papagrit

I understand that Rockcastle will be sending some linemen and tight ends to Hawg Heaven in July before practices start.

No, that would be Casey Hayes and he will graduate in May.

Final from Somerset A tight game and down to the final pitch.

I met one of your Greenup football supporters at the Cocoa Expo (baseball) during spring break, a very nice fellow by the name of Grubb. He has a son on the team and is as excited about what is going on as all of you are on here. Sounds like you do have things going in a good direction. Maybe we will see Rockcastle and Greenup bang heads again this season. Good luck to you at Greenup this next season.

My apologies...I had forgotten about the Robbins boy. :idunno:

Good luck to Southern, I know several of the younger guys on the team and wish them the best.

No...they aren't going to be that big. The line from a few years ago was unusual. The line from this year will be bigger than last year and will be bigger than an average team from Rockcastle. They have had some exceptional lines over the years, but, this year I expect them to be bigger than an average year. I think in an average year Rockcastle would be between 200 and 220 on the line. They usually have some smaller (but tough as nails) lineman playing, say, in the 175-185 lb range. This last year they had a senior lineman playing both ways that weighed about 170 pounds. That pulls down the average considerably. This last year they had four starting linemen that will return this next year averaging about 230. These guys are getting pretty big in comparison to last year, especially the younger ones that are just filling out and the older ones are putting on the muscle. I don't feel it is unrealistic for the line to average in the 240 range or better this next year. So, that is what I meant by the bigger than usual line for Rockcastle. I meant bigger than an average year. By the way, I believe the only person on the team three years near the 300 pound mark was the Durham kid who went to UK. There was a Daughtery boy on that team that was decent sized. Not nearly an average of 300.

They had a pretty good size group of kids out this year, Goat. Yes, they were banging heads pretty hard during practice, particularly the line. The practice field could use a new crop of grass where it is so torn up right now. I talked to a few kids and they were sporting some nice bruises and of course Coaches Saylor and Parkey were getting them worked up a bit. Several new faces on the team that I've not seen before and some of the younger kids are now looking pretty pumped up from pushing the metal around. I would say that they are going to be considerably larger than they were last year. The line is larger than the usual Rockcastle line. Hopefully that size will also mean they will be tougher. There are several playing baseball, which means you can't really get a good idea of their look just yet. I saw Coach Saylor working with the secondary and a few of the younger guys are showing a lot of promise, two kids in particular.

I heard that it was a couple of pitchers, none being Bullock or Perkins, the top two Rockcastle pitchers. Perkins pitched the next day.

Rockcastle had two homeruns against a pretty good Danville team. Tanner Perkins pitched a two hitter and walked one in this shutout while belting one over the fence himself. Several pro scouts were on hand there with radar guns in hand. Rockcastle is now 2-0 for this young season. :thumb:

I also wish Rock luck for the 2009 season except when they play McCreary! I also wish to make that statement to you HOP, but, the other way around! :thumb:! Good Luck to McCreary...except against the Rock! I assure you that in no way whatsoever, will the Rockcastle staff overlook any team on their schedule this next year, especially a team with as good a player as Watts at quarterback. They can't afford to overlook anyone on the tough schedule they will have this next year.

Hi Goat, What you said is what I meant in my earlier quote. They need to get the numbers and interest up in the program so that so many kids wouldn't have to go both ways and when a really good player gets hurt there isn't such a drop in talent. When I wrote that last piece that you are referring to, I had in mind the middle school program from this past season when the main ball carrier broke his leg in practice. He was replaced by the seventh grade running back which played a large part in the seventh grade season slide. Then, that boy broke his leg and neither middle school team had a real threat to be ball carrier. On top of these two accidents there was five more kids in hard casts this last season at the middle school level. I think Coach is really trying to increase interest in the feeder programs such as youth football and middle school to get numbers up at the high school level and hopefully increase the talent pool as well. Maybe then there will be less "iron man" football and capable replacements when the need arises.

Something that I forgot to mention in my "distinguished portfolio piece", (thanks JC) is the fact that there is some real talent coming up from the eighth grade class that may have some impact next year and definitely will during their sophmore seasons in a year and half. Though their record didn't show it during this past fall (there were seven different kids in some sort of hard cast during some point of this past season), they were Salt River Conference Champs in the seventh grade. Rockcastle's primary problem isn't finding players it seems, but people to fill the shoes of the key players when that kid gets hurt. They need higher numbers and I think that Coach Parkey is working on that problem by putting more attention into the feeder program and youth football to encourage more participation. For example... Little League exhibition games a few times this past season on the high school field before a home varsity game to get the little guys excited about playing football.

