A coach questioned the building process at Raceland on a social media platform, I told him my response was long and not appropriate for that venue and invited him to BluegrassPreps to read it.  So, I am going to take off on a history lesson, "gather round kids, Grandpa Ram has a story".  Some of our loyal members here may enjoy it as well, many may not, but this is for anyone that has an interest in Kentucky, specifically Raceland, football history.

If you don't want to read the history and just want the answer to the question posed, skip to the bolded at the bottom. 

The School at Raceland opened in 1926.  This area was called "Chinnville" so named after the family that settled the area, the Chinns.  In 1924 a man named Jack O. Keene started a horse racing track in Chinnville.  You may recognize Mr. Keene's name, after the depression forced him to close the track in Chinnville, he was instrumental is opening a new race track, we know it today as Keenland.  Many speculate, if not for the depression, Chinnville could have been the home of the Kentucky Derby.  Crazy right?  The track was open from 1924 to 1928.  Little Chinnville had many banks, bars and a rail spur that went straight to the track.  People traveled from all over the state to attend horse races in Chinnville.  The area became known as "Race Land", or "Raceland" and the town's name was changed to reflect that reputation.  

The School at Raceland, or Raceland School, had a football team.  In those first few years, they didn't have a coach, the elder players coached the team.    The number of games per season were small, win totals were even smaller.  Through the 30's, 40's and 50's, the football team was nothing to write home about.  They won some games, lost more games and was probably seen as an average or below average area football team.  The race track was gone, there weren't many great jobs and the city was very small.  The school started as a small school and stayed that way.  Number of players, and students as a whole was small and the thought was the school may not be needed.  

1961, a new teacher and football coach was hired, Jim Conley.  Conley was told, "if this team doesn't turn around, we are going to do away with football".  Heck, the school may have been close behind, as many thought.  Conley won one game in his first season.  It looked like the program was not going to be around much longer.  In his second season, Conley won three games.  Two in season three.  Then, 8 in his fourth season and 7 in his fifth season.  Former players for Coach Conley said, "He made winning important", "There was no difference in winning and losing until Coach Conley came along".  Coach Conley is credited with saving the football program at Raceland, and quite possible saving the school from closing.  Seriously, the school may have closed if the football team didn't start winning high school football games.  That's a lot of pressure on a coach, and teenage players.

The 60's and 70's saw Coach Charles "Chainsaw" Sammons, who would become the school superintendent in the 80's after being a successful football player at Raceland and EKU.  Then, came Coach Mike Holtzapfel.  For you NKY people that are still reading, Holtzapfel would become Randy Cooper's son-in-law and is married to current Raceland Coach Mike Sammon's cousin.  Next, came Coach Larry Heck and Coach Roger Snyder.  They both are betrayed as hard nosed, laser focused individuals that expected perfection and they elevated the Raceland football program to persistent winners.  The Rams started winning district championships in an area that had a large number of small schools, prior to consolidation, that so happened to have killer football programs.  Programs like Cattletsburge and Louisa.  Raceland football was somewhat respected in the area and was definitely not going away. 

The 80's saw a huge leap forward.  The superintendent and one school board member wanted to fill the open Football coach position with a real coach, one that other programs wanted.  They convinced the other school board members that pursuing, hiring and paying well Coach Bill Tom Ross was the best thing to do.  Ross was the one of the master-minds behind the 1975 Ashland Tomcat "Jaws" defense that won the at-large State Championship.  He was sought after and Raceland wanted him and they got him.   Coach Ross was a master motivator, everything had a catchy name, everything was seen as a contest.  He also didn't like playing small schools.  He would later say, "I knew we could never beat the top teams in our class if we didn't play the best competition we could find".   Coach Ross, almost immediately, used his connections at Ashland and scheduled the Raceland/Ashland game.  This was almost his demise at Raceland.  The alumni and fan base was not happy getting beat by 40 and 50 points every year in the first game of the season.  Ross stayed the course.  in 1991 Raceland beat Ashland 14-13 in Putnam Stadium (Ashland's home field), for the first time ever.  Where you live, this may not be big news, but in Raceland and Ashland, this was shocking.  Ashland had just won a 4A (largest at the time) State Championship in 1990 and one year later, 1A Raceland beat them.  This was an event that changed the perception of Raceland football and changed the mindset at Raceland about football.  Just a few years earlier, Raceland had won it's first playoff game, EVER, against a 1A team, and now Raceland had beaten a large school coming off a State Championship.  Expectations were soaring. 

