Bluegrassrivals

What teams have the hardest schedule this year.

Lawrence County - Belfry, Sheldon Clark, Prestonsburg, Russell, Breathitt County, and Letcher County Central

Pikeville - Corbin, Ashland, Lexington Catholic, Belfry, and Prestonsburg.

Ashland has 8 Quality Opponents this regular season.

First Number inside parenthesis indicates AP Ranking (statewide ranking by class)
Second Number inside parenthesis indicates BGR EKY Top 20 Ranking

Raceland (1A #3, EKY #9)

Pikeville (1A #12, EKY NR)

Ironton OH (N/A, N/A) --- I would relay Ironton very close to Belfry based on size and talent level making them (3A #1, EKY #3)

Russell (3A #3, EKY #4)

Boyd County (4A #17, EKY Honorable Mention)

Woodford County (5A #13, N/A)

Bryan Station (5A #11, N/A)

Johnson Central (5A #5, EKY #2)

I won't say that Shelby Valley has the hardest schedule, because I see some up above that are very impressive. But I will say that in addition to Prestonsburg in district, they scheduled some tough ones for their non-district slate: Belfry, Breathitt, and Knox Central are all ranked in the BGR top 20.

In all honesty, SV lost an awful lot from last year's team, and probably shouldn't be playing teams as talented as those three. They would have been better to fill out the schedule with more teams closer to their level, like Perry Central, Rowan County, Estill County, etc.

It's admirable that Coach Saunders wants his team to look at Belfry as their "model program", but I don't see what an annual beatdown from the Pirates does to help anything.

Johnson Central: Non district includes Breathitt County (multiple state champs), St. Thomas More (Golden Horseshoe champs in Canada), and Belfry (multiple state champs). District includes Bryan Station (much improved), Woodford County (top 10 in 5a), and Ashland (with fantastic tradition in Putnam). Also scrimmaged Raceland, Pikeville, and Bell County. No fear.

with each one of the teams mentioned in this thread it is hard to say. All the teams play out of their class and then district games....IMO none have a hard schedule.....

jgrubby Wrote:with each one of the teams mentioned in this thread it is hard to say. All the teams play out of their class and then district games....IMO none have a hard schedule.....

Not to forget Hazard! JCHS and Lawrence Co.

Diogenes Wrote:Johnson Central: Non district includes Breathitt County (multiple state champs), St. Thomas More (Golden Horseshoe champs in Canada), and Belfry (multiple state champs). District includes Bryan Station (much improved), Woodford County (top 10 in 5a), and Ashland (with fantastic tradition in Putnam). Also scrimmaged Raceland, Pikeville, and Bell County. No fear.

I meant to Quote this post my bad.

brown_ind1977 Wrote:I meant to Quote this post my bad.

Whats your point? I think JCHS has a very relaxed schedule being 5A. All that you have mentioned is in the past. Brethitt 0-2 ; Ashland 3rd year loss to a 1A school; St Thomas More Canadian team that rarley wins in against American teams. So IMO JCHS has it easy until playoff time. And they are out of their class with exception of Ashland and Woodford.

Might need to check out Mayfields schedule its a killer and im sure if not the toughest its close.

BlackcatAlum Wrote:Lawrence County - Belfry, Sheldon Clark, Prestonsburg, Russell, Breathitt County, and Letcher County Central

Pikeville - Corbin, Ashland, Lexington Catholic, Belfry, and Prestonsburg.

Not trying to put any teams down. But it's even been noted that belfry has the easy schedule of the teams that you noted. Lawrence co , breathitt, and JCHS IMO has the hardest schedule.

brown_ind1977 Wrote:Not trying to put any teams down. But it's even been noted that belfry has the easy schedule of the teams that you noted. Lawrence co , breathitt, and JCHS IMO has the hardest schedule.

:confused:

To the right of the two teams I mentioned were their out-of-district opponents.

St. X


Aug 29, '08BallardSt. Xavier63- 0(W)no
Sep 5, '08Oldham CountyOldham County44- 6(W)no
Sep 12, '08Lexington CatholicSt. Xavier- 7:30 PM
Sep 19, '08MaleSt. Xavier- 7:30 PM
Sep 26, '08DuPont ManualSt. Xavier- 7:30 PM
Oct 3, '08Trinity (Louisville)- 8:00 PM
Oct 10, '08ButlerButler- 7:30 PM
Oct 17, '08OpenSt. Xavier-
Oct 24, '08Pleasure Ridge ParkPleasure Ridge Park- 7:30 PM
Oct 31, '08CentralSt. Xavier- 7:30 PM
Nov 8, '08Covington CatholicCovington Catholic-

They're St. X though, they can play that schedule unlike the rest of us...:p

BlackcatAlum Wrote:Lawrence County - Belfry, Sheldon Clark, Prestonsburg, Russell, Breathitt County, and Letcher County Central

Pikeville - Corbin, Ashland, Lexington Catholic, Belfry, and Prestonsburg.

LCC has one of the easiest schdule in Eastern Ky. (Leslie Co, Perry Cent, North Laurel, East Ridge, Greenup, and Bourbon Co.)

More Cowbell Wrote:In all honesty, SV lost an awful lot from last year's team, and probably shouldn't be playing teams as talented as those three. They would have been better to fill out the schedule with more teams closer to their level, like Perry Central, Rowan County, Estill County, etc.

