ChiefSmoke

The plot thickens. :laugh: Heard from Steve Bramel today. You know him as "Will Bramel's Dad." Steve was one of those guys that ran us out of Danville. Photos and the entire story here: Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: Maybe it was 1

ttt.... please share. We expect this to be a great day for helping young coaches and especially the ones that want to be a head football coach someday. We are trying to help young coaches and improve football in our state. Thank you- David Buchanan

Coach Smith will start on this right after spring break. We were in a tough spot last fall and found an outstanding coach. My thoughts.... I expect Coach Smith to take his time on this and believe he will find our kids another outstanding coach. It may take some time, but he will do it right. We are fortunate to have him in this role.

This spring I have been fortunate to see Georgetown, Centre, & UK practice. I was impressed with all three programs- their coaches & players. The players for all 3 programs were polite & personable... strong ambassadors for their schools and teams. I wanted to highlight the positive. Go Tigers, Colonels & Cats!

Stephanie says I only have one good story from high school, but I have been able to get some mileage from it over the years. One Saturday night in early September, 1982, myself and three friends went to see a movie in Danville. You may not remember Fast Times at Ridgemont High but I bet most of us old guys do remember Phoebe Cates. After the movie, our driver decides he wants to meet a girl he saw in the theatre. We drive out to the bowling alley in Danville to find her. Our first time through the parking lot, a few of the guys out there yell stuff at us. Undeterred, my buddy continues in his quest. A few minutes later, we go back through the bowling alley. But, this time, about 8 car loads of guys jump in their vehicles to chase us. I knew it was serious when one of them passed us & did a donut at the intersection of Maple Avenue & Lexington Street. At this point, we are getting back to Harrodsburg as fast as we can. We make it to Beaumont Plaza and all the guys that have chased us, circle their vehicles behind what use to be Long John Silvers. We are in good shape now, because we have the numbers. In particular, we have Woody Holt & the Elliott brothers. Woody became my brother in law, great friend, & a wonderful uncle for my kids. Woody rides his motorcycle into the circled cars and says. "I hear you want to fight some boys from Harrodsburg. I'm from Harrodsburg!" Our visitors began to get back in their cars. Many of the guys in the cars turned out to be some of my friends from Boyle County. They told me later that a KNEE came to the door of one of their cars. That would have been one of the Elliott brothers. Gradually, I began to realize many of these guys were my friends from when I went to Boyle County and also from going to Centenary in Danville. John Key( a good friend, played football for Boyle) told me just a few weeks ago, he didn't realize until I yelled his name that he was not going to get his "tail" kicked. John, and several of those guys and many my friends, would return for our game when the Rebels would play at Mercer, just a few days later. Todd Bryant was with those guys also that night and now we are both at Mercer together. Several of the guys in black & gold had been in Harrodsburg a few days earlier. September 24, 1982 It ended very well, with everyone standing around talking. My buddy that wanted to meet the girl, yes, he was talking to her while the rest of us tried to sort out the mess that almost got started. And, as you might have guessed, AFTER everything had calmed down, we had several more that were ready to fight if needed... bless their hearts. The first time I shared this story with my team was on a Thursday, in the locker room, before we played at Rowan County in 2010. In 2009, we had beat Rowan in a close game at home. They had everyone back, expecting to have a GREAT team, and had made arrangements to get our 2010 game televised. No one plans on televising a game they will lose. They had scored 71 points the week before on Fleming and they were foaming at the mouth to get us. I told our guys that we needed them at Kickoff from the very beginning, like Woody Holt. Woody stuck his nose in there for us when we needed him the most, right at the beginning. That night in Harrodsburg, we had a lot of guys ready to fight, AFTER Woody and the Elliott brothers had put out the fire. I have seen a lot of football players like that over the years. AFTER the game is determined, they are ready to be the heroes. But, when the bullets are flying early, they want no part of it! Our team doesn't really need guys for after the outcome is determined. We need guys that will fight and play hard from the opening kick off. You can win championships with those guys. I will give my 2010 team credit. Those guys played their tails off and played one of the best football games we played at Mason in my 19 years there. It was a wild dogfight from the beginning and our guys answered the bell and won that televised game by two touchdowns. I don't advocate violence & fighting. Usually there is a better solution and I am glad things worked out for us that night in September of 1982. But, I am thankful for Woody Holt & the Elliott brothers. And, those old Phoebe Cates movies are still pretty good. Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: "We need you at Kick Off" and my only good off the field story from HS