Ross took the Rams on the road, really, on-the-road to Lynchburge, Virginia and beat Lynchburge Christian Academy.  The only game that team would lose on their way to a Virginia State Championship.  He would beat Pikeville, a team that was seen as an elite team in 1A, at the time, and now as it would be.  Ross would literally beat every single team in North-Eastern Kentucky, no matter what size.  He beat Greenup County, Boyd County, Ashland, Lawrence County, East and West Carter and many more teams.  His biggest problem, and the reason he would leave Raceland, Northern Kentucky 1A.  He got a few wins over some of the NKY teams, but it was clear he would probably never win a State Championship at Raceland and that was something he, and probably every head coach wanted, so he left and went to a bigger school, the school he went to, prior to consolidation.  

Jim Conley saved Raceland Football, and Raceland Schools.  Bill Tom Ross made Raceland Football important.  

in 1997, former Raceland player and assistant coach under Bill Tom Ross, Randy Vanderhoof became the Head Football Coach at Raceland.  Ross is now the winningest coach in Raceland history and was the longest tenured coach in Raceland history.   When Coach Vanderhoof is done, he will be the second winningest coach in Raceland history and the second longest tenured coach in Raceland history.  Personally, I think that's the way he wanted it, he didn't want to win more games or be the head coach longer than Coach Ross.  But, that's just me.  

Coach Vanderhoof changed much.  And, many were surprised by some of the things he changed.  Raceland was a wish-bone team.  A ball-control team.  A clock-management team.  Vanderhoof went to the Air Raid Offense, passing the ball 90% of the time every game.  The "Old Heads" and "Rail Runners" as we call them because, well, they are old and lean on the chainlink fence around the field and complain a lot, thought Vanderhoof was going to be a short tenured coach and were ready to escort him out of town.  But, the offense caught on, pun intended, and the 90% passing came down to 60% and the Rams had a balanced offense that was potent.  

When Coach Vanderhood decided to hang up his coaching shorts, you have to know him to get that, he handed to reins over to his assistant and an area known coach, T.J. Maynard.  Maynard would be the third winningest coach in Raceland history and won Raceland's 500 game and won Raceland's first ever Regional Championship.  Raceland had been expected to win the District Championship every year for a long time now, but this was the first every Regional Championship and the Rams were in the Semi-Finals for the first time ever.  Something that was not even considered 20 years prior.  

Coach Maynard left to take a job at the school he graduated from - Russell.  Former Ram player and Offensive Coordinator, Mike Salmons would become the next Rams Coach.  Salmons comes from a football family, played at Raceland and Thomas Moore in college, his uncle was a long time NKY coach and school administrator and the namesake of Cooper High School.  

Salmons has won two more Regional Championships and has taken the Rams to the State Championship game twice.  He's still there and his story isn't complete.  

Now, to answer the question and speculation set forth by an area coach.  In the 20's, 30's 40's and 50's, Raceland was not a great program and was made up of the kids that showed up.  In the 60's the program almost died altogether.  In the 70's the program grew.  In the 80's the program became something to talk about and was beating most area schools.  This is when some students started showing up from outside the school district.  People wanted to play on a winning team, a team that beat the Ashlands and the Boyd Countys.  In the 90's the program became better and had an exciting offense that many players wanted to be part of and even more players showed up from outside the district.  In fact, a lot of players showed up.  In the 2000's more players showed up, in fact, it was commonly known and talked about in the area, if you wanted to play good football you had to go to Ashland, Russell or Raceland.  It's still said today.   In the 2020's, if a player wants to have a legitimate possibility of winning a State Championship in the area, you have to go to Ashland or Raceland.  That is openly said by a lot of people, many of which have no connection to Raceland.  

So, how Raceland's program was built took almost 100 years, from a meager beginning, football almost being done away with, football saving the school to football being important, football slowly moving up the ranks of programs of interest, by taking one step at a time and setting benchmarks.  No overnight success for the Rams, no cutting corners to get to the end faster, no impropriety.  In fact, many people have taken their children to Raceland have said to me personally, "we always thought Raceland did some shady things, but after we got here, we realized that Raceland is only team in the area that does things the right way".  Not one person, not two, I have heard this many, many times.  Who ever puts that Raceland uniform on, showed up at the door and asked to be part of the program.  That's the only way they got there.  

If you win, they will come.  Success caused that, nothing else. 

4 hours ago, Ram said:

A coach questioned the building process at Raceland on a social media platform, I told him my response was long and not appropriate for that venue and invited him to BluegrassPreps to read it.  So, I am going to take off on a history lesson, "gather round kids, Grandpa Ram has a story".  Some of our loyal members here may enjoy it as well, many may not, but this is for anyone that has an interest in Kentucky, specifically Raceland, football history.

