Author Archive
Gabby Karas: 12 state titles and a champion’s spirit
BY MIKE FIELDS (May 1, 2017)
SHELBYVILLE — Flashback to May 23, 2014, and the KHSAA Track and Field Championships.
Collins’ freshman Gabby Karas, who won the 800- and 1,600-meter races with record-setting times earlier in the day, finishes the afternoon by adding the 3,200 title to her haul.
Karas remembers what happened next: “Everybody in the whole stadium (at UK) got quiet; everyone was waiting. And then the announcer announced I’d broken the 3,200 record, too. Everybody started screaming, and I started crying. It was crazy. It was like a magical movie moment I never thought I’d be lucky enough to have.”
The high a runner gets from an endorphin rush may be exhilarating, but it can’t match the high a runner gets from a victory rush.
Karas knows the feeling, a dozen times over. She won 12 state titles — 8 in track and 4 in cross country — in her high school career.
The last of those championships came […]
Danville’s Paul Morse still tops in baseball record book
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 20, 2017)
DANVILLE – It’s been 25 years since Paul Morse smacked his last home run, struck out his last batter and chalked up his last pitching victory for Danville High School.
Still, over the last quarter-century, nobody in the state has been able to match the career numbers posted by the former Admirals’ baseball star.
Morse still ranks No. 1 in the KHSAA record book for his prowess as a hitter (65 homers) and as a pitcher (55 wins, 651 strikeouts). He’s also tied for second place in RBI (253).
“I didn’t used to think much about it,” Morse said earlier this week. “But now that I’m getting older, I look at those numbers I put up and I’m kind of like, ‘Wow!’ It was all a little more than I thought it was.”
Morse was an accomplished multi-sport athlete at Danville.
He was a five-year starter in baseball. As an eighth-grader he was the […]
Harrison County baseball’s unimaginable loss
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 4, 2017)
CYNTHIANA — A few weeks into the high school baseball season, Harrison County has not lost a game.
But the Thorobreds don’t feel like an undefeated team.
They feel like a team that has suffered an unimaginable loss — the loss of a teammate.
Harrison County senior Brett Persinger, who had started at shortstop for the Thorobreds since he was a seventh-grader, was killed in a car accident last November. Max Ogden, another teammate, was seriously injured.
Mac Whitaker has experienced plenty of good times and bad times in 40 years as Harrison County’s baseball coach, but nothing prepared him for the tragedy that struck his team the day before Thanksgiving last fall.
Brett Persinger grew up in the Thorobreds’ program. When he was 10, he was shagging fly balls and winning over everybody with his engaging personality. His dad, Rodney, was an assistant coach.
“Knowing Brett’s family so well, and having known him […]
60 years ago: UK baseball, Stoll Field, Jim Host
Flipping through microfiche files of old newspapers is endlessly entertaining. Some story or photo always catches your eye, like the sports page (above) from the Lexington Herald 60 years ago today. It was about UK baseball. I didn’t know Harry Lancaster, Adolph Rupp’s basketball assistant, coached baseball, or that the baseball team played at Stoll Field, or that John Crigler and Jim Host were baseball teammates, or that left-handers were called port-siders . . .
Excerpted from March 29, 1957, Lexington Herald story:
Southeastern Conference defending champion Florida meets the 1956 cellar-dwelling Kentucky Wildcats on Stoll Field this afternoon at 3 o’clock in a season-opening baseball encounter expected to find the league rivals on much evener terms than a year ago when the Gators swept three contests on their home grounds by lopsided scores.
For the first of a three-game series, which finds a double-header on tap Saturday at 1 p.m., Coach Harry Lancaster of the Wildcats […]
Bowling Green basketball begins Purple reign
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 19, 2017)
D.G. Sherrill never got to attend the Sweet 16 when he was a kid growing up in Caldwell County in far western Kentucky.
“My daddy believed when my basketball season was over, it was time for me to go to work,” he said. “So I was in a welding shop when everybody else was coming to watch basketball.”
Sherrill’s first trip to watch the state tournament was in 1992 at Freedom Hall, when he was starting his coaching career as an assistant to Terry Hayes at Dawson Springs.
He remembered his less-than-luxurious accommodations in Louisville.
“(Hayes) stayed at the Hyatt, and I was out in some motor inn. I think they gave us tickets and money, but he didn’t share of that with me,” Sherrill said with a laugh.
Sherrill was in a jovial, sentimental mood Sunday afternoon as he reminisced about his early days in coaching.
He had the best […]
Jake Ohmer’s legacy a winning one
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 18, 2017)
When the KHSAA celebrates its 125th Sweet 16 in 2042, you can bet there will be high school basketball fans reminiscing about how a kid named Jake Ohmer made a name for himself in the 100th state tournament.
They’ll talk about how he was a scoring machine, and a surprisingly strong rebounder; how he flew up and down the Rupp Arena court with controlled abandon, how he made Scott – not Scott County – the talk of the town that week, and how he almost got his underdog team to the state finals.
Jake Ohmer’s storybook post-season ended Saturday night in the cruelest of ways. He missed a shot in the closing seconds that would have given Scott a stunning upset of heavily favored Bowling Green. The Purples escaped 80-79, and their Coach D.G. Sherrill said they were lucky to do so.
That’s because Sherrill knew as well as anyone […]
Sweet 16’s top scorers in back-to-back games
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2017)
Scott senior guard Jake Ohmer has put on a scoring show in his first two games in the 100th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 this week.
Ohmer created a buzz in Rupp Arena by pouring in 41 points in Scott’s first-round victory over Harlan County, and following it up with 32 in a quarterfinal win over Perry County Central.
That gives Ohmer 73 points in back-to-back games in the state tournament.
Is that a record?
It’s not even close.
“King” Kelly Coleman of Wayland set the standard with a two-game total of 96 points in 1956. He had 28 points in a semifinal loss to Carr Creek, then came back that night with 68 against Bell County in the consolation game.
Coleman totaled 89 points in the first two rounds of the ’56 tournament. He had 50 in Wayland’s opener against Shelbyville and 39 in the Wasps’ quarterfinals against Earlington.
Coleman came into the […]
Purples’ power: talent with experience
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2017)
Bowling Green took out No. 1 Scott County 68-53 in the quarterfinals of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 Friday afternoon.
“That was the best basketball team we’ve played all year, bar none,” Purples Coach D.G. Sherrill said after his team posted its 27th consecutive victory.
Bowling Green played like Rupp Arena was its home floor, which is understandable.
For talented seniors Terry Taylor and DeAngelo Wilson, this was their eighth state tournament game in the last three years, and Kyran Jones’ seventh.
Bowling Green lost to Owensboro in the 2015 finals and to eventual champion Paul Laurence Dunbar in last year’s quarterfinals.
Taylor, a fluid 6-foot-6 swingman, had 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals against Scott County. He now has 128 points and 65 rebounds in Rupp.
Wilson, a mercurial 5-10 guard, had 20 points, 5 steals and 3 rebounds. He now has 95 points in […]
Bobby Keith’s Sweet 16 legacy
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2017)
The 100th Sweet 16 celebration this week in Rupp Arena is missing one of the most important figures in Kentucky high school basketball history.
Legendary Clay County Coach Bobby Keith died last fall, leaving all those who knew him with heartache. He was a remarkable coach and remarkable man.
Keith is best known for guiding Clay County to the 1987 state championship, and runner-up finishes in 1985 and ’88.
But his personal Sweet 16 experience went back 60 years.
Keith was in the lineup for Clay County when the Tigers played Hazard in the first round of the 1957 Sweet 16 in Freedom Hall. That was the first KHSAA-sponsored state tournament after integration, and Hazard’s Bob Baker, Don Smith and Linville Wright became the first black players to play in the Sweet 16.
Keith didn’t score in the 50-47 loss to Hazard, but he was honored to have been part of […]
Collins basketball now has stories to tell
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2017)
Collins’ basketball program’s seven-year itch to win a game in the state tournament finally got scratched.
The Titans pulled away in overtime to beat Elliott County 65-57 in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 in Rupp Arena Thursday night.
It was the first state tournament victory for Collins, which was created when Shelby County was split in two high schools in 2010. The Titans also won the 8th Region in 2015, but lost their Sweet Sixteen opener to eventual state champ Owensboro.
Collins dodged a bullet — or more accurately, it got in the way of a charging Lion — in Thursday night’s win over Elliott County.
After the Titans’ Dominique Turner hit two free throws with :08.5 left, the Lions’ Korbin Spencer went the length of the court and attacked the rim. But Charlie Cochran was there to take a charge.
Collins scored the first seven points in OT and was on […]
The ‘Worm’ turned in most dynamic dunk in Sweet 16
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2017)
Perry County Central’s Damon Tobler had an impressive dunk during the Commodores’ win over Pikeville in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 on Wednesday. It was just for show, though, because the slam was erased when Tobler was whistled for a foul on the play.
Even if it had counted, however, it wouldn’t have come close to matching the most dynamic and most important state tournament dunk I can remember.
Warren Central’s Lonnell “Worm” Dewalt had the jam of all jams in the 2004 title game against defending champion Mason County.
In the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, Warren Central was clinging to a 58-54 lead when Dewalt had a rebound slam off a miss by Matt Maresca to push the margin to 60-54.
But that wasn’t the Dewalt dunk that brought down the house.
On the Dragons’ next possession, Brock Whitney missed a three-pointer and . . .
Let’s let Tim Riley, […]
Oh, my, Ohmer goes for 41 points, 17 rebounds
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 15, 2017)
Jake Ohmer was Mr. Low Key after going for 41 points, 17 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists in Scott’s 77-65 victory over Harlan County in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 Tuesday night.
It was the highest scoring performance in the state tournament since Elizabethtown’s Antwain Barbour had 42 against Russellville in 2000.
Asked how it felt to be Jake Ohmer after his star turn in Rupp Arena, the 5-foot-9 senior guard deflected the glory.
“It feels good, but I’m more glad about how our team played together and how we came out and got the win,” he said.
Coach Steve Fromeyer was quick to point out that his Eagles aren’t “Jake Ohmer and the four misfits. We have good pieces around him.”
Ohmer has a team-first attitude, too. But he’s also used to being the media darling this post-season.
The University of the Cumberlands’ commit has 145 points in Scott’s last four […]
After 60 years, Luther Blanton has ‘Sweet’ experience
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 15, 2017)
Luther Blanton had a front-row seat in Rupp Arena Wednesday night, right there on the sidelines at the end of the Harlan County bench for the Black Bears’ game against Scott in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16.
“I’ve been waiting 60 years for this,” Blanton said. “I didn’t know if it’d ever come.”
When he was a freshman at Wallins High School in Harlan County in 1957, Blanton started keeping the basketball scorebook for the Purple Devils.