Some times it is good being the dumbest guy in the room. This was my second day visiting Centre College spring practice. I got to sit in on a defensive meeting, team meeting, QB meeting, and watch practice. I especially enjoyed the kick off return drill work they did today. Football programs have their own language and verbiage. It is healthy for me to hear a different approach to the game. Football is football. But, the ways we can attack problems and teach the game can have multiple methods. I always think it makes me better when I see and hear a coach teach something in a different way and with different terminology. It helps me grow as a coach. It is a great reminder for me that even after 25 years as a head coach, there is a lot I don't know and I still have much to learn. Experiences like this keep the game fresh for me and keep me on my toes. Every chance I get, I try to visit quality programs that allow me access to their practices. At Mason County, I went to Fort Thomas Highlands. Since moving back to Mercer County, I enjoy visiting Centre & Boyle County. Adding Boyle to the schedule may affect that one a little, but being this close to Centre and the quality of their program is a gold mine for me. Coach Frye may begin charging me admission to practice! When the day comes that learning & improving are no longer a priority, I will do my team a favor and give up coaching. But for now, every chance I can get to learn and get better, I am going to take it. Photos at : Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: Getting out of your own little world

Lanie was a great player also! Played at WKU.

I am a big fan of Coach Clayton. KY HS Football just got better!

Safety & Wide Receiver. Outstanding player.

No one to my knowledge is pushing Trevon to football as opposed to basketball. Because of his motor, talent, and height, he is receiving genuine interest from several schools in football, including Notre Dame & UK. My job is to help him have as many opportunities as possible. It's his life. I support him doing what is best for him and what he wants to do. I enjoy coaching him. He works very hard in practice and is very coachable. I have no idea where the "football only" stuff is coming from. The first time I have seen or heard that was here. As mentioned here, he is with an elite AAU team this spring. I am happy for him and believe that will open more doors for his future. My best guess on the reason for the football talk....people are surprised at the level of football interest he is seeing. I am not surprised for the reasons mentioned above. I've been through this type of thing before with Chris Lofton. Great stuff and a lot of fun. I wish Coach Young the best and I am confident Coach Smith, our AD, will find a quality coach for our kids and program.

Yes. Very good players and loved contact.

Dr. Steve Parker with Coach Homer Goins, early 70s. Paris at Paintsville, 1993 Twitter

If you are around old city school football, you never know who you will run into. One day at Paris, I noticed a car parked near our practice field at Garrard Park. As I walk closer to the car, I realize that Bill Arnsparger has come to watch our practice! Tonight, D Smith(UK) & Tyus Short(Ky State U) announced where they will play college football. They are both part of the Yeast family and one of the highlights for me tonight was visiting with Nick & George Yeast! Nick & George played against my Dad's Mercer teams in the mid 70s. They were very good players at Harrodsburg HS. Nick went on to a great career at EKU. George and I have crossed paths several times on Friday nights. George was a part of Bernie Jenkins officiating crew (one of the top crews in Kentucky) and did some of our games when I coached at both Paris & Mason County. George was an outstanding official, although I did tell him that everyone in Mason County still believes that Corey Jett scored a Touchdown, right at the end of the 1st half, against Rockcastle that night he did our playoff game in 2005! It's hard for a 51 year old man to feel like a little kid again. But, tonight, standing between George & Nick Yeast, I felt like a 10 year old, and yes, it was even a Friday night! old photos by Larry Vaught at : Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: Old City School Football..... Nick & George Yeast *After my Dad died, I found all of his old newspaper articles. Trosper organized them into scrapbooks. I am very thankful for those. I can remember looking forward to getting the Danville Advocate Messenger on Saturday night and reading Larry Vaught's stories on Friday night HS football in our area. HS football is special around here and that was a great era.

