Bluegrassrivals

What do the rebels need to do to improve on the 08 season?

Discipline!!!!

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:Discipline!!!!

Very true... who's the coach for them this season?

BlackcatAlum Wrote:Very true... who's the coach for them this season?

coach todd

.38special Wrote:What do the rebels need to do to improve on the 08 season?

I think the Rebels made a mistake last year when they didn't try to keep Kenneth Johnson as their coach. He had the program going in the right way.
Don't know Coach Todd, wish them well.

FBIMAN Wrote:I think the Rebels made a mistake last year when they didn't try to keep Kenneth Johnson as their coach. He had the program going in the right way.
Don't know Coach Todd, wish them well.

Coach Todd I don't know of as a head coach, but he did play for one of the best coaches in the state in Gene Combs, and if he does anything like what Combs does then AC will prosper and prosper fast, but if what I have heard is true about him being somewhat of a goof off with the kids, then i don't know. This team needs discipline, and if they get it and get fundamentals then i think they could knock some people off come region time.

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:Coach Todd I don't know of as a head coach, but he did play for one of the best coaches in the state in Gene Combs, and if he does anything like what Combs does then AC will prosper and prosper fast, but if what I have heard is true about him being somewhat of a goof off with the kids, then i don't know. This team needs discipline, and if they get it and get fundamentals then i think they could knock some people off come region time.

ive been around coach todd several times, and the last impression that i have of him is being a "goof off" .. he may have a good time with the kids at school, but i hear their conditioning has been strictly business first. the players have told me that he preaches defense and fundamental baseball.. so if he can get that across they will be fine.

all i can say due to my lack of knowledge of their new coach is good luck rebels!

FBIMAN Wrote:I think the Rebels made a mistake last year when they didn't try to keep Kenneth Johnson as their coach. He had the program going in the right way.
Don't know Coach Todd, wish them well.

I agree it would have been nice to see Kenneth Johnson remain as AC's coach. But, Coach Johnson resigned at AC because he was not hired back as a teacher in the Floyd County system and had to leave the area to look for work. In the 3 years Coach Johnson spent coaching at AC he taught first at AC, then the David School and finally at McDowell Elementary.

I think Josh Todd will do a fine Job.........he was an Asst. under Coach Jewell at Lee Co. during the 07 season.....he does have a little experience. I wish him the best

3under_PAR Wrote:I think Josh Todd will do a fine Job.........he was an Asst. under Coach Jewell at Lee Co. during the 07 season.....he does have a little experience. I wish him the best

Coach Johnson was a good guy, but if you want your baseball program to flourish, Johnson was not your man. Nothing against him, but he did not have the qualifications to turn a program into a region wide winner. He was fine for the district side of it, but they would have never had a chance to win the region with him as the coach. I think Coach Todd will do a great job in building a system that people can get behind of and believe in, and I hope he puts Allen Central in a good position this year to upset some people, because they do have some talent in their program.

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:Discipline!!!!

AMEN BROTHER

allen central does have some talent and i wish this team and their new coach the best of luck

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:Coach Johnson was a good guy, but if you want your baseball program to flourish, Johnson was not your man. Nothing against him, but he did not have the qualifications to turn a program into a region wide winner. He was fine for the district side of it, but they would have never had a chance to win the region with him as the coach. I think Coach Todd will do a great job in building a system that people can get behind of and believe in, and I hope he puts Allen Central in a good position this year to upset some people, because they do have some talent in their program.

I disagree. They had a great chance to win the region in his 2nd year at the helm. SC took them 10 innings before pulling it off and then beat Paintsville. If I'm not mistaken, AC had a couple of chances at winning that game and SC made some spectacular plays to win the game. Now I believe Coach Mike Hall may have been the better coach at the time, but Johnson had his team toe to toe competing for the championship. I do believe they also broke school records in wins, runs scored, and many other areas as well. In the third year he was there, a very young team - filled with many freshman won 16 or 17 games and nearly knocked off a very very good team in Lawrence County in the semifinals of the region. I do believe he went to Bell as the assistant after that to a very good coach, and they won the region for the first time there.

I don't know what qualifications he needs, but he has had proven success and put a regional contender on the field every year he has been a part of a team. I do believe Todd will do well at AC too though, but, if I do recall, he played at ALC the same as Johnson and will have nearly the same qualifications.

