Bluegrassrivals

With less than three months until start of practice, I have to ask this. What is the one thing that your team does at home games that is ment to intimidate anyone who comes in and plays you guys at home.

Be very physical on the field and that will take care of everything!!
Line up and knock your opponent head off.

For Belfry it's not so much doing something that intimidates visiting teams, but just letting the entire atmosphere/enormity do the trick.

When opposing teams arrive they step onto a Field Named after the All-Time Winningest Coach in KY History, "Haywood Field at CAM Stadium". You see one of the finest facilities in the State of Kentucky and are almost guaranteed to see a standing room only crowd.

You see the sign representing Belfry's 10 State Finals Appearances and 3 State Titles as well as a never ending string of District and Regional Titles.

You see the classic/traditional red and white jerseys on a team that typically has more players and more size than you.

You see tunnel time and a string of fans longer than you have ever seen even on your home field. You see the larger than life banner, inflatable Pirate, and flags waving and as they announce the starters there are guys you remember seeing in highlight videos and All-State teams.

There is a reason Belfry rarely loses a home playoff game.

At Johnson Central.....

It's the music :headphone
And the awesome chain gang.

At Perry Central's old field, we made the other teams fans sit with ours, and their team bench was right in front of Perry's student section. Add that in with about a million people tailgating and you were pretty much surrounded by red and black everything. At the new field, there's not much bravado been developed up there yet.

At Corbin, aside from the always physical play, you see all of the notes of their tradition upon the scoreboard or painted on the sides of the concrete home bleachers. Also, the fog often rolls over from the creek and gives away somewhat of an eerie atmosphere.

I didn't get to attend a game there but I heard that was no more intimidating place to play than the old Lynch Bulldogs football field. The elevation made it so cold, the ground was hard, there were hardly any light, and it sit right inside of Big Black Mountain. I would love to hear anyone's stories that attended games at Lynch.

Belfry,Belfry and Belfry sea of RED irateSho

At NCC it's the band! No wait, it must be the home field that says Newport Wildcats. No wait, it must be the fancy 80's buses they show up in. No wait, it must be the recycled painted helmets. No secret to intimidation other than winning! Is this really a topic of concern?

I think it is. Everyone has something to say what it is like at a home game. Letcher Central has the jumbo tron, the music, the power "L" and the fireworks. Love it!

Back in the days when Tim couch play. Leslie county would light the football field up with fireworks after ever touchdowns. Some would go up and some would go toward the grand stand. I know I was the one lighting them.:truestory: and it was very INTIMADATION 64SUR

Highlands used to have "Ole Betsy" a Civil War cannon that was fired after scores. It got fired a lot. and it pretty much sounded real. you could be at The Pub and hear it knowing Highlands score just went up. She had to be retired in 08 due to safety reasons... That thing should really be permanently mounted somewhere at the field.

birdman44 Wrote:Highlands used to have "Ole Betsy" a Civil War cannon that was fired after scores. It got fired a lot. and it pretty much sounded real. you could be at The Pub and hear it knowing Highlands score just went up. She had to be retired in 08 due to safety reasons... That thing should really be permanently mounted somewhere at the field.

I really miss visiting fans who did not know about the cannon, jumping up off their seats when it went off. Even those visitors who knew about it would still jump and then you would hear "I hate that damn thing". It was a great tradition.

EKUAlum05 Wrote:For Belfry it's not so much doing something that intimidates visiting teams, but just letting the entire atmosphere/enormity do the trick.

When opposing teams arrive they step onto a Field Named after the All-Time Winningest Coach in KY History, "Haywood Field at CAM Stadium". You see one of the finest facilities in the State of Kentucky and are almost guaranteed to see a standing room only crowd.

You see the sign representing Belfry's 10 State Finals Appearances and 3 State Titles as well as a never ending string of District and Regional Titles.

You see the classic/traditional red and white jerseys on a team that typically has more players and more size than you.

You see tunnel time and a string of fans longer than you have ever seen even on your home field. You see the larger than life banner, inflatable Pirate, and flags waving and as they announce the starters there are guys you remember seeing in highlight videos and All-State teams.

