Kudos to these young men....

Belfry football boasts four Division I lineman in its senior class | Lexington Herald-Leader

Congrats Belfry on the 2016 state championship.

NewCath looks forward to the challenge. :eek:

That's awesome. Congratulations to all of those young men. I know that Belfry is in a smaller class, but they are by no means a small program. No possible way to argue that many talented players, Coach Haywood, and other coaches have gotten their jobs done for a long time.

That's scary!

Nice! Great advantage to have, good luck to them.

This senior class is the strongest single class of football players to ever come up through the Belfry system and the most experienced. These 4 linemen are all very good and there are several other guys in that class who make a big difference on Friday nights.

 

Cameron Catron, Austin Hall and Austin Woolum have all been 4 year starters. Braden Preece, Kalob Whitt, Chase Dove and Andrew Fletcher have all been starters for 2 years and solid contributors. All of those guys came up through the system from middle school. In addition to all the home grown guys, Noah Corbett transferred to Belfry before his sophomore year and he has matured into a very good quarterback.

 

I went through grade school and high school with Scott's dad, who is the Pike County Sheriff now. I also played ball in high school with Dotson's uncles. Bentley and Horton played for Belfry Middle School and were key players on the team that won their first Middle School State Championship. Horton is the nephew of David Jones, who played at Belfry and UK and is currently the head coach at Phelps.

 

When this class graduates, there will be some big shoes to fill.

The crazy part is they have a Sophomore Linemen who is bigger than all of those guys except Dotson who will be a major contributor (if not starter) that isn't even pictured.

 

The article mentions Austin Lawson and Justin Barker

 

What it doesn't tell you is Lawson is 6'3 331 as a Sophomore!

Here is an article posted last December giving the hogs some love.

 

http://bluegrasspreps.com/ky-football-high/pirate-tradition-continues-317768.html

This senior class is the strongest single class of football players to ever come up through the Belfry system and the most experienced. These 4 linemen are all very good and there are several other guys in that class who make a big difference on Friday nights.

 

Cameron Catron, Austin Hall and Austin Woolum have all been 4 year starters. Braden Preece, Kalob Whitt, Chase Dove and Andrew Fletcher have all been starters for 2 years and solid contributors. All of those guys came up through the system from middle school. In addition to all the home grown guys, Noah Corbett transferred to Belfry before his sophomore year and he has matured into a very good quarterback.

 

I went through grade school and high school with Scott's dad, who is the Pike County Sheriff now. I also played ball in high school with Dotson's uncles. Bentley and Horton played for Belfry Middle School and were key players on the team that won their first Middle School State Championship. Horton is the nephew of David Jones, who played at Belfry and UK and is currently the head coach at Phelps.

 

When this class graduates, there will be some big shoes to fill.

 

I have been saying for two years that if you are going to get Belfry, 2017 will be the year to do it. You simply can't replace talent like this Senior Class, but more importantly guys with the "IT" factor.

 

With that said, and for what Belfry is losing, they are still going to be able to compete at a Championship level in 2017. The affore mentioned Lawson and Barker are nice building blocks on the OLine, they have some excellent underclassman talent in the backfield, and Avery Browning stepped in as Freshman and beat NewCath at QB and is very capable running the offense.

 

Defensively Belfry will return some solid pieces. Varney was All-State 2nd team at CB as a Sophomore. Adkins will leave Belfry a 4 year starter at Safety. Chase Runyon will be a returning Starter as a Senior on the DL. Belfry is breaking in two young LB's this year that should show great promise for the future.

 

What I am most enthusiastic about in 2017 is FB/LB Derek Wellman. This kid hasn't had his chance to shine and get noticed because of the star power around him, but I anticipate that may change as people watch him. I honestly think he was the best LB in EKY as a Sophomore and when he was used as a FB he put up huge numbers. he averaged nearly 7 yards per carry last year and averaged a TD every 8 carries. He is a football player in it's truest sense and has a very high Football IQ.

 

Belfry will be vulnerable next year, but at the same time it wouldn;t exactly shock me to see them in Bowling Green with what they return and a bumper crop of Freshmen that were the #1 Middle School Team probably in the entire State last year (they beat Johnson County 3 Times and JC went on to win the Division 1 Title, they beat Pikeville 2 or 3 times and Pikeville was the small school runner-up)