One milestone that happened during the Cumberland Falls Invitational in Corbin was that Scott County's Billy Hicks surpassed Bobby Keith to become #2 on the Kentucky High School Basketball all time wins list. Hicks' record now stands at 769-218.
The all time wins leader in Kentucky is William Keen, who coached Louisville Central High School. Keen retired with a record of 856 wins and only 83 loses. Most of Keens career was spent when the KHSAA was segregated. Keen's Central teams won not only "***** State Championships" but in 1952 his Central team won the "***** National Championship".
Looking at the all time coaching wins list its amazing how many of the top 10 are from eastern Kentucky. Other than Hicks and Keith there is Pearl Combs, Dave Fraley and Ralph Roberts.
Congrats Coach Hicks. Where is Coach Hatcher and Coach Holland at on this list
rojas Wrote:One milestone that happened during the Cumberland Falls Invitational in Corbin was that Scott County's Billy Hicks surpassed Bobby Keith to become #2 on the Kentucky High School Basketball all time wins list. Hicks' record now stands at 769-218.
The all time wins leader in Kentucky is William Keen, who coached Louisville Central High School. Keen retired with a record of 856 wins and only 83 loses. Most of Keens career was spent when the KHSAA was segregated. Keen's Central teams won not only "***** State Championships" but in 1952 his Central team won the "***** National Championship".
Looking at the all time coaching wins list its amazing how many of the top 10 are from eastern Kentucky. Other than Hicks and Keith there is Pearl Combs, Dave Fraley and Ralph Roberts.
It's amazing to think at one time Hicks, Roberts and Mike Jones (over 500 wins) were coaching at the same time in Harlan County.
palmer Wrote:It's amazing to think at one time Hicks, Roberts and Mike Jones (over 500 wins) were coaching at the same time in Harlan County.
Wow!
Congrats to Coach Hicks.
Where is Ralph Roberts now?
I guess you could say the move to Scott Co. was a good one for Coach Hicks. Congrats to Coach Hicks and his teams.
Mountain Wrote:I guess you could say the move to Scott Co. was a good one for Coach Hicks. Congrats to Coach Hicks and his teams.
The move to Scott Co was a very good one for Hicks. At the time I personally thought it wasn't such a good move. Shows what I know. Hicks had built Corbin from a team that had won 2 or 3 games a year to one of the top programs in KY. Scott County was a decent program but not great.
Mountain Wrote:I guess you could say the move to Scott Co. was a good one for Coach Hicks. Congrats to Coach Hicks and his teams.
Mama Bear Wrote:Wow!
Congrats to Coach Hicks.
Where is Ralph Roberts now?
I'm not sure where Ralph Roberts is now. If I'm not mistaken he coached two different stints at Cumberland and one at McCreary County. Ralph had some of the most talented teams that have ever been in the 13th region. His 85 team may have been the most talented team ever in the 13th.
palmer Wrote:It's amazing to think at one time Hicks, Roberts and Mike Jones (over 500 wins) were coaching at the same time in Harlan County.
Harlan Co had 4 good coaches in the mid 80s. David Parks was another pretty good one at Evarts.
The KHSAA does a pretty horrible job keeping their records list up to date. On their list Hatcher is listed at 21st with 564 wins. Holland is not listed. They have Hicks listed with about 30 less wins than he actually has. Its best to go by Mike Fields at the Lexington Herald Leader.
He would have the record if had spent as much time coaching as crying to the officials..shows anything can happen if you stick around long enough. The best coach in the state is Flynn at Highlands,,Hands down..nobody close. not even a chance of anyone being better.
rojas Wrote:The all time wins leader in Kentucky is William Keen, who coached Louisville Central High School. Keen retired with a record of 856 wins and only 83 loses. Most of Keens career was spent when the KHSAA was segregated. Keen's Central teams won not only "***** State Championships" but in 1952 his Central team won the "***** National Championship".
Coach Keen also had a good high school football coaching career. His record was:
225-45-12 in 33 years at Louisville Central.
Does anyone know if he is still living?
havesomefun Wrote:He would have the record if had spent as much time coaching as crying to the officials..shows anything can happen if you stick around long enough. The best coach in the state is Flynn at Highlands,,Hands down..nobody close. not even a chance of anyone being better.
ahhh you can your coaches from the big cities, id take an old mountain coach any day of the week.. I mean in the big cities youve got the most athletic kids in the state. and most Lexington/Louisville schools are private which means they can recruit, So give me a poor ole ball coach from the moutains that when he was born was gave a UK shirt and they put basketball in his hands.
tehot05 Wrote:ahhh you can your coaches from the big cities, id take an old mountain coach any day of the week.. I mean in the big cities youve got the most athletic kids in the state. and most Lexington/Louisville schools are private which means they can recruit, So give me a poor ole ball coach from the moutains that when he was born was gave a UK shirt and they put basketball in his hands.