WheelsNdaSky Wrote:I disagree. They had a great chance to win the region in his 2nd year at the helm. SC took them 10 innings before pulling it off and then beat Paintsville. If I'm not mistaken, AC had a couple of chances at winning that game and SC made some spectacular plays to win the game. Now I believe Coach Mike Hall may have been the better coach at the time, but Johnson had his team toe to toe competing for the championship. I do believe they also broke school records in wins, runs scored, and many other areas as well. In the third year he was there, a very young team - filled with many freshman won 16 or 17 games and nearly knocked off a very very good team in Lawrence County in the semifinals of the region. I do believe he went to Bell as the assistant after that to a very good coach, and they won the region for the first time there.

I don't know what qualifications he needs, but he has had proven success and put a regional contender on the field every year he has been a part of a team. I do believe Todd will do well at AC too though, but, if I do recall, he played at ALC the same as Johnson and will have nearly the same qualifications.

]


Okay number one that is one of the weakest districts in the state of Kentucky, and you don't have to be a spectacular coach to win in that district. Also, when over half of your games comes from teams like the ones in your district, your probably going to have that many wins, but without quality teams on the schedule you'll never compete at a high level. I find it very hard to believe they were even close to beating lawrence in the semi's that year. And too, if he was that good of a coach he wouldn't have had to take an assistants job after being a head coach, and i don't even think that guys even at Bell anymore, so if he was that good why didn't they give the Bell job to him?

The biggest thing that i see todd have going for him is that he played under one of the state's best coaches for several years in gene combs. Combs proved that he could win with anybody and if coach todd can teach his players half as good as combs, then they should be in great shape. After hearing of ACHS's schedule this year (the one online plus the additioin of the queen city classic) , i doubt they will break any win records but they should definetly be ready for post season play. I have never seen an allen central schedule this tough.

I think this schedule in Coach Johnson's 2nd year at AC would rank a little tougher than the 2009 schedule appears to be.

http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/kh.../?id=21000

Lost Ball Wrote:I think this schedule in Coach Johnson's 2nd year at AC would rank a little tougher than the 2009 schedule appears to be.

http://scoreboard.12dt.com/scoreboard/kh.../?id=21000

There is only one team on this schedule outside of the region that was any good and that was Lexington Catholic, they had a very solid team that year. Ironton, OH was a very mediocre team that year and they won very handily, and also J. Kelly i am very unfamiliar with so i won't even comment on that game. Besides that AC never went outside Eastern Kentucky? If you don't do that its impossible to have a strong schedule. One hard game is not what i would consider a tough schedule, but they did have a good team this year and also made it to the semi finals of the region so i will definetely give them credit on that.

As for this year's schedule they only have 21 games listed on the website and i really hope for their own good this is a mistake, because there is no way you can compete playing that number of games, and whoever said this was one of the hardest schedules in AC history is mistaken. Now i will leave room to say that there are more games and they are just not listed on the website, and i hope that is the case, but only good solid teams on the schedule that i see for 2009 is Lawrence and JC. There is not one team on the 2009 schedule outside of the region that is a solid team and will be good for AC's competition. Madison Southern is one of the only games outside the region and outside of eastern kentucky, but unfortunately the team they had just a season ago took 14 games into the season to get their first win against LCC 2-1. They ended up 7-22. I don't think anyone was counting that game, or atleast i hope they wasn't counting that game, as one of the tough games. The only other team not in eastern kentucky that is even on the schedule is Woodridge, OH. Woodridge may be the exception but I doubt it. They had the best season in school history last year. They had 3 outstanding pitchers who unfortunately all graduated as well as most of their lineup. It should be a rebuilding year for them so i'm not sure how competitive they will be this season, however, if it would have been last year it would have been a good game to have on the schedule.

