2024 Three Rivers conference

BigK72 said:
From what I hear (I have some friends who's kids go to Covington), there is a changing landscape at Covington much like other places. Parents can say that they want their kids coached hard, but when push comes to shove, they swoop in to "protect" their kids. A majority of the players at Covington look at their coach favorably, but the ones that complain about the coach being too hard, which the parents turn to the school to complain about.

I think Covington is on the right track, they were better than last year. They had better numbers and were more competitive on the field. It's just a matter of filtering out the bad eggs.
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To your first point, Covington is very much going through changes, and not for the better unfortunately. As kids continue to grow up and move away (much more common with Gen Z), that leaves less and less generational families remaining in town and less cohesion. My friend writes mortgage loans at one of the lenders in town and the research he's seen is that Covington is now up to 40% rentals, which is insane. The demographics are changing and it's to one that is hard to build a community around (lower income, people more likely to move after short stints in a rental house, etc.). The parents of these kids were not athletes themselves like previous generations were and are less likely to coach or push their kids to get better so the talent gap is smaller than usual. Hoping to see the football numbers start to pick up again but to your second point, the parents of today are much more likely to go after admin when a coach is hard on them than in previous.

Not to resort to the old "every new generation is worse than the one before" but with the demographics of the town changing, it is really hard to maintain greatness and it's clear that they're in a down period. They really need some parents to step up and be committed to coaching or get some talent from elsewhere to stay competitive.
 
Dro24 said:
To your first point, Covington is very much going through changes, and not for the better unfortunately. As kids continue to grow up and move away (much more common with Gen Z), that leaves less and less generational families remaining in town and less cohesion. My friend writes mortgage loans at one of the lenders in town and the research he's seen is that Covington is now up to 40% rentals, which is insane. The demographics are changing and it's to one that is hard to build a community around (lower income, people more likely to move after short stints in a rental house, etc.). The parents of these kids were not athletes themselves like previous generations were and are less likely to coach or push their kids to get better so the talent gap is smaller than usual. Hoping to see the football numbers start to pick up again but to your second point, the parents of today are much more likely to go after admin when a coach is hard on them than in previous.

Not to resort to the old "every new generation is worse than the one before" but with the demographics of the town changing, it is really hard to maintain greatness and it's clear that they're in a down period. They really need some parents to step up and be committed to coaching or get some talent from elsewhere to stay competitive.
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40% rentals is extremely high. That baffles me
 
I'm here. Just not much going on. 'Dogs had a young team last year, but return 8 on O and 9 on D. There is cause for optimism in West Milton.
 
So whats the league look like this year? I expect East to keep on keeping on. They had an improved season last year and expect to see same thing this year. Thought bethel would be better than they were last year. How will they be this year? Whats riverside bringing back? They lose some key linemen. Covington have moved in and set up shop in the basement for the future. Troy Christian has a new coach. Whats expectations there? My guess

1. Ricerside
2. East
3. Milton
4. Lehman
5. Bethel
6. Northridge
7. Troy Christian
8. Covington
 
initial enrollment numbers are out (before competitive balance)
Bethel 243
Northridge 184
Miami East 162
Milton-Union 162
Covington 119
Riverside 93
Troy Christian 88
Lehman 62
 
dograt said:
initial enrollment numbers are out (before competitive balance)
Bethel 243
Northridge 184
Miami East 162
Milton-Union 162
Covington 119
Riverside 93
Troy Christian 88
Lehman 62
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That's really astonishing to see Bethel with numbers like that. It's yet to translate to the football field, but you would think it's only a matter of time.
 
ex_dc_atc said:
That's really astonishing to see Bethel with numbers like that. It's yet to translate to the football field, but you would think it's only a matter of time.
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If it ever does turn around an translate to wins on the football field it will be followed by Bethel leaving the conference.
The points they would get from this conference has to be minimal, but then again with 16 teams making the playoffs I guess it doesn't matter as much anymore.
 
Bethel has never gotten behind their football program; so, there is little tradition there. This district is becoming very middle Eastern in demographic numbers. I highly doubt they will ever get to a Milton or Riverside level. Any real talent will simply open-enroll at Wayne or Tipp. This is basically Wayne North or Huber Heights Bethel.
East being a pre-season #2 is a shocker. I think everyone will be chasing Milton and Riverside again. Too much tradition there to count them out to East.
 
Bless Em All said:
Bethel has never gotten behind their football program; so, there is little tradition there. This district is becoming very middle Eastern in demographic numbers. I highly doubt they will ever get to a Milton or Riverside level. Any real talent will simply open-enroll at Wayne or Tipp. This is basically Wayne North or Huber Heights Bethel.
East being a pre-season #2 is a shocker. I think everyone will be chasing Milton and Riverside again. Too much tradition there to count them out to East.
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What was the make up of the Milton last year? Both RB's were seniors, correct? If the line was mostly seniors I think putting East ahead of them right now might be appropriate, but if most of their line is back then I don't think losing the RB's will hurt as much. And as always, you guys have the Pearce factor and no matter what will field a formidable team.

