2023 Lafayette Generals

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Aug 18 vs. Oldham County (at Henry Clay Mingua Beef Jerky Bowl)
Aug 25 at Henry County
Sep 1 vs. Conner
Sep 8 vs. DeSales
Sep 15 at West Jessamine
Sep 22 vs. Moore
Sep 29 - BYE
Oct 6 at Henry Clay
Oct 13 at Tates Creek
Oct 20 vs. Paul Laurence Dunbar
Oct 27 vs. East Jessamine

[Old General]

I’ve been saying the last few years that Lafayette needs to schedule some teams they can get some wins with and try to build some confidence in the program. Last season was a definite low point, going 0-11 with 8 running clock losses and a forfeit, from a program that was playing for state titles just 6 years ago. This schedule certainly fits that! The combined ‘22 record of this schedule is 30-78. Henry Co had the only winning record at 7-4, PLD was 6-6. 3 teams on this schedule went 0-10 or 0-11. Lafayette has one of, if not the, largest male student populations in the state but they’re having a hard time getting athletes in the school to come out for football. Most multi sport athletes at Lafayette gave up on the football program and they lost a lot of talent thru transfers. 

[Unrivaled97]

3 hours ago, Old General said:

I’ve been saying the last few years that Lafayette needs to schedule some teams they can get some wins with and try to build some confidence in the program. Last season was a definite low point, going 0-11 with 8 running clock losses and a forfeit, from a program that was playing for state titles just 6 years ago. This schedule certainly fits that! The combined ‘22 record of this schedule is 30-78. Henry Co had the only winning record at 7-4, PLD was 6-6. 3 teams on this schedule went 0-10 or 0-11. Lafayette has one of, if not the, largest male student populations in the state but they’re having a hard time getting athletes in the school to come out for football. Most multi sport athletes at Lafayette gave up on the football program and they lost a lot of talent thru transfers. 

In 2015 & 2016, they played for a state title.  In 2017, they won 3 games.  2017 is also when Frederick Douglass opened up.  It seems since FD opened, Lafayette has struggled.  Coincidence or correlation?  I’m honestly asking, not trying to cause an issue, because I know the schools are only 6 or 7 miles apart but have no idea if they even would potentially share a potential student base or not.

[Down4theblue]

Based on geography, FD should affect, Henry Clay and Bryan Station. Demographically I wonder how many of the kids come to Douglas Via their academy? The 2 other schools that border Lafayette are Tates Creek and Dunbar. But they are mediocre at best.  

[Hungover_in_Andover]

5 hours ago, Unrivaled97 said:

In 2015 & 2016, they played for a state title.  In 2017, they won 3 games.  2017 is also when Frederick Douglass opened up.  It seems since FD opened, Lafayette has struggled.  Coincidence or correlation?  I’m honestly asking, not trying to cause an issue, because I know the schools are only 6 or 7 miles apart but have no idea if they even would potentially share a potential student base or not.

The staff, not the players.

Several Lafayette assistant coaches and the AD all went to start the Douglass program in 2017, so that would be the correlation. The first two seasons, there were only two players from Lafayette on the Douglass team. There was only one Lafayette player who transferred for his senior year in 2020 I believe.

Lafayette's player issues began with the Little League team housed at Southland Park dying off around 2015/2016, and also when Dennis Johnson left Jessie Clark Middle School for Woodford in 2015. For those who follow FCPS middle school football, JCMS football had a big drop-off after Johnson left. The Southland program fed into JCMS, and JCMS feeds into Lafayette. 

So, JCMS has been fielding teams with kids who likely had not played tackle football until 6th/7th grade. In turn, those same inexperienced kids were filling the Generals locker room. 

Once JCMS fell from the upper echelon, Hayes (FDHS feeder) took over football, and more often than not, would play 8th grade championship game against Crawford Middle (FDHS feeder).  I believe Hayes won 8th grade 5-6 years in a row under Coach Nick Payne since 2015/2016. This past season was the 1st season they didn't win 8th grade (Coach Payne resigned prior to this season).

 

 

 

[Old General]

On 2/5/2023 at 2:59 PM, Unrivaled97 said:

In 2015 & 2016, they played for a state title.  In 2017, they won 3 games.  2017 is also when Frederick Douglass opened up.  It seems since FD opened, Lafayette has struggled.  Coincidence or correlation?  I’m honestly asking, not trying to cause an issue, because I know the schools are only 6 or 7 miles apart but have no idea if they even would potentially share a potential student base or not.

