[barrel]

I don't want to sidetrack the thread but I'll answer the question about hs level playing field in Jefferson county. In hs football the big debate is over private/open enrollment vs public schools. In the question asked about what the 10 best players going to one school and that being fair. Trinity is what happens and you can ask the 6A teams how they feel about that. Past the teams in KY that are forced to play them and then Trinity has to play out of state teams.

Some areas have open enrollment which either allows students to attend schools they are not in the boundaries of but have to pay a few. In some cases like Kenton county they can pick from any of the hs and not have to pay. In other cases there is agreement the schools can take kids from different counties and not pay.

Beechwood and Highlands are two schools that have open enrollment. So when you look at hs football there are a number of teams that are good that either are privates or open enrollment. Trinity, St X, Central, Male, Lexington Catholic, Covington Catholic, Newport Central Catholic, Beechwood, Highlands, Bowling Green, Owensboro Catholic, Lexington Christian and there are others. Now there are many other factors that make those programs great but the ability to enroll students helps.

In ms football it is holdbacks that become the debate. In some cases you will see almost a 2 year age difference in 8th grade students as an example. The age issue evens out in hs but its tough in ms. I understand there are many reasons to holdback a kid and I understand why many do it. It does skew the playing field on the ms level.

So just like the private/open enrollment vs public is a heated debate that can skew the playing field on the hs level it is holdbacks that are the ms equivalent