[Frozenbird]

Good idea, but it doesn't happen.

Three kids on the current team (they have 85 players on the roster) started attending Highlands in middle school. The rest grew up in town attending Ft Thomas public schools. The trick is, they start learning Bluebird football in THIRD grade in the FTJFL (founded around 1960). With six years of learning the system, they are ready to go when they enter Highlands as frosh. For six years, they are taught what it means to be a Highlands player. For six years, EVERY player gets signifcant playing time. Every year, there are roughly 50 kids going from 8th to 9th grade already knowing the techniques, the basic plays and the work ethic it takes.

Due to the fact Highlands does not have ONE middle school team like most other schools, rather FOUR FTJFL teams that play against each other, they are developing 8 - 10 QB's instead of 2 - 3. They are developing maybe a dozen or more running backs and receivers instead of 4 - 5. A couple dozen linemen and defensive players are learnng valuable skills every week.

I found this post by Blau Vogel from another thread particularly informative. The starting team is made up of Ft Thomas residents! Improve your feeder system and quite talking transfers and recruitment. Why does EVERY thread that talks about Highlands quickly devolve into this?

Listed below are the "stats" guys...The ones making the plays. ( http://preps.cincinnati.com/Football/Tea.../Highlands ) The ones BOLDED IN RED, did not attend elementary school in Fort Thomas. ALL of those players BOLDED IN RED did not come to Highlands until middle school.

Evan Allen
Grant Beiting
Chad Bowden
Luke Brockett
[COLOR="red"]Devin Bruns
Drake Bruns[/COLOR]
David Christian
Joey Cochranan
Jac Collinsworth
Brian Condon
Ryan Donovan
Luke Dressman
Alex Frost
Ryan Greene
Zach Harris
Jaylen Hayes
Jake Heck
Jehad Henderson
Brandon Hergott
Beau Hogue
Seth Hope
Drew Houliston
Brendan Houston
Ryan Kissel
Nathan Merkle
Donovan McCoy
Beau McGhee
Ian McGurn
J.C. Mettens
Jake Meyer
Carter New
Kenton Noran
Joe Paolucci
Austin Peterson
Connor Poston
Josh Quillen
Brad Rouse
Blake Schutte
Colin Seidl
Austin Sheehan
Ben Streeter
Patrick Towles
Jake True
Nick True
Luke Turner
Griffin Urlage
Alex Venneman