Mason County

Hazard

Corbin

Lexington Catholic

Lincoln

Good Luck to Garrard County and Coach Mark Scenters....I think that he will get that program back on track in the next few years. He has an excellent group of eighth graders coming up into the HS ranks this next year. (Eighth Grade Salt River Conference champs in a conference that includes Danville, Rockcastle, Boyle, Lincoln, Mercer and Casey)

Congratulations to this young man!! I can only hope that my two son's aspire to this achievment. I've always told my boys to get the academic scholarship and then play football to have fun! To be able to play for an Ivy League School is outstanding! Congrats again!

Rockcastle will be anchored by their lineman this next year as well as a senior three year starting quarterback. Secondary concerns on the defensive side will be addressed this next year as the loss of Hayes @ LB , Bullock, Trimble, Smith and Mize, all hard hitters in the secondary will be felt. Between Bullock and Trimble were thirteen picks during the '08 season. Fortunately an excellent group of sophomores as well as a junior with starting experience @ LB (Saylor) should be able to step in and fill those shoes to some degree. The loss of Mason on the line as well as Miracle on defense will be felt as well. The big hearted Mason kid was a leader for the linemen as much as Hayes was to the backs and the team. The line will now be anchored by two very good future seniors in Thacker (6'5" 280 lbs) and Abney (6'0" 215lbs) who has just broken the team power clean record in the weight room that was held by his brother Tanner, a past RCHS football hall of famer. Future junior "Little" Thacker (6'0" 230lbs) who started much of the season will also be on the line as will Lake (6'2" 215lbs) a future sophmore who started on the line the entire season as a freshman. The only question on the line will be who will fill out the line and be subs. They will probably pull from the pool of this past years freshmen team that went undefeated against a pretty good schedule which included LCA and Bell County. The freshman team is a nasty little group that when infused onto the JV team about midseason took a 2-4 JV team to a 6-5 record to finish runner up to Boyle County's JV in the championship game of a seven team conference. Another likely candidate for offensive line will be future senior Dillingham. This kid makes up for what he lacks in size (5'6 165lbs) with heart (a Rudy sort of kid). He is one of those kids that no matter how big you are and how hard you hit, he is coming at you with everything he has every play with poison. The offensive backfield will probably include Saylor who saw plenty of starting action and Rowe an excellent hard driving future sophmore who saw some varsity action early in the year against Pulaski and a few other teams. Of course there will be Bishop at QB, who as mentioned before, has started the past three seasons at that position. The boy has a strong arm and a will to win and his leadership will be essential to a successful season. The schedule for Rockcastle this coming year looks as tough as any they have played in the past years with the flagship games being reigning state champ Bell County, Boyle County (no disrespect to any team, but IMHO Boyle probably would have been state runner up if the bracketing was different) and Whitley who went deep into the bracket in the 5A class. There are several other teams on the schedule that are tough as well, including district rivals as well as some higher class teams (Pulaski and Southwestern). Rockcastle will not see an easy win game this next season and they will have to earn every "W". Hopefully the extra tough schedule will pay off at the end of the regular season. If injuries stay low and the secondary develops under the tutelage of varsity coaches Parkey, Saylor, and Martin, the team should pull out several wins and much experience for coming seasons.:thumb:

I agree with Ram! :thumb: This is one those cases that could get really messy and would be just another area that would have to be policed. Though it would be good in some cases of getting kids out and exposed to the public and experiencing sports who otherwise don't get the opportunity to, it could get really messy and add just another complicated debate to the status quo. I'm all for kids experencing sports and teamwork, and, I'm aware that some kids aren't allowed to go to public schools for whatever reason (eg...religous concerns). But, to allow non-attending kids to play organized sports for school systems is opening a very LARGE can of worms.

Put your money on Hammond. If she stays out of foul trouble it will be Rockcastle by ten points. Go get 'em kid! :thumb::thumb:

:thumb: That's good! How is his arm doing where he got hurt during football in that basketball pickup game?

Sounds like a daggone mess to me! Hope Watts was alright after the tumble.