[EKUAlum05]

Fairview would be a 1A power at this point had Raceland and Ashland not influenced the KHSAA to take them down for populating their roster with West Virginia players. It's ironic that Belfry has done the same thing for many many years and gets away with it. In fact, that's why Belfry is Belfry. Without the WV infusion, they would just be another Pike Central, Haywood or no Haywood. They get the top talent from their region, sort of like Ironton did for many years in southeastern Ohio. It's not that West Virginians are better athletes. It's just that there are a lot of them and any time you can draw from a larger population base, you are going to have a better team. Belfry should just be glad they weren't trying to build their WV pipeline in NE Ky with teams like Raceland and Ashland around to fight it every step of the way.

Fairview's issue wasn't that they were getting players from WV...it was that they were getting them illegally.

Belfry definitely has benefited over the years from kids choosing to attend Belfry from out of State... but the key difference is they have done it legally. Every single player that has came to Belfry has either moved into the School District or opted to pay the tuition.

Furthermore, you can count on one hand the number of transfers who have came to Belfry in the middle of their High School career. Nearly every Belfry "transplant" occurs in their Grade School years.

Fairview was using illegal transfers that were trying to get around the system.. that is why Raceland and Ashland blocked them. Do you not think Pike Central did everything they could to cry foul after they got busted for illegally recruiting players under Chapman? The problem is there was nothing that could be done because everything was legit and the parents of the players attending Belfry had did everything by the book.

The two are not even close to being the same thing.

Also to say Belfry would be just like Pike Central is horribly mis-justified and shows lack of knowledge. For decades Belfry rarely was the beneficiary of transfers. It's not like Belfry is some flash in the pan program.. those teams from the 80's and early 90's probably had exclusively players that spent all 12 Grades in the Belfry District and the reached two State Finals and numerous Semi-Finals.

The watershed moment came with David Jones. When Jones transferred specifically to get away from Yogi and to have a better shot at qualifying academically for college, and subsequently saw that success parents across the river took notice. When Belfry revamped their Youth Football league this also created the next dynamic as parents wanted their kids to have the ability to play in the Belfry Youth system and moving or paying tuition was a small price to pay. When Mingo Central was built this basically was the final nail to most. Not only did it add 15-20 minutes in travel time, but they simply wanted nothing to do with their kids playing for Kinder.

Yogi Kinder is probably one of the Top 5 things to ever happen to Belfry football and that is not exaggerating.