Deuce41

I have had the pleasure of watching almost all nine of the kids on this list.....Congrats to them all.

Coach Clevenger is well deserving of this accolade, he has certainly earned it. I had a feeling way back when he was at the University of the Cumberlands he would be a good coach. He used to call MS games for me along with another player from UC. They were both honest, fair and dependable. Oddly enough his partner way back then was another young man who turned out to be a pretty good football coach, Shadon Brown, who had HS success at Rowan and then moved on the college ranks at Wofford. Congrats to Coach Clevenger and I would venture to say this will not be his last such award.

The reasons I didn't go are simple. 1. I was afraid that a bad call from an official would taint one teams win or loss. 2. I didn't have a team there. 3. (And most important) My wife said no!!!!! 4. Had to work.

Whitley County opened the season with a 33 point victory over Jellico (TN). The Colonels jumped on the Blue Devils early and coasted to an easy victory. The Colonels were led in scoring by Corey Johnson (soph) with 24 points, including six 3 point goals. Whitley was leading 32-12 at the end of the first quarter and by 17 at the half. Every Colonel that dressed played and the younger kids came in and continued to play at a high level for the winning team. It was a solid start for Whitley but hard to get a read on just how good they can be or what weaknesses they might have at this time. The Colonels will be on the road at 12th region power Wayne County on Friday night.

As far as changing locations on short notice the logistics of it are just too tough. I do however see it changing as soon as this contract with Western runs out. My guess is now that CWS has synthetic turf you will see it moved there. There are a couple of places you could have it but honestly you have to look at things like are there enough hotel/motel rooms for teams and fans, places to eat, parking, etc. I do think that Western and Bowling Green have done a good job, but travel is such a complaint for most that I think it will be moved. Plus Lexington has the Sweet 16 so the Gridiron Championships should not present a problem. They already have baseball, and Track and Field to go along with the Sweet 16 so why not add football?

Whitley County is coming off an 18 win season that saw them defeat every district team but they could not get over the hump in the post season and fell short of the region tourney. They lost two starters to graduation, James Sasko and Levi Barton, but do return a host of seniors to fill their spots. Luke Woods, Jon Sasko, Adam Petry and Casey Crisologo will looked to for their leadership and ability on the floor. Soph. Cory Johnson will give them valuable minutes and a strong supporting cast along with new comer Bailey Rice will make the Colonels a tough team to play this season. Head Coach Jerry Overbey has built this team from the ground up after winning only 5 games his first year, his team has improved every season and this season does not appear to be any different as the Colonels will be shooting for 20 wins with a difficult schedule and a birth in the region tourney in a tough district with Corbin and South Laurel.

Sometimes announcers get a little too involved in the game. Having been there and done that, it is easy to do. But I think you have to be honest, if you say they are playing well all the time, you tend to lose credibility. Without the dark you don't know about the light. As an announcer you DO have to be careful and not cross the line.

Somerset over Leslie County. Leslie gave up too many points against Whitley in their season finale. I Leslie having problems with teams that have speed to the outside, and teams that can pass successfully into the flats and swing passes to the backs leaking out of the backfield.

Very entertaining game. Luke Woods (Sr. QB) ran for 137 and passed to 277. Whitaker for Leslie was every bit as entertaining as he ran for over 150. Leslie was driving for the winning score when they elected to throw the ball, when they had been running at will and it cost them the game as Whitley came up with the tipped pass and interception and were able to run out the clock. Whitley County has an offense that is really fun to watch. Luke Woods is a really special player to watch. Very gifted and competes like a mad man.

I think wins and losses are symptoms of something that is or could be wrong or right within a team or program. Certainly talent level, participation and scheduling should all be considered when looking at a record. I have seen coaches with great records who had no business as head coaches, conversely I have seen coaches with less than stellar records who were great leaders of the programs. The sad thing is that sports like "non-revenue" sports can pretty much lose every time out and nobody seems to care.

Thought this would be a much closer game. I believe that Corbin is better than they showed in this game, but Knox really dominated from the start. Good Luck to both teams in the post season.

With the return of Sr. Luke Woods and some size and speed in the backfield it boils down to improving the defense as a unit and the offensive line. They have a nice schedule which has Corbin returning to the the schedule for the first time since 1985 which will be the first game of the season. It will be standing room only for that game. With the addition of North Laurel to the district along with Harlan County, Perry Central and Letcher Co the district will be very even and should be fun to watch. This could be a big season or a disappointment, there is not much in between as far as Colonel fans are concerned, the big thing is not too put too much on one game (Corbin) and remember this team will get better each time out.

Even though getting thrashed and shutout is bad there were some good performances and lots of good things to build on, many of the times Whitley was stopped it was by their own mistakes, which can be corrected. Whitley has some athletes they just have to mature a little bit and thing will look alot better.

Whitley moved the ball well but had serious problems in the red zone, seven trips zero points. Bryant is as good a fullback as you could want, but the Colonels lack the speed that they have had in the past three or four years. The line did a good job but when your backs are so in getting to the hole you are going to have problems. As the young ones mature as the season goes along they will get better and the team will improve as a whole. Russell has a dynamite back and a lot of teams will have problems stopping them, and they need to develop more options in the offense to make Britt even more effective.

I think it says alot more about how good Russell County can be, the Britt kid is the real deal and he can big play you to death. Whitley is extremely you with a Sophmore QB and at one time had a Freshman in there and to SOph running backs. Just like a lot of teams they will get better by playing a tough schedule if they can survive it.