Lincoln County 2015

[Raylan]

What does the coaching staff look like at Lincoln? Any new members?

[plantmanky]

Why cant Lincoln ever get it together to have a solid program. Im not taking a state title type team but a good solid team.

[Harry Doyle]

Why cant Lincoln ever get it together to have a solid program. Im not taking a state title type team but a good solid team.

 

The emergence of soccer over the years hasn't helped matters. Especially youth soccer coming along.

 

This next reason is going to sound really dumb to most. Almost blasphemy, but Lincoln County hasn't been the same since the Middle school came along back in the mid 90's.

 

Lincoln has several small communities in the county which is very spread out, all of which to this day still have elementary schools. Stanford, Hustonville, Highlands (serves the area known as Halls Gap), Waynesburg, McKinney and Crab Orchard. There use to be two others, Kings Mountain and Broughtontown, but both of those shut their doors in the Mid to late 90s I believe.

 

Before Lincoln County Middle School came along, all of those schools were K-8 and all of those schools had football (except for maybe Broughtontown, I think they joined in with Crab Orchard). Those schools made up what was Little League Football in Lincoln County. Each had a 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th and 7th/8th grade teams.

 

So, essentially, Lincoln County HS had 6 or middle school trams pumping into the mix. All of the 7th/8th graders scattered amongst these communities had an opportunity to play. Because of that, you had freshmen classes who were up in the high 20s to mid 30's year in year out. Why? They were playing.

 

Along comes LCMS and now you have one team instead of those 6 or so. Not to mention, the travel for parents.

 

Some will read this and roll their eyes as an excuse, but to those who have been Lincoln County Football fans over the years, they know how real it is.

 

History supports the theory, too. It's been 20 years since the Middle school was built. There have only been two teams since who have had senior classes that came through the MS. The 99 team (00 graduating class) and the 07 team.

 

Lincoln County HS was formed in 1975. Everybody knows the how things were in in the 80s up through about 95 (when the MS came along).

 

Travis Leffew loves the program. If anybody can get them back anything close to the glory days, it's him.

[Harry Doyle]

I meant to say that the 99 and 07 teams were the only ones since the creation of the MS that made it to the region finals or beyond.

[Djason Unchained]

The emergence of soccer over the years hasn't helped matters. Especially youth soccer coming along.

 

This next reason is going to sound really dumb to most. Almost blasphemy, but Lincoln County hasn't been the same since the Middle school came along back in the mid 90's.

 

Lincoln has several small communities in the county which is very spread out, all of which to this day still have elementary schools. Stanford, Hustonville, Highlands (serves the area known as Halls Gap), Waynesburg, McKinney and Crab Orchard. There use to be two others, Kings Mountain and Broughtontown, but both of those shut their doors in the Mid to late 90s I believe.

 

Before Lincoln County Middle School came along, all of those schools were K-8 and all of those schools had football (except for maybe Broughtontown, I think they joined in with Crab Orchard). Those schools made up what was Little League Football in Lincoln County. Each had a 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th and 7th/8th grade teams.

 

So, essentially, Lincoln County HS had 6 or middle school trams pumping into the mix. All of the 7th/8th graders scattered amongst these communities had an opportunity to play. Because of that, you had freshmen classes who were up in the high 20s to mid 30's year in year out. Why? They were playing.

 

Along comes LCMS and now you have one team instead of those 6 or so. Not to mention, the travel for parents.

 

Some will read this and roll their eyes as an excuse, but to those who have been Lincoln County Football fans over the years, they know how real it is.

 

History supports the theory, too. It's been 20 years since the Middle school was built. There have only been two teams since who have had senior classes that came through the MS. The 99 team (00 graduating class) and the 07 team.

 

Lincoln County HS was formed in 1975. Everybody knows the how things were in in the 80s up through about 95 (when the MS came along).

 

Travis Leffew loves the program. If anybody can get them back anything close to the glory days, it's him.

 

I don't have a large understanding of the history of Lincoln County but from what I do know this all makes a lot of sense.

[Agent33]

Lincoln has a good class of freshmen and Sophomores, so it might take a cpl more years for them to make some noise. Somebody correct me if im wrong but didnt the current freshman now win the salt river conference championship? Thats a great class, but they did lose Trey Miller to Mercer so that might hurt some. I think Lincoln will win 3 games next year

[StudRB]

HD,

I have heard people from Lincoln talk before about the situation with the middle school affecting the numbers for the HS team.