There is a reason Belfry rarely loses a home playoff game.

I'm sure you true Belfry Fans will be able to correct me because I through these numbers together fast, but since the 2004 Season, the record is something
like this at home: (65-10)

With the 10 Losses being:
2005-Ironton(OH)-(21-33)-Regular Season Game
2006-Russell-(0-19)-Playoff Game
2008-Breathitt County-(12-14)-Playoff Game
2009-Ashland Paul Blazer-(20-22)-Regular Season Game
-------Johnson Central-(19-35)-Regular Season Game
-------Sheldon Clark-(14-20)-Playoff Game
2010-Prestonsburg-(6-21)-Regular Season Game
2011-Johnson Central-(14-21)-Regular Season Game
2012-Henry Clay-(20-40)-Regular Season Game
2013-Johnson Central-(28-54)-Regular Season Game

"Protect this house" on a whole different level.

There is no better intimidation than making the other team think your better than they are and always have been.
These are kids, and they don't understand that. If you go to a school who has 10 state titles and 347 district titles painted all over everything, it automatically gives you an upped hand IMO...

birdman44 Wrote:Highlands used to have "Ole Betsy" a Civil War cannon that was fired after scores. It got fired a lot. and it pretty much sounded real. you could be at The Pub and hear it knowing Highlands score just went up. She had to be retired in 08 due to safety reasons... That thing should really be permanently mounted somewhere at the field.

Ole Betsy? You must have read John Deering's article. He is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person that ever referred to the cannon as Ole Betsy (well, at least until he wrote his article). I think either John's old age/failing memory or his "literary license" caused him to come up with "Ole Betsy". I have rather long and strong connections to the cannon and never ever heard it referred to as Ole Betsy until John wrote his article. Neither had the folks that own the cannon.

And I can say with a very high level of confidence that it won't be permanently mounted anywhere.

To your point, it was sure fun watching people jump for the 40 years it was at the games. Can't say that it was intimidating, but a lot of fans of opposing schools sure hated that thing going off.

Ah, the good old days.

And for the record, the cannon's days were numbered at Highlands before the tragic accident. That accident was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm just very thankful that the accident didn't turn out worse than it did.

At DeSales, wait, we don't have a true home field. lol But we will soon!

Stadiums where we hear bangos... Thats pretty intimidating.

War Memorial Stadium does enough. The first think you see when you get in off the bus it all 10 years that we won state painted on the wall above the tunnel entrance to your visitors locker room. Then the locker rooms have not been renovated since the 50's probably and they can tend to depress a team. Then you have to walk the long tunnel and come out onto the field through the fans looking down on you. Then when you look at the scoreboard you get reminded again of those 10 years. We used to hang a banner that had all the years that we were in the semi's, were state runners up and state champs. I think it was even more intimidating because there is only like 5 years in the past 40 years or so that we have not made it to at least the semis. Then we have boys that love to hit you.

charlie22 Wrote:Ole Betsy? You must have read John Deering's article. He is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person that ever referred to the cannon as Ole Betsy (well, at least until he wrote his article). I think either John's old age/failing memory or his "literary license" caused him to come up with "Ole Betsy". I have rather long and strong connections to the cannon and never ever heard it referred to as Ole Betsy until John wrote his article. Neither had the folks that own the cannon.

And I can say with a very high level of confidence that it won't be permanently mounted anywhere.

To your point, it was sure fun watching people jump for the 40 years it was at the games. Can't say that it was intimidating, but a lot of fans of opposing schools sure hated that thing going off.

Ah, the good old days.

And for the record, the cannon's days were numbered at Highlands before the tragic accident. That accident was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm just very thankful that the accident didn't turn out worse than it did.

Not being from the area, I have no clue but
What the heck happened??

MCMiner247 Wrote:Not being from the area, I have no clue but
What the heck happened??