The issues go much further than that I believe. But… in full transparency, my Grandson was the starting running back for the 1st half of the ‘21 season and starting QB 2nd half of ‘21 at Lafayette as a sophomore and he’s at FDHS now. I can unequivocally say he was not recruited and made the decision entirely based on the state of Lafayette’s football program. They also lost Hayden Dawahare who transferred to Lex Cath who had a tremendous senior season there and has gotten a PWO to UK among several other offers. There was another 7 or 8 (non of them to FDHS) that transferred after ‘21 as well. Plus they lost several quality players to PLD in ‘20 and ‘21. It seems once the program started a downward spiral, it was like dominos falling and it was/is very difficult to change that culture of losing. My grandson’s sophomore year they would get beat with running clock and kids would be playing music and dancing in the locker room after the game and it drove him crazy. As a Lafayette grad I’d love to see them get things turned around. 

Worth mentioning, Jessie Clark did win the city championship in ‘21 (not sure how they did this year) so hopefully they can feed into Lafayette and get the program turned around enough to keep players there. my Grandson played at JC ‘17 thru ‘19 and they were a very competitive but almost all of the top players ended up either not going to Lafayette or transferring out. 

[footballfanatic1286]

I have subbed in Fayette County for some time now, and having been in Lafayette quite a bit the past few years, I can say that there just aren't too many "Jimmy's and Joe's" walking through the hallways.  Of all the schools in Fayette County they have the least amount of athletes to choose from that I have seen.  A lot of the demographic in that school is geared towards the engineering program, arts programs and the band.  They also have the worst facilities I've ever seen in a high school, especially one that is as large as they are.  One gym, a weightroom that is only about 400 square feet big, and a locker room that doubles as a PE lockerroom that is located inside the Gym.  Hard to build a winning culture with little, to no athletes, and no facilities to incentivize kids staying at their home school.  Hopefully with this more manageable schedule they can get things turned around.  

[Old General]

1 hour ago, footballfanatic1286 said:

I have subbed in Fayette County for some time now, and having been in Lafayette quite a bit the past few years, I can say that there just aren't too many "Jimmy's and Joe's" walking through the hallways.  Of all the schools in Fayette County they have the least amount of athletes to choose from that I have seen.  A lot of the demographic in that school is geared towards the engineering program, arts programs and the band.  They also have the worst facilities I've ever seen in a high school, especially one that is as large as they are.  One gym, a weightroom that is only about 400 square feet big, and a locker room that doubles as a PE lockerroom that is located inside the Gym.  Hard to build a winning culture with little, to no athletes, and no facilities to incentivize kids staying at their home school.  Hopefully with this more manageable schedule they can get things turned around.  

Absolutely 100% spot on from what I saw there. In ‘21 we’d show up for a game and the stands would be packed and we’d think wow, they really support the football program. Then at halftime the band would finish and 3/4 quarters of the bleachers would empty out, which is demoralizing to the athletes on the field. There’s almost no support from the top. In ‘21 they refused to pay for buses for the away games. When Bryan Station played at Lafayette that year they showed up in Gold Shield chartered buses but yet when Lafayette played an away game it was a day of searching for who can drive players to the game. I’m not sure a soft schedule can turn the program around, I honestly think it would take a lot more than that, but at least it can help make them more competitive and allow the players to have some fun. Plus keeping their skilled positions healthy was an issue the last few years because they had absolutely no protection. Hopefully that can change too. It might also draw some athletes that gave up on football and stuck with baseball, basketball, etc… back into the program. I’ll be interested in how next season plays out for them. 

[Big Things Kentucky]

On 2/7/2023 at 11:40 AM, footballfanatic1286 said:

I have subbed in Fayette County for some time now, and having been in Lafayette quite a bit the past few years, I can say that there just aren't too many "Jimmy's and Joe's" walking through the hallways.  Of all the schools in Fayette County they have the least amount of athletes to choose from that I have seen.  A lot of the demographic in that school is geared towards the engineering program, arts programs and the band.  They also have the worst facilities I've ever seen in a high school, especially one that is as large as they are.  One gym, a weightroom that is only about 400 square feet big, and a locker room that doubles as a PE lockerroom that is located inside the Gym.  Hard to build a winning culture with little, to no athletes, and no facilities to incentivize kids staying at their home school.  Hopefully with this more manageable schedule they can get things turned around.  

Lafayette  defiantly needs an upgrade its the oldest Lexington high school  Coach Lawson has revamped the staff and Jessie Clark is on an uptick and this reasonable schedule should see brighter things from the Generals.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]