LOUISVILLE SLUGGERS
What: 66th meeting between Trinity Shamrocks and St. Xavier Tigers of Louisville, Ky
When: Friday, 8 p.m. (EST)
Where: Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium on campus of University of Louisville
MaxPreps National ranking: #16 Trinity, #17 St. Xavier
Records: Trinity 4-0, St. Xavier 4-0
Points scored-Points allowed: Trinity 148-18, St. Xavier 223-13.
Series: St. Xavier leads 33-30-2.
Last meeting: Trinity prevailed 34-28 in overtime on a Wes Weitlauf run in the first-ever Class 6A state title game.
Expected crowd: 40,000
By Mitch Stephens
MaxPreps.com
Some fact boxes tell it all.
The tale of the tape above indeed is a heavyweight snyopsis that sets up Friday’s Kentucky Slugfest more than adequately.
But from all that I’ve heard and all that I’ve read and all that I could possibly imagine there is nothing merely adequate about Trinity versus St. Xavier.
It is tall and storied and dense.
It’s electric and fun and magnetic.
The regular-season rivalry game has drawn more than 30,000 fans 11 straight seasons and on this Friday night, weather permitting, it’s supposed to attract at least 40,000 for the first time.
It’s played at a college stadium and it sits within view of Churchill Downs, which is the site of what many believe is our nation’s finest sporting event, the Kentucky Derby.
That seems fitting, because by many accounts, the Trinity-St. Xavier tussle is the most visible high school rivalry football game in America.
The articles, first and second-hand stories, empirical evidence and fact boxes all say so, but that’s not good enough. I want to experience and feel it myself.
One of my favorite songs growing up – warning, warning an old-guy reference – was a “Road to Find Out,” a coming of age tale written and performed by Cat Stevens.
Here is “My Road to Papa John” to find out if this is indeed America’s best prep sporting event.
Like Trinity graduate and Green Bay Packers' backup Brian Brohm – likely the most famous quarterback in the long series – I’ll pass tight spirals of everything Trinity and St. Xavier the next two days before writing a detailed account of the actual game.
I’m currently on a flight between California and Kentucky transposing the telephone reporting I’ve done the last two days.
I’ve decided my best early sources come from a St. Xavier backer (head coach Mike Glaser), a fervent but informed Trinity graduate (Robert “Stats” Sampson) and an impartial journalist (Jody Demling, of the Louisville Courier-Journal).
It should be noted that Demling is also a Trinity grad, but he’s been a professional scribe for almost 20 years. Though we can predict where his heart leans, we can also surmise he reports fairly, otherwise he would have been run out of Louisville on a thoroughbred.
Without head gear or stirrups.
CATCHING TIGERS BY E-TAIL
My quest and trip was last minute, so reaching coaches and administrators the same week of the game was not only unfair, but a long shot.
So I thought.
My press credential and interview requests through e-mail to St. Xavier Athletic Director Alan Donhoff and Glaser were immediately answered.
Wow, these guys are efficient and accommodating.
No wonder they can manage the spread offense without huddling.
They were friendly too as quickly learned in my first conversation with Glaser, who was already dealing with the media blitz and general game pageantry. “Can you give me five minutes?” Glaser said with a Southern twang.
Coach, I’m at your beckon call.
We played phone tag for about an hour, but jumped into the rivalry fray without cliché or reservation. And he didn’t know me from, well, Cat Stevens.
Then again he’s been around the rivalry probably more than anyone, having played in the game as a freshman in 1966.
“Haven’t missed one since,” Glaser said. “It’s gotten kind of crazy over the years. We had almost 5,000 fans at the freshmen game on Monday and expect even more for the JV game on Thursday. It’s kind of unreal. Insane.”
Don’t think Glaser doesn’t love or appreciate the rivalry but all the buildup and ancillary events spill over to his already overloaded plate.
“I’d kind of like to put the blinders on after Wednesday,” he said. “I’d like to put a RIP (Rest in Peace) sign on my office door so I can just focus on the game.”
Glaser’s key of attack is to harass Trinity quarterback Cameron Smyth Jr. (61 of 77, 762 yards, nine touchdowns). “We have to make his life miserable. We got to rough him and the receivers up a little and make them uncomfortable.”
This Trinity team is especially big and strong, Glaser said, and he mentioned Ohio State-bound linebacker Jordan Whiting (6-1, 235). But the coach really likes his own team’s balanced offense that features three outstanding backs, Jermiah Neal (237 yards, 5 TDs), quarterback Matt Brutscher (195 yards, 2 TDs) and Rolandan “Deuce” Finch (128 yards, 4 TDs).
Finch (5-10, 203) is coming off a knee injury and is the team’s top offensive recruit. Glaser said he’s got offers from Stanford, Louisville, Boston College and Illinois, but is leaning toward the Illini.
“He’s finally healthy,” Glaser said. “He’s finally 100 percent.”
Brutscher has been close to 100 percent throwing the ball with 29 completions for 300 yards and five touchdowns. He’s led an offense that has scored at least 44 points in every game and more than 56 three times.
“We’re throwing the ball a little more this year,” Glaser said. “We’re almost 50-50.”
The coach isn’t divided about his lack of love for Trinity. He told Sports Illustrated last year that he taught his daughter to boo the arch-rival every time they drive by it.