In 1966, Black Star, Hall, Loyall and Wallins were consolidated into Cawood High School, and Blanton started keeping the book for the Trojans.
He stayed there until he switched his loyalty to Harlan when Billy Hicks became the coach of the Green Dragons in the early 1980s.
When Hicks left Harlan a few years later, Blanton went back to Cawood where he kept the book until it was consolidated, along with Cumberland and Evarts, to form Harlan […]
Pikeville proud: Hillard Howard
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 15, 2017)
Hillard Howard has been living in Florida the past seven years, but he’s back visiting his old Kentucky home this week for two good reasons.
Even though Pikeville lost to Perry County Central in their Sweet Sixteen opener Wednesday afternoon, Howard was proud of what the Panthers accomplished this season.
“It’s amazing, really, for Elisha to come in […]
Vogt votes for NKU over UK
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 15, 2017)
When Kentucky plays Northern Kentucky University in the first round of the NCAA tournament Friday night, there’ll be at least one TV viewer in Lexington rooting for the Norsemen to pull off an upset for the ages.
“I was a Kentucky fan growing up, but I’ve gotta cheer for NKU in this one,” Chris Vogt said.
Vogt, a 6-foot-11 senior who led Graves County to the Sweet Sixteen, signed with the NKU last fall. Vogt and his teammates lost to Bowling Green in the opening game of the state tournament on Wednesday, but they’ll stay in town the rest of the week.
That means Vogt will be looking for someplace to watch the UK-NKU game where he’s not surrounded by Big Blue fans.
“That’ll be tough, especially in Lexington,” he said with a smile.
Vogt, who averaged 16.8 points and 9.2 rebounds this season, had 8 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in Graves […]
Welcome back, Bobby Flynn
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 15, 2017)
It was great to see Bobby Flynn back in Rupp Arena on Wednesday for the 100th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16.
Flynn has been a fixture at state tournaments for more than 40 years as a volunteer, mostly working along press row.
He was noticeably absent last year, however, due to health issues. He suffered broken ribs and broken collarbone in a fall, and after recovering from those injuries, he fell again and suffered a broken back.
“I’m still hurting in my back, but I’m doing a lot better,” said Flynn, who will turn 90 this July.
Bobby’s son Doug said bringing his dad to the Sweet 16 “is the best therapy in the world for him and for all of us. His whole life has revolved around basketball. This is like family for us. We hope this gets him all pumped up and really gets him going.”
Bobby was wearing […]
Phil Cox and his ‘Loyall’ mentor, Billy Hicks
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 14, 2017)
Before Phil Cox became Vanderbilt’s all-time leading scorer in 1985, before he starred at Cawood High School and became Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball in 1981, he first realized what the game might hold for him as an eighth-grader at Loyall Junior High in Harlan County.
And he credits his eighth-grade coach, Billy Hicks, for opening his eyes to the future.
Cox and Hicks, who hadn’t seen each other in more than 25 years, traded stories about the good ol’ days Tuesday morning, before a press conference at Lexington’s Griffin Gate Marriott announcing the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame’s Centennial inductees for 2017.
Cox will be among the honorees at this summer’s ceremony in Elizabethtown. Hicks, the winningest high school coach in Kentucky history who has Scott County back in the Sweet Sixteen this week, was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year.
Cox, now the principal at Jefferson Middle School […]
Richie Farmer’s ‘Sweet’ memories
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 14, 2017)
Richie Farmer clearly recalls how his record-setting Sweet Sixteen career began in Rupp Arena 33 years ago this week.
Clay County had a big lead on Owensboro in their first-round game when Farmer, an eighth-grader, took the floor with 1:08 remaining.
Then, with the clock ticking away, “I got the ball in the middle of the floor against their press, coming down on the break, and I hit a little 12-footer in the lane (with :05 left),” Farmer said last week.
“It was a shot I’ll never forget. It was an unbelievable feeling, being a kid who grew up dreaming of playing in the state tournament in Rupp Arena, and getting to live that dream.”
Farmer, however, doesn’t remember the final shot of his Sweet Sixteen career. It came in a losing effort against Ballard in the 1988 finals in Freedom Hall.
He hit a straight-away 22-foot three-pointer with 14 seconds […]
Mercer County girls win Sweet Sixteen in style
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 12, 2017)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – When Chris Souder took over as Mercer County girls’ basketball coach 18 years ago, he allowed himself to imagine the Titans winning a state title someday.
“It’s always a dream, it’s always a goal,” he said. “But two years ago we talked about it actually being a realistic goal. If everybody would stay the course, buy into the way we wanted to play, we felt this was going to be a special bunch.”
That feeling became a reality Sunday afternoon when Mercer County beat Franklin County 85-71 in the championship game of the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen before 3,963 fans in BB&T Arena.
The Titans’ 85 points were the second most in finals history. M.C. Napier set the record with an 88-56 win over Highlands in the 1994 title game.
Mercer County (31-6) put on a dazzling display of team basketball.
All five Titans’ starters […]
Mercer County vs. Franklin County for girls’ state title
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2017)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Mercer County will play Franklin County in the championship game of the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen in BB&T Arena Sunday at 2 p.m.
Mercer County (30-6) earned a spot in the finals for the first time by beating Murray 67-60 in Saturday’s semifinals.
Franklin County (33-5) advanced to the title game by beating Holmes 51-36 in Saturday’s nightcap. The Flyers have twice been state runners-up, both times to Butler, in 1980 and last year.
Mercer County Coach Chris Souder said his program has come a long way in recent years. He remembers his Titans getting demolished by Elizabethtown 79-38 in the first round of the Sweet Sixteen in 2015.
They made a better showing last year, making it to the semifinals before losing to Franklin County 55-51.
“It’s just incredible the way this program’s evolved over […]
Mercer County’s Seygan Robins’ long road to basketball success
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2017)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – For high school basketball players, the road to success and scholarships isn’t a direct route.
It’s not a dribble drive straight to the hoop for an easy score.
The destination isn’t always the big stage of the Sweet Sixteen to compete for a big trophy, and glory for your team, school and community.
It’s a long journey with detours and disappointments. Sacrifice and hard work are constant companions.
But there’s lots of fun and friendships along the way, too, and it’s best if your family is along for the ride.
That’s the way it has been for Mercer County junior standout Seygan Robins, who’s playing in the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen this week.
Seygan and her Titan teammates are in the state tournament for the third year in a row, and they’ll play for the state championship Sunday afternoon.
For Seygan, who’s already earned a scholarship […]
Murray coach and her husband on same basketball wavelength
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 10, 2017)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – Travis Turner has been doing radio coverage of Murray High School girls’ basketball for a long time, but he had his first near-death experience Friday afternoon as he described the Tigers’ stunning 65-56 upset of defending champion and nationally ranked Butler in the quarterfinals of the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen in BB&T Arena.
“I thought I was going to die when I was on the air,” Turner said. “I’ve never been more emotional during a broadcast in my life.”
That’s because he was watching his wife, Rechelle, coach Murray’s girls to one of the biggest victories in the program’s history.
That’s right. The coach of […]
Donna Murphy’s Sweet 16 starburst
The St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen tips off today at NKU’s BB&T Arena. This is the 56th girls’ state tournament, the 43nd since the KHSAA started sponsoring the event again in 1975. While everybody agrees that girls’ basketball has come a long way since then, it should be noted that the ’75 Sweet Sixteen featured one of the state’s all-time greatest players.
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 8, 2017)
Donna Murphy, who must be included in any conversation about the best girls’ high school basketball players in Kentucky history, became a legend despite having to wait to prove herself to a statewide audience.
Murphy’s first two years of high school predated the modern era of the Girls’ Sweet Sixteen, which kept her wondrous athletic skills from being widely appreciated.
In her freshman and sophomore years at Newport, Murphy and her teammates played in the Northern Kentucky Athletic Conference, which was made up of schools in the 9th Region. There was a […]
Remembering Douglass Demons basketball
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 27, 2017)
Sixty years ago today, Henry Bell, John Burdette, Paul Price and their Douglass High School basketball teammates walked into UK’s Memorial Coliseum and made history.
On Feb. 27, 1957, Coach Charles Livisay’s Demons became the first black school to compete in Lexington’s 43rd District tournament, capping the first season of integration when black schools were allowed to compete as KHSAA members.
Bell recalled being overwhelmed by the Coliseum’s expanse. “It was just so big. I was like, ‘wow!’ Our gym at Douglass was real small; the court was only 35 x 60. A shot from the corner was only a 15-footer. A regular (high school) court was 50 x 84.
“The Coliseum was a college court so it was 10 feet longer than that. After I ran up and down it a couple times, my tongue was hanging out,” Bell said with a laugh.
Burdette remembered the Coliseum’s strange acoustics. “It was like it was soundproof,” he said. “Your […]
Dynasty of dynasties: St. X swimming & diving
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 22, 2017)
LOUISVILLE — St. Xavier’s swimming and diving program is the greatest dynasty in the history of Kentucky high school sports. Its state championship numbers are as overwhelming as a tsunami: 52 team, 146 individual and 75 relay titles.
The Tigers will be going for their 29th team title in a row when the KHSAA Swimming and Diving Championships are held at the University of Louisville’s Ralph Wright Natatorium this weekend. If they win, they will tie the boys’ national record for consecutive state titles shared by Honolulu (Hawaii) Punahou (1958-86) and Jacksonville (Fla.) Bolles (1988-2016).
The Carmel (Ind.) girls set the overall record with their 30th in a row last year.
St. X Coach Todd Larkin said the secret to the Tigers’ sustained dominance is they don’t let past successes adversely affect present pursuits.
“Our students respect the tradition — you can’t really avoid talking about […]
R.I.P., Mike Wainscott, multi-sport coach in Lexington
Mike Wainscott, who coached in Fayette County public schools for 38 years, passed away Feb. 17, 2017. He was 67. Here’s what I wrote about him for the Lexington Herald-Leader upon his retirement in May, 2012.
BY MIKE FIELDS
Mike Wainscott has been a high school coach in Lexington for so long his career has spanned seven U.S. presidents. His longevity might be better appreciated by sports fans if it was noted that Wainscott’s first season on the sidelines came five years before ESPN was launched.
Wainscott started as a football assistant at Tates Creek in 1974. He’s been involved in at least one sport in Fayette County public schools ever since. But Wainscott, who has coached softball at Paul Laurence Dunbar the last 15 seasons, is ready to call it quits.
“I still enjoy the heck out of it, but it’s just time,” said Wainscott, 62. “I could keep going, but something’s telling me […]
Saluting Dominic Black, state’s most decorated wrestler
“It was such an amazing journey. The life lessons I learned from wrestling, I wish everybody could have those experiences. I mean, I filled up two passports traveling the world and having people cheer for me in languages I can’t even speak. That’s a great thing. But that’s sports.” — U.S. Army Major Dominic Black
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 14, 2017)
FORT KNOX — Dominic Black clearly remembers the first wrestling match he won as a new-to-the-mat sophomore at Henry Clay High School more than 30 years ago.