If you don't want to read the history and just want the answer to the question posed, skip to the bolded at the bottom. 

The School at Raceland opened in 1926.  This area was called "Chinnville" so named after the family that settled the area, the Chinns.  In 1924 a man named Jack O. Keene started a horse racing track in Chinnville.  You may recognize Mr. Keene's name, after the depression forced him to close the track in Chinnville, he was instrumental is opening a new race track, we know it today as Keenland.  Many speculate, if not for the depression, Chinnville could have been the home of the Kentucky Derby.  Crazy right?  The track was open from 1924 to 1928.  Little Chinnville had many banks, bars and a rail spur that went straight to the track.  People traveled from all over the state to attend horse races in Chinnville.  The area became known as "Race Land", or "Raceland" and the town's name was changed to reflect that reputation.  

The School at Raceland, or Raceland School, had a football team.  In those first few years, they didn't have a coach, the elder players coached the team.    The number of games per season were small, win totals were even smaller.  Through the 30's, 40's and 50's, the football team was nothing to write home about.  They won some games, lost more games and was probably seen as an average or below average area football team.  The race track was gone, there weren't many great jobs and the city was very small.  The school started as a small school and stayed that way.  Number of players, and students as a whole was small and the thought was the school may not be needed.  

1961, a new teacher and football coach was hired, Jim Conley.  Conley was told, "if this team doesn't turn around, we are going to do away with football".  Heck, the school may have been close behind, as many thought.  Conley won one game in his first season.  It looked like the program was not going to be around much longer.  In his second season, Conley won three games.  Two in season three.  Then, 8 in his fourth season and 7 in his fifth season.  Former players for Coach Conley said, "He made winning important", "There was no difference in winning and losing until Coach Conley came along".  Coach Conley is credited with saving the football program at Raceland, and quite possible saving the school from closing.  Seriously, the school may have closed if the football team didn't start winning high school football games.  That's a lot of pressure on a coach, and teenage players.

The 60's and 70's saw Coach Charles "Chainsaw" Sammons, who would become the school superintendent in the 80's after being a successful football player at Raceland and EKU.  Then, came Coach Mike Holtzapfel.  For you NKY people that are still reading, Holtzapfel would become Randy Cooper's son-in-law and is married to current Raceland Coach Mike Sammon's cousin.  Next, came Coach Larry Heck and Coach Roger Snyder.  They both are betrayed as hard nosed, laser focused individuals that expected perfection and they elevated the Raceland football program to persistent winners.  The Rams started winning district championships in an area that had a large number of small schools, prior to consolidation, that so happened to have killer football programs.  Programs like Cattletsburge and Louisa.  Raceland football was somewhat respected in the area and was definitely not going away. 

The 80's saw a huge leap forward.  The superintendent and one school board member wanted to fill the open Football coach position with a real coach, one that other programs wanted.  They convinced the other school board members that pursuing, hiring and paying well Coach Bill Tom Ross was the best thing to do.  Ross was the one of the master-minds behind the 1975 Ashland Tomcat "Jaws" defense that won the at-large State Championship.  He was sought after and Raceland wanted him and they got him.   Coach Ross was a master motivator, everything had a catchy name, everything was seen as a contest.  He also didn't like playing small schools.  He would later say, "I knew we could never beat the top teams in our class if we didn't play the best competition we could find".   Coach Ross, almost immediately, used his connections at Ashland and scheduled the Raceland/Ashland game.  This was almost his demise at Raceland.  The alumni and fan base was not happy getting beat by 40 and 50 points every year in the first game of the season.  Ross stayed the course.  in 1991 Raceland beat Ashland 14-13 in Putnam Stadium (Ashland's home field), for the first time ever.  Where you live, this may not be big news, but in Raceland and Ashland, this was shocking.  Ashland had just won a 4A (largest at the time) State Championship in 1990 and one year later, 1A Raceland beat them.  This was an event that changed the perception of Raceland football and changed the mindset at Raceland about football.  Just a few years earlier, Raceland had won it's first playoff game, EVER, against a 1A team, and now Raceland had beaten a large school coming off a State Championship.  Expectations were soaring. 

