Stars past and present collide to vault Sayre Spartans into Class A football contention

Inside a small office at the Sayre Athletic Complex, a handheld camcorder is plugged into a PC.

Head coach Chad Pennington is uploading footage of a game — completed just 20 minutes earlier — to Hudl. Within a day, if not hours, it’ll be in the hands of Sayre School’s next opponent, which in turn will hand theirs over to the Spartans.

That exchange happens much faster than it did when Chad Pennington was a kid. He recalls many trips with his father to collect game film — on actual film — and the soothing clicks and scratches of their exhibition.

“There wasn’t a better sound to fall asleep to,” Pennington said with a big grin.

Sayre’s rise up the Class A ranks has happened almost as quickly as the modern sharing of tape. The Spartans in 2018 relaunched their program — dormant since 1970s — and became postseason eligible in 2020. They’ve had winning seasons in three of the last four campaigns, and appear poised for another good run after starting 3-0 this fall.

The Spartans won their first playoff game last year, and then another, before succumbing to perennial Class A contender Raceland in the region final. The Rams, along with three-time defending state champion Pikeville, are the two biggest hurdles over which Sayre must overcome to reign supreme in the division. Literally, in this case: the size up front for both those clubs, as well as Hazard, another mountain stalwart, has been a difference-maker. Sayre is a combined 0-8 against those three programs all-time.

Pennington brought aboard Erik Losey, who has worked with offensive lines at South Carolina, Southern Miss and most recently Eastern Kentucky, as a consultant to further spur the development of a young group of linemen. “He’s never coached high school before,” Pennington said. “It’s been great having him help teach fundamentals and things like that.”

Consistent, physical line play is a must for Sayre to make a run at Kroger Field. Improved quality of depth across the roster is, too: Last year, Raceland rostered nearly 20 more total players than the Spartans when they faced off in Lexington. Ultimately, Sayre just couldn’t withstand the Rams’ ability to stay fresher than the Spartans.

“That’s what we’re really trying to focus on now, is our depth,” Pennington said. “We don’t want to just be relying on our first 11 guys or certain people in our run-and-passing game to make every play.

“We need everybody to come to the party.”

Sayre’s superstar

Brock Coffman is the life of Sayre’s party.

The electric two-way senior has multiple Group of Five FBS offers, both as a defensive back and receiver, and is still receiving attention from the “Power Four” schools in his backyard, Kentucky and Louisville.

Coffman has caught 39 touchdown passes to date at Sayre, and his next will put him among the top 10 all-time in KHSAA history. A similar clip to his 2023 campaign could have him threatening John Cole’s record of 69 at Somerset: Coffman’s 24 TD catches last year rank fifth-most by any receiver in Kentucky history and were the second-most by any Class A player (when Cole caught 28 in 2006, the Briar Jumpers were classed in the smallest division).

He’s holding out for any late-comers or fence-riders in his recruitment, but Coffman doesn’t want to drag it out too much longer. “I’m an education guy and a football guy, cause you always have to have a backup plan,” Coffman said. “I want to go somewhere and earn my spot, get some playing time early and develop into the player I know I can be.”

Even 10 years ago, a player like Coffman could have easily found his way into a powerhouse program as a long-term asset. Now?

“P4 schools are no longer in the development business,” Pennington said. “They are in the business of finding the best players they can, which now squeezes out most freshmen and incoming freshmen. Unless you’re an impact player on day one, it’s hard to get into a P4 program. There’s a few that still do it the old-school way, but not many.”

Coffman didn’t play football until he was a freshman at Sayre. Now he’s a crown jewel for an ascendant program, and a hidden gem ready to be unearthed at the next level.

“His work ethic is phenomenal, and he’s really learning the game at a nice pace,” Pennington said. “Whoever locks him in is getting someone, from top to bottom, who’s going to make their program better. You won’t even recognize him in two years. You just won’t.”

The other side of football

Luke Pennington’s passing stats in 2023: 171 completions on 252 attempts (67.8%), 2,555 yards, 50 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Yes, zero.

Through three games this fall, Luke’s dealt for 551 yards and nine TDs on 44 of 61 passing (72.1%). He’s still without an interception, though the streak nearly came to an end in the Spartans’ most recent game. Ludlow freshman Miller Reed had a Pennington pass, intended for senior Chase Parker, in his hands but dropped it in the end zone. A play later, he threw a TD to Coffman; Pennington finished 15-for-17 with four TD passes in a 42-0 win.

“It never crosses my mind, honestly,” Luke said of his interception-free stretch. “(On that play) I just misread, didn’t see the safety coming over the top. It’s a credit to our O-line and our receivers. They’re giving me a huge amount of time every play, and then the receivers make plays. … It’s a quarterback stat, but everybody contributes to that. It’s a whole-team stat.”

In the summer, Luke committed to Dayton, an FCS program in Ohio. Flyers head coach Trevor Andrews left a strong impression on the senior signal-caller; he likes that Andrews played at Dayton and wanted to come back to coach his alma mater.

Chad Pennington expects the first year of college will be a breeze, at least off the field, for his son and any other Spartan who plays, or doesn’t, at the next level. The former NFL star knows better than most the importance of investing — money, time, anything — in taking care of things within your control, and runs his program accordingly.

“I’m on the other side of football, and I see it,” said Chad, a former first-round NFL draft pick out of Marshall who spent a decade in the league. “You want to make sure that you allow the game of football to develop you as an individual off the field as much as it does on it. You don’t want it to use ya up and spit ya out. Because it’s eventually gonna spit you out. …

“I want football to be what they do and what they enjoy doing, but I don’t want it to be who they are. I’ve seen so many guys struggle with their identity when that ball stops spinning.”

The ball isn’t spinning out of Chad’s hand anymore to Randy Moss, but for at least eight more weeks he’ll get to watch one of his sons throw it to Kentucky high school football’s 2024 equivalent. Another son, Gage, is a sophomore waiting in the wings, along with a slew of hungry underclassmen hoping to sustain the successes of a program-defining senior class.

Chad has high expectations of their film once the time comes to upload it, and even higher expectations for what their opponents won’t see.

“Every team has superstars that come through, but what you’re trying to do is develop everyone so you can maintain a winning program and product,” he said. “That’s our challenge: How do we be competitive year in, year out? Sometimes things will line up right, and sometimes they won’t. But as long as we’re giving kids a good high school experience and preparing them to take the core values from our program into the next thing — college football, a college classroom, work, family, whatever it is — that’s what matters.”