“I was probably just as nervous or scared as my opponent,” he recalled last week. “We go out, get into this tussle, I lock up a cradle and we roll around. I come out on top and pin this guy, and I’m like, ‘That felt great!’ At that point I decided I was going to stay the course and keep wrestling.”
Keep wrestling he did, for another 20 years, and along […]
State’s top scorer has game, fame, new name
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 9, 2017)
When you’ve just put up a monster triple-double in a ridiculously high-scoring comeback victory, you have every right to request that people call you by any name you choose.
After Lawrence County basketball star Timmy Dalton poured in a school-record 60 points to go with 15 rebounds and 10 assists in a 106-103 victory at Greenup County Monday night, the 6-foot-3 senior asked the media if they would henceforth refer to him as Tim Dalton.
“’Timmy’ makes me seem like I’m young; ‘Tim’ sounds older,” he said lightheartedly in a telephone interview Wednesday.
You can also call Tim Dalton one of the most prolific scorers in Kentucky boys’ basketball in quite a while.
Dalton has 1,039 points in 27 games this season for a 38.5 average. No boys’ player in the state has scored that much since Chris Harrison of Tollesboro averaged 39.4 points for the 1990-91 season.
(Ervin Stepp […]
‘Corn’ captured best of high school sports
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 3, 2017)
Kentucky high school sports is losing a friend. Photographer Mark Cornelison is leaving the Herald-Leader for a job at the University of Kentucky.
“Corn” worked at the newspaper for more than 20 years, and he brought a sharp eye, imagination and enthusiasm to illustrating the games, players and coaches in high school sports.
He shot countless regular-season and playoff games, and was on the sidelines for dozens of championships. He always did his best to capture the key moments, and he almost always succeeded.
Mark and I made a lot of road trips together. The best times were to shoot the covers for our preseason basketball and football special sections. Our destinations included Boyle County (Coach Chuck Smith and linebacker Lamar Dawson); Leslie County (Tim Couch); Louisville (Brian Brohm); Mason County (Chris Lofton and Darius Miller), and Northern Kentucky (Drew Barker).
Mark’s most memorable cover shot, however, came right here in Lexington in 2000. We met Bryan Station […]
Don Lane, aka Donnie Lane, sharpshooter
BY MIKE FIELDS (Feb. 1, 2017)
For all he’s done for young people, Hall of Fame basketball coach Don Lane will receive the Jim Host Youth Sports Award at the Bluegrass Sports Commission’s annual banquet tonight at the Lexington Convention Center.
Lane led Transylvania to 509 victories in his 26 years as coach. He retired after leading the Pioneers to a No. 1 national ranking in 2001. His son Brian succeeded him as Transy’s coach.
Don Lane has been inducted into the Kentucky Basketball Hall of Fame, the Transylvania Athletic Hall of Fame and the Union College Athletic Hall of Fame.
Don Lane first earned notice as Donnie Lane — a high school hotshot at Versailles.
He had a career-high 38 points as junior in a 63-59 victory over Georgetown on Feb. 2, 1960.
(His accomplishment was noted in the Lexington Herald a couple days later in an article written by a young sports writer named Billy Reed. Yes, the same Billy Reed who […]
Bowling Green’s swagger of success
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 31, 2017)
The Everly Brothers had a top-40 hit in 1967 in which they sang about how “a man in Kentucky sure is lucky to live down in Bowling Green.”
Fifty years later, Kevin Wallace and D.G. Sherrill admit they are lucky men as they oversee powerhouse sports programs at Bowling Green High School.
Wallace, the Purples football coach, has had the winningest program in the state over the last six years. Bowling Green has won five Class 5A championships in that span while winning 84 of 87 games. Starting in 2011, it reeled off 48 victories in a row, and it currently owns a 27-game winning streak.
The Purples also have had two of the last four Mr. Football winners in Nacarius Fant and Jamale Carothers.
Sherrill, the boys’ basketball coach at Bowling Green, has guided the Purples to the Sweet Sixteen five of the past six years. They were state runners-up to Owensboro in 2015, made the final four […]
Cliff Hagan played for Owensboro one week, UK the next
Sports Illustrated’s Seth Davis wrote a column last week stating the case for high school (and prep school) basketball players getting the jump on their college careers by enrolling in college at midseason. It’s hardly a new idea, as Cliff Hagan will attest.
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 26, 2017)
Cliff Hagan made his debut as a University of Kentucky basketball player on this date 67 years ago. On Jan. 26, 1950, Hagan had 9 points in 19 minutes of action as UK’s freshman team beat Xavier’s freshmen 59-46 in Cincinnati.
What’s remarkable about that bit of trivia is that only five days earlier Hagan played his last high school game. On Jan. 21, 1950, he had 27 points to lead defending state champion Owensboro to a 58-39 victory over Manual in Louisville.
Hagan graduated from Owensboro at mid-term and became one of Adolph Rupp’s most prized recruits.
“I realized all at once it was my last high school game, […]
Kyle Moore: Mom had a mean hook shot
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 23, 2017)
Forty-two years ago today — Jan. 23, 1975 — Buckhorn basketball star Peggy Gay had 74 points in a 136-20 victory over Oneida Baptist.
It was a historic performance for Gay – she set a state scoring record for girls that night, and her 74 points still rank No. 2 on the state’s all-time list for girls behind Geri Grigsby’s 81 points – but it was only a small sample of her basketball greatness.
A remarkably skilled 5-foot-9 senior, Gay averaged 34.6 points and 16.0 rebounds that year (the first season the KHSAA reintroduced girls’ basketball), and was voted first-team all-state by the Lexington Herald-Leader. Stanley Caudill, her coach, described Gay as “a real fireball.”
Gay went on to become a standout at Eastern Kentucky University. She was the program’s first 1,000-point scorer, and finished her career with 1,696 points.
One college highlight for Gay came in the season opener of her senior year when […]
Roy Bowling ushered girls’ basketball into modern era
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 18, 2017)
LONDON – The most influential coach in the history of girls’ high school basketball in Kentucky, whose early string of state championships prodded other schools to take the sport seriously, didn’t exactly jump at the chance to help usher the girls’ game into the modern era.
Roy Bowling had coached boys’ basketball at Hazel Green, and boys’ basketball and baseball at London, and he was the baseball coach at Laurel County when superintendent Hayward Gilliam called him into his office one day and asked if he would start up their girls’ basketball program after the KHSAA reintroduced the sport in 1974.
Bowling didn’t have to think about it. “You’re out of your mind!” he told Gilliam.
After all, Bowling’s first love was baseball – he had pitched for Georgetown College (his arsenal included a wicked curveball), and his Laurel County baseball team was on the brink of a run to the […]
Fraley’s coaching career comes full circle at Powell County
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 10, 2017)
STANTON – A large black-and-white photograph hangs in Powell County’s gym, forever preserving the Pirates in all their glory, moments after they won the 14th Region basketball title for the first time in 1974.
Several players have arms raised in triumph, fingers jabbing No. 1 into the air. A few players look sweaty and exhausted, but delighted. The cheerleaders, sitting in front, are all smiles. The championship trophy is at the feet of the young head coach, who is glancing off to the side with a bemused look, as if he can’t quite grasp what his team has just accomplished that night at Breathitt County.
More than four decades later, Dave Fraley, the head coach in the photo, still gets excited when he talks about that 1974 team, led by Steven Kisner and James Goodwin, what the region title meant to the people of Powell County, and what it meant to him as he embarked on […]
Transy’s all Bluegrass-bred basketball roster
BY MIKE FIELDS (Jan. 6, 2017)
When Transylvania men’s basketball coach Brian Lane gathered his team for their first preseason get-together last summer, there was really no need to introduce the new players to the holdovers.
They were already pretty familiar with each because they are all graduates of Kentucky high school hoops.
Two dozen colleges in Kentucky have men’s and women’s basketball programs – from big schools like UK and Louisville, to little ones like Asbury and Brescia — but of those 48 rosters, only one is made up entirely of home-grown players.
That is the Transylvania men’s team. All 16 players were basketball-bred in the Bluegrass State.
“It’s not by design, but we do try to do a good job (recruiting) in Kentucky,” Lane said.
The Transy roster is comprised of players from nine regions, stretching from the 2nd in Western Kentucky to the 15th and 16th in Eastern Kentucky. They come from state-championship certified programs […]
King of the Bluegrass still reigns as top holiday tourney
BY MIKE FIELDS (Dec. 19, 2016)
LOUISVILLE – The King of the Bluegrass has reigned as the best high school holiday basketball tournament in Kentucky — and one of the best in the nation — for 36 years now.
It was the brainchild of then-Fairdale Coach Stan Hardin and assistant Lloyd Gardner, who came up with the idea on the bus ride home after the Bulldogs played in a Christmastime tournament in Ocala, Fla., in 1980.
“My philosophy was, if they could have a tournament like that in Florida, which isn’t a basketball state, we should be able to do it in Louisville,” Hardin recalled.
“We decided right then to put it together,” Gardner said.
They went to the Fairdale administration and got the go-ahead, as long as it didn’t cost the school anything. Hardin went looking for a sponsor, found RC Cola, and the tournament became a reality.
The inaugural King of the Bluegrass Holiday […]
Johnson Central celebrates first football title
BY MIKE FIELDS (Dec. 4, 2016)
BOWLING GREEN — It ain’t over till it’s over, they say, but Johnson Central football coach Jim Matney seemed pretty sure his Golden Eagles were winging their way toward championship glory when he giddily jumped up and down along the sidelines after his team took a 36-0 lead over Franklin-Simpson late in the first half of Sunday’s Russell Athletic/KHSAA Class 4A finals.
That meant there would be a running clock the entire second half on this cold, damp evening, and Johnson Central and its fans wouldn’t have to wait as long to start celebrating the county’s first state football title.
For the fifth straight week of the playoffs, Johnson Central mercy-ruled its opponent into submission. The Eagles wound up pile-driving Franklin-Simpson 48-0 in the finale at WKU’s L.T. Smith Stadium.
“This means everything to our kids,” Matney said. “I’m very thankful, very humbled. This is important to our county and for everybody that ever put […]
Belfry vs. Central has a (championship) ring to it
BY MIKE FIELDS (Dec. 3, 2016)
BOWLING GREEN — When Belfry Coach Philip Haywood and Louisville Central Coach Ty Scroggins met at midfield before Saturday night’s Russell Athletic/KHSAA Class 3A finals, they shook hands, exchanged warm smiles, and neither of them said, “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
On the contrary, this is why they and their players pour their hearts and souls into football.
