aayswimfan

For bluethunder: You obviously know nothing about the 16th Region. Russell was the preseason favorite and even more of a favorite at tournament time. If you do your homework, you will learn that Russell had two players near the equal of Terry and Queen as well as a far more experienced supporting cast. Being informed never hurts.

 

1 - Bluethunder made some very valid points. Russell was preseason fav, but who said they were favored to win the region? ADI's Rick Greene had them getting beat by Rowan in the opening round. Russell with a more experienced supporting cast??? Britt's been playing varsity bball since she was in 8th grade. Yes, RH started an 8th grader, but they could've started a 4th grader with the talent and experience of those 3 alone. As far as masterful coaching??? Please - I'm sure you've seen RH play. What do they run, at any point in any game, that involves masterful coaching? Gameplan for RH: Sit back in a 2-3 zone to conserve energy, and give the ball to Queen and Terry and get out of the way, and on occasion let Britt drive and shoot or dish. Not so masterful, but with two D1 players, sometimes less is more.

I find the tone of this thread very surprising. I would think Rose Hill would buy Kidwell two championship rings for having discipline and integrity in his program which got them two prized transfers and thus two region titles.

I'm absolutely amazed at how in depth this thread is with various posts. Are people that tore up about Merle Kidwell winning the Coach of the Year?

 

1) He won the award and congratulated. Of the times I saw his teams play, they are athletic, fundamental, and disciplined. They run some great quick hitting offensive plays. Their size helped them defeat many teams this season. And any coach that has a clue will tell you that talent and athletes makes coaches of the year. I doubt Coach Kidwell will disagree.

 

2) The game of basketball is actually quite simple. No need for huge words or hidden meanings. Teams can be perfect all year, zero problems, play to potential and then one night lose to a team they should drill. It's sports. The basketball gets deflected, rolls around a rim, etc...multiple things occur that lead to a end result.

 

3) Sometimes coaches can simply stand around during timeout, cross legs on the bench, or basically say absolutely nothing...and all the while one of their players shakes free, shoots a leaner off one leg or yanks one from about 25 feet and hits nothing but the bottom of the net...you get the idea....

 

Basically, high school basketball has many, many variables to it. Coaching is important...sometimes it's even over-rated, sometimes credit is not given to the coach who makes their "programs" better....a good coach builds and sustains a good program over the course of time and does so the right way in all facets of the sport.

 

Give credit to the deserving person in this case.

 

If not, then spill out X and O, motivation, player development, practice structure and fundamental coaching points and then evaluate who does what....that is if we have all been to the practices of all of these coaches and know the inner-workings of how they approach the game, teach the game, and motivate the game....

I still think COY should have been Bradley or Euton with Trimble as a dark horse. Ashland and Rose Hill both over achieved with the over all team talent they had. Raceland had a lot of good players but no winning tradition. Russell was just plumb loaded with upper classmen.

Anyone know when the paper is coming out with the team and who from Ashland made it?

I am not a Russell supporter. I gave you a reason she quit the team the first time. After Kidwell let her rejoin I don't why she and her sister quit and left the school. Personally I could care less. People want the facts and the source you get it, and then they want to bash you. Everything that was said is truth and all public knowledge. If you don't want the truth don't ask for it. I keep up with Raceland and I am a true Scott Co. fan.

Ilike to root for Raceland when I can also. But all you have told us is that your mom said Faulkner had a bad attitude when she was a freshman at Russell. Besides trashing a teen age girl, of what consequence is this on whether she played good enough this year to make the all star team? The truth is that it doesn't and all you are doing is trashing a teen ager.

I could care less what you question me about. Obviously, we all have our own opinions. I have no allegiance to anyone as you put it. I just thought Gray was the best player, voiced opinion accordingly, as did the voters.

 

So, are you going to fill the rest of us in about the 16th region as to why everyone is against RH?

 

If you aren't in politics you should consider a career change! I would probably vote for you but fortunately I do not live in the area!

