33 minutes ago, 24Rocks said:

When did Pulaski start a football program?  It was Somerset only for a long time.

Early 80's, probably around 81 or 82.

How about Clinton County?  

This got me thinking about Campbell County which is a 6A school that well loses a ton of kids to the many independent districts in the County that have programs.  So the total opposite of the thread.   Just think if the following independent districts didn't exist:

Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, Southgate ( no high school) and Fort Thomas.  

Yikes that would be a monster football program.  Plus toss in the Catholic High Schools - NCC and Bishop Brossart.  

On 5/23/2025 at 10:23 PM, gchs_uk9 said:

Stanford High School and Lincoln High School, which was the segregated school in the county, both played football. @Mr.Network would tell you that without Lincoln High consolidating with Stanford in the early 1960s, the program at Stanford would have likely gone away.

For what its worth, Hustonville also had teams that played against Lancaster High in 1919 and 1920.

For what it’s worth, Moreland High School also played football for a few years in their heyday. 
 

At the time of consolidation, only Stanford High School had a team. After consolidation, only Lincoln has had a team. 

My dad played football for Stanford High in the 50's.  

Metcalfe, Green off the top of my head and Cumberland used to have a football team I don’t think Monticello ever dead but no team in the county now.

1 minute ago, Tkinslow said:

Metcalfe, Green off the top of my head and Cumberland used to have a football team I don’t think Monticello ever dead but no team in the county now.

Sorry I meant Burkesville, Monticello is in Wayne Co. of course.

A couple to consider from EKY, not sure if they ever had multiple school that consolidated but as it stands today they have other active High Schools but no football:

Breathitt County: Jackson City has never had football to my knowledge

Clay County: Red Bird Mission is just inside the Clay County line.

Knott Central: Cordia is within Knott County but does not offer football nor ever has to my knowledge

 

 

Breathitt County has always sat in a particularly unique location geographically. It is bordered by three different counties that do not play football. Lee, Owsley, and Wolfe. These are three small counties, but when combined they have a population of over 17K. By comparison this would put those three in the range of a Henry County, Mason County, or McCreary County. Remember Breathitt only has a population of 12K itself.

In other words there is an entire 3A population base that does not offer football on their Western and Northern border.  I don't think you can point and say this has been an unfair advantage or even a particularly significant advantage over the years, but it is probably safe to assume that Breathitt has been a beneficiary of getting a handful of contributors over the years simply from being the closest strong program playing football to choose.

 

41 minutes ago, ATLCat said:

Breathitt County has always sat in a particularly unique location geographically. It is bordered by three different counties that do not play football. Lee, Owsley, and Wolfe. These are three small counties, but when combined they have a population of over 17K. By comparison this would put those three in the range of a Henry County, Mason County, or McCreary County. Remember Breathitt only has a population of 12K itself.

In other words there is an entire 3A population base that does not offer football on their Western and Northern border.  I don't think you can point and say this has been an unfair advantage or even a particularly significant advantage over the years, but it is probably safe to assume that Breathitt has been a beneficiary of getting a handful of contributors over the years simply from being the closest strong program playing football to choose.

Several years ago, I went to a game at Breathitt County and ended up sitting beside three men who were in their early 60s. They were all from Lee County and said they come every Friday night to watch football at Breathitt. I find it difficult to fathom what it would be like to live in a county that didn't have football.

49 minutes ago, gchs_uk9 said:

Several years ago, I went to a game at Breathitt County and ended up sitting beside three men who were in their early 60s. They were all from Lee County and said they come every Friday night to watch football at Breathitt. I find it difficult to fathom what it would be like to live in a county that didn't have football.

I agree.

Especially after living in Georgia now where even the smallest counties all seem to have football, it still surprises me that Kentucky has so many counties and even larger towns that don't have programs at all.

Georgia is littered with small independent schools in small towns or small Private Schools in these same rural towns. A good example is where we live in somewhat rural Central Georgia (Baldwin County). Our county has one large public school that is a 4A school in GA and would be a 5A-6A school in KY. It also has two K-12 private schools. Our kids go to Georgia Millitary College Prep which is a K-12 school that also has a Junior College on campus. The other school is John Milledge Academy which would be a small 1A school in KY. To give an idea, GMC's latest graduating class was 75 students and JMA had a graduating class of 34.

There are numerous small rural counties that surround us that have a 2A sized Public School and also have a small private school. 

Macon, GA is foreign to what we see in KY. The population of Macon is around 150K, roughly half the size of Lexington and essentially double the size of Bowling Green.

Macon has six different public schools with almost all of them serving as Magnet programs, with only one of them being the equivalent of a 5A school in KY. Most of their public schools would only be 2A-4A size in KY. The kicker is Macon has seven different private high schools as well. Almost all of those private schools would be very small 1A schools in KY with only First Presbyterian Day and Stratford potentially being 2A or 3A size. 

 

On 5/25/2025 at 7:22 PM, mcpapa said:

Maybe Lewis County?  Not sure if Tollesboro ever fielded a football team. 
 

And I don’t know if Robertson County/Deming ever played football If not, that’s an entire county that never had prep football. 

Deming had football WAYY back in the day. 

 

Bracken County might be on that list. 

Bracken County started football in 2003.  Augusta is the small independent school in the county.  Augusta had a team or club football at some point in the 1920s for maybe a season or two. 

What if you don't regard the other schools in your county as worthy of being considered as another school?