There are more traditional high school rivalries in Kentucky, but none of them can match the championship cachet that comes with Belfry-Central.
“A lot of other rivalries, like St. X-Trinity or Male-Manual, they play every year,” Scroggins said earlier this week. “But the only way we play this rivalry game is if both programs get to the state finals. We get to play for a trophy; we get to play for a ring, and that makes it extra special.”
Over the last 10 years, Belfry vs. Central has almost become a first-weekend-in-December annual event in WKU’s L.T. Smith […]
Is Philip Haywood’s win record untouchable?
BY MIKE FIELDS (Dec. 1, 2016)
Football coaches Mark Brown of Elizabethtown and Larry French of Southwestern reached the 300-victory milestone this season, joining an exclusive club that isn’t as exclusive as it once was.
In 2005, when Bob Schneider of Newport Central Catholic became the first coach in the state to get to 300 wins, it seemed he had ascended into rarefied air.
Flash ahead to today and Philip Haywood of Belfry sits atop the mountain with 416 (!) victories. Below him are eight coaches with more than 300 wins, including newcomers Brown and French.
Hard to believe that 30 years ago Bardstown’s Garnis Martin became the state’s all-time winningest coach when he got his 250th victory.
There have been several changes at the top since then.
Walter Brugh of Paintsville went by Martin in 1993.
Joe Jaggers of North Hardin surpassed Brugh in 1997.
Schneider took over at No. 1 in 2005, and Dudley Hilton, in his last season at Bell County, tied Schneider […]
50th anniversary of Dayton High’s football title
BY MIKE FIELDS (Nov. 26, 2016)
It was 50 years ago today — Nov. 26, 1966 — that Dayton High School stunned Russellville 6-2 to win the Class A football title at UK’s Stoll Field.
Dayton hadn’t been to the state finals before, and it hasn’t been there since.
Russellville came into the championship game undefeated (11-0) and a solid favorite to handle the Greendevils (9-3). One big reason: Russellville’s linemen outweighed Dayton’s by an average of more than 30 pounds.
The Panthers’ Henry Noe and Donnie Bagget blocked a Dayton punt out of the end zone midway through the second quarter to give Russellville a 2-0 lead.
Ironically, Coach Ray King’s Greendevils wound up winning the game on the same kind of play.
Early in the fourth quarter Dayton’s Jerry Brooks blocked a Russellville punt — his fifth block of the season — and teammate John Fowee picked up the loose ball and returned it 8 yards for a TD.
It […]
Dennis Johnson and the good ol’ days of multi-sport athletes
BY MIKE FIELDS (Nov. 17, 2016)
In this day of specialization among high school athletes, who are prodded by their parents and coaches to devote all their time and energy to one sport lest a college scholarship (or possibly a pro contract) eludes them, let us remember Dennis Johnson.
Johnson excelled in football, basketball and track & field at Harrodsburg High School from 1994-98 because, first and foremost, he was an exceptional talent. He had size, strength, a surplus of God-given abilities and a never-quit work ethic. (He also showed lots of promise as a hard-throwing pitcher, but he gave up baseball to concentrate on track & field.)
But just as important, he had a father/coach who believed it was beneficial for kids to play more than one sport.
“Absolutely,” says Alvis Johnson, who coached his sons Dennis and Derrick in football and track & field at Harrodsburg. “At that age, kids should play every sport they can because they really […]
Jake Johnson catches, passes John Cole, keeps state receiving record local
BY MIKE FIELDS (Nov. 9, 2016)
Former Somerset football star John Cole was visiting family in his hometown last week when he heard the news that current Pulaski County star Jake Johnson had broken his state record for career receiving yards the previous Friday night.
Was Cole, a Briar Jumper for life, OK with having an arch-rival Maroon eclipse his numbers?
“Yes, 100 percent,” he said. “It’s exciting. It’s great to keep it in the county. I’m happy for Jake.”
Johnson, a 6-foot, 178-pound senior, broke James Quick’s state record for career receptions in Pulaski County’s first game this season. Quick, who played at Trinity from 2009-12, had 280 catches. Johnson has obliterated that mark. He has 369 receptions going into Friday night’s playoff game against Whitley County.
Breaking Cole’s career yardage mark of 4,981 took a little longer, but Johnson did it in the regular-season finale against Bourbon County. He has since upped his total to 5,044.
“Over 5,000 […]
Jimmie Reed: a football lifer
BY MIKE FIELDS (Nov. 4, 2016)
Jimmie Reed attended a powder-puff football game in Louisville a couple weeks ago.
He wasn’t on the sidelines coaching, or on the field afterward handing out awards. He was there to cheer on one of his granddaughters.
It goes to show how Jimmie Reed’s life is still infused with football. It’s part of his make-up, and has been since he first put on a helmet and pads in the early 1960s as a grade-schooler in Springfield, Ky.
Reed quit playing football 44 years ago, and quit coaching it 22 years ago, but he never quit the game. He’s still active as a fan, administrator and advocate.
“When I played football, I loved the camaraderie and how much it taught me,” Reed, 65, said recently. “Once I got into coaching, I had the opportunity to influence kids and have them enjoy that same kind of camaraderie and that same kind of experience.
[…]Justin Thomas latest Kentuckian to cash in on PGA Tour
BY MIKE FIELDS (Oct. 28. 2016)
Justin Thomas won the CIMB Classic in Malaysia last week, successfully defending his title in Kuala Lumpur.
Thomas is showing lots of early promise on the PGA Tour. When the Louisvillian won the CIMB Classic last year he was only 22 — the youngest Kentuckian ever to win on tour. J.B. Holmes was 23 when he won for the first time.
Thomas is the seventh former KHSAA state champ to win on the PGA Tour, following in the footsteps of Gay Brewer, Frank Beard, Bobby Nichols, Russ Cochran, Kenny Perry and Holmes.
Here’s how Kentuckians have fared on the PGA Tour over the years, including how old they were when they won for the first time:
- Kenny Perry (Lone Oak, WKU) was 30 when he got the first of his 14 victories on the PGA Tour. He has $39 million in career earnings, including the Champions Tour.
- Bobby NIchols (St. Xavier, Texas A&M) was 25 […]
Beth Bates got her foot in the door of football history
BY MIKE FIELDS (Oct. 26, 2016)
It’s been more than 30 years since Beth Bates kicked her way into Kentucky high school football’s history books, but she’s still occasionally reminded of her headline-grabbing days at Williamsburg High School.
“People bring it up, so it comes back around every so often,” Bates said recently. “And I have told my kids about it. They know the story.”
As a junior at Williamsburg in 1982, she booted five extra points for the Yellow Jackets to become, as far as anybody could document, the first girl in the state to ever score points in football.
In her senior season, Bates became the first girl to kick a field goal in state history when she connected on a 22-yarder for Williamsburg in a 12-3 loss to Lynn Camp.
Even though she garnered lots of attention in those ground-breaking days, Bates didn’t see herself as a pioneer.
“At the time, it was just […]
For Belfry ‘stat man’ Bennett West, it’s not just a numbers game
BY MIKE FIELDS (Oct. 20, 2016)
Ask Bennett West when he began keeping the scorebook and statistics for the Belfry boys’ basketball team and he answers without hesitation.
“It was at Virgie, November 30, 1978. We lost 106-79,” he says, deftly pulling the place, date and score from his mental encyclopedia.
In the 38 years since, West has expanded his role as Belfry’s “stat man.” He is now also involved in Pirates’ baseball, football, softball, girls’ basketball, soccer and volleyball.
Last week West logged his 3,000th game as Belfry’s stat man when the Pirates played in a volleyball tournament in West Virginia.
You read that right. He’s kept stats for 3,000 high school sporting events. And he has the scorebooks, notebooks and stat sheets to prove it.
“People ask me how much I get paid for this, and the answer to that queston is nothing,” West said. “But the love and respect I have for the students and […]
Todd Bretz the constant in Dunbar’s soccer success
BY MIKE FIELDS (Oct. 11, 2016)
Todd Bretz was only 24 when he signed on to coach boys’ soccer at Paul Laurence Dunbar when it opened in 1990.
Jon Akers, Dunbar’s first principal, had to find more than a dozen head coaches to staff the sports programs at the new high school, and he remembers that Bretz was “by far” his youngest and most inexperienced hire.
But Akers saw something in him.
“I could tell right away Todd had a passion for soccer,” Akers recalled recently. “But what I liked about him more than anything, he was going to discipline his players to work hard and be sportsmen.”
Akers’ new coaches also included Mike Meighan (football), Frank Watson (boys’ basketball) and Jud Brown (girls’ basketball). “They were all quality people who loved kids, but they had a tough love to make sure the kids behaved themselves and worked as a team, not as individuals.
“That’s what I saw in Todd, and […]
RIP, Bobby Keith: Clay County icon; basketball genius
Bobby Keith, who guided Clay County to the 1987 Sweet Sixteen championship and was regarded as one of the greatest basketball coaches in state history, passed away Oct. 5, 2016, after suffering a heart attack. He was 75.
Keith was an absolute basketball genius. He guided his beloved Clay County Tigers for 27 seasons, leading them to 18 (!) 13th Region titles. His 767 career victories are fifth on the state’s all-time list. He had a career record of 767-125 (86%).
Keith was a media favorite because he was always cooperative and always a good quote. After Clay County beat Ballard in overtime to win the state title in 1987, he quipped: “I was hoping so bad I could win one before I gave it up because these things are harder to come by than chicken teeth!”
I wrote this profile of Keith for the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1988 at the height of Clay County’s success. The […]
Jeff McGill has helped nuture state golf tradition
BY MIKE FIELDS (Oct. 4, 2016)
BOWLING GREEN – An hour into a conversation with Jeff McGill about all things golf, including his views on the virtues the game teaches and his memories of winning the 1969 state title, he states the obvious: “I fall into the category of being a traditionalist.”
McGill, the pro at Bowling Green County Club, has certainly done his part to nurture the tradition of the Leachman Buick-GMC-Cadillac/KHSAA State Golf Championships by helping to host the event for more than 10 years.
“Growing the game is the reason I get up in the morning,” McGill said.
Early October is one of McGill’s favorite times of the year because more than 300 high school golfers come to his course to determine the girls’ and boys’ team and individual state golf champions.
McGill sees the future of the game — and society — in their faces.
“When I speak or make a presentation to […]
Charles Hurt: a Shelby County Rocket to remember
BY MIKE FIELDS (Sept. 21, 2016)
Charles Hurt, who died last week at age 55 after a long battle with leukemia, is being remembered for his basketball playing days at Kentucky.
But Hurt played his best basketball at Shelby County, where he was a two-time all-stater and helped the Rockets win the 1978 state title. He hit one of the most memorable shots in Sweet Sixteen history in the championship game against Holmes.