That's pretty easy. We loved our Christian neighbor when we were beating the fire out of them every year, then O. J. Mayo showed up and changed things. Then the Faulkners transfered and allowed Rose Hill to win again. We like the easy wins better.

aayswimfan &Uncle Jed

 

Never was anything I said or that mom said against any type of privacy policy. Everything that was told was out in the open you can ask anyone associated with the area schools too. It was very open that the young lady quit because she didn't think she was getting enough playing time as a freshman. It is also a known fact that out of the goodness of coach Kidwell he allowed the young lady to rejoin the team. It is also a well known fact again that she and her sister quit the team to go to Rose Hill. Everyone wants fact and want to know where you got them, and then when you hear them its an attaack on the young lady. Or your mom shoudn't make it a habit to talk about the kid away from school. Like I said before none of this has anything to do with grades, SSN, where the girl lives, or her disciplinary actions at school. It is all about what actually happened and the way she handled herself. But to say my mom is unprofessional you all must be obsurd. Everything mentioned in the previous post is all well known facts and was even in the local papers. Sorry you all can't take the truth and from now on if you can't handle it don't ask for it. As for an average player and that is all she is. With the above average attitude which she has openly displayed that to on the court and to the Russell coach.

But once again we were talking about an award given on how an athlete played basketball this year, not off court things. If her leaving Russell is the reason she did not make the team then that is a darned shame. Sorry you can't take the truth and from now on if you can't handle it move out of your mom's basement and get a life. If anyone not a Russell supporter would e-mail me the real reason the Faulkners left I would appreciate it.

I wasn't coaching.

pretty funny, if you do coach, just make sure it's at a public school.

So Coach A's 27 wins had nothing to do with the COY award? Winning an EKC Tournament and Regular Season Championship had nothing to do with it? Why vote next year! Let's just say that whoever wins the region is the automatic COY. That would settle it for everybody. And then, each player who is named to the All-Area team can buy T-Shirts and display a name of one of their teammates on it, that way we double the number of All-Area members. Or even better still, let's just say that ANYONE who played in a varsity game next year gets an automatic All-Area trophy. That way nobody's feelings are hurt and everyone is happy. Because we all know that in the real world, there are never any disappointments and everyone is a winner.

Most of the posts last year said Euton should have had all the wins because of the team she had and that was why she didn't deserve it. But this year Kidwell should get it because of all the wins he had. Can't have it both ways, or maybe you can if you coach in the 16th region.

Based on the criteria for voting, Kidwell deserved this award.

what's the criteria?

Congrats to Coach Kidwell on such a well-deserved honor.

The Lady Devils had a tough one in the finals, but Coach K did a great job this year and has done a great job in his short tenure as girls coach at the "Think Tank" (Russell HS).

I wouldn't call one district win and no regional championships a great job. He got out-coached by Trimble in the district and Euton in 2 straight regional tournaments. I think you can throw in Bradley from Ashland as one of the only 3 coaches deserving of any kind of award this year.

Did anyone ever think that the kids attitude on and off the court had anything to do with the voting. From what I was told From a source(My Mom) that works at Russell is that Britt had a very bad attitude and quit the team at Russell two times(once because she didn't think she was getting enough playing time as a frosh). The kindness in Kidwells's heart he allowed her to rejoin the team. After which her and her sister quit again and then went to Rose Hill. If you don't think that attitudes play a role in award voting then you have a very obscure way at looking at it. From all I can gather Britt is an average ball player with a way above average attitude problem, that is probably what lead to the not getting on the all area team. Just a veiw point of looking in from the outside.

Adults usually try to refrain from attacking teenage girls. Britt Faulkner must have been about 14 years old when she was at Russell. Sounds like you and your mother need to grow up a little bit. If Laura Terry actually wore that head band, I think it's "old school" cool. In this day and age of "it's all about me sports" it's nice to see a teammate take up for a teammate.

Anyone who watched Faulkner play this year knows she deserves to be on the All District Team. I thought the awards were based on how the players actually played. Not off the court bickering. For grown adults to punish a teenage girl like this just shows that area coaches are small people who are never going to get bigger. The coaches used the same arguments last year against Kala Faulkner. But now she plays for University of Louisville and has a full paid scholarship based on public service, the McConnell, I hope there are different area coaches before my daughter is big enough to play for the Tomcats.