FBIMAN Wrote:I think the Rebels made a mistake last year when they didn't try to keep Kenneth Johnson as their coach. He had the program going in the right way.
Don't know Coach Todd, wish them well.

i agree

well its not a secret that allen central dont have a good history of keeping sucessful baseball coaches. i cant think of anywhere else whos coach won the region and then you fire him during the state tourney...
i believe somebody said it earlier that in the 58th youll automatically have 6 games that arent especially tough no matter who the team is. . i have heard from some of the players that they arent even allowed to schedule games that are very far away because of little to no travel budget.. this really hurts in gettin to play the quality competetion from central ky schools.
and as for the schedule.. playing johnson 2 times, lawrence 2 times, perry central 3 times, dixie heights, hazard 3 times, the school from ohio, powell, madison southern and lee county isnt exactly a cake walk. its not the toughest schedule in history, but game for game i believe its the toughest one they have played in quite awhile

.38special Wrote:well its not a secret that allen central dont have a good history of keeping sucessful baseball coaches. i cant think of anywhere else whos coach won the region and then you fire him during the state tourney...
i believe somebody said it earlier that in the 58th youll automatically have 6 games that arent especially tough no matter who the team is. . i have heard from some of the players that they arent even allowed to schedule games that are very far away because of little to no travel budget.. this really hurts in gettin to play the quality competetion from central ky schools.
and as for the schedule.. playing johnson 2 times, lawrence 2 times, perry central 3 times, dixie heights, hazard 3 times, the school from ohio, powell, madison southern and lee county isnt exactly a cake walk. its not the toughest schedule in history, but game for game i believe its the toughest one they have played in quite awhile

Buget issues are definitely a problem. Halfway through the 2008 season the administration at AC tried to cancel the remaining away games. The track program was cancelled due to budget problems. I'm guessing- that Coach Todd inheirited at least some of this schedule from former coach Austin Shelton. By the time Coach Todd was hired most teams already had their schedules in place. That combined with the budget forces Coach Todd to do some creative scheduling for his team.

good luck to AC this year. who all do they return from last season?

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:]


Okay number one that is one of the weakest districts in the state of Kentucky, and you don't have to be a spectacular coach to win in that district. Also, when over half of your games comes from teams like the ones in your district, your probably going to have that many wins, but without quality teams on the schedule you'll never compete at a high level. I find it very hard to believe they were even close to beating lawrence in the semi's that year. And too, if he was that good of a coach he wouldn't have had to take an assistants job after being a head coach, and i don't even think that guys even at Bell anymore, so if he was that good why didn't they give the Bell job to him?

I agree that it is one of the weakest districts. But AC didn't just win the district, they dominated it outscoring the others by over 100 runs, losing only 2 games in 3 years - that in Johnson's first year there. Also I do believe they played a very quality schedule with the budget restrictions at the school. JJ Kelly has won several state championships in Virginia. From what I've heard, the LexCath game was pretty close for 5 innings before one player pretty well handed it to them. They played East Carter, Ashland, Paintsville, Perry Central, Hazard, Pikeville, Johnson Central, Lawrence County, Belfry, Sheldon Clark, and others as well. That's a pretty tough schedule and they won 23 games. Every team has some easier wins on their schedule.

From what I recall of the Lawrence game, it was tied 4-4 in the 6th inning before a couple of errors from a young team put AC in a bad position. And that team played 6-7 freshman.

I do believe Johnson left AC to find work and because he got married. I believe Bell did ask him to come on board with the coach at Bell at the time. As for offering him the job, I'm not sure if it was or not. I don't even know if he will be coaching this season. All I'm saying is that he helped AC become a regional contender every season he was there. To say he didn't have the qualifications is not accurate. He may have not had a big name or reputation, but he did a fine job. I believe he would be a good coach, and do a fine job anywhere he goes.

^^ I also believe they played Leslie County that season, and Leslie was like 16-0 at one point and ranked in the state. If I'm not mistaken, AC ended their win streak, and nearly beat them in Leslie. My point is that I believe Johnson did well at AC and made them a regional contender year in and year out. I don't think he was the best coach in the 15th, but give credit where credit is due. I do believe that Coach Todd will do a fine job at AC as well.

WheelsNdaSky Wrote:^^ I also believe they played Leslie County that season, and Leslie was like 16-0 at one point and ranked in the state. If I'm not mistaken, AC ended their win streak, and nearly beat them in Leslie. My point is that I believe Johnson did well at AC and made them a regional contender year in and year out. I don't think he was the best coach in the 15th, but give credit where credit is due. I do believe that Coach Todd will do a fine job at AC as well.

