When I was doing some recent research one of the most unusual outliers I came across was the 2002 Webster County Trojans.

 

Webster County went 12-2 and reached the Semi-Finals before losing to Corbin 28-21 on the road.

 

The Trojans defeated 10-3 Crittenden County, 8-3 Trigg County, 9-3 Monroe County, and went on the road to knock off a previously 12-0 Owensboro Catholic in the Regional Finals.

 

Does anyone remember this team? Their stats seemed fairly pedestrian but this clearly has to be the best Webster County team in recent memory and there simply is not much info on them whatsoever.

 

What makes this team even more mysterious is the year before they went 6-5 (under a different Coach) and the year after they went 4-6.

 

Even the Head Coach is an interesting story!

 

Scott Willard was the Head Coach in 2002 and 2003. Apparently he moved to Scott County as an Assistant Coach in 2004 and brought the Wing-T with him. He became the Head Baseball coach at Scott County in 2006 and has remained in that post to present day. After several years of marginal success, it seems Willard is having his high point at Scott County as they have won back to back Regional Titles. It also appears he was Webster County's baseball Coach in 2004 as well.

 

Who can fill in some gaps on what might have been one of Kentucky's most unusual underdog stories?

 

Does Willard still coach football as well at Scott County?

Another huge piece of this story was the offseason, tragic death of their former HC Eric Hogg.

 

Webster went 6-5 in 01 & lost all five of their games by 7 points or less; in 02 they returned everybody, and like a many of our rural-small county schools across the state...they were waiting on "this group".

 

In May of 2002; at project graduation..Coach Hogg was playing basketball in the gym w some of the graduating seniors that night & died of a massive heart attack (was in his 30's and relatively good shape from what I remember & have been told).

^^^

 

Wow!

 

Did not know that...

 

Would love for people to fill in more gaps. This is almost like a movie script the more I peel back the layers.

 

11 of their 14 games were decided by 2 TD's or Less... 8 of those 11 games were determined by one TD or less.

You might contact Kevin Patton. He has been the sports editor of the Henderson Gleaner for the last 20 years or so.

 

The play-by-play man was Keith Farrell on WHRZ, Providence. He is now the public address voice for the Trojans teams.

 

Jim Pickens has been writing sports for the Owensboro Inquirer dating back 30 years or so. He would likely be able to add information...at least regarding the game with Owensboro Catholic.

 

Scott Brown still does Trigg County play-by-play for WKDZ, and has a treasure trove of information regarding Western Kentucky sports.

Edited July 22, 20179 yr by broadcaster
adding information

They were playing for a cause and played very inspired football that season. I played against them. They were one of those teams that gave everything they had each play.

I watched the Webster Co. vs Corbin game and Corbin was fortunate to get the win. I believe that Webster Co. committed a crucial turnover late that led to Corbin's winning TD, but my memory may be a little foggy. Also, they just like every team Corbin faced leading up to the title game had poor passing attacks, which benefited Corbin because they were strong against the run and not very good at all against the pass, which reared it's ugly head against the Justin Haddix led Breathitt Co. team.

 

They had a good solid, fundamental football team and would have been more of a challenge to the Bobcats than the Redhounds were.

They were very very good up front. I do remember Coach Hogg dying that summer. I think it was the teams MO that year

Wow, that's a wild story.

I watched several Webster county games this season. Some of its hard to remember being I was only 10. I remember the 02 season was highly anticipated and Webster was supposed to be good. How good was the question. Winning more games than you lose at Webster county is by definition good. I remember coach Hogg dying and nobody knowing what to expect for the upcoming year.

 

I attended their first game and it was a road game against union co. Webster won which was a big deal. Union county is by far the biggest rival and Webster very rarely beats them in football. So at that point I knew they were good. But how good was still debatable. Then they kept winning and winning. Never by a lot. But they always found a way. Then I remember attending I believe their last regular season game against Heath. It was at Webster and Webster was undefeated. I'm not sure if Webster had done secured their playoff situation and didn't play their starters or what but they got smashed at home by Heath.

 

I don't remember much about the first 2 playoff games from that year other than Webster won. But boy do I remember the 3rd. They were playing O'cath and O'cath was more than good. They were undefeated and beating teams by 40-50 a game. Now mind you Webster was good and only had one loss. But they were winning games by a touchdown or 2. Nobody was giving Webster a chance. The game was away for Webster and it was played at Rash and I remember walking in and that place was just electric. Il never forget that. Webster football being this good was unheard of so i think the whole county was at rash. The away bleachers were packed. Like most the other games that season Webster found a way to squeak out a close win against all odds. O'cath fans were in disbelief. O'caths Qb that year was Zach Barnard who went on to play football at Marshall. Webster had some true talent on their team as well. Bryce Gibson their QB could have played college football but elected to play baseball and was a pitcher for the university of Evansville. His brother kalen Gibson was a wide receiver and he played college baseball at UK. That was a truly special Webster County team. You can't go to a Webster county game without hearing stories of the 02 team.