Ashlands coach took an extremely young team to a victory in the region.

Racelands coach took his team to the first district championship in school history. Rose Hills coach took her team to a district and region championship.

Russells coach took the #1 seeded team at the beginning of the year and the favorite to win the region to a loss in the district and a loss in the region. I could understand giving the award to Bradley, Trimble, or Euton, but to give it to Kidwell who led his team to underachieve and got out-coached in the district and the region both is strange.

There is only one team that de-throned Lex. Catholic this year. That was LCA. She was the team leader. How can one not seriously consider Emily London??

What were her stats this year? She must have played great to have beaten lex.

Catholic.

No since sugarcoating it. The excuse has always been Rose Hill didn't pay their dues. Well apparently they paid enough dues to finish 2nd and 4th just not first. This is the 2nd year in a row where and injustice was done. Faulkner got job last year, Queen this year, and Pam Euton this year. Look you have to give Pam some credit. She won this year when no one thought she would and did it with 2 starters that wouldn't have started at Russell, Rowan, East, Ashland or most of the other top schools.

 

Last year I heard that character was an issue. Apparently Faulkner's transfer was an issue. So what is the reason for Queen? She was and is the best player in the region, she proved it night in and night out and over several years. Whether you like it or not they share one common denominator.

If my kids ever get close to the talent of Emily Queen, I would be afraid to transfer them to Rose Hill because of this blatant bias. Of course that is probably what the area coaches are trying to accomplish. I don't see why they can't root for their own programs but still give due to the obviously best player in the Region. They keep saying these awards are not worth arguing over , but to a player that has worked so hard I'm sure it is. I wish my schools coaches had a little more class.

Any reason you left out the leading candidate for Miss Basketball, Rebecca Gray?

Nope, I just got back on BGP today to answer you, The web site is hard to look through, nothing is in order, I didn't meen to slight miss Gray. My eyes just aren't what they used to be.

This vote has nothing to do w/past ballots for anything. It's a clean slade. That's great if both, indeed, actually made the McDonalds' team. You may want to go back and re-read the article. I think they both were nominated for the McDonalds All American Team.

You are right, they were nominated. Ilooked up the other Ky. girls that were nominated, I hope I didn,t miss any. Caroline Klein, Keyla Snowden, Elizabeth Campbell, Whitney Ballinger, Hope Brown , Thia Gholson, Emily Queen, Laura Terry. The 16th Region's Kayla Faulkner plays for louisville,

Who is Tara Kauinui?

 

From another girls bball site, this is how the girls are chosen to tryout;

 

The 16 regional POY's, coaches ballots choose the next 10, media ballots get the next 10 and the last 4 spots are chosen by the team coaches/game director for a total of 40 girls.

Which coaches ballots? Not the same ones that left off the all time leading scorer and rebounder in the 16th region I hope. I saw in the Independent that Queen and Terry made the McDonalds team. Who votes for this? I seem to recall it is a pretty big deal.

Who is Tara Kauinui?

 

From another girls bball site, this is how the girls are chosen to tryout;

 

The 16 regional POY's, coaches ballots choose the next 10, media ballots get the next 10 and the last 4 spots are chosen by the team coaches/game director for a total of 40 girls.

Wow, 40 tryout, How many make the team?:confused:

In both cases, the regional coaches got it right.

They sure didn't this year in the 16th Region. They must of been sick of Queen beating them not to have voted for her. I know she dominated our Kittens in the district.

Coach Watkins probably deserves some credit also.

:thumb: I'm sure he does, but most in the 16th Region won't give the head coach credit , let alone an assistant that stands up at games.

Rose Hill losing in the Sweet 16 gets 45 comments in the thread. Their best player not making some all-star team gets 41 comments. Anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

Queen is the all time rebounding and scoring champ for the 16th Region. She lead the region this year in both stats. She lead her team to two District and two Region championships. Rose Hill the team got out played in the tournament. I would think there should be quite a few more comments on her than a good team beating a good team. Not only was she the best player this year, she is in the running for best ever from the 16th region.

That pretty well somes it up. At least in the top ten and probably the top five, and voted fourth by the sixteenth region coaches. Doesn't say much for them.