that the impact will be larger at the elementary school level. There have been several comments about the quality of options in Jefferson County. There are several quality schools in the county. I know there are many problems with CATS scores, but they do provide some measure to compare schools. Using those as a guide: Ballard, Butler, & Eastern are comparable to Beechwood & Dixie. Male and Manual are outperforming Highlands. I'm not trying to diminish Beechwood, Highlands, & Dixie. They are excellent schools. I'm just saying there are excellent schools in Jefferson County as well.

Congrats to Coach Ross!

Yes, their QB is coming back. His name is DeMarcus Smith. He will be a Junior next year. He has already started 23 games for the Redhawks. He is an outstanding talent. 4 of the 5 members of the o-line return, as do both running backs and the majority of the receivers. Seneca will be explosive on offense. Don't know about the current off season program.

ftbll4life - Sorry my question didn't meet with your approval. There are many possible reasons that a school could have more girls than boys. Rather than speculate about "What else could be going on?", I asked a simple question. letherneck - Thanks for the reply. I had no idea the nursing program was that popular, but it certainly would explain the disproportionate number of girls in the school.

Why is the male enrollment so much lower than female at Central? Are they admitting more girls than boys every year? If so, why? If not, what else going on?

Some schools line up to play T & X because they are the best in 6A. If you have to beat them in the post season to win a state championship, why duck them in the regular season? "If you want to be the man, you have to beat the man." - Rick Flair

Under the scenario I mentioned, T and X would play in the postseason for their state championship. For the record, I am not endorsing this idea. I'd like to beat T or X for a state championship one day. I'm just saying T & X would not have to be removed from the KHSAA totally in order to play an independent schedule in football. There are alot of options out there. The approach I mentioned solves some of the problems, ie. impact on other sports and ability to schedule football games against other teams who are members of their state associations.

Has there ever been an effort to organize a "NKY/LOU CHALLENGE", ie. one weekend where there are 10 or so games one the schedule pitting the two regions against one another? This kind of thing is all the rage in college basketball and might add some extra interest to early season matchups.

T & X would not have to be kicked out of the KHSAA to make this happen. They could be put in a separate classification from the publics and the smaller privates. That way they can schedule whoever they want, including KY public schools. I know several public schools in Jefferson Co. that would still want to be on the schedule for both. Also, they would then be able to schedule a T v. X as a playoff game and add another opponent. This would also solve the problems of other sports at T & X. They could continue to participate in the KHSAA. As far as cost goes, the increase in ticket revenue might offset any increase in travel expenses. Especially if they continue to play a couple of local teams as part of the schedule.

Any news?

The QB's name is actually Damarcus Smith. Seneca wins 45 - 27.

Ballard - OL Chris Walker

Manual 36 Ballard 26 final

St. X is hosting Ballard again this year. Ballard's stadium is not being renovated this year. The move was based on financial considerations.

Rumor has it that Hines is currently being home schooled and plans to re-enroll in the fall. I expect to see him back on the field in a Fern Creek uniform next year.

DeMarcus Smith started as a freshman this past year for Seneca. They were 3-7. He,too, has a very strong arm. He has good mobility as well. Seneca played Male, Fern Creek, Ballard, PRP, and Trinity. DeMarcus finished the year as the 6th leading passer in 6A with 139.9 yards per game. Even though he played freshmen football as an 8th grader, it was a very difficult transition for him. I look for DeMarcus to dramatically improve his completion percentage and reduce turnovers this year. The freshman to be at Male is very talented, but even for very talented kids like him it is an extremely difficult transition mentally, physically and emotionally. If coach Redman honestly thinks this young man can be as good as his son, I would not expect him to make drastic changes to his offense. I would anticipate that he is looking forward to having the trigger man that can run the entire system effectively and hoping he will be able to get back to the top with the right QB.

Georgetown is lucky to have a fine young man like Alex. I don't know whether they'll move him or not, he is a very good QB and an outstanding person. Congrats, Alex!!

Kissinger - Thanks for the knowledge. I stand corrected. Looks like the public schools are locked into the KHSAA unless the statutes are changed. (Private schools could elect to leave and form another organization.)

Thanks for the info., Kissinger. According to the KHSAA Handbook, "The general control is lodged with a Board of Directors, generally referred to as the Board of Control, fourteen of which are elected by the member schools, and an additional four members appointed by the Kentucky Board of Education. The Association is operated under the direction of the Kentucky Board of Education and the Commissioner of Education." http://www.khsaa.org/handbook/preface.pdf see Historical Perspective. I'm not clear on the distinction between being operated under the direction of the Board of Education and being a department for our purposes in this discussion. How would this impact forming a second organization in KY? I couldn't find anything to prevent such action. Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I could not find reference to any association claiming DeMatha as a member. There is no NFHS Affiliate Association operating in Maryland, according to the NFHS website. Surely, any second association in KY that obtains Affiliate Association status would have the opportunity to play teams from out of state. If enough schools elected to join this new association, I would anticipate the National Federation would make the new group the state association, replacing the KHSAA in that capacity. FBF015 - My reading of the rules indicates it's clearly possible to form a new organization. The real sticking point to me will be play between members of this new organization and KHSAA schools. Surely, KHSAA will block play between the groups in order to weaken the new group. You will need enough members to have competitive schedules for your schools without help from KHSAA. In order to garner this kind of support, I think you will need to be much more specific about what your goals are. Remember, you can legislate intent. What rules/procedures would you have to make this new organization better? Why can't you push for those rules within the structure of KHSAA?

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association web site is: http://www.mpssaa.org/ You can see that DeMatha is not a member, so there is clearly a procedure in Ohio to get a game sanctioned against a school that is not a member of their own state's association. The KHSAA rules say that member schools may not play games against other Kentucky schools who are not members of the KHSAA. It also indicates that the commissioner can make exceptions to this rule. (See Article VIII of the Constitution) http://www.khsaa.org/handbook/constitution.pdf What is not absolutely clear to me is the impact of an alternative association being formed as an Affiliate Association under the National Federation. I think that would solve all out of state concerns. The new organization could choose to allow it's members to play KHSAA schools, putting the burden on the KHSAA commissioner to block play between the two groups.

Ram, I'm not sure this is true at all. For example, the state association in Maryland is called the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. No private schools are members. They maintain a list of non-member schools that are approved for member schools to play. DeMatha H.S. is on that list along with many others. Public schools can elect to play DeMatha if they so choose. DeMatha played St. X, Ohio, on September 2, 2007 without being a member of a state association. There is just an extra form to fill out to schedule an out of state opponent who is not a member of their state association. By the way, the New York organization is called the New York State Public High School Athletic Association, Inc. They have a Friend & Neighbor list of approved schools (I'm guessing including private and Canadian schools). There's no reason KY couldn't do something similar. The National Federation of State High School Associations who approved the state associations has a procedure for other associations to be approved. Those that are not the official association for their state are called Affiliate Associations (ie. Iowa Girls HS Athletic Union). I'd prefer working with KHSAA, but there are several other options for those who feel like it's necessary.

By the way, I believe there were 8 paid assistants on that staff.

I worked under Catlett at Ballard a few years ago. I was paid. I have the JCPS paystubbs to prove it. Maybe a miscommunication?