Final

Final

 

I was afraid of this. I was hoping it wouldnt be that bad!!:cry:

I was afraid of this. I was hoping it wouldnt be that bad!!:cry:

 

 

Lee Co played a very tough opponent last, Powell Valley VA, to a 6-0 OT loss. Harlan just doesn't have the personal that Lee does. It will be interesting to see how they do against their other KY opponents, Middlesboro and Harlan County.

What did Lee County's offense look like?

Did Lee Co. have a freshman running back playing? If so how did he do? His name is Tyler Grahm he played middle school for Pennington last year he can absolutely fly!

Did Lee Co. have a freshman running back playing? If so how did he do? His name is Tyler Grahm he played middle school for Pennington last year he can absolutely fly!

 

He had a good game. Lots of speed. Most of their success came from around the ends. Harlan bottled them up pretty good in the middle. A few nice passing plays that should have been defended but Harlan had some blown coverages. The QB is pretty mobile. Your DB's must play assignment.

Harlan City will see a lot of games like this, From here on out.

What has happened to Harlan? Last year was rediculous, are they losing players? I don't understand how they became to be so bad.

Most Class A programs go through up and down cycles. The down cycle could have been predicted because the 7-8 grade team had been down for several years. This year's group is quite a bit better.

 

Harlan had some real bad teams in the late 80s and early 90s before turning it around in the mid 90s.

What has happened to Harlan? Last year was rediculous, are they losing players? I don't understand how they became to be so bad.

 

I am glad you ask JP55. This give us an opportunity to discuss something that has been a bit of a touchy subject here in Harlan County, on a state level. IT has caused quite a contraversy and even created a situation in the school board election where an individual won the election who favored playing holdbacks only to have a group cry foul and demand a new election. The situation became more messy when one of original group the canidates decided not to run. Those votes shifted to the individual who did not favor allowing the holdbacks to play. This situation is EXTREMELY messy still to date. The simple fact is that a group of parents are wanting to protect their kids right to play, rather than have a holdback take that spot.

 

Harlan is a small school, a very good school but small. To ever compete athletically there are going to have to catch up the ground they have fallen behind in the last couple of years, and the only way to do so is to change their view. There is also certian group there whose sole focus is academics and want no part of "smearing the perfect academic image" they believe Harlan to have by showing interest in sports. I am sad to say as the parent of a 2007 HHS graduate, I have seen this longtime comming.

 

The 2004 & 2006 teams were very special groups. 10+ Seniors in each and all pretty good athletes, but this is very rare at HHS. Until some things change in how athletics are viewed at HHS I am afraid this might continue for a while. There is a good group coming from middle school, but for now we wait.:confused:

To add to WV this is where the mass exodus from HMS is coming back to the surface for the high school sports programs. A few years ago there were about ten students that hade been Harlan students since K4 decided that they didn't like what was going on in the Middle school and left to go on to major success for the New Harlan Patriots. These kids are now in high school and the void created is what we are going through. Not only were these good athletes but good students as well, so HHS is forced to wait until the next wave of numbers come through. We that follow the progress of the Dragons are hopeful that this group of middle school teams is going to have the success that Harlan fans strive for good sports and great students. One side note, on another web site there was a report on the ACT scores for the state and Harlan Ind did very well, they ranked 47th in the state in overall scores out of 232 high schools. With this being said some of the parents in the HHS family only need to realize that sports and academics can be successful in the same school, and that being good in one area does not mean that you can't be in the other.

Thanks HDE. Your comments are always fair and true. I also agree with most of what BP and BD said. These guys played to their best ability and showed a lot of heart vs. Lee. I know all of these kids very well, especially one of them. He is truly a WARRIOR. The schedule will be a little more in their favor in the coming weeks. Hopefully, they can pull off a couple of W's this year. They certainly deserve it. Like you said, (A) schools have up and down years. The future does look bright. :thumb:

Thanks HDE. Your comments are always fair and true. I also agree with most of what BP and BD said. These guys played to their best ability and showed a lot of heart vs. Lee. I know all of these kids very well, especially one of them. He is truly a WARRIOR. The schedule will be a little more in their favor in the coming weeks. Hopefully, they can pull off a couple of W's this year. They certainly deserve it. Like you said, (A) schools have up and down years. The future does look bright. :thumb:

 

 

 

It's pretty clear the current middle schoolers are better than the ones they had the past few years, but it's hard to tell how much because of the competition. Yes, I know the argument about playing Class A competition, but the strong Class A teams play a few bigger schools to test themselves. Their lack of size and physicalness (except for Overbay and a couple of others) could prevent them from beating the top Class A teams in the region.

I really have no argument about A's playing out of their class. It's 11 on 11 regardless of class. Depth is the Dragons BIG problem this year. Most of the guys play both ways. I do think it is sad that there are some great athletes @ Harlan that play only one sport. These kids could have made a difference on the football field. Fact is, the middle school football teams have real good numbers. Will they play football at the next level? Who knows.

Fields could probably help at receiver. I can't think of anyone else.