[Orange Blaze]

If you live here, you should play here, period.  If you don’t want to play here then physically move to a home where you want.  I have no problem with that.  Be proud of where your from, teach your kids about school spirit and loyalty. 
When you allow kids to just go where they want then you undermine competitive balance.  You bias talent in the favor of who ever the hot team is.  Obviously creating unfair advantage for only certain schools. 
I typed this really slowly,  so I hope you understand!!!!!

I can definitely see this side of the argument.  If everyone played for the school where they lived, then the large schools would always usually beat the smaller schools.  The competitive difference between the schools would be less and the games would be closer and more exciting on a weekly basis.  I, too, think that school spirit has taken a nosedive in this generation of transfers and it’s taken a lot of the fun out of high school sports.  I wish it could go back to the old days.

However, there are two arguments against this line of thinking:

First, the cat is already out of the bag.  Some schools in the area are already a long way down the road of depending on transfers.  Let’s take a look at the fall team sports in our region just this year.  Boyd won boys soccer thanks to their region MVP being a transfer from Missouri whose dad was on their coaching staff.  East just won girls soccer thanks to transfers from Lawrence County.  Boyd is set to win volleyball over the next few days thanks to a transfer who moved from New Jersey who is far and away the best player in the region, so much so when she went out of their match against Paintsville with an injury, Boyd just chose to forfeit the entire match.  Raceland will likely be playing football longer than any other 16th region school this year and yes, their leading tackler is a transfer from Symmes Valley and their QB is a transfer from Russell.  The transfer train is already far down the tracks.  This is a classic case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”.  Or continue to do things the “right way” and continue to lose.  Your choice.

Second, no team from our area is going to compete on a state wide level without transfers.  It’s impossible.  Why?  Because the southeastern Kentucky schools get transfers from each other and from West Virginia, the northern Kentucky schools get transfers from each other and from Cincinnati, the Lexington schools get transfers from each other, the Louisville schools get transfers from each other, and any other Kentucky schools bordering other states get transfers from those states.  If any 16th region school has designs on capturing a state title, the best of our entire region, if not area, must be combined on a single team in an effort to accomplish it.

I don’t necessarily like it because I am nostalgic about the old days, too.  Since it is this way now, though, I don’t let any school allegiance I have prevent me from pulling for whatever local teams are going for state titles.  The Jason Mays tape and lack of any punishment just fully exposed what it’s all about.  It’s ruthless.  A player’s spot is only as secure as long as their school or coach can’t find a better player.

I see NEKY stretching from Cannonsburg to South Shore as one big metro with different municipalities.  In this area most people go to the same stores, banks, churches, and work together.  Looking at it through that lense we all “live here”.  Also if you go anywhere else in the state most people won’t know the difference between Raceland and Flatwoods and probably think they are somewhere in Ashland lol.  All of the area schools have merits and have opportunities for different talents.  Raceland is just in the spotlight because football is the most popular sport and we disrupted the monopoly that Ashland and Russell have had in football in this area.  Petty rivalries between the towns in this area that limit growth are a huge reason why NEKY will always be second class not only in sports but in all areas across the state.