[EKUAlum05]

Talent Pool Flow...

Every successful program (or school) in the State benefits from it to some extent and any program wanting success tries to tap into it.

You have a pool of eligible athletes within a 30 minute or less drive. Some are in your district, some are not.

People who are ignorant chalk it up to "RECRUITING!!!!!!!!!", but that is not the case at all in the vast majority of instances.

Most transfers are decisions made by families, often at younger ages, and often involving an actual move. Others are reactionary later once it becomes realistic that there is a potential positive gain for the student or player.

- What school/program gives my child the best chance for success?
- What school/program gives my child the opportunity to attend college?
- What school/program gives my child the best opportunity to attend college with a scholarship?
- What school/program gives my child stability and the best chance to grow as person?
- What school/program allows all of this within our financial means and works within our schedules/logistics?

The schools who are best able to position themselves as the option to these questions above will almost always benefit by drawing the talent pool their way. The vast majority of these moves don't even really need an active engagement. Does "RECRUITING!!!!" exist? Unfortunately, of course it does.

What might shock people is I think you see more programs recruit who struggle to answer these questions as well as another school in that talent pool and need to try and overcome that deficit. If schools/programs can draw the talent just by existing on their own passive accord, you see a more active pursuit to try and counter balance and draw the talent to compete. Pike Central comes to mind under John Chapman. Pike Central was pulling kids from outside of the 30 minute radius because they were actively looking to get around the rules and they got caught. Why? Because in their talent pool all the talent was flowing to Belfry and Pikeville.

Someone made a good point above. The answer to powerhouse programs & schools is raising your own water line to be the answer to those questions. When you have more schools/programs in that talent pool capable of being that option then the talent pool flows in more parity. Look at larger school football in Northern KY as a good example. Highlands dominated... DOMINATED... for decades.

Why has Highlands stopped dominating? It is an elite school system, with elite tradition, elite resources, a well developed feeder system in a talent rich area...

1. Their legendary coach retired and with his retirement they have struggled to sustain stability in their program.
2. Other larger NKY schools have risen with solid programs and great academics that logistically are more beneficial. There are more options for great school districts in thriving neighborhoods.
3. Cincinnati area football still continues to be powerful with their own elite schools.
4. Highlands stopped challenging themselves to grow at the feeder level and chose to play exclusively local instead of statewide.
5. Highlands basically capped the number of students in their district and subsequently capped the growth of families moving into Fort Thomas.

In other words, look at those questions I posed... For decades Fort Thomas and Highlands High School was positioned as the best answer for many families in NKY and was a district families fought to move into... now there are other options on almost every question and as a result you have seen the talent pool flow more evenly. Beechwood keeps dominating because they are a smaller school who still have positioned themselves as the best answer for many of these.