We will not drop football we're in a slump okay a deep slump. Everyone affiliated with football knew this was coming. Our previous coach ran off alot of talent. We do need some changes. I like coach Mullins he's a mentor to those players and a class act. I hope he can win a couple next year. We play Grant this Friday if we lose that one it'll be another winless season.

 

I think they'll have 2 more chances this season potentially at pulling one off if they do not win this weekend. It will take a game where they don't make unforced crazy mistakes (4 untouched pick 6's in 3 games so far) and play some even decent pass defense but if it comes together all in one game, they have a chance in a couple of these.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Musketeers were very competitive; we (at Mason County) knew that RB Lyle, for example, was a workhorse.

 

Someone mentioned this earlier - there seem to be deep-seated issues with the administration and how they run the GC athletic programs. There should be no reason why a county school can field nationally competitive cheer teams year after year but have trouble with the revenue-producing sports and run coaches off time and time again.

The current senior football class at GC as freshman didn't have enough kids come out for the team to even have a freshman team (i think there was 5 or 6 of them out of a class with 250 or so kids so at least 120 boys). I don't think there was much emphasis put on these kids at that time.

The current senior football class at GC as freshman didn't have enough kids come out for the team to even have a freshman team (i think there was 5 or 6 of them out of a class with 250 or so kids so at least 120 boys). I don't think there was much emphasis put on these kids at that time.

 

They had enough for a team but the prior coach canceled their games to concentrate on varsity. Bunch of them quit because they practiced all the time an didn't see a second of field playing time. That's how we ended with that small of a class which has hurt the overall program.

I've seen Greenup's Varsity at the grid and at the Raceland 7-on-7, they are getting better. The streak will end. Their JV and Freshman have some potential too. I think it is WAY too early to be thinking about giving up football. For the "alumni" that are considering that, you should be ashamed. How would you feel if you were a current player and the community was ready to fold up camp and get rid of football? If you are a true fan of your school and have any pride whatsoever, you will want to help bring it back to what it once was, not eliminate it altogether. I'm went to HS in Kentucky for 2 years, at a school that didn't even have football, but for the school I'm coaching at, I have nothing but pride for our program, our kids and our community. I didn't even go to school at Lewis County, but I want to do everything I can to make it better! You should share the same desire. Coach Mullins, GC players...keep your head up and keep working hard...it will get better! This Lewis County coach isn't giving up on you!

I graduated from the first class ever at GCHS. I'd like to clear up a misconception or two here. First the early coaches at Greenup Co. were more from Wurtland than McKell. The politics of that actually became a problem but not for the reasons you might think. Those coaches favored McKell players in some ways thinking we would all be out to kill each other because of our past rivalry. That never played a part in what the players thought but the coaches and administration were scared to death it would. Almost all the players that had played the year before at Wurtland quit that first team for reasons you might guess. Having the coach's nephew as the star running back certainly didn't help. Putting in a quarterback from McKell simply because the coach was from Wurtland was another bad mistake. A high quality QB walked off the team and it was downhill from there. I played receiver on that team. The QB couldn't get the ball out to me on a 7 yard square out. It would bounce half way between us because he didn't have the arm to get it to me. They started the team off on a sour note because of this style of coaching. The team went 5-5 but they should have won 8 or 9 games. The JV team from Wurtland had lost just one game a year for 2 years. The varsity had been 6-3-1 playing pretty much the same schedule Greenup Co. played. Much of that team returned for the first year at GCHS but as said before almost all ended up quitting.

 

BTW Wurtland had covered that huge area people talk about Greenup covering now. A coach took it on himself to recruit players from way out in the county. He drove them home every night on a bus. The coach paid for the gas himself. If you think Greenup went through a tough time Wurtland had it far, far worse. They didn't have the concentrated population of South Shore and the town of Greenup to get players. They had the town of Wurtland and areas so far out in the county that it took 45 minutes to drive there by car. That coach didn't get home until midnight every night after driving those players home all over the county. But he turned Wurtland's program around. They had gone decades without winning a game it was so bad. Bill Robinson, that coach, made Wurtland into a winning team although he actually left before they had their first winning season. Still he built the program and trained the players. He was a genius of a coach that took a better job because they offered him a bunch of money to do it.

