Dino

None of the positives cited by supporters of this change, except for the 50% increase in the number of Kentucky state football champions, could not have been accomplished without an increase in the number of classes. Indiana, with a much larger population than Kentucky, has only five classes, and the system seems to work okay. The only good reason for increasing the number of classes, IMO, is to accomodate a state's population growth by keeping the number of playoff games managable.

This is an argument in favor of adopting the Indiana system, which allows all teams in the playoffs. In this state, iteams like Indy Cathedral load their early season schedule with heavyweights and don't panic if the start the season 0-3 or 0-4. They spend the entire regular season developing young talent for the playoffs, knowing that blowing a lead or two will not knock them out of the state title picture. If ensuring teams do not fold their tents in mid-season is the goal, four classes are plenty for a state having Kentucky's population. Adding classes and increasing the distance between district teams at a time of soaring gasoline prices was a bad idea.

You ay be right, '76. I was assuming that Matney is leaning toward another rush-oriented team because Ian Welch got a look at QB in the spring. That indicates to me that Matney is trying to figure out how to squeeze more PT out of his deep stable of rushing talent. I am no longer close to the JC program. I hope that the Golden Eagles do field a credible passing attack this fall, but I still look for them to be among the state leaders in team rushing yards.

Ashland may beat Johnson Central in Paintsville, but it would be a shock to see the Tomcats hold the Golden Eagles to 7 points on the road. It would also be a surprise to see Ashland score 27 on what should be an improved JC defense. The Tomcats had their hands full with Blake Johnson last season, and I expect that they will find him to be a bigger load this season.

Johnson Central led the state in rushing by a fairly wide margin last season. Barring a rash of injuries, I believe that they will again contend for top team rushing honors, despite the loss of Ron Blume. Fullback Blake Johnson was one of the top running backs in EKY last season, but his carries were limited because of Blume's explosiveness. JC's rushing attack may be too balanced this season for any single back to get the kind of attention that Blume received, but it should not surprise anybody if the team rushes for more yardage this season than it did last season. Johnson, Welch, Grim, and Dillon will provide Matney with plenty of offensive firepower. In addition, the Golden Eagle's passing game wil be a big question mark following the graduation of Music, which means they may rely on their running game even more than last season.

:thumb: Excellent post! While I doubt that private schools could afford a team of mercenaries, they certainly could target the best student-athletes that public schools have to offer, at all levels. Families who might not be able to afford a four-year private school education might be able to swing one or two years of tuition (full or partial) to place their sons on a national championship calber football team where they would have a better shot at earning a football ride.

I understand what you are saying. However, I have two sons who played on that team and the coaches did distribute scouting reports to them to study. Both of my sons agree that the Johnson Central coaches did not downplay Beach's ability and that pre-game practices focused on stopping him. It would make no sense for coaches to water down a scouting report for players, and then spend all week emphasizing how dangerous of a running back Beach was. I do not remember reading that particular scouting report, but it was not the practice of the coaches to hide the other teams strengths from their own players. Unfortunately, compiling scouting reports was one of the few strengths of the coaching staff at that time. I just doubt that anybody found a bona fide scouting report that referred to Arliss Beach as an average running back, but I doubt that anybody has a copy laying around to deliver the final word on the subject. If the scouting report had overlooked Beach and JC had focused its defensive practices on the wrong player, Beach's 300+ yard game would have been more excusable. Sadly, that was not the case and only leg cramps limited him to the yards that he got that night.

My son was an integral part of that JC team and he told me that the coaches entire defensive focus leading up to the game was to shutdown Beach. Obviously, whatever the details of the plan were the plan failed miserably. \ The actual scouting report did not understate Beach's role in the Tomcat offense. Maybe what your fans found was part of some sort of silly disinformation campaign, but it was not reflective of the focus that the coaches placed on stopping Beach in the practices that led up to the game. I remember how bitterly disappointed my son was for not getting an opportunity to defend against a future D-1 running back. Trust me, Johnson Central respected Beach's ability, they could simply not do anything to slow him down. The heat, humidity and the cramps slowed Beach down a little bit, but they were no substitute for good coaching. I don't remember Beach getting hit in the backfield all night long, and he was just too elusive to turn loose into the secondary.

I asked my son, who played on that JC team about the scouting report, and he said that JC's entire game plan was aimed at stopping Beach. The coaching staff was inept in many other regards, but the scouting report that Ashland fans reportedly found following the game sounds bogus. The players who started most of the season at inside linebacker did not play a down at that position against Ashland. One of them, who started every other game during the season and was named an honorable mention on the All Area Team (behind two D-1 recruits), did not even get into the game (he was healthy, had been practicing very well, and was not subject to any disciplinary actions at the time). The other linebacker, a junior who also started at RB, had played poorly in a couple of scrimmage games, so the coaching staff decided to let him watch Arliss run at will from the bench. The period between Bill Musick's tenure and Jim Matney's hiring was a nightmare for JC players and fans. I am not trying to diminish Beach's performance, but the truth is Ashland probably had several other backs who could have shredded the Golden Eagle defense that night. He was a great back against formidable opponents, but JC was not a formidable opponent and Ron Blume was not part of that team. It would be unfair to compare Beach's performance against a weak, poorly coached Johnson Central team to Blume's performance against the strong, well coached Tomcat team of 2005.

