7 hours ago, gchs_uk9 said:

 

When I saw the picture above, @Ram's fourth point immediately popped in my head. No surprise he wrote the same thing a couple of posts later!

Although I meant the tenacity and physicality when I added point number four, the picture does add a visual representation.  
 

I didn’t expect much of a change in Belfry this year, but they honestly looked like the Belfry of years past. That’s a credit to Coach Haywood not only coaching his players, but also coaching his coaches to be able to take his place at any time. 

9 hours ago, Ram said:

Although I meant the tenacity and physicality when I added point number four, the picture does add a visual representation.  
 

I didn’t expect much of a change in Belfry this year, but they honestly looked like the Belfry of years past. That’s a credit to Coach Haywood not only coaching his players, but also coaching his coaches to be able to take his place at any time. 

There was an excellent article in the Courier-Journal this weekend about Matt Varney moving into the head coaching position after the death of Coach Haywood. While obviously the change at this time was unexpected, Varney did mention that Haywood had been prepping him for the position for several years. Belfry has for so long been a machine, I didn't expect much change. Best of luck to the Pirates (and the Rams) this season.

To the best of anyone's ability, what was the score of this scrimmage and/or who won?

On 8/11/2025 at 2:57 PM, theguru said:

To the best of anyone's ability, what was the score of this scrimmage and/or who won?

I think Raceland out scored Belfry 4-2 in varsity action. Someone can correct me if I am wrong as I wasn’t there. 

1 minute ago, Watusi said:

I think Raceland out scored Belfry 4-2 in varsity action. Someone can correct me if I am wrong as I wasn’t there. 

Wow and thank you @Watusi!

You can watch this scimmage here https://fan.hudl.com/usa/ky/raceland/organization/18966/raceland-high-school/watch?b=QnJvYWRjYXN0MTkxMjk4NA%3D%3D

On 8/10/2025 at 9:11 AM, Watusi said:

In short, they should be pretty good.  Maybe not top 5 good, but in the next group with certainly a shot.  They return almost everyone from last year, except Coach Haywood.  The coaching staff has 5-6 guys with 20+ years on staff, so x's and o's will not be changing.  The skill guys are talented, but a little undersized in the backfield.  Defense was a concern last year, and depth.  With almost all starters back that should improve.  

The big elephant in the room, how will the absence of PH affect them mentally, emotionally?  He was the best at building up the team over the course of a season to peak at the right time.  His "vision" of his teams, knowing how to develop them from August to November was a thing to watch.  I personally think losing him will serve as a motivator and propel them (players and coaches) to succeed in his honor, but shew that is a tough task.  I guess we have to expect some peaks and valleys.

The early season schedule is tough, as usual.  Their record heading into district play may not be great, but iron sharpens iron.  That scheduling philosophy has stood the test of time with the Pirates.

Nice observation! Coach Haywood had a unique way with his motivational techniques. One time we were on the phone (I did not play for Coach Haywood, but had life coaching from him) and he put me through this relaxation technique he knew which helped with OCD. It was something he used as part of his motivational techniques with the team. He mentioned a story about his team and how he used the technique with them to get them to focus after a game where they had several pre-snap penalties. The next game they only had one penalty. Afterward he was asked about what got the team to play so focused from one of the parents. His player chimed in, "Coach Haywood hypnotized us!" Although he did not actually use hypnosis, he had some unique motivational tools that were quite helpful with focus. 

Before I get into the scrimmage itself, a fun fact about it historically is that after the teams played Coach Haywood would speak to Raceland's team to encourage them before the season started.

I did not see the scrimmage but am sure both teams performed nicely. Belfry will be a threat with their run game as always and with multiple components back from a Belfry team that threw for over 1,500 yards on the season, this Belfry team may air it out a little more than others have. Last season they threw 30 times against Johnson Central in a close loss, completing 22 of their passes. Based off the scrimmage it looks like they are going to continue being a strong running team. There are a lot of ways they can work offensively. With Coach Varney, there are a LOT of similarities to Coach Haywood and I see very little, if any, changes to the system coming. As somebody else mentioned, Belfry has several on staff that have been there for two plus decades (Including Coach Varney) and they work incredibly well together as a unit. Coach Varney has tremendous enthusiasm for what he does and he is a fun individual to discuss football with. The original intent of talking with him was to gather notes on the program but along with that I picked up a thing or two on the development of an offensive line that I keep in my notes to talk about on a game. He is a great coach and I feel confident will be an excellent leader for that program. It looks like Belfry got a lot accomplished against Raceland and that is certainly a plus a team with a strong defense against the power run.

As for Raceland, they have a lot back from a team that was supposed to be rebuilding a bit last year but ended up making tremendous strides and getting to the state championship game. Looking at it from their end, contending with Belfry's physicality is always a good thing especially since that was a struggle last year. The plus for Raceland (And really, both teams this year) is they will not have to worry about getting a new QB fully integrated into the offense as they have quite a bit of experience coming back. Stiltner and Marushi both compliment each other nicely. With an improved passing game due to the experience, Raceland should be a tough out for anybody they play. Raceland has a nice line of coaches that have come through as well! Coach Salmons helped lead the program through a tremendous step in 2017 by leading them to the state championship game and Raceland has continued to be a threat to win it. This season the team has a lot coming back and is in a position to again make a strong run.

All the best to both programs. Should be a fun season.

EDIT: in one of the above paragraphs I mentioned Coach Haywood speaking to Raceland’s team after the scrimmage, historically. The thought came to mind that there was a photo and it was found from the 2022 season. This is not my photo, I did not take it but it was on Raceland’s Facebook page from the 2022 year.

On 8/12/2025 at 7:36 PM, GOREDDEVILS said:

You can watch this scimmage here https://fan.hudl.com/usa/ky/raceland/organization/18966/raceland-high-school/watch?b=QnJvYWRjYXN0MTkxMjk4NA%3D%3D

Looked pretty even to me. Perhaps slight advantage to Raceland.