 

Greenup actually won a state at large championship just a few years after the school consolidated. The state put the Louisville teams in a division all their own because they were on a different level. No other teams in the state could compete with that. So they had a playoff for all the teams in the state which Greenup won. They got to play the Louisville team after that and they lost. Still it was called a state championship.

 

So it can be done at Greenup Co.. Someone just has to make sports matter there again. The whole development program they had collapsed with the consolidation. Before elementary schools from the area played each other and it helped kids learn the game. But with consolidation that all ended. The schools were too far apart and they had consolidated too. The number of grade schools was reduced drastically.

 

Someone can build a program at Greenup again. It won't be easy. I wish they had kept the old system myself because those rivalries drove competition and made players much better. But they aren't going back to that. I do hope they put a good team on the field again some day. Some good players have came up through the school. And many more came up through the old schools. Names like Don Gullett among many others.

Welcome to the site, CJ. The history lesson is very interesting!

Simple answer to the original thread question -- No.

I graduated from the first class ever at GCHS. I'd like to clear up a misconception or two here. First the early coaches at Greenup Co. were more from Wurtland than McKell. The politics of that actually became a problem but not for the reasons you might think. Those coaches favored McKell players in some ways thinking we would all be out to kill each other because of our past rivalry. That never played a part in what the players thought but the coaches and administration were scared to death it would. Almost all the players that had played the year before at Wurtland quit that first team for reasons you might guess. Having the coach's nephew as the star running back certainly didn't help. Putting in a quarterback from McKell simply because the coach was from Wurtland was another bad mistake. A high quality QB walked off the team and it was downhill from there. I played receiver on that team. The QB couldn't get the ball out to me on a 7 yard square out. It would bounce half way between us because he didn't have the arm to get it to me. They started the team off on a sour note because of this style of coaching. The team went 5-5 but they should have won 8 or 9 games. The JV team from Wurtland had lost just one game a year for 2 years. The varsity had been 6-3-1 playing pretty much the same schedule Greenup Co. played. Much of that team returned for the first year at GCHS but as said before almost all ended up quitting.

 

BTW Wurtland had covered that huge area people talk about Greenup covering now. A coach took it on himself to recruit players from way out in the county. He drove them home every night on a bus. The coach paid for the gas himself. If you think Greenup went through a tough time Wurtland had it far, far worse. They didn't have the concentrated population of South Shore and the town of Greenup to get players. They had the town of Wurtland and areas so far out in the county that it took 45 minutes to drive there by car. That coach didn't get home until midnight every night after driving those players home all over the county. But he turned Wurtland's program around. They had gone decades without winning a game it was so bad. Bill Robinson, that coach, made Wurtland into a winning team although he actually left before they had their first winning season. Still he built the program and trained the players. He was a genius of a coach that took a better job because they offered him a bunch of money to do it.

 

Greenup actually won a state at large championship just a few years after the school consolidated. The state put the Louisville teams in a division all their own because they were on a different level. No other teams in the state could compete with that. So they had a playoff for all the teams in the state which Greenup won. They got to play the Louisville team after that and they lost. Still it was called a state championship.

 

So it can be done at Greenup Co.. Someone just has to make sports matter there again. The whole development program they had collapsed with the consolidation. Before elementary schools from the area played each other and it helped kids learn the game. But with consolidation that all ended. The schools were too far apart and they had consolidated too. The number of grade schools was reduced drastically.

 

Someone can build a program at Greenup again. It won't be easy. I wish they had kept the old system myself because those rivalries drove competition and made players much better. But they aren't going back to that. I do hope they put a good team on the field again some day. Some good players have came up through the school. And many more came up through the old schools. Names like Don Gullett among many others.

 

Very good post and Welcome to bgp CJ 56 :thumb:

I certainly know and agree with everything that you have said here. I graduated from Raceland in 1975, so I remember the "glory days" of GCHS football, Coach Trent and the McKell connection basically running the program. I was working at a Greenup Fishing / sporting goods shop in the late 70's so I was hearing all of the local info on GC Football.

I also remember just how dang good of those GC teams were and your state championship season. Raceland was ranked #2 in the state in 1A, we went down to GC and absolutely got our butts handed back to us and that was one of the best Raceland teams ever. Was the only loss until the playoff loss to the 1A state champion that year.

Again, welcome to the site 56 and you are not required to be crazy on here but it does help.