Ross took the Rams on the road, really, on-the-road to Lynchburge, Virginia and beat Lynchburge Christian Academy.  The only game that team would lose on their way to a Virginia State Championship.  He would beat Pikeville, a team that was seen as an elite team in 1A, at the time, and now as it would be.  Ross would literally beat every single team in North-Eastern Kentucky, no matter what size.  He beat Greenup County, Boyd County, Ashland, Lawrence County, East and West Carter and many more teams.  His biggest problem, and the reason he would leave Raceland, Northern Kentucky 1A.  He got a few wins over some of the NKY teams, but it was clear he would probably never win a State Championship at Raceland and that was something he, and probably every head coach wanted, so he left and went to a bigger school, the school he went to, prior to consolidation.  

Jim Conley saved Raceland Football, and Raceland Schools.  Bill Tom Ross made Raceland Football important.  

in 1997, former Raceland player and assistant coach under Bill Tom Ross, Randy Vanderhoof became the Head Football Coach at Raceland.  Ross is now the winningest coach in Raceland history and was the longest tenured coach in Raceland history.   When Coach Vanderhoof is done, he will be the second winningest coach in Raceland history and the second longest tenured coach in Raceland history.  Personally, I think that's the way he wanted it, he didn't want to win more games or be the head coach longer than Coach Ross.  But, that's just me.  

Coach Vanderhoof changed much.  And, many were surprised by some of the things he changed.  Raceland was a wish-bone team.  A ball-control team.  A clock-management team.  Vanderhoof went to the Air Raid Offense, passing the ball 90% of the time every game.  The "Old Heads" and "Rail Runners" as we call them because, well, they are old and lean on the chainlink fence around the field and complain a lot, thought Vanderhoof was going to be a short tenured coach and were ready to escort him out of town.  But, the offense caught on, pun intended, and the 90% passing came down to 60% and the Rams had a balanced offense that was potent.  

When Coach Vanderhood decided to hang up his coaching shorts, you have to know him to get that, he handed to reins over to his assistant and an area known coach, T.J. Maynard.  Maynard would be the third winningest coach in Raceland history and won Raceland's 500 game and won Raceland's first ever Regional Championship.  Raceland had been expected to win the District Championship every year for a long time now, but this was the first every Regional Championship and the Rams were in the Semi-Finals for the first time ever.  Something that was not even considered 20 years prior.  

Coach Maynard left to take a job at the school he graduated from - Russell.  Former Ram player and Offensive Coordinator, Mike Salmons would become the next Rams Coach.  Salmons comes from a football family, played at Raceland and Thomas Moore in college, his uncle was a long time NKY coach and school administrator and the namesake of Cooper High School.  

Salmons has won two more Regional Championships and has taken the Rams to the State Championship game twice.  He's still there and his story isn't complete.  

Now, to answer the question and speculation set forth by an area coach.  In the 20's, 30's 40's and 50's, Raceland was not a great program and was made up of the kids that showed up.  In the 60's the program almost died altogether.  In the 70's the program grew.  In the 80's the program became something to talk about and was beating most area schools.  This is when some students started showing up from outside the school district.  People wanted to play on a winning team, a team that beat the Ashlands and the Boyd Countys.  In the 90's the program became better and had an exciting offense that many players wanted to be part of and even more players showed up from outside the district.  In fact, a lot of players showed up.  In the 2000's more players showed up, in fact, it was commonly known and talked about in the area, if you wanted to play good football you had to go to Ashland, Russell or Raceland.  It's still said today.   In the 2020's, if a player wants to have a legitimate possibility of winning a State Championship in the area, you have to go to Ashland or Raceland.  That is openly said by a lot of people, many of which have no connection to Raceland.  

So, how Raceland's program was built took almost 100 years, from a meager beginning, football almost being done away with, football saving the school to football being important, football slowly moving up the ranks of programs of interest, by taking one step at a time and setting benchmarks.  No overnight success for the Rams, no cutting corners to get to the end faster, no impropriety.  In fact, many people have taken their children to Raceland have said to me personally, "we always thought Raceland did some shady things, but after we got here, we realized that Raceland is only team in the area that does things the right way".  Not one person, not two, I have heard this many, many times.  Who ever puts that Raceland uniform on, showed up at the door and asked to be part of the program.  That's the only way they got there.  

If you win, they will come.  Success caused that, nothing else. 

Great post.

I guess Ram forgets that Russell also  has 2 State Championships the same amount as Ashland has. It is extremely hard to win a Championship in this area that's why you don't see it happening on a yearly basis. Ashland was lucky they  were one of the biggest schools in 3A when they won the Championship. Let's see Ashland win 4A.

1 hour ago, GOREDDEVILS said:

I guess Ram forgets that Russell also  has 2 State Championships the same amount as Ashland has. It is extremely hard to win a Championship in this area that's why you don't see it happening on a yearly basis. Ashland was lucky they  were one of the biggest schools in 3A when they won the Championship. Let's see Ashland win 4A.