A funny story from one spring..... we are getting ready for the spring football game and Murph does not want any baseball guys to play in the game because they have a game the next day. One of our baseball guys dressed out and came on the field. He threw a fit, threw down his helmet, etc. because I would not let him play in the game. Well, I had to hold him accountable but I could not run him because I didn't want to wear him out for a baseball game. What I did is after we completed spring football, I made him come in and put in every player's knee pads and thigh pads in their practice pants that we had just washed. At first he thought no big deal. After two pair and looking at the 40+ pants still remaining, he got frustrated and pretty upset. He got it done, but not the way he wanted to spend a day during spring break! :lol2:

No. When I was at Mason, and Chris Ullery & Mike Murphy were the baseball coaches, some kids wanted to do both and we tried to make it work. When Ty Sargent was our QB, he came for offense and went to baseball after that. We did it that way to help both programs. Some kids would have chosen spring football over baseball and neither program wanted that to happen. Coach Ullery was our DC and Mike Murphy did all the dirty work to run our football program. It was very much an old school set up in how we were all friends and connected. I like our baseball guys here at Mercer. It is just a different set up and we want our guys having fun and playing baseball. We get our baseball guys for Perfection Workouts in January and it has worked well doing it that way here.

Yes, it is. Terry Yeast is our track coach. Tremendous coach and person. And, obviously it didn't hurt our track season.

When the KHSAA allowed football coaches to move their spring practice window to later in the spring, many programs chose to move their practice dates to April or May. That gives them better weather and allows college coaches to visit and watch practice. We have continued to do ours immediately after basketball and here is why: 1- if there are injuries, we have more time to recover before the season begins. By going early, we get the most opportunities for live contact. I think live contact is very beneficial, but it is tough to get live full-speed reps, and take the ball carrier to the ground, once you get to August. In preseason and inseason, we try to go live but stay on our feet. But, I think we do benefit by TACKLING to the ground in the spring. I like the extra recovery time that our bodies have available. 2-By going early, our track guys can get back to track immediately. And, they can do both. If it were later in the spring, they could not do both. And, some kids would pick spring football over track... I don't want that to happen. We went early last year at Mercer and our guys went on to win a state title in track. And, this is still HS. We want our guys to do everything while they can. 3- It breaks up the offseason best. Outside of the weightroom and Perfection workouts, our guys have a good break from football and their bodies recover until July 10th. They also have time and the opportunity to watch Hudl and review what was new to them in the spring. We can hit those problem areas as needed between now and July 10th and have more flexibility in doing so. 4- Even though college coaches miss our spring practice, they can still come during the evaluation period and watch our guys run routes, throw, do drill work, etc. Most of the time, they can still see what they want to see. 5- Our high profile basketball athletes have a very active spring in April on the AAU circuit. I do NOT want them to have to pick between spring football and AAU basketball if I can help it. Basketball is important to them and I get that. You can be great in both, and I am good with working with a kid that wants to do both at a high level. We have a Mr. Basketball candidate on our team that has been to every single spring practice, worked hard, and had a great attitude. I am thankful we have him and I am going to work with him. We finish tomorrow with our spring scrimmage. We are banged up a little bit and we have had some very cold days. But, overall our time has been productive and we have had some very much needed live reps, 11 vs. 11. Besides, it spring time in Kentucky. Some times March weather is better than April weather. It supposes to be cold! Photos at: Twitter