I agree, but the gap between Beach the high school player and Blume the high school player was not the wide gulf that some Ashland fans are portraying it. Obviously, Beach was a much better D-1 college prospect than Blume because of his size, but the impact that each player had on their team and the stats that they compiled while playing against similar competition as seniors were pretty similar. Damon Bailey and Steve Alford were much better high school players than many players who had went on to enjoy great NBA careers, but that did not mean that those players were retroactively better high school players. Likewise, hopefully Arliss Beach will have a long and distinguished NFL career, but his NFL success or lack thereof will neither diminish nor enhance his high school accomplishmentsl. One thing that I remember about Beach is that he had a great stiff arm that he used on the rare occasions when a JC tackler got within striking distance of him. Blume may have been just as elusive in the open field, but he was also very good at patiently finding holes when his blockers were stood up on the line. Johnson Central did not really stop Beach in the backfield or at the line, even temporarily, so I did not get a chance to seem him perform in traffic.

I would take Beach, but the game that you refer to was an anomoly. JC hired a very mediocre coach during the summer and to compound his problems, he received some very poor advice from his staff. JC's two best linebackers that season did not play a single down as Beach racked up 300+ yards on just a few carries. Beach was a great player, but Johnson Central's coaching staff helped make him look like an All American in that particular game. The only problem that I saw with Beach, the high school player, was that he was very prone to cramps. Otherwise, he might have run for 500 yards that particular night. Hopefully, he has outgrown that problem or trainers have figured out a way to keep him on the field. Beach and Blume were both great high school players, and according to people who know both young men, they are both very hard workers and all around nice guys.

I think that Connecticut should just stop keeping score in football. Just let the referees decide who played the best at the end of the game. The winning team would get a "W" and the losing team would get half of a "W" (a "V"). At the end of the season, even a team that lost all of its games would have accumulated enough W's to claim a .500 record. Problem solved.

If a team installs an artificial playing surface to exploit a perceived speed advantage, how is that more fair than a team watering down a field to exploit a size/strength advantage? One might argue that either practice is unethical because changing the playing surface can increase the potential of injuries to players, but the changes increase those chances in a "fair" manner to both teams. There is a long tradition of sports teams changing home fields to exploit an advantage. Back in the 70's and 80's, it was a well known fact that the St. Louis baseball Cardinals compacted the dirt in front of home plate and sloped the first and third base foul lines to cause ground balls to bounce higher and more bunts to stay in fair territory. Other teams have tinkered with the distance to the outfield fences to offset a lack of home run power. I don't advocate watering down football fields to gain a competitive advantage. However, a school installing an artificial surface primarily to take advantage of the home team speed's by minimizing the effects of the elements, is no more fair than artificially creating mud. (And, yes, I do realize that there are other valid reasons for installing turf.)

The Indiana team would be huge favorites even if Oden and Conley elected not to play. If both teams are at full strength and Kentucky manages to keep the scores respectable this summer, they will exceed most people's expectations. I would not be surprised if Indiana wins the first game by 30 or 40. However, Chaminade did beat UVA with Ralph Sampson in the lane.

There is never any excuse to throw trophies away. If trophies were thrown away at the site of the tournament, that is really a display of poor sportsmanship. I hope that somebody is mistaken.

There are probably more football teams in eastern Kentucky for its population than any other part of the state. Despite consolidiation, there are very fiew 4A schools in the area, and we have more than our share of 1A and 2A teams. My guess is that the average enrollment at an eastern Kentucky school is smaller than for any other part of the state, which means that we probably have more, not fewer football teams considering the number of people living in the region.

If it was an upset, it was a mild one. South Floyd suffered through a 6-game losing streak earlier in the year, but have gone 8-3 since then. Paintsville had a 6-game win streak earlier in the year, but have been struggling lately and are only 4-4 since the winning streak was snapped.

It's a good thing that Mackins did not play against Providence. That would have made it much tougher to avoid running the score up.

You can call off the dogs by slowing the game down at both ends of the court. You can tell your players to walk the ball up the court and accept no shot that is not a wide open layup. Teams do this all the time when they have a small lead in the closing minutes of a game. Alternatively, you can run your regular offense, and run the score up. A coach knows in the first couple of minutes of a game (if not behore the game) when their opponent is completely over matched. A coach who allows the score to get as out of hand as it did in this game is showing a total lack of class and setting a bad example for his players and the young people in the stands. Lots of teams outshoot opponents badly. Few rack up 83 point wins - and for good reason. I hope that the winning coach had the opportunity to apologize to everybody involved in this game either as a witness or participant and I hope that he took advantage of that opportunity.

There is no shot clock in high school. You cannot beat a team by 83 points and expect not to be accused of running the score up. If a team has a substantial lead at halftime, then they can certainly run the score up by allowing their starters to step on the floor in the second half. There is no excuse for a coach allowing his team to run up a winning margin like this one.

Rockcastle is definitely the team to beat in the region next season. However, anybody who thinks that the regional title is a two way race between them and Bell County may be shocked. Don't forget that Rockcastle struggled to a 20-19 home playoff win over Mason County = a team that both Johnson Central and Ashland handled much easier. I know that Ashland and Johnson Central return a lot of talent as does Rock. I am not as familiar with what Mason returns, but I believe that they were a fairly young team this past season as well.

Exactly. It would get really hot in the gym if they would keep the doors shut, but it would be safer for the players and eliminate all of the delays in the game that are needed to dry the court. Paintsville has more than its fair share of lawyers in the stands. One of them should explain the potential liability of contributing to a serious injury by opening those doors. They should be designated emergency exits during games.

I have to pick Paintsville to win at home and JC to bounce back to split the regular season series on its home court.

It's no joke. Paintsville came very close to being swallowed by the county system back in the 70's. My recollection is that there were even radio ads touting all of the advantages that a merger would bring to Paintsville students. I don't remember how the financial crisis was resolved, but Paintsville managed to dodge consolidation. Things have gotten very tight on other occasions for Paintsville, but I don't remember the county pushing hard for consolidation like they did in the 70's.

Judging from their game with Harlan, I think Phelps may be a sleeper.