“You couldn’t speak any higher of his character, the way he worked and the way he felt about his team,” said Tom Creamer, who coached Hurt at Shelby County. “In the four years I had him, I don’t remember him complaining about anything. He was just a very unique person, a fine young man.
“He had a lot of talent, but what always impressed me about Charles was that he didn’t want any limelight on him. He wanted it to be on the team. […]
Rachel Sanford: for the love of running
BY MIKE FIELDS (Sept. 13, 2016)
LOUISVILLE — Rachel Sanford was never chasing glory or records or celebrity when she was winning an unprecedented five consecutive KHSAA state cross country titles, a remarkable streak of success that began in 1993 when she was only 10 years old.
“I was just out there having fun, enjoying running and being with my family,” she said recently. “It was never really about the winning. It was about the overall experience.”
Now, some 20 years later, Rachel Sanford DeJarnatt can better understand the buzz she created as a wunderkind. On a restaurant patio near her home in Louisville, where she lives with her husband Dee and their two children (2-year-old Andrew and 6-week old Eleanor), Rachel sifted through a box of newspaper and magazine clippings and photos from her time as a childhood champion.
She remembers being upset the day she had to interrupt her recess at Southern Elementary in Somerset to have her […]
Lynch East Main: once king of the hills and state
BY MIKE FIELDS (Sept. 6, 2016)
LYNCH – Dig into the history of Kentucky high school football and one shiny nugget you’ll uncover is that the first official state champion hailed from this tiny coal town deep in the hills of Harlan County.
It was a cold, snowy afternoon on November 28, 1959, when Lynch East Main, led by Johnny Powell’s 225 rushing yards and Adam “Bull” Hoiska’s three touchdowns, throttled Henderson Douglass 40-0 at UK’s Stoll Field to win the Class A state title.
It was the first year the Kentucky High School Athletic Association sponsored playoffs in football.
It was also the start of a dynasty for Coach Ed Miracle’s Bulldogs, who reached the Class A finals five years in a row, and eight times in 13 years. They won four championships and were kings of the mountains . . . and the state.
[…]
Under Beatty, Trinity is 15-0 against Lexington teams
BY MIKE FIELDS (Sept. 2, 2016)
When Lafayette plays host to Trinity in high school football tonight, the Generals will try to end Lexington’s 16-year streak of futility against Bob Beatty’s Shamrocks.
The last time a Lexington team beat Trinity was in 1999 when Eric Shelton ran roughshod through the Rocks’ defense in leading Bryan Station to a 31-21 playoff victory in Louisville.
That was Kevin Wright’s last year as Trinity’s coach. Beatty took over in 2000, and since then the Rocks have gone 15-0 against Lexington competition. Most of the games have been lopsided, including Trinity’s 70-14 rout of Lafayette last season.
Here’s how the Rocks have dominated Lexington since 2000 (* denotes playoff game):
2000
- 45-10 over Henry Clay*
- 52-21 over Tates Creek*
2001
- 50-0 over Tates Creek*
2002
- 49-7 over Dunbar*
2003
- 25-13 over Dunbar*
2005
- 41-20 over Henry Clay*
2006
- […]
Perfect match: Ron Kordes & Assumption volleyball
BY MIKE FIELDS (Aug. 29, 2016)
LOUISVILLE – When Ron Kordes was hired to coach volleyball at Assumption in 1989, then-principal Karen Russ asked how long he thought he might lead the Rockets’ program.
“I told her, ‘Let’s do it a year at a time, and as long as I’m enjoying it, we’ll continue on,’” Kordes recently remembered.
“Now here I am 28 years later and I’m still enjoying it.”
Talk about a perfect match.
Under Kordes’ direction, Assumption volleyball has been one of the most successful and dominant programs in the history of the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
The Rockets have won 19 state titles and been named national champions four times in the last 24 years. Starting in 1995, they won eight consecutive state titles and fashioned a remarkable 174-game winning streak against Kentucky competition.
Kordes should notch his 1,000th career victory in the next week or two. (His win total is currently 990.)
Not bad for […]
My, oh, Myra; Kentucky’s only 4-time golf champ
“What I like about golf, and the reason I think kids should play golf, is because it’s an individual sport that requires you to gain control over your emotions, develops your critical thinking skills, your conceptual thinking skills, and your discipline.
“Golf is never the same. There’s no way ever to get bored with it, ever. It’s an elusive challenge you’re always chasing. To be able to gain control over a projectile flying through the air is pretty cool. If you can curve it, hit it straight, hit it low, hit it high, it’s almost like being a magician. It’s just an awesome thing to do.”
— Myra Van Hoose Blackwelder
BY MIKE FIELDS (Aug. 25, 2016)
When Myra Van Hoose’s parents gave her a set of golf clubs when she was in junior high, she had no idea the gift would profoundly shape the rest of her life, personally and […]
Jack and Joe Morris, football’s top father-son coaching duo
BY MIKE FIELDS (Aug. 22, 2016)
MAYFIELD – The first family of Mayfield High School football includes the most successful father-son coaching duo in the history of Kentucky high school football.
Between them, Jack and Joe Morris have been part of the Cardinals’ program for almost six decades – including a combined 42 years as head coach, during which time they’ve accumulated 454 victories, 18 trips to the state finals, 10 state championships, and zero losing seasons.
Jack first arrived at Mayfield in 1959 as a student teacher, then joined the football staff as an assistant the next year. He left for an assistant’s job at Paducah Tilghman in 1968 but returned to Mayfield in 1969 to take over as head coach.
In 24 years as boss of the Cards, Jack had a record of 254-50-2, highlighted by four state titles (1977 ’78, ’85, ’86).
His son’s coaching career is following the same arc of […]
‘Granddaddy’ Rec Bowl has unmatched history
BY MIKE FIELDS (Aug. 19, 2016)
The headline above tells you the result of the first Recreation Bowl played in Mount Sterling on Nov. 11, 1948. It was a Thursday night, and after Somerset, led by running backs Dickie Holmes and Dick Mitchell, thumped previously unbeaten Evarts 27-0 in front of 4,000 spectators, University of Kentucky football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant awarded Bill Clark’s Briar Jumpers the winners’ trophy.
(Somerset didn’t have much time to celebrate because on Friday it traveled to Bardstown and played St. Joe Prep. The Jumpers won, 35-0. Two games, two victories, in 24 hours.)
In 1948, the Recreation Bowl was the only bowl in Kentucky. It was started as a fundraiser for the Montgomery County swimming pool fund.
How times have changed.
About 100 Kentucky high school football teams will usher in the […]
Can McCracken County end 1st Region title drought
BY MIKE FIELDS (June 17, 2016)
McCracken County will continue its quest to end a 56-year title drought for the 1st Region when the Rawlings/KHSAA State Baseball Tournament resumes tonight with the final four at Whitaker Bank Ballpark.
The semifinal matchups have McCracken County (37-5) taking on St. Xavier (27-12) at 6 p.m., followed by Bullitt East (28-10) playing Campbell County (28-10).
The last 1st Region team to win a state baseball title was Paducah Tilghman in 1960. Since then region has had four state runners-up: Lone Oak in 1963, Paducah Tilghman in 1970 and 1974, and Murray in 1979.
St. X, the 7th Region champ, won its sixth state title just two years ago. The Tigers also won it all in 1942, 1945, 1949, 1951 and 1981.
Bullitt East, out of the 6th Region, is […]
Old scorebooks, part 10 — Future big-leaguers in ’94 final four
Between them, Scott Downs and Brad Wilkerson played major league baseball for more than 20 years, which tells you something about the star power they brought to the high school baseball final four in 1994.
Downs was an undefeated senior lefthanded pitcher for Pleasure Ridge Park. Wilkerson was an undefeated junior lefthanded pitcher and standout center fielder for Apollo.
Before the semifinals, PRP Coach Bill Miller and Apollo Coach Bob Mantooth had to decide when to use their aces.
Miller sent Downs to the mound for the Panthers in their semifinal matchup with Lexington Catholic, and he threw a three-hitter and struck out 15 as PRP beat Dom Fucci’s Knights 3-1. Downs improved to 13-0 on the season, with 175 K’s in 80 innings. (He finished his career 24-0.)
Mantooth tried to save Wilkerson, who had an 11-0 record and 0.71 ERA, for the finals. The strategy failed. Error-plagued Apollo lost to Corbin 5-4 in the semifinals. Wilkerson, who brought […]
Old scorebooks, part 9 — PRP’s amazing comeback 20 years ago
Yogi Berra’s quip that “It ain’t over till it’s over” resonated 20 years ago when Pleasure Ridge Park rallied to beat Harrison County in the state baseball semifinals, and went on to win its third consecutive state championship.
PRP was on the brink of defeat when it trailed 5-2 in the top of the seventh with two outs and nobody. Then everything went haywire for Harrison County.
PRP’s Brad Williams was hit by a pitch and Matt Jarboe walked. Troy Hilpp’s single drove in Williams to make it 5-3. Matt Fox followed with a smash to center field that was just out of the reach of Harrison County’s Paul Roberts. Fox wound up with a two-run triple that tied it 5-5.
Harrison County showed lots of grit. Despite the devastating turn of events, the Thorobreds loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t cash in, but […]
Old scorebooks, part 8: Little ol’ Paintsville beats the big boys
When Paintsville won the Sweet Sixteen championship in 1996, the Tigers showed that a Class A-size school could compete with the big boys in basketball and come out on top.
Big deal.
Paintsville had already proved that point in baseball six years earlier when it won the state title, knocking off big-city schools Pleasure Ridge Park and Tates Creek in the final four at UK’s Shively Field.
Coach Charlie Adkins’ Tigers, who were runners-up to Lafayette in 1989, finished the job in 1990.
They beat PRP 5-0 in the semifinals as Walt Crace blanked the Panthers on five hits.
Paintsville came back the next day and whipped Tates Creek 10-4. The Tigers erupted for six runs in the fourth inning, with Matt Williams and Jeremy Holbrook contributing RBI hits. Billy Phelps and Tucker Howard added solo home runs later in the game.
Mickey VanHoose (9-0) got the victory for Paintsville, with relief help from Howard.
Tates Creek pitcher Marcus Robinson (11-1) suffered his first loss of the year. […]
Old scorebooks, part 7: LexCath wins title with ace Michael dealing victories
Lexington Catholic, led by the standout pitching of Mark Michael, beat Pleasure Ridge Park 4-2 in nine innings to win its first state baseball championship in 1999.
Michael had a sensational senior season, going 14-0 with a 1.30 ERA and exhibiting remarkable control — he had 98 strikeouts and only 9 walks in 77 innings.
In the title game against PRP, he surrendered two runs in the first but blanked the Panthers the rest of the way. On the day he gave up five hits, struck out five, walked two and hit one batter.
“I was really tired but I just kept throwing strikes,” Michael said after the victory at UK’s Cliff Hagan Stadium.