 

The soccer thing makes sense as well and I am of the opinion that we will not see the true impact of soccer on football numbers for another 8 or so years. I fear there will be a lot of even 4A and 5A high schools with skeleton football rosters down the road. If you look at the numbers of kids playing youth soccer in some communities it is 4 or 5 times what are playing youth football.

 

The other thing that I think has hurt Lincoln, specifically, in the last 15 or so years is the administration seemingly making most athletic decisions in favor of basketball over football. Now, I know for a fact that the community in Lincoln wants football to be good. But, the administrators have fully backed basketball to the point where football is a 2nd class sport there. I have heard some say that this is part of the reason why Larry French left. Hopefully, with Travis Leffew being made the AD this will get turned around in Lincoln.

[Raylan]

I think having one middle school team feeding a 5a school hurts them, especially number wise. There is no doubt that basketball has gotten better treatment also. This has led to even more of the better athletes in the school to not play football. Rumor is there are some good young players coming through the system. Hopefully things will turn around soon.

[BlacknGold]

Lincoln has a good class of freshmen and Sophomores, so it might take a cpl more years for them to make some noise. Somebody correct me if im wrong but didnt the current freshman now win the salt river conference championship? Thats a great class, but they did lose Trey Miller to Mercer so that might hurt some. I think Lincoln will win 3 games next year

 

Im not sure. I know Boyle's upcoming freshman beat them 56 to 7 at Lincoln this past season. I cannot recall last years though

[Hellcats]

Guys I'm struggling to come up with a regional team that has more than one feeder middle school: Harlan. Maybe somebody can straighten me out but I don't think I'd use that when everybody around you has the same thing.

[GCHS]

Guys I'm struggling to come up with a regional team that has more than one feeder middle school: Harlan. Maybe somebody can straighten me out but I don't think I'd use that when everybody around you has the same thing.

 

The Madison Schools have multiple feeders. More to the point, I think, is the fact that it hurts Lincoln more because while they are a 5A school numbers-wise, it is simply due to their physical size as a county. So, while they are a 5A school from a population standpoint, they are demographically more like a large 3A school. As a result, these issues of one feeder system might affect them more.

 

I also agree with Harry's overall point that middle schools have, in many ways, been a net-negative for many rural football programs.

[gchs_uk9]

So, while they are a 5A school from a population standpoint, they are demographically more like a large 3A school. As a result, these issues of one feeder system might affect them more.

 

Harry has made this point a few times about other schools in that while they might be big in numbers, they aren't big in football. There are areas of Lincoln County that may well have never put a player on the high school team, or if so, very few. So "Lincoln County" basically ends up being "Stanford" and a few other kids. Lincoln isn't the only school that struggles with this.

[Harry Doyle]

Harry has made this point a few times about other schools in that while they might be big in numbers, they aren't big in football. There are areas of Lincoln County that may well have never put a player on the high school team, or if so, very few. So "Lincoln County" basically ends up being "Stanford" and a few other kids. Lincoln isn't the only school that struggles with this.

 

You said it.

 

I'm not exactly sure what the percentage of kids were back in those days that were south of Halls Gap (for those not familiar with Lincoln County, it's a community that sits atop this massive hill/mountain along US 27 that more or less splits the county in half), but I do know that all of those kids stayed in a game a little longer due to playing all the way through middle school and into their freshmen year.

 

You know as well as anybody that most of the kids on the team over the years have been Stanford/Hustonville area kids it seems.

 

I heard 1993 Mr. Football, Jeremy Simpson (a Crab Orchard native) mention the middle school himself as being a negative.

 

But, yeah I whole heartedly believe that in most of these rural/county schools that it's "So and So (Insert county seat if you will) Football" @ "______ County High School." Big difference.

[Harry Doyle]

@gchs_uk9

 

You will know this better than me, but before consolidation, wasn't Stanford High School the only one playing football in the county? Then along came Lincoln County High School, and it wasn't until then when all of the other K-8 schools started football as part of the youth league? How are things now in LL? Do all of the community schools still have their own teams, up through the intermediate age groups anyway?

[gchs_uk9]

@gchs_uk9

 

You will know this better than me, but before consolidation, wasn't Stanford High School the only one playing football in the county? Then along came Lincoln County High School, and it wasn't until then when all of the other K-8 schools started football as part of the youth league? How are things now in LL? Do all of the community schools still have their own teams, up through the intermediate age groups anyway?

 

Harry, only Stanford High and Stanford Lincoln (segregated school that closed in the early '60s) ever had football in the county. I'm guessing the elementary's all have teams like they do in basketball, but I can't say that for sure.