[EKUAlum05]

For Ashland to climb to the level of the mountain occupied by CovCath and Highlands, they are going to need to start scheduling both of them during the regular season; they are going to need to schedule strong teams out in the state. Keep one rivalry game; play the district schedule; and fill the rest of the schedule with power programs in Ky. You can only practice for what needs to be done when you know what you need to do. I can see Belfry on the schedule to help prepare for JC, but it does nothing to help prepare for CovCath or Highlands.

As a Belfry fan I agree with this point. As much as I enjoy the matchup with Ashland, putting the bias aside and calling a spade a spade this point has merit. Granted, Belfry probably was the one single game that allowed Ashland to learn what they had to improve on and as mentioned really got them ready for JC, in the grand scheme of things Belfry served very little purpose to prepare them for what they saw with CovCath.

Belfry's belly offense and 5-2 defense serves basically as nothing more than a teaching clinic on execution, technique, and physicality. From the standpoint of schemes, looks, and styles of offense and defense the Tomcats get little to no value. I wholeheartedly agree that Ashland may need to drop some historic rivals to find teams who run a more challenging and diverse offense.

A few teams that come to mind are Manual, NewCath, LexCath, Boyle, and Scott County. As previously stated teams like X and T gain nothing by playing Ashland when they can have their pick of the litter with any number of teams, but these others may be a different story.

Belfry, Russell, and Ironton are all essentially the same team where your merit is based off the intricate details of the game and teaching points moreso than the competition itself. I think one of those teams are certainly worth keeping for this fact, but am not sure all 3 are necessary. In the past few years Belfry has been became the best of the lot, but from a rivalry and distance standpoint they make the least sense of the three.