John Hogan had the game-winning hit — a two-run double in the ninth that drove in Andy Foster and Joey Wilson. Andrew Levenson had a sacrifice fly in the third that drove in Nate Heiple. Wilson’s solo homer in the fourth tied the game 2-2.
PRP loaded the bases with two outs in the […]
Old scorebooks, part 6 — Eddie Brooks’ homer binge
Bryan Station baseball coach Eddie Brooks was a star in his playing days at Lafayette. He was a slick-fielding sophomore infielder who batted ninth on the Generals’ 1989 state championship team.
But Brooks wielded a dangerous bat at the bottom of the order, and he showed plenty of power at the plate in the playoffs that year.
He smacked three home runs — two in one inning! — in Lafayette’s 22-0 rout of Franklin County in the region semifinals. Brooks hit a 2-run homer in the fourth, then belted a solo shot and a 3-run dinger in the sixth to highlight a 15-run uprising by Lafayette.
Exactly one week later, Brooks hit a pair of two-run homers against Danville ace Paul Morse in the sectional semifinals at Somerset as the Generals won 11-1.
What made Brooks’ post-season power display surprising was that he hit only one home run during the regular season.
Brooks went on to have a standout career at UK, and after his […]
Old scorebooks, part 5: Harrison County’s breakthrough state title
When Harrison County and Pleasure Ridge Park met in the 1993 baseball finals, both programs were looking for their first state championship after twice being bridesmaids.
Harrison County was runner-up in 1984 and 1987; PRP was runner-up in 1982 and 1985.
The 1993 championship game would mark the beginning of state domination by the two schools. They would combine to win the next 6 state titles — Harrison County in 1993, 1997 and 1998; PRP in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
(PRP added titles in 2008 and 2013. Harrison County captured another championship in 2010. All that success has helped make their coaches the winningest in state history. PRP’s Bill Miller is first with 1,092 victories; Harrison County’s Mac Whitaker is second with 1,064.)
Harrison County’s breakthrough win in ’93 was remarkable in that it finished its championship run with 32 consecutive shutout innings and 68 consecutive errorless innings.
Thorobreds’ second baseman Brent Hampton explained the team’s flawless fielding after the win over PRP: “Catches on, just like […]
Old scorebooks, part 4: Franklin County’s upset for the ages
I’ve witnessed a lot of upsets over the last 40+ years, and my memory of most of them is blurry. One upset that is still clear — and still shocking — came in baseball 23 years ago this week.
On May 25, 1993, defending state champion and No. 1-ranked Lafayette, boasting a star-studded lineup and a 33-5 record, lost to unranked Franklin County, sporting a 14-21 record, in the first round of the 11th Region baseball tournament at EKU.
Franklin County trailed 4-1 with two outs and nobody on in the bottom of the seventh inning, but then the world turned upside down and the Flyers rallied for a 5-4 victory.
“Miracle is the only word to describe it,” winning pitcher Billy Taylor said after the game.
“Yes, I guess it was a miracle,” added Franklin County Coach Ben Zimmerman.
After Lafayette scored three runs […]
Old scorebooks, part 3: Pelphrey, Lorenzen, Smith played baseball, too
They aren’t remembered as baseball players, but John Pelphrey, Jared Lorenzen and Derek Smith were talented multi-sport athletes in high school.
In his junior year at Paintsville, Pelphrey was a star pitcher who helped the Tigers reach the 1986 state baseball final four in Elizabethtown. The 6-foot-7 righthander had an 11-1 record before losing a 3-1 decision to eventual champion Tates Creek in the semifinals. Pelphrey pitched well against the Commodores, giving up six hits and striking out three.
Here’s Paintsville’s lineup from that game:
Pelphrey and baseball teammates Keith Adkins and Mike Minix were standout players on Paintsville’s basketball team, which made the Sweet Sixteen three years in a row (1985, ’86, ’87). Pelphrey was named Mr. Basketball as a senior.
Jared Lorenzen and Derek Smith were a multi-sport dynamic duo in their days at Highlands. They are best remembered for their accomplishments in […]
Old scorebooks, part 2: Poynter’s hot post-season for Tates Creek in 1990
Larry Poynter, in his first year as head baseball coach at Tates Creek, leads his alma mater into post-season play in the 43rd District tournament Tuesday night.
In getting his players ready for the playoffs, Poynter can tell them about how he stepped up in the 1990 post-season and was a key factor in helping the Commodores reach the state finals. (They lost to Paintsville in the championship game. That’s the last time Tates Creek made it that far.)
Poynter, a catcher, not only did his job defensively behind the plate, he also swung a big bat. In nine playoff games that spring, Poynter hit .461 (12 of 26), with 10 RBI and 7 runs. He had an astounding on-base percentage of .676 (25 of 37).
Here’s the scorebook for Tates Creek’s 16-3 victory over Bryan Station in the 11th Region finals. Poynter had a solo homer and a run-scoring double. Mark Etter had 5 RBI, including a 3-run homer for […]
Old scorebooks, part 1: Lafayette ace Curtis Whitney’s pitching prowess in 1992
I came across my old baseball scorebooks recently, some more than 30 years old, and flipping through the pages was like stepping back in time.
Over the next few weeks I’ll share some of the most memorable individual and team post-season performances.
For example, I found the scorebook that documented Lafayette’s post-season run to the 1992 state championship. I had forgotten just how dominant Generals’ ace Curtis Whitney was in his four playoff starts that spring: 54 strikeouts in 28 innings (four complete games).
It was 24 years ago today — May 20, 1992 — that Whitney had 15 strikeouts in Lafayette’s 19-4 rout of Bryan Station in the 43rd District semifinals.
The junior right-hander followed up by throwing a no-hitter with 10 K’s and 2 walks in the Generals’ 3-0 victory over Lexington Catholic in the 11th Region finals.
In Whitney’s next outing he had 10 K’s and allowed 4 hits in a 16-8 win over Covington Catholic in the sectional semifinals.
Whitney capped off his post-season […]
Greenup County’s pursuit of perfection is over, but not its pursuit of state title
BY MIKE FIELDS (May 16, 2016)
Greenup County’s hopes of becoming Kentucky’s first undefeated state baseball champion in 34 years are dead, but the Musketeers’ hopes of winning the state title are still very much alive.
Greenup County suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, falling to East Jessamine 2-1 in the Fayette County Invitational Tournament. Coach Greg Logan said his players were “heartbroken” and “crushed” when their 33-game winning streak – the third longest in state history – came to an end.
“I told them that the sun will come up tomorrow and that our main goal (winning the state championship) has not changed,” Logan said. “We hit a pot hole. This is not going to train-wreck us. It’s just a minor setback. We’ll keep it on the tracks and start another winning streak.”
The Musketeers went into the FCIT ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 11 in the nation (according to […]
Austin Kearns part of South Lexington ‘reunion’
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 26, 2016)
Austin Kearns was throwing batting practice in one of the cages at the South Lexington baseball complex in Shillito Park on a rainy evening last week, and nobody took a second glance at the former major league outfielder working with a group of 9- to 12-year-olds.
Kearns was just another South Lexington alum back home again.
Shillito Park was where Kearns’ baseball talent first took root. He helped South Lexington win the Cal Ripken World Series in 1992. He went on to star at Lafayette a few years later, earning Kentucky’s Mr. Baseball honors in 1998 and getting drafted in the first round by the Cincinnati Reds.
Kearns spent 12 years in the majors with five teams before retiring in 2013.
He’s been back at Shillito the past two years, helping coach the South Lexington Astros, for whom his son Aubrey, 10, is a smooth-swinging left-handed hitter.
“When I […]
PRP’s Bill Miller feels ‘blessed’ in fight against cancer
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 15, 2016)
LOUISVILLE — The feel-good story of this high school baseball season is that legendary Pleasure Ridge Park Coach Bill Miller feels good.
Upgrade that: “I feel great!” Miller said before a Panthers’ practice this week.
That’s a remarkable statement coming from a guy who, even though he has never smoked, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer six months ago.
Miller, 66, knows how lucky he is to be feeling great and to be surrounded by people who care about him
“I’ve been blessed,” he said. “God’s been good to me, and I didn’t know that before.”
Miller’s frightening medical odyssey began in late September. The night after unloading two tractor-trailer loads of sod, he woke up with back pain. He figured he had pulled a muscle. When the discomfort persisted, he called his doctor, who directed him to the emergency room.
A scan revealed that Miller had a kidney stone. That was the good news. The […]
Steve Wright steps down at Southwestern
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 11, 2016)
Steve Wright marked his 59th birthday Monday by resigning as boys’ basketball coach at Pulaski Southwestern.
“I’m at a point in my life where I want to move on to other possibilities and opportunities,” said Wright, who has an overall record of 697-247 in 30 years.
“Each year I reevaluate if I want to continue in the same position . . . I’m 100% convinced that at this stage in my life it’s time to move to the next chapter in my career.”
Wright said he might look at coaching on the college level, or take another high school job, or “maybe take a year off, relax and enjoy myself, or I may never coach again. I’m not sure.
“I love coaching, but it’s not who I am. It doesn’t define every move I make every day. Sometimes during the winter it feels that way, but I’m not going to look up and be 70 […]
Is it time to end Kentucky-Indiana All-Star series?
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 8, 2016)
Tradition is getting thumped by reality when it comes to the Kentucky-Indiana All-Stars basketball series, so maybe it’s time to invoke a mercy rule and pull the plug on the games.
It’s sad to say goodbye to what was once a vital, rousing event, but it’s even sadder to watch it slowly wither away.
My suggestion is to keep naming Mr. and Miss Basketball, keep naming boys’ and girls’ all-star teams, and continue to honor the top players at a banquet the night before the boys’ Sweet Sixteen.
Just don’t play the games against Indiana anymore after the series wraps up this June.
I’m not alone in my opinion. Allen Feldhaus Jr. and Chris O’Hearn, a couple of state championship coaches who’ve also led the Kentucky All-Stars in recent years, agree that the series can’t be resuscitated.
“When some kids don’t even show up (to practice), when nobody’s coming to games, […]
Hero shot for ‘Nova a personal thrill for LexCath alum
BY MIKE FIELDS (April 5, 2016)
When Kris Jenkins hit his buzzer-beating three-pointer to give Villanova the NCAA title late Monday night in Houston, it was a shot heard ’round the nation.
And Lexington Catholic alum Cory Heitz’s reaction to Jenkins’ heroics was probably heard ’round Kendallville, Ind.
Heitz coached Jenkins at Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., so he was pulling for his former player in the championship game against North Carolina.
Heitz said he watched the finals while visiting his 91-year-old grandmother in Kendallville, “and I absolutely screamed when that shot went in. I probably woke up the whole housing development. I cried a little bit, too. It’s emotional to see one of your guys hit one of the most iconic shots in basketball history. It was beautiful.”
