Stunners come early in district play
March is still a few days away, but the madness has already begun: Neither Lexington Catholic's boys or girls will be in the 11th Region Tournament for the first time in 29 years. Pleasure Ridge Park's boys won't be going to the 6th Region party for the first time in 30 years.
■ Lafayette's victory over Lexington Catholic in the boys' 43rd District was a surprise, but Valley's upset of Pleasure Ridge Park in the 21st District was a bigger shock. PRP had blistered Valley 13 times in a row over the last 10 years, including blowouts of 106-37, 107-55 and 106-68. Three weeks ago PRP vanquished the Vikings 75-60. But Valley stunned the Panthers 60-54 Wednesday night, and celebrated by dousing third-year coach Andrew Bailey with Gatorade afterward. PRP Coach Dale Mabrey will miss the region for the first time in his 29 years with the Panthers.
■ Most people don't remember the last time Lexington Catholic's boys failed to reach the region, but Knights assistant coach Keith Stone does. He started on the Lexington Catholic team that lost to Sayre 66-54 in the district semifinals in 1986. That was the year after the Knights reached the Sweet Sixteen, and they were rebuilding under first-year coach Danny Haney. "Back then it wasn't a shock that we lost to Sayre," Stone said. Lexington Catholic's 24 consecutive trips to the region were nice, but, Stone said, "All streaks have to end. UK football is going to beat Tennessee and Florida one day, and Connecticut (women's basketball team) is going to lose someday."
■ Lexington Catholic's boys and girls haven't been bumped from the playoffs this early in the same year since 1981 when they were in the 41st District. The boys lost to Woodford County, and the girls to Western Hills.
■ Allen County-Scottsville beat Glasgow 63-61 in the district semifinals on Mark Hudson's basket with five seconds left in overtime. The winners held the ball for three minutes before the game-winning shot. The loss ended the career of Glasgow star Cameron Hall, son of Scotties Coach Jeff Hall.
■ Danville ended a five-year, 13-game losing streak to perennial 12th Region power Lincoln County by beating the Patriots 49-41 in the district semifinals. Matthew Yates' Admirals were led by Jacody Taylor's 17 points.
■ Monticello senior Derrick Peyton became the school's all-time leading scorer (2,140 points) on Feb. 17 in a game against Berea. Two nights later, Peyton was seriously injured in an automobile accident and was airlifted to the UK Medical Center. He suffered a concussion, fractured leg, broken nose and multiple bruises and cuts. However, Peyton was on crutches Monday night to watch Monticello's season come to an end with a district loss to McCreary Central. Monticello Coach Trevis Upchurch said Peyton's accident taught his team "a valuable lesson about not taking basketball and the opportunity to play it for granted."
■ Pineville junior Chelsey Smith had 54 points (said to be a school record) against Middlesboro last week. Smith got half her points at the free-throw line, where she hit 27 of 30. She also made five of nine three-pointers. "After she hit some threes, they had to come out and guard her and she attacked the basket," Coach Russell Thompson said. Smith has been among the state's top scorers all season, just behind her cousin, Hillary Moore of Leslie County.
■ Owensboro Catholic freshman sensation Becca Greenwell had 22 points in a district win over Apollo on Monday night, giving her a program-record 793 points this season. She already has 1,569 career points, and is on pace to demolish the Lady Aces' career record of 2,254 points scored by Kris Miller, who was Miss Basketball in 1986.
■ Franklin-Simpson junior Chasity Gooch had 29 points, 18 rebounds, eight blocked shots and six assists in a district win over Russellville. Gooch is averaging 19 points and 12 rebounds.
■ Elliott County junior Timmy Knipp showed that his regular-season scoring title (30 ppg) was no fluke by pouring in 45 points in a district win over West Carter.
■ Greenwood's Dee Anderson, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, has overtaken Daymeon Fishback (Mr. Basketball in 1996) as the school's all-time top rebounder with 919. Anderson is averaging 22 points, nine rebounds and three assists for the Gators, who faced Bowling Green in the district semifinals Thursday night.