Coaching HS football is FUN! If that were not the case, we wouldn't do it. Friday night victories, being with our players & coaches, enjoying a productive practice are all times we enjoy. But, what about the tough times? How do we navigate those? We have a bunch of tough times when we are coaching football. I would argue that everyday that is not enjoyable is actually an exceptional OPPORTUNITY for living out our purpose and serving others. The toughest thing I have ever witnessed a coach go through was when Robert Allen Yankey drown on a Friday morning after a football game, 9/25/70. My Dad was the head coach at Boyle County at that time and Robert Allen was his QB. That was an awful time and I still remember it very well even though I was only 5 years old. Robert Allen & my Dad, October 10, 1969 photo by the Danville Advocate Messenger Through coming home and also my Dad's death in October of 2015, I have been able to renew friendships with some of my Dad's players both at Boyle and Mercer. One thing that stands out to me in conversations with those old Rebels from 1969 and 1970 is their love for Robert Allen and my Dad. I don't bring it up.... they do. There are alot of things I don't understand. But one thing I BELIEVE with all my heart is that my Dad was called to coach those kids and take care of them through a heartbreaking experience. I can't imagine what it was like to look at those kid's faces and be with those kids on a daily basis in dealing with such an overwhelming tragedy. But, I believe he was the guy to do it. When a team is going through a tough season, that is when your kids need you the most. When a coach is battling entitlement, lack of discipline/accountability and all the other things that can destroy kids & a school or athletic program, that is when the kids need you the most. I have a very good friend that is fighting these battles on a pretty large scale right now. But, he gets it. He feels prepared for the battle, he loves those kids and his school. He has a fire in his belly to serve with a purpose on a daily basis. We have spring football today. I hope we do well and I hope it is enjoyable. That would be good. But, for all of us that coach, a bell should go off in our heads when the tough times hit. Those tough times are when you are at your best as a servant and living out your purpose. When those tough circumstances attack, hit them with everything you have, and know that you are doing EXACTLY what you were called to do. Photos at : Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: Fun is good.... Purpose and Service are Better

And, I will admit, I am as biased as any parent when it comes to one of my kids. But biases and all, Chris proved he was good enough to play there.

All good points..... Which always makes me very confused on how the Cats missed on Chris Lofton.

I was sitting in the Fern Creek section for their Ballard game and they were pretty upset with the early charge calls. But, they all looked like good calls to me. I am a big fan of Clayton Brooks... both as a person and an official.

The official making the charge calls is outstanding. They all look like charges to me.... but I am a football coach. I am sitting in Fern Creek section and they are not happy!

Outside of the standard tackling drills, using the rings with LBs has been creative. In one drill, the two LBs race to the ring. The FS is aiming for the front part, BS for the back part. Very good drillwork for taking the proper angle and it is competitive. He also uses them for read periods and rolls the ring at different angles to simulate the RB shoulders turning and the different angles of different plays. And, now each rep can be completed with a tackle. He will probably have more ideas next week. Very good & creative coach. We are fortunate to have him.

We finished our first 5 days of spring practice this morning. We are making progress and showing improvement. I would also add that there have been times that we have looked absolutely ugly.... which is to be expected with a young team in its first few spring practices. I think the football parts will work themselves out and we will have an opportunity to have a good team. Two things that make me feel good about our team and reinforce to me that I am coaching great kids: 1- Our practice on Tuesday was for 2 hours and the wind chill was 23 degrees. It was cold and even tough for me. Normally, hot or cold, if I am coaching football, I don't pay much attention to the weather. If our kids complained, I never heard it. We struggled in spots, but overall the effort and attitude were very good. I thought our kids showed some toughness during that practice. Kids don't get many opportunities to be tough. Maybe they are tougher than we give them credit. But, Tuesday showed me that our kids are certainly capable of being tough and I was very pleased with them. 2- We had donuts, juice, & chocolate milk for our guys before practice this morning. With out telling them to do so, I think almost every young man said thank you. I did not tell them to clean up. But, there was no mess or trash when we were done today. That is how it should be, but I don't see that much. These guys were appreciative. No signs of entitlement. I HATE entitlement. If we can keep entitlement out of our locker room, we will have a much more enjoyable season. I am old school. I believe if we are tougher, and we are not dealing with entitlement, that we will be a better football team and we will win more games. I think it is difficult to be a winner on the field and a loser off the field. For me, it is either you are a champion or you are not. I am excited. I think we have some guys that can be champions. Black Shoes and White ShoeStrings: Toughness versus Entitlement

Mods- please fix my title. I misspelled Utilizing. Good grief. Thank you and I apologize.