Darkwing

You had me on great football weekend right until the Lexington part.

Don't have all the stats, was listening at work and we got busy during the second half, but caught most of it... Ironton actually was stuffed on the run, and Lewis contained. All their offensive success was throwing the ball to their big TE. That was the story of the game. That, and they couldn't stop JC's running attack. At all.

It's not December. If Johnson Central is playing on the carpet in December, then get worried and get right with God. Ironton has 78 yards of 1st half offense, 68 on the ground. JC has run 30 plays, all running plays (except the 2-pt conversions), for 158 yards. Belcher has 85, Young with 47 to lead the way.

JC has three TDs, all on short runs. Two longer drives, one short drive set up by a big kickoff return. Three 2-pt conversions. Ironton completed a short pass to the TE and ran it in for two. Ironton will get football coming out for second half. The Tigers just fumbled with 1:45 left; JC has it 1st-10 at their own 18 in the 2nd quarter. JC out-muscling the Tigers so far. Tigers have gone to a spread offense.

LOT of flags at timely moments for the homestanding Perry Central boys. They had some drives continued by questionable calls, and JC had numerous holding calls, all of which somehow seemed to come on big gainers or at crucial moments. The last drive alone, the refs waved off a flag they dropped in the PCC backfield when PCC converted a first down, then called a pass interference in the endzone on a hail mary to give Perry another play with 0:00 on the clock. That kind of thing happened all game long. Also, PCC has some athletes, several very good ones. We knew that from last year. When you give a pretty good team a lot of help, it's tough to go to that old field and win one for a mortal team (i.e. not Highlands). Nobody in Johnson County has made any claims this year this team would be world-beaters; they're still doing a lot of growing up.

Quite honestly, with low numbers and a couple injuries, it is not impossible that Paintsville might go 0-10 this season.

44-36 final.

Josh Dillon carries for his 5th TD of the night, to go along with 116 yards rushing. Two point conversion pass good. JC 44, PCC 36, with just over one minute left in the game.

Pray throws an 86 yard TD to Beatty. XP good. Makes it 36-36 with 6:04 left in the game.

Now 28-13 Johnson Central, mid 3rd quarter.

22-6 JC, mid 2nd quarter.

16-0 now, 3:47 left in 1st. Two Josh Dillon 1 yard TD runs.

Shouldn't they have a Japanese flag too?

Go back and find a game where Matney has put over 70 points on the scoreboard. I dare you. Your personal slander campaign against a man you know next to nothing about has grown tiresome, frankly.

12-7, HHS, end of 1st quarter.

Plenty. In fact, you'll see #11 Daymion Belcher and #20 Dalton Adkins get some significant playing time at the skill positions. Those two will be at the core of a very good offense in two years. There's a good chance that JC in 2-4 years will enjoy maybe the richest total talent pool at any time in team history, if all the kids currently in the program and in the middle school continue to develop. Also, you may be surprised if you expect ball control. There are some capable RBs, but no bruising FB as in previous years who could always get 3-4 yards a carry. It's actually an offense that depends on big plays for scores. I'll be there and cheering...but I wouldn't be surprised as a JC fan to see a running clock early in the second half. I'm hopeful and will be there cheering just like everybody else, but realistically, this team is not what it was the last two years. This is the rebuilding year.

Good thing the KHSAA doesn't care about "fairness" then. There's be a lot whole of records that look different, wouldn't there?

I hope Johnson Central has a lackluster season like this one someday.

He will get 2-3 more games, though, than Jude.

Pass D has apparently gotten much, much better since Perry Central game.

Absolutely true. Brought Trent Davis in to kick a 27 yard (I think) FG on 3rd and short when it was 28-0 instead of punching it in. Is something he's done more than once this year. Suppose the logic is we have a pretty good kicker, this gets him some game practice in a non-stressful situation just in case we need it down the road. He could've given Jude more carries and 20 more yards there, also...but did not.

