The only thing about Estill is that they don't play the top teams in the 14th. They don't play Knott, Perry Central, Leslie, or Cordia. The best team they play is Powell, which is currently ranked 4th in the region. That schedule may come back and hurt them come tournament time.

The only thing about Estill is that they don't play the top teams in the 14th. They don't play Knott, Perry Central, Leslie, or Cordia. The best team they play is Powell, which is currently ranked 4th in the region. That schedule may come back and hurt them come tournament time.

 

Actually, because of Estill’s location close to the Bluegrass and south central Kentucky their schedule enables them to schedule as good, if not better, competition than they’d find in the 14th region, which is probably the weakest overall region in the state this year.

 

Just a few examples: They lost an away game by 5 to a very good Somerset team, lost by 6 in tournament to South Laurel, lost by 9 at Madison Southern, won at Rockcastle, won in a tournament over Boyd County, lost by 5 to Harlan County, lost by 5 at Jackson County, lost by 4 at Paris, defeated Franklin County and Pulaski County. They have more games which I haven’t included but they were easy wins.

 

If that kind of schedule doesn’t prepare the Engineers for post season district and regional tournament play I don’t know what would.

They play Hazard every year so I think Perry Central should be on there. I can understand why they wouldn't schedule Knott and Cordia, that's a 4 hour trip, they won't be allowed to leave school early enough to make it during the week. They were actually suppose to play in the Jackson City Tournament on Jan 20th but with them moving the classic around due to the all a being on the day of the Jackson City tournament (Jan 6) they had to move it to the 20th and Estill already had a contracted game with Letcher Central scheduled for that day.

Not to mention, Estill defeated Pulaski (ranked 11th in state), who beat Southwestern by 30th on a neutral court, who (Southwestern) lost to Perry Central by 7 on Perry Central's own home court.

I’m sure more games vs 14th region opponents could be scheduled by Estill County and Powell County during the season but my guess is the distance is the main issue. It’s a LONG WAY from those two counties to Hazard, Hindman and Whitesburg. I think it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of a 130-plus mile trip, or 260 round trip, to the Letcher and Knott locations, and a little over 100 to Hazard. They also don’t schedule very many regional teams in baseball and softball (other than district seeded games) for the same reason. It’s much less expensive and easier travel for them to play most of their schedule with Central Kentucky/Bluegrass area teams.