[charlie22]

Do you realize Highlands can take kids from all over? Do you realize your school's enrollment has remained constant for 15 or more years? HHS buildings grow and yet the HS enrollment stays constant, give or take 50 students. HHS has always stayed beneath the top tier in enrollment dating back to 1975, the first season schools outside Jefferson County were placed into 4A. This control over enrollment has also contributed greatly to their annual state wide test scores. That is a topic for discussion elsewhere. I also firmly believe when a home comes up for sale in Ft. Thomas, there is premium placed on what the demographics are of the family taking possession.

With the City's enrollment staying relatively constant for the last 15 years, should it be a surprise that the School's enrollment has stayed relatively constant also? It's no surprise to me.

As mentioned by IAM22, the City has pretty much been built out for a long, long time. The only way Highlands could ever be big enough to be in the largest football classification is if the school district consolidated with Newport, Bellevue and Dayton. Given the academic and athletic success of Highlands, there is no reason to consolidate. Admittedly, it's been a rough row to hoe financially because of the SEEK formula, but so far the tax payers in the school district have been willing to ante up enough local taxes to keep the school district standing on its own.

Highlands does get players occasionally from out of the district, but it is nowhere near as prevalent as some people like to believe it is.

And to RIUTG: you may have stated a million times that it is not possible to keep having such talented kids in a school Highlands size, but you have ignored a million times the point I made about talent being developed; not born. The vast, vast majority of the "magical" athletes were from Ft. Thomas. Towles is a perfect example. Ft. Thomas kid. I have to assume that you'd consider him to be another "magical" Highlands player. Towles wasn't good enough at QB to even start on the frosh team. Coaches worked with him extensively after his frosh year. As a sophomore when he came into replace the injured starting QB he did an okay job but to be fair, on that team he really didn't have to do much other than hand the ball off and throw the ball occassionally with little to no pressure on him. But by the time he started as a junior, you could tell he and the coaches had worked extensively to develop that talent. Even more so by his senior year. While he was blessed with height, the arm strength and accuracy was developed.

Noel Rash, the successful coach at Beechwood (who knows a thing or two about the game and is very familiar with Highlands) a couple of years ago didn't attribute Highlands consistent success to out of district players or even to the "magical" playes; rather he attributed it to the ability of Highlands coaches to develop 175 pound football playing maniacs.

I was on the KHSAA Board of Control for two terms. As such, I had the opportunity to get to know a lot of football coaches throughout the state. In talking about Highlands success and the reasons for it, they never mentioned the "magical" athletes. The words I heard over and over again: execution, discipline and quickness, all of which are things that are taught and coached. Heck I ran into Coach Johnny Hines of Pulaski County at the state finals in 09 (Highlands had beaten Pulaski County the prior week). I don't think he even mentioned Collinsworth's name to me; rather he chose to focus on compliments for the offensive and defensive lines (I think he referred to the O line as a machine is his newspaper comments the day after the game). He talked about the discipline, the execution and the desire of the O line to maintain their blocks as the things that impressed him the most about the Highlands team.

Too many fans want to focus on the "magical" players as the reason for a team's success, when in reality it's the efforts of the non-magical players that make a team successful year in and year out.