Heitz played for Danny Haney at Lexington Catholic (class of 1995) and went on to play at the Air Force Academy.
He also was […]
Dodgers’ A.J. Ellis caught news of Dunbar’s title
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 28, 2016)
GLENDALE, AZ — Even though he was in spring training in Arizona, 1,800 miles from Rupp Arena, Los Angeles Dodgers catcher (and former Paul Laurence Dunbar basketball player) A.J. Ellis followed Dunbar’s march to the Sweet Sixteen championship.
“I had friends on Facebook who kept me up on how Dunbar was doing,” Ellis said. “I was following them closely. I had a game (the Sunday of the state finals), and when I came off the field I had a barrage of text messages from some of my high school teammates letting me know Dunbar had pulled it out.
“I was so excited for them, for the school and all the alums. I know I was excited.”
Ellis was a sophomore reserve on Dunbar’s 1997 Sweet Sixteen team that lost to Paintsville in the first round.
“I was […]
Dunbar celebrates long-sought title
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 20, 2016)
Paul Laurence Dunbar hoisted the big trophy and cut down the nets after winning the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen championship in Rupp Arena Sunday afternoon, and its celebration echoed through history.
Dunbar was battle-scarred as it survived a brutal post-season schedule. It beat Henry Clay in the 11th Region semifinals and Scott County in the finals to get to Rupp. Then it had to get through the gauntlet of Mercer County, Bowling Green and Newport Central Catholic to reach the championship game against Doss.
As it turned out, the last fight was the easiest. The Bulldogs delivered an early knockout punch. It rolled to a 26-7 lead over Doss and was never seriously threatened. It claimed the state title with its school-record 33rd victory in front of 10,091 fans, a large portion of whom […]
Lexington vs. Louisville for 7th time in finals
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 19, 2016)
For the seventh time in state tournament history, a Lexington team will play a Louisville team in the title game.
Paul Laurence Dunbar (32-6) will go against Doss (30-5) in the finals of the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen in Rupp Arena Sunday at 2 p.m.
Louisville holds the upper hand in the big-city championship rivalry. It has won 4 of the previous 6 showdowns.
- 1957: Lafayette beat Eastern 55-52 in Freedom Hall.
- 1963: Seneca beat Dunbar 72-66 in Freedom Hall.
- 1975: Male beat Henry Clay 74-59 in Freedom Hall.
- 1991: Fairdale beat Tates Creek 67-63 in Rupp Arena.
- 1994: Fairdale beat Dunbar 59-56 in Freedom Hall.
- 2001: Lafayette beat Male 54-49 in Rupp Arena.
Doss has set a school record with 30 wins. If Dunbar takes Sunday’s title game, it will set a school record with 33 victories.
Dunbar, Doss squeeze into title game
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 19, 2016)
When Doss and Paul Laurence Dunbar got together for a pre-season scrimmage at Taylor County last fall, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, little did they know they would end the season in Rupp Arena playing for the state championship.
“Funny how things happen,” Doss Coach Tony Williams said.
To get to Sunday afternoon’s title game, Doss and Dunbar had to survive tough semifinal tests Saturday night in the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen.
Doss trailed South Laurel 60-56 with less than 3 minutes left, but the Dragons closed with a rush and won 70-63.
The turning point down the stretch may have been when South Laurel’s 6-foot-8, 265-pound Caleb Taylor was called for his fifth foul with 1:47 left and the Cards up 60-59.
“I was just so happy they decided to blow that whistle,” Williams said. “Once (Taylor) went out with his fifth foul, there was a sense of relief.”
Jaylon […]
Sweet Sixteen now a Final Four
The final four of the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen is all set. Saturday night’s semifinal matchups in Rupp Arena look like this:
- Newport Central Catholic (30-4) vs. Paul Laurence Dunbar (31-6), 6:30
- Doss (29-5) vs. South Laurel (29-6), 8:15.
NewCath is in the semifinals for the first time since 1953 when it lost to eventual champ Lafayette. Coach Ron Dawn’s Thoroughbreds have been led by 6-foot-6 senior Ben Weyer, who’s been nothing less than fabulous in wins over Trinity and Murray.
Dunbar, state runner-up to Marion County in 1993 and to Fairdale in 1994, came into this Sweet Sixteen as the top-rated team. Junior standout Taveion Hollingsworth has been smoother than Jif peanut butter in leading Scott Chalk’s Bulldogs past Mercer County and Bowling Green.
Doss is the final four for the first time since 1985 when it lost to Clay County. The Dragons were state runners-up to Owensboro in 1980. This year’s team, coached by Tony Williams, beat Lawrence County in […]
NewCath’s Big Ben clocking big numbers
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 18, 2016)
Newport Central Catholic star Ben Weyer is making more noise in Rupp Arena this week than the Monster Jam trucks did when they rolled in here for a show last month.
In two games in the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen, the 6-foot-6 senior has put up staggering numbers — 46 points, 25 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 blocked shots — while leading NewCath to the state semifinals for the first time since 1953.
It just so happens that Weyer’s grandfather, Jim Weyer, was the starting point guard on the ’53 Thoroughbreds team that lost to eventual champ Lafayette in the final four.
Ben’s dad Joe also has Sweet Sixteen history. He played for Highlands in the 1986 and ’87 state tournaments. He, too, was a point guard who fed Bluebirds’ star Scott Draud. Highlands lost in the first round both years.
“My dad messes with me a lot,” Ben said. “He’ll say, […]
Grab bag of contenders in Sweet quarterfinals
The 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen was hyped as a wide-open shootout with any number of title contenders. Friday’s quarterfinal matchups seem to bear that out. It’s hard to pick any sure-fire winners coming out of the elite eight.
- Murray (30-5) vs. Newport Central Catholic (29-4), noon
- Dunbar (30-6) vs. Bowling Green (31-2), 1:30
- Doss (28-5) vs. Taylor County (25-8), 6:30
- South Laurel (28-6) vs. South Oldham (29-5), 8:15
Dave Cantrall’s power ratings for the Lexington Herald-Leader had the tournament’s 16 teams in this order. Bold-faced teams still alive:
Goodin out to prove he’s the best
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2016)
Quentin Goodin didn’t win Mr. Basketball honors Tuesday night, but the Taylor County senior wanted to show that he deserved the award with his play in the Cardinals’ 94-65 victory over Mason County Thursday night in the 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen in Rupp Arena.
Goodin, a 6-foot-2 guard who has signed with Xavier, had 28 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals as he led Taylor County to its first state tournament win since 1974.
Cards Coach Rich Gatewood thought “Q” had an extra kick to his game in Rupp.
Goodin admitted he did. He said he wanted to “prove a point” that he, not Carson Williams of Owen County, should have been chosen Mr. Basketball by the state’s coaches and media.
At Tuesday night’s banquet, Goodin said he started to stand up when Joe B. Hall made the announcement, “Mr. Basketball is …” but then he heard Carson Williams’ […]
Braden Miller has a ‘Ty’ to South Laurel champs
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2016)
When South Laurel’s Braden Miller hit a three-pointer midway through the first quarter of the Cardinals’ game against Christian County Thursday afternoon, he glanced into the Rupp Arena stands and spotted his family celebrating.
“It was a surreal feeling when I hit that shot,” Braden said. “To hear the noise of the crowd and to look up and see my family. My (older) brother Brennan told me after the region that if I hit a shot in Rupp, to look for him. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
What made the moment even more special was that it was part of South Laurel’s stirring 53-50 victory over Christian County, which put the Cardinals in the state tournament’s elite eight.
South Laurel, rated the second best team in the Sweet Sixteen, must be considered a threat to win the title, just like it did in 2005.
Braden Miller was only 8 when the […]
Fairdale’s back-to-back feat has aged well
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2016)
Today is the 25th anniversary of Fairdale’s completing its back-to-back Sweet Sixteen championships.
Stan Hardin’s Bulldogs beat Tates Creek 67-63 in the finals of the 74th Boys’ State Tournament in Rupp Arena on March 16, 1991 to become the first team to win consecutive state titles since Male did it in 1970 and ’71.
Fairdale’s terrific trio of Jermaine Brown, Maurice Morris and Carlos Turner combined for 40 points and 22 rebounds in the victory over Tates Creek. Nolan Barger’s Commodores were led by Darrin Horn’s 23 points and 7 rebounds, and John Mark Stuart’s 20 points.
Is Hardin surprised that, a quarter of a century later, no boys’ team has repeated as champ?
“What’s amazing to me is that it’s only been done once in the last 45 years,” Hardin said.
There have been close calls. Scott County won it all in 1998 and was runner-up in 1999. Mason County won it all […]
Sweet memories 70 years in the making
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 17, 2016)
Reginald Rice saw his first Sweet Sixteen 70 years ago at the Louisville Armory when he was a student at Garrett High School in Floyd County.
Since 1946, Rice has missed only a handful of state tournaments — usually when flooding causes havoc back home. The 87-year-old basketball fan was in his customary lower-arena, front-row seat Wednesday for the 99th renewal of the Greatest Show in Hoops. He was sitting with his son Kenny, a long-time sportscaster and, like his dad, a Sweet Sixteen junkie.
Father and son have been pretty much regulars at the state tournament since the mid-1960s. Kenny missed a few, most of them when he was working at WTVQ in Lexington and had to follow UK in the NCAA Tournament.
Reginald Rice said he loves the state tournament “atmosphere” and chatting up old friends and making new ones.
He played basketball for the Garrett Black Devils in the […]
Hollingsworth shines, Dunbar survives
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2016)
Cool, calm and clutch.
That’s Taveion Hollingsworth, a 6-foot-2 junior who plays basketball for Paul Laurence Dunbar with such remarkable ease and efficiency that it makes you wonder if he’s immune to pressure.
Hollingsworth was at this best in the biggest game of his life Wednesday night. He led Dunbar to a heart-racing (although his own heart apparently never races) 58-55 victory over Mercer County in a down-to-the-wire first-round thriller in the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen.
Hollingsworth scored 23 of his 32 points in the second half, draining clutch shot after clutch shot to keep the Bulldogs in the chase for their first state tournament victory since 1994.
Wasn’t Hollingsworth at least a little jittery on the Rupp Arena stage?
“It was different because the place is bigger and there were more people (11,866) here,” he said softly. “But I tried not to pay attention to the crowd and just played my […]
Watson cheers Dunbar’s return to Rupp
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2016)
The last time Paul Laurence Dunbar played in the Sweet Sixteen, in 1997, Frank Watson was the Bulldogs’ coach, having guided the Bulldogs to three state tournaments in five years.
When Dunbar took the Rupp Arena court Wednesday night, Watson was sitting in Section 42, among the Bulldogs’ red-shirted fans, remembering those glory days two decades ago.
