[FBfan4life]

The point that a lot of you are missing in the whole discussion is how the atmosphere around a lot of the private /catholic/Christian schools have change. Now they have turned into elite private schools that have a Christian curriculum. It has built a "we are better than you mentality" We are the haves and you are the have nots and we don't want to associate with you.That has bred hate between the parents and the kids. Lexington Catholic as a case study. 25 years ago you saw kids from families with 5 to 9 kids able to educate the kids with a Catholic education. The tuition was at a point where it could be done. The kids lived in the same area as the most of the public school kids. We were all friends on the playground competed together in summer baseball, rec basketball and so on. We just went to different schools. The Southland Park area in Lexington was mostly catholic families. That area built the Mary Queen Parrish. I think back in the 70's the cost was somewhere around $75.00 a month for a child to go to LC. I think there was a big break for the other siblings. I sent 3 kids through Catholic between 2005 an 2011. If I am not mistaken tuition was around $8000 a year for my last one. Ad in in what you gave outside of the tuition who knows. As far as athletics go LC was at the bottom of the competitive chain up until the early 80's No football and a mediocre Basketball and baseball program. In comes D. Haney who played at LC and knew everyone in town. He had classmates that went on to become successful in the business community and was able to tap those resources at a time when catholic was in dire straits and its existence was questionable. You had a school president that understood Catholics future success would depend on offering something that would draw students to school. That was athletics. Football was added. Haneys relationship with a local basketball guru (Who was upset how his son was handled at a local public school ) was built and all of a sudden you had the best players in Lex enrolled at Catholic. They had a winner before any of the public schools in the area knew what hit them. Success breads success. Catholics enrollment went up, all of a sudden Catholic was the hot ticket. Parents that wanted their kids to flourish in academics and athletics sent the kids to Catholic. With tuition cost on the rise and the negative press on recruiting continued to grow. Haney left and was replaced, The vision he and his team had built leveled off. You lost a football coach. A girls basketball coach. Best baseball coach in Lex (All of who built their respective programs up to state leaders) and now you see LC coming back to earth. The public schools in a lot of areas have stepped their game up academically. Tuition at the privates has gone sky high and with the economy you cant get these good athletes in school anymore. You can get the rich kids in but not the hungry competitive neighborhood kids. This year in football you are seeing the state finals come back to a all public school championship. It will be the first of many and in a few years the private domination will be a thing of the past.

Another thing. You mentioned seeing Lex Cath football come back down to earth? If that's the case, when you sent all your kids from 2005-2011, Lex Cath won 2 state championship in those years 2005 and 2007. The past 3 season, the football team were state semi- finalist and a few district championship. Boys basketball went all the way to the 11th regional championship 3 of the last 4 season ( correct me if Im wrong on that ). Baseball are always contenders with a couple of state champioship and district and regional throphies. So just because THIS season, we may not have all the private schools in the championship game, does not mean they are dead.