Watching high school sports with Mike Marsee of The Advocate-Messenger
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(UPDATED at 4:15 p.m.: The Boyle County-Montgomery County scrimmage is tonight, NOT Friday. I just found out.)
(UPDATED at 9:45 p.m.: The Casey County-McCreary Central scrimmage Friday is a three-team scrimmage, with Johnson Central added to the mix after its previously scheduled scrimmage fell through.)
All six Advocate-area football teams have preseason scrimmages scheduled for this week, most of them on Friday. Some teams try to keep their scrimmages a closely guarded secret; others don’t mind you knowing when they play. All of the information for the games listed below has come from public sources, so there are no secrets being given away here:
Today
Friday
Remember, teams that play during the KHSAA’s so-called “week zero” (Aug. 21-22) are allowed only one scrimmage. Teams that don’t start until the following week are allowed two, but Lincoln County, the only local team that fits that description, doesn’t have another one scheduled.
The Somerset football coaching saga is complete — though the discussion there surely isn’t — with the naming of Robbie Lucas as the Briar Jumpers’ interim head coach.
Somerset athletic director Bob Tucker said there will be a search after the season, but for now the team belongs to Lucas, a longtime assistant under Jay Cobb, who resigned unexpectedly earlier this week.
Lucas’ only previous experience as a head coach was at Lincoln County, and that didn’t go well, as he led the Patriots to consecutive 2-8 seasons in 2002 and ’03 before he resigned, returned to the Somerset staff where he had worked before coming to Lincoln and was ultimately replaced by Larry French.
He tells the Commonwealth Journal in the story linked above that he’s “a little older and a little wiser” now, and that’s often the case with coaches who get a second chance such as this. He certainly inherits a much better team at Somerset than he had in Stanford — the Jumpers had few graduation losses last year and are an overwhelming pick to win their Class AAA district — and his transition will be a smooth one since he has been in the program for so long, so here’s hoping things will go better for him this time around.
Just like that, another school year and another fall sports season are upon us. Summer seems to get shorter every year.
Football season opens in just nine days for five of the six Advocate-area teams. Everyone opens the season Aug. 21 except Lincoln County, which opens a week later. Golf and volleyball seasons are under way, soccer starts Monday and cross country opens Aug. 24.
If you missed the Advocate’s football preview section, click here to find everything you need to know about the coming season. Once there, you can click on the helmets to see the previews and schedules for specific teams.
As usual, previews of specific games will appear in the Advocate and on amnews.com on Wednesdays and Thursdays during the season. Previews for Casey, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties appear on Wednesdays; those for Boyle County and Danville run on Thursdays.
Preseason rankings
Preseason rankings have appeared for two fall sports, and an area team is ranked in one of them: Boyle County’s girls soccer team is at No. 17 in its coaches’ poll. Boyle should also appear in the boys preseason poll, but it hasn’t been released yet.
In volleyball, there were no teams in the statewide rankings. There were top-five rankings for each of the 16 regions, and the highest-ranked local team in the 12th Region was Boyle County at No. 4, behind Pulaski County (which Boyle beat Tuesday night), Southwestern and Russell County.
New coaches
The new school year also brings a number of new coaches at all eight area schools. Here’s the list of newbies, based on directory listings at khsaa.org:
Boyle County: Sharon Beasley, girls golf; Keith Smith, wrestling. (The wrestling program has been resurrected about 20 years after it was discontinued.)
Burgin: Greg Harlow, baseball; Chris Myers, girls basketball; Maggie McKnight, v0lleyball. (The volleyball program is in its first varsity season; McKnight coached the junior varsity team last year.)
Casey County: Neal King, boys golf; Sarah Christian, girls golf.
Danville: Abbe Milburn, volleyball.
Garrard County: Doug Simpson, baseball; Dave McDaniel, boys basketball; Larry Ebert Jr., boys soccer; Andy Floyd, girls soccer.
Lincoln County: Bryan Sanders, girls cross country.