“Walking in here, it seems like yesterday,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like 19 years,
“I’m so happy and excited for them that they’ve made it back.”
When Dunbar opened in 1990, Watson was hired to be the school’s first basketball coach and build the program. The Bulldogs, led by Darnell Burton and Cameron Mills, quickly became a state power. They won back-to-back region titles and finished as state runners-up in 1993 (to Marion County) and 1994 (to Fairdale).
[…]Sweet Sixteen: different kinds of bricks
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2016)
The 99th Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet Sixteen opened Wednesday, and bricks were the topic du jour in the first session as Murray blasted Buckhorn 62-35, and Newport Central Catholic whipped Trinity 48-33 in front of 9,733 fans in Rupp Arena.
It was a good-brick kind of day for Murray, a bad-brick kind of day for Trinity.
The Shamrocks suffered through a nightmarish shooting performance — brick after brick after brick — as they went 15 minutes without scoring a point against NewCath.
After taking an 11-2 lead midway through the first quarter, Trinity was shut out in the second quarter, and needed 3:30 before finally scoring again in the third quarter and ending NewCath’s 20-0 run.
During their drought, the Rocks missed 20 consecutive shots. They finished the day 12 of 46 (26%), including 4 of 21 (19%) on three-pointers.
Coach Mike Szabo thought his team looked leg-weary at Tuesday’s practice, “and today it looked […]
Sweet Sixteen a NewCath family tradition
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 16, 2016)
Newport Central Catholic sophomore guard Stephen Pangallo will carry on a family tradition by playing in the Sweet Sixteen today.
Pangallo is the grandson of NewCath Coach Ron Dawn, who played in the state tournament for the Thoroughbreds in 1973 and 1974.
Ron coached his son Ronny, who was an all-state guard for NewCath’s 2000 Sweet Sixteen team.
“It’s neat,” Ron Dawn said of the family’s state tournament tradition. “I didn’t think about it until a day or two (after the 9th Region championship).”
NewCath has another three-generation Sweet Sixteen story.
Jim Weyer played for NewCath’s 1953 state tournament team. Jim’s son Joe was on Highlands’ state tournament teams in 1986 and ’87, and Jim’s grandson Ben is a standout on this year’s NewCath team this year.
Butler flattens Flyers to claim 5th title
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 13, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Butler cemented its place as one of the preeminent girls’ basketball programs in Kentucky history by blasting Franklin County 62-36 to win the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen championship Sunday afternoon.
The Bearettes claimed their fifth state title (2016, 2014, 2008, 1980, 1975) to join Laurel County as the only 5-time champ in the modern era. (Ashland won 5 titles between 1921 and 1929.)
Butler overwhelmed Franklin County 15-0 to start the game and 14-0 to start the second half to suck all the drama out of BB&T Arena and keep the 3,444 fans fairly quiet. Butler led 42-15 midway through the third quarter.
The Bearettes’ 26-point margin of victory was the second-largest in finals history, topped only by M.C. Napier’s 88-56 rout of Highlands in 1994.
“We just ran into a dad-burn buzz saw today,” Franklin County Coach Joey Thacker said. “We got back on our heels and it was over. We were just […]
Butler gets shot at record-tying 5th title
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 12, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Butler will be chasing history when it goes up against a once-upon-a-time opponent in the girls’ state basketball finals Sunday night.
Butler outlasted All “A” champion Murray 68-58 in the semifinals of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Saturday night in BB&T Arena.
The victory earned the Bearettes a chance to tie Laurel County as the only 5-time state titlist in the modern era. They will play Franklin County in Sunday’s 2 o’clock title game. Butler grounded the Flyers in the 1980 finals.
Larry Just, who coached Butler to its 2014 championship, said he hasn’t had time to think about his team’s shot at history. “That’s something if it happens, it happens. I’ve got a tired basketball team and we just have to find energy for tomorrow.”
Murray sapped Butler with a valiant comeback. The Lady Tigers, trying to win their 30th game in a row, trailed 41-24 in the third quarter […]
Flyers in finals for first time in 36 years.
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 12, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — It took 36 years, but Franklin County has made it back to the state championship game in girls’ basketball.
The Flyers held on to beat Mercer County 55-51 in the semifinals of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Saturday night at BB&T Arena.
The victory puts Franklin County (31-4) in Sunday afternoon’s title game against Butler, which beat the Flyers 36-30 in the 1980 finals.
“What do you say?” We’re in a situation we all dream about,” Coach Joey Thacker said.
Franklin County, which lost to Mercer County 75-66 two months ago, led the Titans 46-35 early in the fourth quarter Saturday night. But then the Flyers went ice cold and didn’t score for more than 4 minutes. Mercer County took advantage with a 13-0 run to take a 48-46 lead.
Franklin County junior Rebecca Cooks said the scoring drought “was definitely frustrating, but we’ve been determined the whole […]
Butler buzzer-beat beats E-town
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Janna Lewis wasn’t supposed to take the last shot for Butler, but she did, and her buzzer-beater gave the Bearettes a dramatic 61-59 victory over Elizabethtown in the quarterfinals of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Friday night.
Butler (29-5), a four-time state champion, will play All “A” state titlist Murray (35-1) in Saturday night’s semifinals in BB&T Arena.
“(Coach Larry Just) called a play and it didn’t work, so I flashed to the middle,” Lewis explained. “Breia (Torrens) found me and when I turned around I was open, so I said, ‘OK, I’ll shoot it,’ and it went in.”
For E-town, the heartbreak was familiar. In last year’s Sweet Sixteen quarterfinals, Covington Holy Cross hit a shot in the closing seconds to beat the Panthers 41-40. Holy Cross went on to win the state title.
“It seems like deja vu,” E-town Coach Tim Mudd said.
The Panthers […]
Murray rolls into state final four
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — The dynamic duo of Macey Turley and Maddie Waldrop led Murray past Owensboro Catholic 60-43 in the quarterfinals of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Friday night in BB&T Arena.
It was Murray’s third win over the Aces this season, including a victory in the championship game of the All “A” Classic.
Murray will take a 29-game winning streak into Saturday night’s semifinals against the Butler-Elizabethtown winner.
Turley, showing no ill effects from a sprained ankle she suffered in the Lady Tigers’ first-round win over Manual, hit 5 of 6 three-pointers on her way to 25 points. The 5-foot-7 sophomore point guard also had 3 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
Turley credited athletic trainer Lance Harper for getting her ready to go. Coach Rechelle Turner paid tribute to Turley’s competitive nature. “When adversity strikes, she steps it up to another level. If I’d told (her) she wasn’t playing today, […]
Mercer County makes final four
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — When the heat was on, Mercer County kept its cool and played its way into the final four of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen. The Titans withstood a pressure-packed fourth quarter to beat Holmes 59-55 in Friday afternoon’s quarterfinals at BB&T Arena.
Mercer County (31-5) will play Franklin County (30-4) in Saturday night’s semifinals. (The Titans beat Franklin County 75-66 on Jan. 14.)
“Man, this is pretty awesome, to be sitting here going to the final four,” Titans Coach Chris Souder said.
“This is a huge win not just for our school but for our community.”
Holmes pushed Mercer County until the final horn, but the 12th Region champions hit enough free throws — including Seygan Robins’ 5-for-6 performance from the line in the last three minutes — to hold on.
“It was pretty hectic. We had to keep our composure,” Robins said. “We knew if we kept hitting our […]
Scott Hundley getting out of coaching
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2016)
Scott Hundley is stepping down as boys’ basketball coach at Woodford County to pursue a job in school administration, or maybe something in the private sector.
“It was a tough decision because I’ll miss the bonds and relationships you develop with the young men you coach,” said Hundley, who was at the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen on Friday to present KABC awards to coaches and players.
“And I’ll miss the sidelines for sure.”
Hundley, 34, said the career change will give him more time with his wife Torie and their 9-month old daughter Adlee.
Hundley won Mr. Basketball honors in his senior year at Scott County. He played college basketball at Vanderbilt.
Hundley, who is president of the KABC, had a 107-82 record at Woodford County and took the Yellow Jackets to the region six years in a row. They reached the region finals in 2012.
Flyers escape Campbell’s upset bid
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 11, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — It wasn’t anything like early December when Franklin County crushed Campbell County 68-47 in the season opener.
In a rematch in the quarterfinals of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Friday afternoon, Franklin County narrowly escaped with a 41-38 victory over the Camels in BB&T Arena.
“I don’t care if we win 3-2, as long as we get the last stop,” Franklin County Coach Joey Thacker said.
Campbell County had its chances down the stretch but either missed shots or made turnovers.
Franklin County seventh-grader Brooklynn Miles missed the front end of the bonus with her team up 41-38 with :26 left.
Campbell County couldn’t capitalize, however. Taylor Jolly missed a layup. The Flyers’ Anna Arrastia rebounded and was fouled. She went to the foul line, but she missed the front end of the bonus, too.
The Camels couldn’t take advantage. Taylor Clos was called for a charge with :02.5 left.
[…]Aces deal Harlan a repeat defeat
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 10, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Forty days after Owensboro Catholic beat Harlan by 30 points in the All “A” semifinals, the Aces won their rematch 69-49 in the first round of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen at BB&T Arena Thursday night.
Owensboro Catholic (31-5) has another rematch in Friday night’s quarterfinals when it faces Murray (34-1), which dealt the Aces a 45-28 defeat in the All “A” title game. Murray also beat Owensboro Catholic 73-57 two weeks before the small-school tournament.
Mikayla Berry, a 5-foot-7 senior, led the way against Harlan with 26 points and 6 rebounds.
Annabel Moore, a 5-10 senior, had 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
Harlan, making its first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1999, was led by Jordan Brock’s 19 points and 8 assists.
Boley leads E-town past Henderson County
BY MIKE FIELDS (March 10, 2016)
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS — Elizabethtown, rated the tournament favorite, looked the part in rolling by Henderson County 63-36 in the first round of the St. Elizabeth HealthCare/KHSAA Sweet Sixteen Thursday night in BB&T Arena.
Erin Boley, a Notre Dame signee and finalist for Naismith’s national player of the year, led the Panthers. The 6-foot-2 senior had 27 points and 7 rebounds as E-town notched its 30th victory, giving it three consecutive 30-win seasons.
E-town, the 1998 state titlist, was the Sweet Sixteen favorite the past two years but lost to Butler in the 2014 finals and to eventual champ Covington Holy Cross in the quarterfinals last year.
The Panthers get another big-game showdown with Butler in Friday night’s quarterfinals.
E-town Coach Tim Mudd said the difference against Henderson County was his team’s defense. But the Panthers also got a boost from their offense. They hit 9 of their first 11 shots, including 3 of […]
Current Year Hall of Fame Information
Scores Powered by Riherds.com
Visit Our Official KHSAA Sponsors