He might have been joking.
He doesn’t joke or exchange greeting cards throughout the year with Trinity coach Bob Beatty. “We shake hands before and after the game, but that’s about it,” he said.
Glaser would love to shake the trend of beating the Shamrocks during the regular season, but lose to them in the playoffs. That happened last season and 2005.
“Frankly we want to beat them in both games,” he said. “You can never win enough against Trinity.”
NUMBERS MAN
Sampson doesn’t get caught up in the emotion of the rivalry.
He’s strictly a “just the facts maam,” type. But he delivers those facts like no one ever has at the school.
Sampson received glowing testimonials from recruiting expert and PrepNation.com editor Jamie DeMoney and Demling before I’d even talked to him.
“Get on this guy’s mailing list,” DeMoney said. “You won’t be sorry.”
Sampson, in his early 20s, used to act as an unofficial Sports Information Director at the school but now is a student at the University of Kentucky.
He was actually on the floor of Papa John Stadium on Aug. 31 when Kentucky beat Louisville 27-2 in both teams’ season opener.
“It’s nothing like when Trinity and St. Xavier plays there,” Sampson said.
What do you mean? It drew more than 42,000 fans and it’s an inner-state collegiate game. The atmosphere must surely be as or more electric than a high school game?
“No, it really isn’t,” he said. “I just can’t put it into words. When Trinity and St. Xavier play it’s just…just…different.”
What Sampson couldn’t describe he translated into his own language: numbers and facts. He sent me an e-mail with an attachment of game notes for Friday's Trinity-St. Xavier game.
It was 82 pages!
Eighty two!
“Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you,” he wrote.
How about DNA samples of each player?
Seriously, the lad couldn’t have been more thorough or accommodating. But I could have walked to Louisville faster than pouring through all the notes, so I printed out the first 10.
Here’s just a small sampling of Sampson nuggets.
- Either Trinity or St. Xavier has appeared in the state finals each year since 1999.
- Trinity leads the series 8-5-2 in games decided by three points or less while the series is tied 13-13-2 in games decided by seven points or less.
- The Shamrocks have won 40 of their last 41 against teams from Kentucky.
- Trinity has won a state-record 18 state championships (Ft. Thomas Highlands followed with 17) and played in a state-record 21 state title games.
- Bob Beatty has never lost a game during the month of October during his tenure at Trinity (31-0) and is 68-2 during Oct., Nov. and Dec. combined.
- Beatty is 7-4 against St. Xavier including 3-0 in the state finals. Mike Glaser is 15-20 against the Shamrocks.
No wonder Glaser has his daughter boo Trinity.
ALL SIDES OF LOUISVILLE
Between Glaser’s candor and Sampson’s encyclopedia, I had a good foundation before my travels east.
Still, I sought a scribe’s sensibilities and Demling, who has guided us in Kentucky Preps A-B-Cs before, was just the man.
Little did I know I was actually touching on a delicate subject.
Demling’s father Joe, the Director of Facilities at Trinity for more than three decades, succumbed to a long bout with cancer earlier this year.
“He took me to my first Trinity-St. Xavier game when I was 2,” Demling said. “I’ve missed only one since.”
Few miss this game as long as they know when it’s scheduled.
It’s always been penciled in for the final week of September, but Kentucky’s governing board moved the entire season back this season, thus the October showdown.
“As long as it’s good weather, we’ll be pushing 40,000 on Friday,” Demling said, noting the record is 37,252 in 1998.
The regular season attendance is roughly twice as large as playoff showdowns between the two schools because alumni can plan for scheduled games.
Traveling to Louisville – many alums live far away – in December isn’t so easy.
“People call for (regular-season) tickets a year in advance,” Demling said. “They book weddings around this weekend. It’s a little weird this year being in October. It’s out of the norm.”
So is Demling’s work week.
The game, because of its popularity, probably deserves centerpieces everyday this week in the paper. But because the two teams dominant the local prep scene regularly, about three to four advances this week will suffice. For years Male (Louisville) was the top dog and certainly a major Louisville threat. But as Sampson pointed out, it's been all St. Xavier and Trinity the last two decades.
“It’s the two of them and everyone else,” Demling said. “In the last seven or eight years the gap between them and everyone else has really gotten wider.”
Demling said it hasn’t been that difficult to separate himself from his alma mater and write fair reports.
Fans from each school are passionate and predictably ruthless in their criticism of write-ups, but Demling said 50 percent of disgruntled readers think he’s a Trinity graduate and the other 50 percent believe he attended St. Xavier.
“That makes me feel good,” he said. “That means I’ve done my job.”
His objectivity was never threatened he said because he's close to people from both sides. His dad, in fact, attended grade school and was good friends with Glaser.
“There’s so many good people on both sides,” Demling said. “And everyone knows everyone. That’s what’s kind of neat about it. Both sides are friends before and after the game but for those two hours during the game in the middle of the season it’s a true rivalry and battle.”
It won’t be a bitter battle for Demling on Friday. Without his pops, it will simply be bittersweet.
“He’s going to be watching somewhere for sure,” Demling said. “Watching this game was one of his favorite things to do.”
He and at least 35,000 others.
Check into Mitch’s Road to Papa John on Thursday when he drives into town, visits both schools and checks out the junior varsity game.