I know Riverside lost their long time QB, but the kid who stepped in last year looked just as good, they will definitely be at the top of the league a again.

I never like throwing out a 1 through 8 ranking, but stick to a top tier bottom tier. I think that is going to be Milton, East, Riverside. With Lehman being on the fringe. Hard to tell how they will do replacing the QB from last year. Bethel could also be considered fringe, I think their HC is doing a lot of things to trend the program in the right direction, just depends if the kids and community buy in.
 
Hans said:
What was the make up of the Milton last year? Both RB's were seniors, correct? If the line was mostly seniors I think putting East ahead of them right now might be appropriate, but if most of their line is back then I don't think losing the RB's will hurt as much. And as always, you guys have the Pearce factor and no matter what will field a formidable team.

I know Riverside lost their long time QB, but the kid who stepped in last year looked just as good, they will definitely be at the top of the league a again.

I never like throwing out a 1 through 8 ranking, but stick to a top tier bottom tier. I think that is going to be Milton, East, Riverside. With Lehman being on the fringe. Hard to tell how they will do replacing the QB from last year. Bethel could also be considered fringe, I think their HC is doing a lot of things to trend the program in the right direction, just depends if the kids and community buy in.
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Milton returns 7 starters on offense (lose 2 OL and 2 RB) and 9 on defense (lose 1 ILB and 1 DL).
Their numbers were down last year, and may return to 50ish. Milton's biggest hurdle might be their schedule. They start @Versailles, @Valley View, H-Oakwood. They could start the league with little confidence.

I also expect Riverside and East to be good. Northridge will also be good. They had 2 good QB's last year and both return.
Bethel has the skill kids to be very good.
Unsure on Lehman. They return some good talent, but O'Leary was such a big part of the offense that replacing him is a huge task.
Hopefully Covington is improved.
I have low expectations for TC.
 
wow Bethel has really sprouted in numbers the past few years. they should be able to find 15 quality football players in that bunch? they have 4x as many boys as Sidney Lehman.
 
ghsknightsfan said:
wow Bethel has really sprouted in numbers the past few years. they should be able to find 15 quality football players in that bunch? they have 4x as many boys as Sidney Lehman.
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They’re Huber North. Bethel is bigger than Milton. That shocks me. Think most don’t keep in mind is that Milton has, I think, the most tenured coaching staff in the league. Pearce and Co tend to get a lot out of that talent. They will be battle tested with weeks 1-3.
 
Bethel is growing in a big way. It is crazy if you think about the growth. They are almost as big as Tipp now I believe. They built new facilities last year so maybe they will improve some on the field. I believe they were 9-1 a few years ago and lost to state champ Coldwater in the playoffs but that was the last time they were any good. I hope they get it together.
 
Bless Em All said:
Bethel has never gotten behind their football program; so, there is little tradition there. This district is becoming very middle Eastern in demographic numbers. I highly doubt they will ever get to a Milton or Riverside level. Any real talent will simply open-enroll at Wayne or Tipp. This is basically Wayne North or Huber Heights Bethel.
East being a pre-season #2 is a shocker. I think everyone will be chasing Milton and Riverside again. Too much tradition there to count them out to East.
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As Yappi himself has pointed out many times over the years, numbers alone are a very poor way to determine competitive ability. Totally agree Bethel is filled with peoples from cultures that play soccer and little else. Central Americans, Turkish and several other Baltic regions as well as Middle Eastern are all taking their turns making what was a rural farm community into the fastest growing township in south west Ohio as a percentage of growth.

Strictly by numbers, if the township is unable to slow Huber Heights annexation they will be D1 in numbers within 10 years.

However, with the new state money available for private school tuition Troy Christian is getting a large infusion of "traditional " Bethel students. Troy Christian is cutting out pre school next year and will use the space to add extra elementary classrooms jumping student numbers by about 50% in a few grade levels.

So, I expect an improved TC, perhaps not in football as much as soccer, cross country and basketball. TC has had a minor leadership issue with the football staff since Nolan retired and they went very young and inexperienced at staff level. Hated to see the young head coach throw in the towel this year, but commitments such as head coach in football is quite the demand on a persons time.
 
fangwoc said:
Bethel is growing in a big way. It is crazy if you think about the growth. They are almost as big as Tipp now I believe. They built new facilities last year so maybe they will improve some on the field. I believe they were 9-1 a few years ago and lost to state champ Coldwater in the playoffs but that was the last time they were any good. I hope they get it together.
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Twenty years ago many in Bethel township were trying to figure out how to make a three way divide of the district into Huber, Tipp and Miami East. There were about 40 students in a few grade levels and the district was trending down in population from a high in 1978 to the low in 2007 or 2008 if I recall correctly. A family member worked there through 2007 and then left for a different school having seen the handwriting on the wall of the district being absorbed by its neighbors. I believe 2013 was the last year Bethel competed in D4 basketball.
 
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