Didn't forget, but I do believe in the moment, there are two schools in the area that have a legitimate shot.  Not a knock on anyone, just the truth.   Raceland coming off a finals appearance and Ashland having a legitimate shot of making the finals in the next two years.  Russell finished 2-9 and 2023 isn't looking to be that much better. 

I think I gave Russell credit and I never knocked them at all.  In fact, I didn't knock anyone at all.  That wasn't what the above was about.  It was only about Raceland. 

Like I said let's see how Ashland does in 4A. Raceland might want to win one first before claiming to be the big dog in the area.

Great article, seems RedDevils can’t give credit where credit is due, or he can’t handle his team not being a top dog in the region. Love schools full histories, thanks.

Russell is still one of the top teams in the area. At least they have done something in their program history unlike Raceland. Raceland has a good program but  anyone who thinks Russell isn't still a top team in the NEKY area is kidding themselves.

1 hour ago, Breds82 said:

Great article, seems RedDevils can’t give credit where credit is due, or he can’t handle his team not being a top dog in the region. Love schools full histories, thanks.

I do as well, I would love to hear more of the history about programs around the state.  We hear some things, but there is so much about most programs that most of us don't know.  

Thanks for the kind words.  NCC has a section in the Raceland story and hopefully the two can meet up again soon. 

1 hour ago, GOREDDEVILS said:

Russell is still one of the top teams in the area. At least they have done something in their program history unlike Raceland. Raceland has a good program but  anyone who thinks Russell isn't still a top team in the NEKY area is kidding themselves.

By all means, write an article about Russell's history.  I know I would love to read it.  Heck, my brother, cousin and son have small parts in that history.  My wife, other brother, sister, niece, nephew, daughter-in-law and all my in-laws witnessed a large portion of that history.   I'm basically the only one in my family that went to Raceland, prior to my children (which my wife, a Russell graduate, insisted on). 

I don't know how many times it has been done, but it is entirely possible that my brother is the only center in Russell's history that scored a touchdown.  Just speculating there, but I would say it hasn't happened too many times. 

8 minutes ago, Ram said:

By all means, write an article about Russell's history.  I know I would love to read it.  Heck, my brother, cousin and son have small parts in that history.  My wife, other brother, sister, niece, nephew, daughter-in-law and all my in-laws witnessed a large portion of that history.   I'm basically the only one in my family that went to Raceland, prior to my children (which my wife, a Russell graduate, insisted on). 

I don't know how many times it has been done, but it is entirely possible that my brother is the only center in Russell's history that scored a touchdown.  Just speculating there, but I would say it hasn't happened too many times. 

This isn't about Raceland's history you brought Russell and Ashland into your original post towards the end. I will always stand up for Russell where I graduated from no matter what.

11 minutes ago, GOREDDEVILS said:

This isn't about Raceland's history you brought Russell and Ashland into your original post towards the end. I will always stand up for Russell where I graduated from no matter what.

I said nothing derogatory about Russell, or any other school.  I just think in the next several seasons, there are two schools in the area that have a chance of winning a State Championship.  Will they do it?  I have no idea.  But, I think there are two with the chance.  I even commented that there were three schools in the area that you want your kids to go to if you wanted them to play football, and Russell was one of them.  

Heck, I have a Russell T-shirt and sweatshirt in my closet.  You're most definitely upset with the wrong person, I'm not the "devil" you think I am. 

This reminds me of one Ashland fan on BGP that thinks I hate Ashland.  I hope he sees that I think Ashland has a chance of winning a State Championship.  He may fall over dead from reading it.  (for the record, I do not have any Ashland clothing)

4 hours ago, GOREDDEVILS said:

I guess Ram forgets that Russell also  has 2 State Championships the same amount as Ashland has. It is extremely hard to win a Championship in this area that's why you don't see it happening on a yearly basis. Ashland was lucky they  were one of the biggest schools in 3A when they won the Championship. Let's see Ashland win 4A.

What makes it harder than any other area?  Just curious.

I don't like Ashland, I would root for Raceland over Ashland any day. I hope Ashland's kids go on and play college sports but I just don't like the Ashland Tomcats. I don't know of many Russell fans who do.

4 minutes ago, BEChargers said:

What makes it harder than any other area?  Just curious.

Probably because there are so many schools so close together. There in Boyle you have Danville and Boyle County.

In NEKY you have Russell, Raceland, Greenup County, Fairview,Ashland,Boyd County all within a few miles of each other.