.

Thats not how you get better. Your team improves by playing competition better than you are. Look what Louisville Central did last year. They went 5-5 by playing the Big 3 in Louisville plus some other bigger schools and got beat by every one of them. Come playoff time nobody in 3a had anything for them (Sorry Belfry fans but the truth is the truth). So its not about playing cup cakes or even teams equal to you. That might make the regular season record look good but who cares about regular season records. Pikeville has took some lumps already this year but they WILL be ready come playoff time because of their schedule and the level of opponents theyve played. While Im not an SV or Saunders fan I do applaud them for playing that level of talent.

Lexington Catholic has to play one of the tougher schedules in the state. Highlands, St. X, Boyle, and the team from Indiana.

Toughest Mountain Schedule is Johnson Central
NON- Mountain Schedule is Trinity

HAIL PIKEVILLE! Wrote:Thats not how you get better. Your team improves by playing competition better than you are. Look what Louisville Central did last year. They went 5-5 by playing the Big 3 in Louisville plus some other bigger schools and got beat by every one of them. Come playoff time nobody in 3a had anything for them (Sorry Belfry fans but the truth is the truth). So its not about playing cup cakes or even teams equal to you. That might make the regular season record look good but who cares about regular season records. Pikeville has took some lumps already this year but they WILL be ready come playoff time because of their schedule and the level of opponents theyve played. While Im not an SV or Saunders fan I do applaud them for playing that level of talent.

Do you have to beat someone to have something for them??? Belfry definitely had something for them...just not enough...1st and goal from the nine trailing 21-17 is certainly something...just not enough against a better team on that day...Paducah Tilghman took Central into OT the week before...With all the D1 players on their team, Central should have won the title and should again this year.

st-x and trinity play the hardest schedule year in and year out. that is way they got 30 some state titles between them both. ashland and johnson central have the hardest schedule in the mountain.

HAIL PIKEVILLE! Wrote:Thats not how you get better. Your team improves by playing competition better than you are. So its not about playing cup cakes or even teams equal to you. That might make the regular season record look good but who cares about regular season records. Pikeville has took some lumps already this year but they WILL be ready come playoff time because of their schedule and the level of opponents theyve played. While Im not an SV or Saunders fan I do applaud them for playing that level of talent.

I never said anything about making your regular-season record better. That means nothing come playoff time, everyone knows that.

And of course you don't get better playing cupcakes, I wouldn't want SV to schedule a bunch of them either. But neither does playing a team way above your level. It's one thing to play a team that's somewhat better than you, but that you might have a chance to beat if you give it your best shot. Even if you lose but keep it relatively close, not only do you learn but you gain confidence in your ability to hang with better teams.

But it's completely different to play a team that is so far above you that you have no chance of beating. Not only is your confidence shaken, but it's hard to learn anything when the other team pretty much has their way with you. I'm sorry, but I just don't see a benefit to getting throttled by 40+ points.

Incidentally, I wouldn't mind if SV scheduled Pikeville. Even though they got spanked by Ashland, the Panthers are still strong and would still be regarded as the more talented team. But they aren't as far above Valley as Belfry is, and I while I do believe Pikeville would win easily, the score would be a little closer than the annual humiliation dropped on SV by the Pirates.

More Cowbell Wrote:I never said anything about making your regular-season record better. That means nothing come playoff time, everyone knows that.

And of course you don't get better playing cupcakes, I wouldn't want SV to schedule a bunch of them either. But neither does playing a team way above your level. It's one thing to play a team that's somewhat better than you, but that you might have a chance to beat if you give it your best shot. Even if you lose but keep it relatively close, not only do you learn but you gain confidence in your ability to hang with better teams.

But it's completely different to play a team that is so far above you that you have no chance of beating. Not only is your confidence shaken, but it's hard to learn anything when the other team pretty much has their way with you. I'm sorry, but I just don't see a benefit to getting throttled by 40+ points.

Incidentally, I wouldn't mind if SV scheduled Pikeville. Even though they got spanked by Ashland, the Panthers are still strong and would still be regarded as the more talented team. But they aren't as far above Valley as Belfry is, and I while I do believe Pikeville would win easily, the score would be a little closer than the annual humiliation dropped on SV by the Pirates.

I believe Pikeville would win also, but the last couple of years there has not been that big a difference in the two teams...Harmon and a little more all around athletic ability by Pikeville would give the Panthers the edge. As far as the "annual humiliation dropped on SV by the Pirates", well the Panthers can't talk alot there...Belfry has beaten Pikeville 7 straight years and only two of those games were real competitive...2002, and a really good game that
Belfry had to make a comeback in, in 2006...Belfry has beaten Pikeville by an average of 21 points in these games...Over that same time period, Belfry has beaten SV by an average of 38 points...However, in my opinion, SV played Belfry tougher last year than Pikeville did...SV at least managed to move the ball a couple of drives early in the game before turning the ball over...Pikeville could not muster any drive at all until late in the game, and there was a running clock in the second half.

Tailback44 Wrote:LCC has one of the easiest schdule in Eastern Ky. (Leslie Co, Perry Cent, North Laurel, East Ridge, Greenup, and Bourbon Co.)

:confused:

Again, I listed Pikeville & Lawrence County having one of the toughest schedules in the state. To the right of their names I listed their out-of-district opponents.