I watched several Webster county games this season.

 

That was awesome info!

 

Definitely sounds like a movie script.

 

To put it in perspective of what that team accomplished... 2002 was the last time Webster County finished with a winning record. They have also never won a playoff game since 2002.

 

Wonder if some of the OCath fans can remember that Regional Final game from their perspective?

The 94/95 webester team was more talented. However, they were stuck in a region with mayfield and owensboro catholic and weren't as well coached as that 02 team.

 

That team had the biggest offensive line in the state and ryan hill, who played at the air force academy at tailback. They also had brock shoulders.

 

Why they didn't play Shoulders at QB on that team will always baffle me. They played a sophmore who could barely throw a forward pass and wasn't very mobile.

 

They ran the "stack I". That group was begging for a belly/veer offense with shoulders handing off to Ryan 30 times a game and SHoulders keeping it 15-20 times a game. Brock could throw it too.

I watched several Webster county games this season. Some of its hard to remember being I was only 10. I remember the 02 season was highly anticipated and Webster was supposed to be good. How good was the question. Winning more games than you lose at Webster county is by definition good. I remember coach Hogg dying and nobody knowing what to expect for the upcoming year.

 

I attended their first game and it was a road game against union co. Webster won which was a big deal. Union county is by far the biggest rival and Webster very rarely beats them in football. So at that point I knew they were good. But how good was still debatable. Then they kept winning and winning. Never by a lot. But they always found a way. Then I remember attending I believe their last regular season game against Heath. It was at Webster and Webster was undefeated. I'm not sure if Webster had done secured their playoff situation and didn't play their starters or what but they got smashed at home by Heath.

 

I don't remember much about the first 2 playoff games from that year other than Webster won. But boy do I remember the 3rd. They were playing O'cath and O'cath was more than good. They were undefeated and beating teams by 40-50 a game. Now mind you Webster was good and only had one loss. But they were winning games by a touchdown or 2. Nobody was giving Webster a chance. The game was away for Webster and it was played at Rash and I remember walking in and that place was just electric. Il never forget that. Webster football being this good was unheard of so i think the whole county was at rash. The away bleachers were packed. Like most the other games that season Webster found a way to squeak out a close win against all odds. O'cath fans were in disbelief. O'caths Qb that year was Zach Barnard who went on to play football at Marshall. Webster had some true talent on their team as well. Bryce Gibson their QB could have played college football but elected to play baseball and was a pitcher for the university of Evansville. His brother kalen Gibson was a wide receiver and he played college baseball at UK. That was a truly special Webster County team. You can't go to a Webster county game without hearing stories of the 02 team.

 

Zach Barnard was not starting QB. Kyle McGraw was. I hate inaccurate information

Kalen Gibson was not on the fall of 2002 team. He graduated in the spring of 2002. He was on the Webster Co football teams in the previous seasons. He was on the Webster Co Baseball teams that reached the final 4 in 2001( lost to Ballard in semi finals) 2002 ( lost to Cov Cath in quarter finals) Webster went back to quarter finals in 2003 and lost to Dunbar. Willard coached all 3 of those teams. Also Bryce Gibson was a catcher on the team as well as a 4 year starter at QB. Chris Coy was a Jr on the team that enjoyed a great career in at EKU and spent some time in a NFL camp

Zach Barnard was not starting QB. Kyle McGraw was. I hate inaccurate information

Like I said. I was 10 years old at the time and some of it was hard to remember. I was giving my best effort on information being theirs little to no way to fact check this stuff online. Go cry a river somewhere else about "inaccurate information"

Kalen Gibson was not on the fall of 2002 team. He graduated in the spring of 2002. He was on the Webster Co football teams in the previous seasons. He was on the Webster Co Baseball teams that reached the final 4 in 2001( lost to Ballard in semi finals) 2002 ( lost to Cov Cath in quarter finals) Webster went back to quarter finals in 2003 and lost to Dunbar. Willard coached all 3 of those teams. Also Bryce Gibson was a catcher on the team as well as a 4 year starter at QB. Chris Coy was a Jr on the team that enjoyed a great career in at EKU and spent some time in a NFL camp

That makes sense because 02 was Bryces senior yr and Kalen was a year older. The team still had some great players. Cy Dosset, Jon Knight, etc If I'm not mistaken (because Rambo might cry if I'm a little off)