[ROCKSOLID69]

With transfers taking over high school sports in Kentucky. What teams have won a state title with all starters come out of the same playing for one school? Who was the last team to do so?

From my knowledge mercer countys starters have only played at mercer, but before them it was all Louisville team who have new kids every year. Rockcastle county won it in 2011 with a group that had been together since the 4th grade.

[new o]

I know the 5 juniors at Mercer are homegrown but not sure about the other players.

[ladyballer]

I've been watching girls high school games for many years, and have noticed as they call out the starters that there are very few Jr's & Srs. I've seen freshman classes come in with 6 or 7 only to see 2 or 3 stick with it, also noticed fewer and fewer kids are coming out this year at KCC they only had 2 freshman come out to play. My question is are parents starting kids to early because we see only the best of the best get to play and push our kids while they are young and when they get up in high school they are burnout or as I've heard some players say they don't mind putting their time in on the bench but they don't want to put their time in practice and on the bench only to get to their Jr and Sr year and have a underclassman or a transfer take their spot. What happened to respect for upperclassmen and taking pride in your school and team?

[T24]

I talked to someone from Mercer County the other day, a college friend, and he said that all the girls on Mercer's team are from Mercer County. All have been playing basketball together since they were little. This group of juniors started playing basketball when they were in the 8th grade at the varsity level (some as seventh graders). Looking back on the years according to KHSAA information, Mercer over the last four years:

8th Grade Year for the Juniors: Finals of the Region (loss to Danville)
Freshman Year for the Juniors: Sweet 16 (defeated by ETown)
Sophomore Year for the Juniors: Final Four (defeated by Franklin County) 31-6 record
Junior Year: State Champions. 31-6 record

The seniors won region all four years of their high school career.

Pretty rare to have this much talent on one team from the same place. Speaks volumes to the program built by Coach Souder and the hard work of the girls in the program

[new o]

Great coach, great players. Those juniors are better kids than they are players and that is saying a lot!

[T24]

Follow Coach Souder on Twitter. Just saw a retweet (New O) from their girls basketball account that the team GPA during the basketball season was 3.93. Wow!

[ViewfromtheSideline]

Sounds like Mercer has it figured out on and off the court.