[EKUAlum05]

I hate to be the guy in the grey area of the middle..but that's where I find myself.

To me the entire argument involves three things... talent pool, coaching, and commitment to excellence. I will try to tie a lot of this in with Hoot's excellent example of Indiana HS Football.

In regards to KY HS Football there is absolutely no doubt that X and T have a significant advantage as it stands now. The greatest talent pool by far in the state of Kentucky is Louisville Metro. There really isn't even a debate about that, as well there should not be, when you consider population and the amount of D-1 athletes fro Louisville as opposed to other areas. With this exponentially stronger talent pool T and X have free reign to pull from it however they see fit. We won't even touch the "r word" in reference to this, as it is not even necessary, parents simply will choose to send their kids to X and T because A) The academics are top notch B) The athletic programs are superior C) The Coaching Staffs are top notch D) The facilities are top notch E) The networking/connections in terms of college acceptance and carers are top notch F) From an athletic standpoint it highly increases the chance of exposure for recruiting.

Talent pool does have a key drawback though, and that it does have a finite point where speaking in terms of athletics, a team becomes too saturated and kids opt for other options that are as close to the best... but offer greater opportunity for playing time. In year's past Male and Manual used to benefit greatly from this as Male offered the best athletic equal to X and T and Manual offered the best academic similarity.

Where the pendulum swings is with coaching and commitment to excellence.. and the perception of those things in the talent pool. To me there is no surprise that over the past decade Trinity's program has evolved whereas St. X has regressed to the point other Louisville teams have closed the gap. Trinity had everything working and as a result the talent pool swung heavily their way, especially the past 5 or 6 years. As X weakened the coaching stability and perceived commitment to excellence were effected and as a result you have seen some of that talent pool dissipate to schools like Central and PRP... as well as now schools like DeSales, Male, and Manual. IN addition to this, I feel like Trinity's wave of success has in effect created a little bit of over-saturation and now parts of the talent pool is also filtering down to those other schools as well helping to tighten the gap.

Where Indiana Public Schools have made the jump is the fact they have a similar talent pool around Indianapolis to that of Louisville... but the Public Schools have consistently did a better job of establishing themselves via Coaching and their commitment. Compare Warren Central and Carmel to a Male, Manual, Ballard, etc... the academics may be similar.. but the facilities, the support of the program (and subsequent coaching salaries), and commitment to play top competition is on par much more with X and T. Now in Indianapolis the talent pool dissipates more evenly at the top.

Same principle applies to NKY when you compare the most dominant program Highlands vs. the private school CovCath. Why has the public school dominated the private? Because Highlands has the the coaching, the dominant program who plays on National Television, equal if not better academics, and a community who embraces everything about the program and push for the very best. Thus the NKY talent pool filters first to Ft. Thomas..then down to the schools like CovCath, Dixie Heights, NewCath, etc

Even EKY is an example of this to a lesser extent. Look at Belfry and Johnson Central the top two programs arguably over the past decade. Look how both programs have seen an influx of families relocating to their district at the feeder school level. JC has benefited from kids coming into their feeder system from Martin, Lawrence, and Floyd County. Belfry has had kids move in from WV. In both cases the parents made the decision so they could be in a better school system, have better coaching, have a better social environment, and generally have a better exposure to success for their child. The "r word" has nothing to do with it.. this is simply parents doing what is best for their kids. The problem with EKY and rural areas is that no matter how great the coaching, support, and commitment are... the talent pool simply isn't deep enough to support a true powerhouse rising.

I posted in another thread that the area that hurts KY' perception the most right now is Lexington. In Lexington the talent pool dissipates very evenly. The private schools (LCA and LexCath) have not been able to transcend. LexCath was making a move in that direction when Bob Sphire was there, but have since digressed. The public schools have settled into a bit of a mediocre complacency. It seems like every year the Lex teams are very similar and able to beat one another. If they were laying at a very high level this would be good..but when that level is medicore..well that is not good at all. I have no doubt that part of Scott County's rise has a lot to do with this factor as Scott county has grown into the best option for some families. I honestly think that if the right coach was brought into a school like a Dunbar.. and the culture changed to where the administration and community insisted on excellence... that a Lexington Public School could transcend quickly to elite status. Along with that I think you would see a hierarchy form as some school would buy in to try and compete.. while the schools to slow to adapt would suddenly become the bottom of the barrel as the talent pool would move from them.

So in conclusion.. the privates are playing with a stacked deck.. but why shouldn't they? They are simply using the spoils of their own success to their advantage. If Publics want to return to equal footing it is on them to bring in the right coaches and commit their programs and schools to excellence. If you build it..they will come. If you sit on the porch complaining and continue to wait in your own mediocrity then the gap will always remain.