Madison Southern football getting where it wants to go one piece at a time

Madison Southern’s football program was not in good standing when Jon Clark arrived. It’s still not where he’d like it to be, but the sixth-year head coach recognizes the Eagles have come a long way.

The school won seven games from 2006-2010, including three one-win seasons and a winless season in 2008. Its record under Clark in his staff’s first five years is 30-26, a ledger that doesn’t exactly scream “juggernaut” but does indicate a turnaround at the Class 5A program in Berea.

“We feel like we’re doing some good things and the program’s starting to grow,” Clark said. “There’s obviously a lot of things that still need to happen to really sustain what we’re doing over an extended period of time. We’re pretty excited about where we are though. ... Without the support of our adminsitration we wouldn’t have been able to do what we’re doing now by any means.”

Madison Southern was Clark’s first head-coaching job after college gigs at Auburn, Ohio and Idaho State. The program went 2-8 in his first season but has produced winning records in four of its last five, including a school-best 10-2 campaign in 2013.

That Eagles team featured a star junior by the name of Damien Harris, who is Alabama’s leading rusher through eight games, but was still unable to do something last year’s team and this year’s team accomplished in winning the school’s first and second district titles.

Harris was a shooting star who breathed life into the program on and off the field. However, Clark’s philosophy has been all about building depth so that when Madison Southern doesn’t have an all-world talent, it can still compete with and one day join the powerhouses in Class 5A.

“The game of football, there’s no question, you’re only as good as your 11th-best player on the field,” Clark said. “We’ve continually asked the question, ‘Who’s the 11th-best guy on the field at any given time’ and that’s where our focus is, to really develop that guy. If that guy gets better, then our team is improving.”

Southern is “getting closer” to being able to platoon its players but still doesn’t have the numbers to make it feasible for a whole game. At the beginning of this season the Eagles had nine starters going both ways for much of the game; in entering the last week of the regular season, they’re down to “about three to five” getting exhaustive minutes, Clark said.

“When we get to the point where that’s maybe one or none, when we can consistently do that is when I feel like we’ll be where I really want us to be,” he said.

Madison Southern would love to have as many bodies as possible for its bout with Madison Central, the Class 6A school about 20 minutes up the road in Richmond. The two played just three times from 1990-2012 but Friday will mark the fourth straight season the natural rivals have met. Southern has claimed two of the last three meetings but trails all-time 4-2.

Winning or losing to Madison Central won’t define Southern’s season since it doesn’t have any bearing on next week’s playoffs, but Clark wants his team to prepare with the expectation of overcoming what he called “a very explosive” opponent.

“I want them to know that we’re not the little brother,” Clark said. “Any year, I want it to be a game that can go either way. That’s important to us and our program that we stay competitive in that game.”

▪  Madison Central football coach Mark Scenters was a player on Madison Southern’s team in its first game against Central in 1990. He too has led a turnaround in Madison County, taking over a team that went 2-9 in 2013 that’s now looking for its eighth win in 2016.

Part of building any successful football program is developing interest, technique and enjoyment at the freshman level. This offseason Scenters took over leadership of the Bluegrass Freshman Conference, in which the Lexington public schools, Lexington Catholic, Scott County, Madison Central and Madison Southern compete to help make it easier for all the schools to organize their freshman competitions.

The Indians will host a freshman championship day on Saturday. Scott County and Lafayette will meet for the title at 2 p.m.

“For the most part it’s worked pretty good,” Scenters said. “ ... We’ve really been able to have a consistent way of having games for our freshman teams. Being able to have our freshmen play against same-age competition and develop and have something to play for is very important because very few freshmen are ready for varsity football.”

▪  Mayfield put on a clinic in the first half of its 57-0 win over Webster County last Friday. The Cardinals (9-0) scored 50 points on 16 plays in the opening 24 minutes. Its final score, which came in the fourth quarter, took 15 plays.

Star senior Trajon Bright paced the reigning Class 2A champs, touching the ball just four times for three touchdowns and 125 rushing yards.

▪  The KHSAA ruled over the weekend that Bullitt East had to forfeit a 56-31 win over Shelby County on Sept. 16 due to the use of an ineligible player in the game.

Christian Foster, a girls’ soccer player who went 8-for-8 on extra-point attempts in her debut for the Chargers, had not completed the six required football practices before participating in the contest. Bullitt East self-reported the violation in September according to the Courier-Journal.

▪  Class A, District 5 was in a class of its own among Kentucky football districts this season.

Kentucky has 48 districts, eight in each of the six classes. Of those, 47 were swept by the No. 1 seed. Nicholas County, Bracken County and Bishop Brossart all finished 3-1 in district play, resulting in a three-way tie for the top spot.

Based on the KHSAA tiebreaking procedure, the combined wins by any four of the involved teams’ opponents will decide the final district standings. The final results of that procedure won’t be known until after the final week of the regular season.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Madison Southern football getting where it wants to go one piece at a time."