This week, USA TODAY High School Sports Wire published an intriguing look at high school athletics in Kentucky. And for those of us in Northern Kentucky, perhaps even more intriguing.
They determined the Top 25 high school athletic programs in Kentucky using information from Niche Survey Statistics. Here is what they discovered after combining data from the U.S. Department of Education with input from parents and kids, state championship numbers, student engagement in sports, and the number of sports offered.
There is a lot of good news on the Top 25 list for Northern Kentucky, which has a population of roughly 400,000, or only 10% of Kentucky’s overall population of 4,000,000.
25. Danville High School 24. Louisville Central High Magnet Career Academy23. High School in the St. Henry District22. High School in McCracken County21. Ryle High School, Larry A.20. High School at Central Hardin19. East Bullitt High School18. Lexington Christian Academy 17. Scott County High School16. High School at Warren East15. DeSales High School in Louisville14. High School at Beechwood13. Central High School of Johnson12. High School in Boyle County11. Highlands High School10. Mercy Academy of Louisville9. The Academy of Notre Dame8. Catholic High School in Lexington7. Catholic High School in Covington6. Assumption High School in Louisville5. Catholic High School in Owensboro4. Male High School in Louisville3. Sacred Heart Academy of Louisville2. Trinity High School in Louisville1. Saint Xavier High School in Louisville
They are there. Some quick responses.
Six Northern Kentucky high schools are located here, accounting for 24% of the Top 25 total and only 10% of the population, if you do the arithmetic. Fantastic work for our local schools.
Cooper High School, whose football team participated in the Class 5A state championship game and qualified teams for both the boys’ and girls’ Sweet 16s this year, is one program that appears to be a clear failure.
There’s no disputing the top two, Trinity at number two and St. Xavier at number one. In terms of the scope and caliber of the two big boys private school programs in Louisville, they are essentially in a class by themselves.
I could object to the notion that, for example, CovCath’s program is inferior than that of an Owensboro Catholic. Or that, along with Notre Dame and CovCath, Beechwood and Highlands do not rank in the Top 10. However, they are near. Additionally, I believe they got the order right. Additionally, this fact is reflected in the three-to-three split between public and private schools.
Danville’s two schools in the Top 25 in Boyle County and Danville must be impressive when compared to the rest of the state.
Additionally, the poll covers the entire state, with Johnson Central in Paintsville representing eastern Kentucky and McCracken County in Paducah representing far western Kentucky.
However, there is this, which has been one of the Commonwealth’s riddles for the past fifty years: What’s the matter with Lexington? There are only two private schools in this area: Lexington Catholic and Lexington Christian. What about Dunbar, Douglass, Tates Creek, Lafayette, and Bryan Station? For Lexington’s big public schools, there is a custom that appears to have disappeared. Lexington, which has a population of over 320,000 and is home to the SEC program UK, appears to be the state’s worst underperformer.
It should come as no surprise that Louisville, which has 795,000 residents—roughly a fifth of the state’s total—dominates with eight of the Top 25. However, the fact that Northern Kentucky is so close with only half the population is essentially a testament to how important sports are in this area.
Dan Weber can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow him at @dweber3440 on X (previously Twitter).