I do not suggest that athletics have no place in the development of children. Obviously, given our nation's obesity epidemic, physical activity is more important now than ever. However, school systems that are already budget-strapped are spending more money than can be justified on athletics, which are ostensibly for the players but really are for the benefit of those in the community, most of whom have no students in the school and may not even be connected. Otherwise, why would we sell tickets and make such a production? It is highly overemphasized, especially in the rural areas where education often lags already. Who can justify hundreds of thousands of dollars to put artificial turf and jumbotrons in high school football stadiums? How does that contribute to the mission of schools to prepare students for life beyond high school? I agree with sports in schools, but more as a physical education and much, much less as a community preoccupation. When superintendents and school board members are chosen and released on the basis of high school athletics, our priorities for our school have CLEARLY gone awry. Successful schools keep kids interested. Nowhere more do you see that than in Ft. Thomas. Kids play for HHS, then graduate, then have sons who grow up dreaming of being like their fathers and one day playing for HHS themselves. Teams like that will survive for a long time. The schools where parents are involved will also have more child involvement - and that pretty much by definition includes private schools; obviously, if you care enough to pay for your child's education, you're invested in it. There will be programs that come and go with great coaches as they come and go; great coaches can make a difference. Obviously, winning will bring out kids. Losing will drive them away. I think though, if you average it out, the trend is going to be a net loss of kids. Not by sheer numbers, because the population is always growing, but kids playing football as a percentage of total kids attending schools. And absolutely, parents are at fault. But that's not going to get better either. The family unit is broken. And decaying more every year. So you can't count on parents to motivate kids, because more and more have too many problems of their own to be proper parents these days.

No. The first touchdown, which pushed the score to 51-0, was a fumble recovered in the endzone not long after the knee on the XP at 44-0. The second touchdown, which made it 58-0, was scored by freshman Daymion Belcher on a long sideline run. Greenup County then scored on a kickoff return against a mostly freshman kickoff team to make it 58-6. Jude did not carry again after the kickoff return, either.

Well, the team IS 6-1...and has improved from game to game. In fact, this team passes the ball better than any of the last couple JC units. Plus, there are tons of underclassman getting experience this year. JC also has five consecutive district championships. So he's doing SOMETHING right with his team... I'm saying AFTER he took the knee, Jude only carried three more times. I believe he ended up with 22 carries for the game, which is certainly not an astronomical number. As for the not posting stats and rosters...he's detail oriented, but it's all football details, and very little on the sports information side (which I know irritates those who depend on sports information provided to do their jobs). I don't think that's intentional. It's just something that doesn't happen. I think he does enjoy the notoriety a bit; he does his best motivating when it's "us-vs-the-world, everybody hates us, nobody gives us a chance." A lot of what he does can't be explained by any football mind, and he stays pretty tight-lipped about it himself. Could he beat some of these teams 79-0? Oh yes. He certainly could. However, JC hasn't cracked 70 points in the Matney era, and probably never will. I also don't think it's ever recorded a shutout in the Matney era. He will play every kid on that bench if he can in a game. And develops a lot of talent that way. He did these things when no records were being chased, also, just nobody was paying attention then. Some of it at times looks questionable, I admit. Some of it leaves me scratching my head too, and I'm one of the staunchest supporters. But on the other hand, much of what he does is sportsmanlike to the extreme, and I think those aspects are underappreciated. Those who've already made up their minds, of course, will continue to believe as they already do, and no amount of reasoning will change their opinions. He's intense, he's competitive, he's definitely a polarizing figure. He loves his players and his staff like family. The players are respectful and disciplined, they work hard, and I think he helps them become better men; I've seen plenty of examples personally. About all I can say on the subject.

I believe it's a change in the culture, more than anything. Football, especially to play at the top level, requires a commitment. Not just during the season, but in the off-season as well. It requires weightlifting, conditioning, camps, studying, practicing. Today, compared to 20, or even 10 years ago, high school kids face a hugely increased number of distractions. The Internet, video games, drugs and alcohol, the growth of competing sports (especially soccer), the breakdown of the family unit. It is harder to get kids into and keep them into a time and effort-intensive sport like football than it used to be. So the talent pool is slowly declining. Not so much at the top levels; the great athletes wlll usually find their way onto a field somewhere, with lots of encouragement from outside to do so. But the kids who fill your benches and practice squads are slowly disappearing. At schools where football is traditionally emphasized, they are better at fighting this attrition, and manage to keep more kids in the programs. The schools that aren't traditionally successful feel this drain more; their numbers slip, their talent slips, support slips. You're already seeing it in Class A. Programs that used to be strong and competitive statewide are crumbling (i.e. Paintsville). There are a few A teams that I think will stay solid (Beechwood, et al), but I think you will see more and more Class A schools drop football as interest slowly disappears. And I think you'll see that slowly work its way up into bigger and bigger schools. I expect someday in the not too distant future to see interscholastic athletics fold up altogether and probably be replaced by elective community/club sports, as is done in other countries across the globe. And I'm also pretty certain that separating athletics from education would probably be for the best for both. Especially education.