[Hound05]

If the enrollment holds true consistently, JC has on avg more than 230 boys than belfry. So it shouldn’t have never been close. Both were well coached.  The only variable in this that was different is class size. I agree that it might help some. But not as much as one might think. JC is one of the biggest in class 4A. Averaging well over 100 more boys than Corbin, boyle, Lex cath. Pikeville avg 185
Boys. But they are still competing, regularly with bigger schools. Mayfield, beechwood, CAL, all have small numbers. But they compete with larger schools.

I think the geography plays more into it than numbers. Why can’t Harlan, or Whitley, or another county school compete with say a
Boyle or Corbin or beechwood? Way more enrollment, and a coach wouldn’t matter much. County schools should have a total advantage over independent or city schools if the number game were true. But they don’t. I’m not going to get in a Social-economics debate. But there is correlation there. Why is it a 1A school like Pikeville or 2A beechwood have such an advantage over a pineville or a Lynn camp? Or even a small city school over a large county school? Now there’s anomalies sure, I’ve seen some of the poorest kids that some wouldn’t believe beat the heck out of a “higher income” school like catholic. But most of the time, it’s where your school is located, not how big it is.

All else being equal, a team from a school with a much larger enrollment will always have an advantage over a team from a smaller school. Of course, that advantage is not always the determining factor but having a larger enrollment is always an advantage. Schools with larger enrollments should strive to compete at a high level with the best schools in their own class. If you want to win a 4A title, then you should not be playing the #5 team in 1A on an ongoing basis.

If all else was equal then the size advantage wouldn’t matter. We’ve already seen smaller schools continually beat larger schools. There are several great coaches at large schools that are continuously losing to smaller schools. Heck Justin haddix was a PCC and they lost to smaller schools even with a better coach. Bullet East beat 6A male who probably has a better coach, and lost to smaller spencer county. 

I see your train of thought, bigger Numbers give you a better talent to chose from. I use to think that. I don’t anymore. In certain cases maybe. But the phrase “will always have an advantage” doesn’t add up. Way to many similar teams and coaches with different size schools are losing to smaller schools. 

do you think coach Peck, haddix, heck even Beatty could go to south laurel or McCreary county and do the same thing with bigger or same size schools. No way. It’s the area in which you live. Some pockets produce more talent than others. And it changes. Corbin produces more talent own than it did when I was in school. You add another 100 kids to the mix it wouldn’t have changed much. Now team size is different as far as how many people play. It gives you depth, but again, you have PCC who had haddix, and they were losing to somerset’s, who had a worse coach I’d say, but a better team with fewer kids that Perry had to pull from. Smaller Louisville schools are beating the same size or bigger school with more numbers. Location, location, location,
like a realtor always says hah But that’s just my opinion on it.