audienceofone

You are probably correct in some of your opinions but respectfully, I wasn’t referring to BW or any other specific program when I was speaking about all the coaches being paraprofessionals. Have no idea nor do I really care about who or how other school’s staffs are put together. Was simply stating how LCA’s is structured. To be clear, I’m 100% positive that no one on LCA’s staff took BW lightly or thought about a running clock. That would be ludicrous. Heck, I heard the HC tell his kids more than once that until someone knocks BW off, that BW is the better team and on Friday, December 3rd, BW proved it was the better team by just enough. I’m sure as a BW fan, you or at least several of your fellow fans (not being arrogant) went into West Carter last year thinking it was going to be a blowout. Ended up taking a gutsy call & tough 2 point conversion to escape. What I know is that both BW & LCA are elite top 10 teams in my opinion and are both capable of beating each other on a given night. What I also know is these kids & coaches are not robots and there is a reason they actually play the games vs. declaring a winner. I realize us fans can be biased and not very objective at times but LCA, like BW and several other’s football programs are about so much more than winning football games. I personally attended LCA’s celebration at the school after the championship game and it was awesome. In the HC’s remarks to the players and their families, he reminded us of the favor the Lord has had on our program and that while we all are disappointed in the outcome, that we should not let the devil still our joy of all of the success they’ve had. He said it’s easy to celebrate winning but when you suffer a tough loss, that’s when your character, faith & relationships kick in. He shared that the game of football is a microcosm of life and to keep things in perspective. Finally, he told them the the sun was coming up tomorrow and that the Lord is still on the throne! We all ended with everyone singing “Victory In Jesus”. From a fan’s standpoint, I generally just know enough to be dangerous about what is really going on with game plans, personnel, etc but what I witnessed first hand the other night makes me proud to be an Eagle fan!

Well, from some very reliable inside knowledge, Xavier Brown suffered a fractured shoulder and labrum tear early in the 2nd quarter. Only touched it 2 times after that injury BUT showed a lot of heart and came back in to return that last kickoff and dang near house called it! Then their starting center went down with an ACL in mid 3rd quarter which forced moving their soph starting tackle to center and bringing in a true freshman at right tackle which further limited the playbook. Adversity is just part of it but they still had several legit opportunities to win the game.

I’d say the facts are that LCA has achieved a record of 35-5 the last 3 years with 4 of those losses being to eventual state champions in that particular year (Somerset by 2 in 2019; Belfry by 16 in 2019; Beechwood by 1 in 2020 & Beechwood by 2 in 2021). The other loss was a blowout to FD in 2020. With only 180 boys in grades 9-12 who are shared with several other sports (including lacrosse that many schools don’t have) and playing a “Big Boy” schedule every year, LCA has established itself as a legit program that is built to last. Over 170 kids are playing tackle football in grades 3 thru 12 for LCA and the varsity HC is highly involved from the top to bottom. They have really good & consistent coaching at all levels and aren’t afraid to compete against the best…thus the top RPI the last 3 years. 100% of their coaches at all levels are para professionals & most are volunteers. But somehow they figure out how to work full time jobs, find time for family & put that consistent product on the field. As for the theme of “Leave No Doubt” and whether they underachieved, I’d say not at all. The spirit of that theme was to provide a compass for the players to “leave no doubt” in everything they do on and off the field. LCA, like many other teams across the country establish themes and mottos each year that end up on T shirts, etc. Nothing new here. With the schedule they played this year, most thought 6-4 or 5-5 would be the outcome and I know the staff didn’t expect going 10-0 including beating 3 of this year’s state champions (Boyle county, Pikeville & Belfry (via Covid). The coaches would probably say they under achieved as I’ve heard the HC and others on his staff say many times that the goal every year is to win the state championship. They haven’t changed that for the last 3 years and from what I’ve seen, they aren’t changing that goal moving forward. I’m sure if you asked the HC right now (after losing all those talented seniors) that he will tell you that they fully expect to be in the mix for the state title next year as well. What I do know is that their culture is to develop kids to be the very best versions of themselves, work extremely hard (including a great offseason plan) and compete on the biggest stages and not fear losing. Also, I’m hearing that they are very close to their fundraising goal and will be getting new artificial turf which should be ready to play on this coming season. Also saw where 4 of their kids just signed D1 commitments yesterday with some pretty impressive schools & all these kids have been at LCA since middle school. Not sure how many other schools across the state had that many D1 signees? The LCA program & school is definitely doing big things and they are too mature to allow a 2 point loss in a big game to define them. You can be assured that they aren’t feeling sorry for themselves.