We probably know each other oldrambler. I spent a lot of time in Raceland. I think a lot of people that went to Wurtland just didn't like the idea of going to a bigger school so they went to Raceland. I could be wrong but that might have made the Raceland program stronger for a while. But it seems like I knew everyone on the Raceland team and in the school My dad worked at the shop track (behind the rail plant if you're looking from the Worthington side) and I guess I dated half the girls in my age group from that town. I had family playing football and basketball at Raceland around that time too (Howard brothers). I hate to say too much about names on a page like this but trust me I know a LOT of Raceland people. I even played for the Worthington Little League baseball team because the one at my school folded before I got to play there. But I lined up across from Lurch more than once. Of all the people I ever played against he's the only one that ever actually hurt me with a straight up hit. And remember that I played against that Boyd Co. team with Keelin and Chaney and several all state guys. I played end against one of those all state guys and we had ourselves a war. Too bad the score wasn't closer. Those guys were plumb good. But so was our 1974 basketball team. We made the final 4 that first year. I had quit playing basketball by then though. My parents got tired of driving to Wurtland to pick me up after practice every day. I was one of those guys that lived out in the county but not out to Leatherwood or anything. Just Argillite. Still it was a chore to pick me up every day I guess so they made me pick one sport and stay with it. Oh well.

It has been my experience that in KY's non-traditional powerhouse programs that are maily your non-urban schools, that the football program's overall longevity of general stability of success, meaning that in the bad years you go 5-7'ish and in the good years you might go 12-2'sh, can be almost 100% attributed to two factors:

1) Kids that can run.

2) Administration

 

To elaborate...

1) A small school like Russellville will ALWAYS be in the mix because they will always be able to run. That makes you dangerous on O and tough to score on on D. A school like Butler Co. will ALWAYS struggle with the O-Cath's and Russellville's of the world for this very same reason. regardless of the coaching, if you can't run, you're going to ALWAYS struggle to beat people that can (on a consistent basis).

2) Consistent administrative support. When it comes to the hiring, the finances, and the general expectations of the program, those Co.'s who maintain a solid pro-athletic administrative stance over stretches of 15-20 years will rise and stay around the top.

 

Clearly, there are exceptions, but I would mark these as the generalizations of rule for KY's majority of small to medium sized school football programs. I also strongly believe that Having #1 can be sunk by a lack of #2, but a lack of #1 can be salvaged by having a strength in #2.

 

In Greenup's case, it sounds to me like a lack of #2...and that is a sure fire killer.

1). Are kids still coming out for football? 2). If so, as long as they can easily field a team then NO! I wish people would stop with this "must win" attitude.

It has been my experience that in KY's non-traditional powerhouse programs that are maily your non-urban schools, that the football program's overall longevity of general stability of success, meaning that in the bad years you go 5-7'ish and in the good years you might go 12-2'sh, can be almost 100% attributed to two factors:

1) Kids that can run.

2) Administration

 

Administration can certainly kill a team. It killed my team actually. We would have been much better if not for some really disturbing thinking by the administrators and the coaches. It hurt the program at Wurtland for many years too. Even if a kid from out in the county wanted to play, showed up for practice and was actually good he still had to deal with the boosters who cared more about seeing their kids on the team getting the glory. Just one man turned that around though. Too bad it didn't last because the guy that replaced him was a product of that same booster system. I don't want to say too much but there are things I'd like to say to certain coaches if I ever see them again. I had the chance to tell one but it was at a funeral so I pulled back. I'll get my shot some day maybe. Raceland was always the exact opposite of Wurtland when it came to things like that. If you were good they made sure you played. There's a reason Don Gullett chose to go to McKell when he was actually in the Wurtland district too. He went to Wurtland as a freshman and that was enough for him to open his eyes to what was going on. That was a staggering loss for Wurtland's sports programs (he was good at all of them). They actually killed the baseball team because they didn't want him showing up their pets. So you can figure what it was like at Wurtland for someone out in the county no matter how good they were. They don't come any better than Don and they essentially ran him off. What a world.

No way. I have seen plenty of schools struggle. The school that I went to, played for, and graduated from is struggling in many ways and has quite a bit over the years. As aggravating as it may get to see your team struggle over whatever the reasons may be, it's important to keep the programs going, most importantly for the development of these young guys in all aspects of life.