It just occurred to me today that the five coaches in Class 5A, District 4 are quietly doing quite a job of rebuilding programs, and aren't really getting the kudos they probably deserve, cumulatively.

 

Anderson County's Mark Peach and Grant County's Mike Davis are the "deans" of the group. Both are in their 6th seasons at their respective schools.

 

At Grant County, football seemed to be a bit of an afterthought, but he's starting to turn the culture around. Although this year's Braves squad is painfully young, and taking some early beatings, Davis achieved something in 2007 and 2008 that was significant in Dry Ridge: back-to-back winning seasons. (6-4 in 2007 and 7-4 in 2008). Only time will tell, but Coach Davis seems to be slowly turning things around.

 

At Anderson, the Bearcats had struggled for several years when Mark Peach took over in 2005. The 'Cats went 1-9 in his first year, but haven't had a losing season since, and went 11-1 in 2007 and 9-2 in 2009. The Bearcats are 3-3 this year, but the crowds are up in Lawrenceburg, and the 'Cats fans are beginning to EXPECT to win. Peach's record now stands at 37-24, but he's averaging 8+ wins a season over the last four seasons.

 

Gary Weiter is in his third season at Jeffersontown, where the Chargers were used to early season success and late season failures, a trend that dated back over a decade. Weiter's first team went 3-7, but his second team (in 2009) went 7-5, the Chargers' first winning record since 1992. The team has a pretty good encore going, with a 4-2 record this year.

 

Matt Brown also is in his third year, coaching at his alma mater, Oldham County. Although Oldham County has had quite a bit of success over the years, the Colonels were struggling when Brown took over in 2008. Since then, Oldham County is 20-11 under Brown, with two district titles, an appearance in last year's regional final, and a perfect 10-0 mark against district opponents.

 

The newest kid on the block is Jamie Reed, the first-year head coach at South Oldham. The Dragons had won just 6 games in the past three seasons, and hadn't won more than 6 games since going 8-3 in 1998. Reed has the Dragons flying high in his first season, with a record of 5-2 and with three winnable games left on his regular season schedule. It wouldn't be a stretch to see South finish the season at 8-2, which would be a five game turnaround over 2009. A winning season - the first since 2006 for South - would seem almost a certainty.

 

All five coaches took over programs that - whether they had typically been a perennially strong program or not - were struggling at the time. And each - assuming no surprises with the Dragons the remainder of this season - brought home a winning season in the first or second season after arriving.

 

Kudos to all five of these gentlemen and best of luck as they try to continue to take these five programs to new heights.

Coach Peach and Coach Weiter are both Campbellsville University alumni. They actually played on the O line together. It's amazing how many coaches in Kentucky played at Campbellsville. Weiter, Peach, Lovelace, Wolfe, to name a few.