In 2008, as the team buses were leaving for the state championship, the cannon was fired as the first bus pulled away. The cannon was being quickly reloaded so that it could be fired again as the second bus pulled away. Unfortunately in the haste to get it re-loaded, the barrel was not swapped before it was re-loaded. As a result, there were some hot embers or gas in the barrel, so as the powder charge was being pushed down the barrel by a wood plunger, the powder ignited, shooting the plunger out of the barrel. The fellow doing the re-loading and holding the plunger (a close and dear friend of mine) lost most of his hand as he was holding the plunger as it came shooting out of the barrel. Fortunately, the mother of one of the players was a trauma nurse and she and others sprang into action. Plus, an ambulance and the EMT folks were located less than a mile away so they got there quickly. As bad as it was, it could have been much worse. If he had been standing in front of the barrel, my friend would likely have been a dead man.

While many Highlands fans wanted the cannon to return, the family that owns the cannon agreed with the school's decision.

I think an acceptable "compromise" would be to do a video recording of the cannon being fired, and each time the Birds score, the video could be shown on the new, high tech video screen that is part of the new score board.

Not as good as the real thing, but definitely safe.

The cannon is gone. However, the sheer numbers of players (usually, right around 100) might be intimidating.

As someone that played against HHS years ago, I even thought the cannon was cool.

I know of a couple schools that use cocaine induced, zombie hookers to lead their team out onto the field. Kinda freaky as you can imagine.

....it's the "Thriller" music video to the extreme.

charlie22 Wrote:Ole Betsy? You must have read John Deering's article. He is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person that ever referred to the cannon as Ole Betsy (well, at least until he wrote his article). I think either John's old age/failing memory or his "literary license" caused him to come up with "Ole Betsy". I have rather long and strong connections to the cannon and never ever heard it referred to as Ole Betsy until John wrote his article. Neither had the folks that own the cannon.

And I can say with a very high level of confidence that it won't be permanently mounted anywhere.

To your point, it was sure fun watching people jump for the 40 years it was at the games. Can't say that it was intimidating, but a lot of fans of opposing schools sure hated that thing going off.

Ah, the good old days.

And for the record, the cannon's days were numbered at Highlands before the tragic accident. That accident was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I'm just very thankful that the accident didn't turn out worse than it did.

Cant say it was intimidating? Name one other high school field display that was more intimidating? an explosion that can be heard for miles? and the thing went off 10 times a game. What do you want someone to get their head sawn off on the 50 yard line?

I think Old Betsy might be common nickname for old cannons. And when I played the entire team and coaches called it old betsy so I don't know what to tell you.

I have to say it has to be difficult to get off a bus and play Belfry. (That goes for other traditionally good schools) In 2010, Somerset was 13-0 and those kids felt the pressure of that environment. Belfry got hot and this town started believing in those kids. I've been to 2 of the 3 state championship winners and the Somerset game will always be my favorite. I have to say, I thought we were gonna take one on the CHIN.

birdman44 Wrote:Cant say it was intimidating? Name one other high school field display that was more intimidating? an explosion that can be heard for miles? and the thing went off 10 times a game. What do you want someone to get their head sawn off on the 50 yard line?

I think Old Betsy might be common nickname for old cannons. And when I played the entire team and coaches called it old betsy so I don't know what to tell you.

I guess we have different understandings as to the word intimidating. I just never thought it was intimidating to opponents. Hated it? Sure. But adversely impacting their play by getting into their minds (which is what I consider intimidation)? Nah, at least not in my opinion. Heck, if anything it probably motivated more opponents to play harder to silence the dang thing because they hated it so much.

And for the record, I don't think loud music, fireworks, fake smoke, a tunnel, inflatable helmets, etc. is intimidating to players either. At least it wouldn't be intimidating to me. Great show of support of the home team though.

Interesting that the players and coaches when you played called it Ole Betsy and I'm not saying you didn't. It's just that I've been close to the program for a pretty long time and had never heard it called that until John's article. My Dad was on the Cannon Crew back in the 70's and he'd never heard it referred to Ole Betsy. The family that owns the cannon and has been very close to the football program since the 40s (and if you know who I'm talking about, you know how close they have been and are) never heard it called Ole Betsy.