■ Franklin County's boys ended Anderson County's three-year, 36-game home-court winning streak by beating the Bearcats in last week's regular-season finale.
■ McCreary Central senior star Aaron Watts had three double-doubles in the closing stretch of the regular season, highlighted by 28 points and 18 rebounds in a win over Corbin. Watts, who has eclipsed 3,000 career points, is averaging 24 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and shooting 46 percent from three-point range.
■ East Jessamine senior Liz Miller picked a great time to score her 1,000th career point — in a district tournament win over rival West Jessamine. Miller is averaging 16 points this season.
■ A basketball fan in Hazard called to ask if there's ever been a high school game in Kentucky in which both teams scored at least 100 points. It's happened at least once. In 1986, Wolfe County beat Morgan County 133-101. Wolfe County rang up 47 points in the third quarter to take a 100-65 lead.
■ Condolences to Anderson County boys' coach Glen Drury, whose father, Donald, died from cancer this week.
■ Lafayette grad Tyler Wilkerson is wrapping up a solid basketball career at Marshall. The 6-8 senior leads the Thundering Herd in scoring (13.8 ppg) and is second in rebounding (7.0 rpg). He's had career highs of 28 points and 20 rebounds this season, and has 16 career double-doubles. Marshall is 20-7, its first 20-win season in 10 years.
■ Lexington Christian Academy might join the sports agreement that Lexington Catholic and Fayette County's public schools have negotiated. Don Adkins, who oversees athletics for Lexington's public schools, asked LCA if it wanted to get on board. Unlike Lexington Catholic, LCA has kept playing the city's public schools under an agreement reached a couple years ago. LCA Athletics Director Brad Carter said he hasn't seen the new document yet, nor have his school's administrators or board of directors. "But from what we saw (in the newspaper), it looks like a good thing for everybody." If LCA agrees to the new terms, it would have a seat on the oversight panel, along with Lexington Catholic and the public schools, that would review transfers.
■ Lexington Catholic All-City running back Greg Raglin, who set a single-season school record with 1,763 rushing yards last fall, signed with Georgetown College. Knights All-City offensive lineman Mac Stevens signed with Thomas More.
■ Male has hired Chris Wolfe to be its football coach. He'll replace three-time state champ Bob Redman, who left to take a job at Jeffersonville, Ind. Wolfe previously coached at Hancock County, Waggener and PRP, and has a career record of 80-48 in 11 years. He has been out of coaching the last two seasons.
■ Breathitt County football coach Mike Holcomb said Justin Haddix was like a coach on the field when Haddix quarterbacked the Bobcats to an undefeated state title in 2002. Now 25, Haddix is the new head coach at Perry County Central. He had been an assistant to Holcomb the last two years after a standout college career at Western Kentucky. "He's been around two successful programs — ours and Western's — so he knows the time and effort it takes to win," Holcomb said. Breathitt County will play Perry Central this fall.
■ Franklin County chose one of its own to stabilize its football program. Chris Tracy, who was a lineman for the Flyers in the late 1980s, is their third head coach in four years. Tracy, 40, has been at Woodford County the last seven years. He was a Franklin County assistant before that. Tracy told the State-Journal it was an honor to be back with the Flyers. "It's just one of those situations where when you get an opportunity like this, you need to jump on it and take it."
■ Tyler Ray, who set Garrard County records for most receiving yards and receiving TDs, will play football at the University of the Cumberlands.
■ Lafayette baseball alumnus Jayson Langfels, a junior at Eastern Kentucky, has been named pre-season co-player of the year in the Ohio Valley Conference along with Morehead State senior shortstop Drew Lee. Langfels led the OVC with a .441 batting average last year, and led EKU in homers (12), RBI (72), total bases (136) and slugging percentage (.800).
■ Paul Laurence Dunbar grad Thomas Royse got the pitching win for Louisville in its baseball season opener. The 6-5 junior went five innings, struck out five and gave up a run in a 13-1 victory over Bowling Green.
■ Tim Cahill, who has coached Model swimming for 30 years, has been selected as a finalist for national coach of the year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association.