Regional contender? how many times did he make it to the finals while he was there? Im not saying for AC he wasn't a good fit, but I wouldn't have compared him to the other coaches around the region or around the area for the matter. It doesn't matter though, but for the record he did apply for the Bell County job and didn't get it.

well i believe like many threads this one has gotten off topic.. i believe that johnson did a good job with the rebels but i also belive with jackrabbitslim that he couldnt quite get the team over the hump...

with that being said lets get back to the original topic with what the rebels need to do to improve over the season.. and not just "discipline".. i believe more than anything else that defense is the key to this team.. if you looked at all their losses over the last 3 or 4 years that "one big mistake" in defense has led to the heartbreaking losses.. no big coaching or anything else.. just lack of fundamentals and keeping thier heads on straight.. i may receive some flack over this but dont really care..

fundamentals is what seperates the JCs and LCs and Painstvilles from the rest of the region.. if a decent team in the 58th or the 15ht for that matter can grasp the fundamentals and make the routine plays routine.., then they have a chance at winning... and i believe that goes the same for about everybody...in the last few years AC has undoubtably had the talent to compete but eventually that runs out and fundamentals takes over..

.38special Wrote:well i believe like many threads this one has gotten off topic.. i believe that johnson did a good job with the rebels but i also belive with jackrabbitslim that he couldnt quite get the team over the hump...

with that being said lets get back to the original topic with what the rebels need to do to improve over the season.. and not just "discipline".. i believe more than anything else that defense is the key to this team.. if you looked at all their losses over the last 3 or 4 years that "one big mistake" in defense has led to the heartbreaking losses.. no big coaching or anything else.. just lack of fundamentals and keeping thier heads on straight.. i may receive some flack over this but dont really care..

fundamentals is what seperates the JCs and LCs and Painstvilles from the rest of the region.. if a decent team in the 58th or the 15ht for that matter can grasp the fundamentals and make the routine plays routine.., then they have a chance at winning... and i believe that goes the same for about everybody...in the last few years AC has undoubtably had the talent to compete but eventually that runs out and fundamentals takes over..

I completely agree with you, but discipline and fundamentals go hand in hand. Without discipline, it is impossible to be able to teach fundamentals.

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:I completely agree with you, but discipline and fundamentals go hand in hand. Without discipline, it is impossible to be able to teach fundamentals.

i completely agree, but i talking to the ones that think all they need to do is get their heads on straight and that is going to solve everything. ive seen many teams that never yelled or fought with each other that couldnt catch a groundball if they wanted to.

discipline is directly related to fundamentals and i believe AC has lacked one of the two over the last few years. I believe a lack of motivation caused a lot of it. baseball is a lot more fun when your not making every play seem difficult.

.38special Wrote:i completely agree, but i talking to the ones that think all they need to do is get their heads on straight and that is going to solve everything. ive seen many teams that never yelled or fought with each other that couldnt catch a groundball if they wanted to.

discipline is directly related to fundamentals and i believe AC has lacked one of the two over the last few years. I believe a lack of motivation caused a lot of it. baseball is a lot more fun when your not making every play seem difficult.

Well put, and i do think that until AC gets it in their head that they can compete for something besides a district championship they will soon get better and more competitive. They first have to believe they can win against those teams before they ever can.

JackRabbitSlim Wrote:]


Okay number one that is one of the weakest districts in the state of Kentucky, and you don't have to be a spectacular coach to win in that district. Also, when over half of your games comes from teams like the ones in your district, your probably going to have that many wins, but without quality teams on the schedule you'll never compete at a high level. I find it very hard to believe they were even close to beating lawrence in the semi's that year. And too, if he was that good of a coach he wouldn't have had to take an assistants job after being a head coach, and i don't even think that guys even at Bell anymore, so if he was that good why didn't they give the Bell job to him?

the score to that was four to eight in LC's favor....if i'm not mistaken seven maybe all eight of LC's runs were unearned that game....i believe josh todd will be a very serious coach and definitely not goof off with his players to much...i hope AC's young players finally decide to grow up and respect their coach...i believe johnson would have been a decent coach in time...but he never really got the respect of AC's players and the coach after him sure didn't...i hope todd has better luck