Makes sense that John referred to it as Ole Betsy in his article if you are correct about old cannons being generally referred to as Ole Betsy. John was in the Navy in his younger years.

Funny thing about cannon, when the family drove to Union Springs, Tenn to purchase it in 1968 for the purpose of firing it at the games, they didn't tell the school administration what they were doing or what they had planned, because they knew the administration would say no. The administration was not fond of the cannon at first, but came to really love it until the last couple of years of its use due to some incidents.

But if you and the players and coaches on your team called it Ole Betsy, than obviously others than just John Deering called it that. Can I ask when you played?

Coal Miner's Memorial Stadium is literally built at the foot of three mountains. The area looks as if God put his thumb print down, and we built a football stadium there. The river flows immediately beside of it, and curves around, so you are either just beside a huge mountain or a river. (positioned much like the old Lynch stadium, HAROLD) So, by game time mid-way through the season, and it's dusky dark, and the fog is just starting to roll in; imagine if you will a huge black helmet with smoke pouring out of the front. Then that first guitar strum that starts Brad Paisley's song, "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive". That prompts 120 yards of home bleachers filled with hillbillies from every holler from Cumberland to Black Star to stand up and start screaming. Immediately after the last word of that chorus, our cannon sounds and the Black Bears take the field. Our jumbo tron is going nuts and fireworks light up the sky.

Now, this apparently doesn't intimidate the likes of charlie22, but it gave me chills just writing about it.

HAROLD Wrote:At Corbin, aside from the always physical play, you see all of the notes of their tradition upon the scoreboard or painted on the sides of the concrete home bleachers. Also, the fog often rolls over from the creek and gives away somewhat of an eerie atmosphere.

I didn't get to attend a game there but I heard that was no more intimidating place to play than the old Lynch Bulldogs football field. The elevation made it so cold, the ground was hard, there were hardly any light, and it sit right inside of Big Black Mountain. I would love to hear anyone's stories that attended games at Lynch.

HAROLD, I attended many games at that Lynch football field. I don't believe I was ever in attendance without being cold! It oftentimes would snow during the game toward the end of the season, and I swear that snow was blue! My daddy used to bring an old Coleman lantern with us whenever we played at Lynch, and we'd light it and put it under a huge quilt. It was the only way we could sit outside for the entire game.

Granny Bear Wrote:Coal Miner's Memorial Stadium is literally built at the foot of three mountains. The area looks as if God put his thumb print down, and we built a football stadium there. The river flows immediately beside of it, and curves around, so you are either just beside a huge mountain or a river. (positioned much like the old Lynch stadium, HAROLD) So, by game time mid-way through the season, and it's dusky dark, and the fog is just starting to roll in; imagine if you will a huge black helmet with smoke pouring out of the front. Then that first guitar strum that starts Brad Paisley's song, "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive". That prompts 120 yards of home bleachers filled with hillbillies from every holler from Cumberland to Black Star to stand up and start screaming. Immediately after the last word of that chorus, our cannon sounds and the Black Bears take the field. Our jumbo tron is going nuts and fireworks light up the sky.

Now, this apparently doesn't intimidate the likes of charlie22, but it gave me chills just writing about it.

I wouldn't find that intimidating but it would be really, really cool to get to play in that environment. Loved the atmosphere when we got to play in your old stadium. The Harlan County fans were very gracious and the players played hard, clean football. It was really neat. Loved, and agreed with, the PA announcing "coal keeps your lights on". Hope to watch a game in your current stadium. It sounds really special.

Happy Easter Granny Bear and all the best.

64SUR Wrote:Back in the days when Tim couch play. Leslie county would light the football field up with fireworks after ever touchdowns. Some would go up and some would go toward the grand stand. I know I was the one lighting them.:truestory: and it was very INTIMADATION 64SUR

64SUR that was after you had spent most of the afternoon on the Hill. Having some good food and cold refreshments. lol
:Clap::Clap::Clap::Clap:

Cellking Wrote:64SUR that was after you had spent most of the afternoon on the Hill. Having some good food and cold refreshments. lol
:Clap::Clap::Clap::Clap:

Man that was fun.:Cheerlead