Mercer County: Jaziel Guerra, athletic director; Bill Mason, football; Terry Dailey, girls golf; David Welsh, boys soccer; Jennifer Grimes, girls soccer.
Shocking news from Somerset, where the Commonwealth Journal reported Monday that football coach Jay Cobb resigned Sunday, just 12 days before the Briar Jumpers’ season opener.
Somerset athletic director Bob Tucker wouldn’t tell the newspaper why Cobb resigned, and Cobb couldn’t be reached for comment.
Cobb was about to begin his 12th season at Somerset, and this year’s Jumpers would have to be considered the favorites in their Class AAA district, which also includes Garrard County and Casey County. With so little time left before the start of the season, it’s a good that the school will have to promote from within, at least on an interim basis.
Updated Wednesday 8/11: Here’s Tuesday’s follow-up story from the Commonwealth Journal, which provided more details but little new information as to why Cobb resigned other than to say the coach had “several grievances.”
Former Lincoln County coach Robbie Lucas is Somerset’s interim head coach. It appears he hasn’t officially been named as such, but expect that to happen in the coming days. Lucas was Lincoln’s head coach for two seasons from 2002-03. He came from Somerset, then returned to the staff there after resigning at Lincoln, where he was 4-16.
An eventful week at Mercer County has ended with the hiring of Bill Mason today as the school’s head football coach.
Mason has been an assistant at Mercer for the past three years, and he was the head coach at Nelson County for four years prior to that.
Mercer County is apparently on the fast track toward making another offer to a football coaching candidate. The Advocate’s Larry Vaught reports that the school has turned its focus to Shadon Brown, the former Danville player and Boyle County assistant coach, who has been Rowan County’s head coach for one year.
Will Weaver of Madisonville-North Hopkins accepted the job on Monday but told Mercer principal Terry Yates today that he had changed his mind and wanted to stay at his current position. We couldn’t reach Weaver today, but he told The Messenger of Madisonville that he wanted to fulfill a promise he made upon arriving at Madisonville in 2007 to see that year’s freshmen through their four high school years.
“All I kept thinking is about the commitment I made to my kids and those (Mercer) guys weren’t my kids,” Weaver told the newspaper. “I went back and talked with my wife. We made a family decision that no matter what happens we’re coming back here and finishing our commitment. We’re happy in Madisonville and we’re 100 percent sure about that decision.
Less than 24 hours after he was introduced as Mercer County’s new football coach, Will Weaver is on his way back to Madisonville and his old job.
Weaver has decided to stay at Madisonville-North Hopkins, telling Mercer principal Terry Yates this morning that he had changed his mind.
That surprising move came at the end of a whirlwind period of 24 hours or so in which he:
Five local players and one coach will participate in the Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association’s East-West All-Star games this weekend at Cliff Hagan Stadium in Lexington.
Duran Elmore, Mike Evans and Dustin Sparrow of Danville were named to the Junior East all-stars, who will play the West juniors in two games at 2 and 5 p.m. Saturday. Danville coach Paul Morse will coach the East team.
Jeff Embree of Danville and Garrick Whittle of Boyle County will play for the Senior East team in its games against the West seniors at 1 and 4 p.m. Sunday.
Clay Cinnamon of Mercer County is one of three 12th Region players — and the only one from this area — invited to participate in a sophomore showcase on Saturday that is also part of the all-star weekend.
Whittle also earned honorable mention on the KHSBCA all-state team.
Tanner Perkins of Rockcastle County was named the regional player of the year; Somerset’s Phil Grundy is the regional coach of the year.
For the second straight year, the East-West all star football game was a romp for the West side, which won Friday’s game in Bowling Green 20-3. And from what I can gather from the game story in the Daily News of Bowling Green, it wasn’t that close.
The West outgained the East 210 yards to 166, holding Boyle County coach Larry French’s squad to 95 yards in the first three quarters, forcing three turnovers and getting two sacks.
The West also won last year’s game in Louisville 41-10.
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