papagrit

I would think that 1A and 2A have the fewest representatives.

Good call on Scott Russell, Mama Bear. I must be getting old, because I could not remember his first name....

 

How are the Bears looking right now?

Scotty Russell is now an assistant coach at Knox Central...met him last year....seems like a pretty good guy.

Impressive wins for the Lexington schools. PRP is normally pretty tough, and I'm certain that I saw in a recent poll where they were in the top twenty in the state if not the top ten. Congrats to Dunbar and LCA for beating PRP and making this one so close.

They were a senior dominated team and I agree that they should have somone on the roster especially their running back. He was a beast and also very good.

Well, if that is the case, and they gave Bell all they wanted....it is a shame that they aren't represented by someone. I listened to that game on the radio, but, couldn't remember much about their players. I just remembered that the running back almost single handedly took that game over.

I don't really know much about where Bullitt East players' classes fall, for instance, if that running back they had that took Bell County to the wire in the championship was a senior...or for that matter if any of their stars were seniors. But, after looking at the rosters of both teams, I don't see one representative of the class 4A runners up. Maybe I missed something?....or are they just a really young talented team to watch for this next year?

I looked around during spring break at the Cocoa Expo in Florida to see if I saw anybody wearing some of that stuff as there are several on here from NE KY. Greenup Co., Raceland, Russell, Ashland and I believe Boyd County were there as well as West Jess. and Scott Co. from down here. I never saw any BGP gear. (Of course, I'm so pitiful at picking games I'll probably have to buy some.)

Hawg Heaven, the camp that Joe Prince at Owensboro runs, is an outstanding full contact lineman camp. They really get after it there!

He may have it in June this year. A lot of schools didn't go last year because it was too close to the start of school/season.

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

Does Rock have the fullback/linebacker coming back next season? I think his number was #22 or #33. Awesome player!

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.

The Robins kid was well at or over 300

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.

:confused: They are typically one of the bigger teams around. Are you saying they are going to be bigger than usual?? Heck 3 years ago they averaged in the hood of 300 lbs on the O-line.

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.

I haven't heard much about spring practice, how did it go ? I know several kids are playing baseball, but they should have had a preety good group banging heads.

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.

Who pitched for Rockcastle?

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.

That isn a good point papa, if the numbers were up not so many kids would have to go both ways. I know the kids are always in great shape but a little rest sure would make a difference.

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!