[Tomcat68]

With all of these teams in a 20 mile radius with the exception of 2 (Portsmouth teams) that are closer to 30-35 miles, I would find it hard that any of them recruit or bring out kids outside district lines because of the consistent success over the years. Occassionally one school is down while others may be better as is normal with graduation losses and growing pains. If one school was wanting to recruit, there would be several schools with dismal programs. Here are the football records from this past season.

3A Ashland (Boyd County) (9-3)
3A Boyd County (Boyd County) (5-5)
1A Fairview (Boyd County) (5-6)
1A Rose Hill (Boyd County) (No team)

2A East Carter (Carter County) (8-4)
2A West Carter (Carter County) (5-5)

3A Greenup County (Greenup County) (1-9)
1A Raceland (Greenup County) (7-4)
2A Russell (Greenup County) (14-1)

Coal Grove (OH) (6-4)
Ironton (OH) (10-3)
Portsmouth (OH) (2-8)
Portsmouth West (OH) (6-4)
Rock Hill (OH) (9-2)
South Point (OH) (6-4)

As you can see, there are some good teams in each class, and some not so great teams in each class. Greenup County and Boyd County would both have been better if they had better coaching (Greenup County) and if the players, parents, and coach's weren't fightings amonst each other (Boyd County and Greenup County).

Almost anywhere you look in the state you will most likely see extremely similar results. It's very difficult to pinpoint one school or such that is having well more than their share of quality players and success. Occassionally there will be a team that is just very good, that is normal. But, when you have the same success as being a state championship caliber team year after year even after graduation losses and you are able to just reload again. That is what brings doubt into peoples' minds about the integrity of any particular program. Are there teams that are just lucky for a few years and just have some excellent talent for 2-3 or maybe even 5 years? Of course. But when a team has the same state championship caliber success for 10 years and even decades with no end in site, that is a problem. The other largest problem in my eyes is the overnight team. I've personally seen this happen once in basketball at a private school. Rose Hill during 2000/2001 basketball season went 11-15 and scored only 1485 points and allowing 1534. The very next season, they had atleast 1 transfer from Russell, 3 from Ashland, and 3 from West Virginia. All of which played basketball and were freshmen or younger at the time with the exception of one. 4 of these players started the next season as Rose Hill went 27-4 while scoring 2427 points and allowing 1851. Not to mention the school itself only enrolls 75 or less students in grades 9-12 comined. This is the type of situation that requires a further look from the KHSAA.

That is why there is so much debate over the public/private split. The split won't help anyone in the long run, but it's obvious that they have received well more than a fair share of talent as a group and that is what in turn brings in the allegations of recruiting/illegal benefits/ whatever you want to call it.