[LCHSbulldogsalum]

Well you are certainly entitled to your opinion...I know that nobody has pushed for a class system any harder than what Travis has..So I don't know that if deep down you are supporting classing because it's what you believe, or if you are just backing up the thoughts of the leader of the LC program...Anyways, doesn't matter. I personally think that LC has too good of a program to settle for a second tier trophy. Personally I hold your state runner up trophy in much higher regards than if you had won a state 3A championship that year.. You accomplished so much more, in my mind. And to go one step further, based on the teams you beat to get there, I would hold a Final 4 finish above a 3A championship. The same with JC's final four and the 2014 season with the win over #1 Tates Creek which they followed up by pushing St. X to the maxx the next game. St. X did end up being the eventual state champions that year too. A 4A title would not have even been close to the honor and prestige of how they fared and competed in those two games. Of course we all know what Boyd Co. has accomplished. A state title, a couple runners up and countless final 4's. It's just all depends on how much emphasis you want to put on the baseball program, IMO. It all starts and ends on the mound anyways. Develop them , shore up your defense, and you are competitive in any game, no matter who you play...Boyd Co. coaches start with pitchers in little league and foster them all the way through high school..They are a pitcher developing machine..They understand it and teach it. JC as well.

There was a time, not so many years ago, that eastern Kentucky football teams were not competitive with very many of the "big town" schools. Now , other than 6A they pretty much dominate every class..Times changed and priorities changed about football...The same can be done with baseball...JC is now just on the cusp of being a yearly threat for a state title in baseball. Yeah, I'm being selfish, I don't want a watered down 4A trophy when we have all of the resources to win the whole shebang consistantly...I can remember back in my day, when little ole Paintsville was not only a dominate team in eastern Kentucky but was a yearly state power as well. It's all about what the emphasis is that you put on things and how hard to want to drive it home.

Now personally, I think a whole lot of Travis.. I think he is a great guy and an exceptional coach who outworks 90% of the coaches out there, but I'll agree to disagree with him on this one...He is too good and the LC program is too good to settle for anything less than all the marbles. I'll take a runner up or a final 4 with all the gang involved over top of fifty 3A titles they might win..IMO, don't start wanting more for less just because you have to go through what every team no matter how good you are does, which is retool. The Blevins kid is going to be a dandy...It's in his blood.

Marshall and Western Kentucky, in football, got tired of winning those national 1AA titles too and then got serious and started playing with the big boys and have fared well enough to be highly respected nationally in the big boys league. No national titles yet, but are still seriously good.

We will just have to agree to disagree because I don't see a class system as "watered down". Don't class football. Simple. Just have Betsy Layne or Phelps "work harder" to compete with JC, or Ashland, or St. X, or Trinity, etc.

I like a class system not because of what the coach at LC pushes for, but because it is the right thing to do in my opinion to level the playing field. It's kind of like this....if 96% of everyone else is doing it, and you aren't, then they must ALL be wrong....right? Again, my opinion, a championship in AAA baseball for Lawrence would be celebrated as a championship, nothing more or less. It would be no different than Belfry celebrating another AAA football title. Times change, and a class system would take time to get the adjustment to it by those that think it would be bad.