Valley names Joe Stockton head football coach.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I was unaware that this job was open until @Tigerpride94 posted about it in the Valley - 2021 Schedule thread.

Joe Stockton is a 1994 grad from North Hardin High School. As a running back for the Trojans, he was a finalist for the 1993 Mr. Football Award. He played football, basketball and track at North Hardin, playing on their '94 Sweet 16 basketball team, and their 1992 Class AAA state championship track team. He was the individual state champion in the 110m Hurdles in '93 & '94, won the 300m Hurdles in '92, '93 & '94, won the long jump in '93 & '94, and won the triple jump in '94. He won the Mr. Track & Field award in both 1993 & 1994.

He played college football at Western Kentucky, where he was a wide receiver and return specialist and was named an All-American by Hansen's Football Gazette in '95, '96 & '97 in addition to being named All-American by The Sports Network in '96. On the field, Stockton returned two kickoffs for touchdowns in their 1996 game against Southern Illinois University (including a 100 yard return) to tie WKU's single-game record for returns for touchdowns, and he holds the program records for career all-purpose yards (5280), career kickoff return yards (2302) and holds the single game receiving yard record (276 vs. Austin Peay) as well as having the 4th-most receiving yards in a single game (194 vs. Murray State).

Stockton has been inducted into both the North Hardin Hall of Fame and the KHSAA Hall of Fame.

As a coach, he started at North Hardin as a defensive backs coach in 2002, and left to accept the offensive coordinator job at North Hardin for the 2005 season. He moved on to Pennsylvania's Susquehanna University (NCAA D-III) as a recruiting coordinator and assistant coach, then to Campbellsville University (NAIA) as a recruiting coordinator and O-line coach. Stockton became the wide receivers coach at Limestone University (NCAA D-II) starting in the 2013 season. He was named wide receivers coach at Florida Tech (NCAA D-II) in 2016, and returned to Kentucky to coach quarterbacks at St. Xavier High School in 2018. Most recently he joined the football coaching staff at John Hardin High School for the 2019 and 2020 seasons in addition to coaching track at John Hardin both years.

[Tigerpride94]

Very impressive career from athlete to coach. Hope he does well at Valley. I can remember Valley having some good teams.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

8 minutes ago, Tigerpride94 said:

Very impressive career from athlete to coach. Hope he does well at Valley. I can remember Valley having some good teams.

In 1997 when I was playing at Cov Cath, Valley and Hoptown were THE teams on the other side of the 3A playoff bracket. Granted, we had our eyes squarely set on Highlands from the moment we took the field at the beginning of the season, but we knew if we made it to the state finals it would be one of those two. Hoptown ended up having to vacate their runners up trophy because Artose Pinner turned out to be ineligible because of age, so in all reality, we probably should have been playing Valley in the 3A finals instead.