Private schools can recruit? When did they start allowing that? The basketball talent statewide is down.The best teams in Lexinton would be also rans 20 yrs ago..If your playing freshmen in the big city you have a weak talent pool.There are teams playing now that couldnt beat a good freshman team 25 years ago.Look at the number of players that go D-! from the state..we used to have 3 or 4 a year from Lex every year.The AAU has desroyed basketball..Its all style over substance now..recruit the athletes and make players out of them..That is the idea.Heck watch UK play they make mistakes everynight that they should have learned not to do in grade school.Talent level is not close to what it was.The people in evaluation end of it have never played and would know a ball player from a base fiddle.90 % of the coaches have never played either or if so no success.Basketball is a game that has to many componets that a guy who hasnt played would know.How would a guy that wasnt a scorer teach a guy to score?
tehot05 Wrote:ahhh you can your coaches from the big cities, id take an old mountain coach any day of the week.. I mean in the big cities youve got the most athletic kids in the state. and most Lexington/Louisville schools are private which means they can recruit, So give me a poor ole ball coach from the moutains that when he was born was gave a UK shirt and they put basketball in his hands.
agreed miller. theres no body that works harder than coaches in the mountains (DUDLEY HILTON/RODNEY WOODS) it takes a great coach to take a school in the moutains and win a champion i also agree with your statement about recruiting weather or not that say they do.. EVeryone knows that it goes on...
I just read in the LHL that Hicks actually actually moved into third place in all time wins. Russell Williamson of Inez High School is second all time with a total of 793 wins. Williamson for some reason was not included on the KHSAA list. That doesn't surprise me. The KHSAA list is very inaccurate.
This makes yet another coach from eastern Kentucky who is at the top of the list. I had the good fortune to set next to coach Williamson at a Sweet 16 session several years ago. He is high school basketball encyclopedia.
Keen 856
Williamson 793
Hicks 769 (active)
Keith 767
Isnt Dr Doug Hines on that list somewhere ? He finished up at Union County.He passed away a few years ago but was a true educator and coach.
I read today that Hicks has 800 career wins.
3 more years and he'll be at the top.
rojas Wrote:I'm not sure where Ralph Roberts is now. If I'm not mistaken he coached two different stints at Cumberland and one at McCreary County. Ralph had some of the most talented teams that have ever been in the 13th region. His 85 team may have been the most talented team ever in the 13th.
Roberts won five straight district titles at Cumberland in the early 70s (70-74), then took McCreary Central to the state tournament in 1976. He was back at Cumberland in the 80 and 81 seasons (I think 80 is right, I know 81). He left for two years (Slusher and Berta for one year each) and then came back for the 83-84 season until he retired after the 1990 season when Bill Scott took over and took Cumberland to the state All "A" his first year in 1991.
Bobby Keith told me once the 85 Cumberland team was as good as the Hopkinsville team that beat him in the 85 state finals. Cumberland fell to Clay in the 85 regional finals when Cumberland appeared to have it won.
HDE Wrote:Roberts won five straight district titles at Cumberland in the early 70s (70-74), then took McCreary Central to the state tournament in 1976. He was back at Cumberland in the 80 and 81 seasons (I think 80 is right, I know 81). He left for two years (Slusher and Berta for one year each) and then came back for the 83-84 season until he retired after the 1990 season when Bill Scott took over and took Cumberland to the state All "A" his first year in 1991.
Bobby Keith told me once the 85 Cumberland team was as good as the Hopkinsville team that beat him in the 85 state finals. Cumberland fell to Clay in the 85 regional finals when Cumberland appeared to have it won.
I was at that game. Cumberland had an ill-advised technical foul on a volunteer assistant coach that may have cost them the game.
Good coach and great players, but thats what it takes to get 800 wins. (Congrats)
Just read where Billy picked up his 850th win. It appears he could surpass Kean in all time wins this month. He already holds the record for all time Sweet 16 wins. Big time accomplishments for an ole Harlan County boy.
That's what recruiting will do for ya. Even billy said that in an espn article in 09. He said no program that is a top program every year has players transfer in. Players make coaches coaches don't make players. A donkey never won the Kentucky derby. Don't give billy too much credit Toyota of Georgetown should be listed with an asterisk beside his name in the record book. Good for him but give him riverside or Jenkins and see how many games he wins.
rojas Wrote:I'm not sure where Ralph Roberts is now. If I'm not mistaken he coached two different stints at Cumberland and one at McCreary County. Ralph had some of the most talented teams that have ever been in the 13th region. His 85 team may have been the most talented team ever in the 13th.
Ralph Roberts spent to terms at McCreary Central. 66-69 and 74-79. He took a Tim Stephens led team to State Tourney.
Buford T Justice Wrote:That's what recruiting will do for ya. Even billy said that in an espn article in 09. He said no program that is a top program every year has players transfer in. Players make coaches coaches don't make players. A donkey never won the Kentucky derby. Don't give billy too much credit Toyota of Georgetown should be listed with an asterisk beside his name in the record book. Good for him but give him riverside or Jenkins and see how many games he wins.
If he was at Riverside or Jenkins you would not be using them as your example.
Ppl can hate on Hicks all they want but he does a great job. His teams play as hard as any team I've ever seen. Toyota of Gtown has help n getting players there but can you truly blame him. He has done a great job!! Congrats to him and his family. Just think how many lives this guy has touched over the years. Awesome story and I hope he breaks the all time wins record. Good to see Mtn boys doing good things!!
I wonder who Hicks' first win was against (1978-79 season, I think). I looked up Mike Jones' record when he won his 600th earlier this year (19th coach in Kentucky history I think) and his first season (at Cawood) was against Billy Hicks and Harlan on Dec. 3, 1983.
To address an earlier point by Rojas, Billy asked me once about a game he won at Evarts against Keokee, Va., but the record book was not available and the Enterprise did not cover it (before my time there), so there was no proof.
Hicks is a gym rat. Nobody works harder. He has a true passion for the game.
havesomefun Wrote:He would have the record if had spent as much time coaching as crying to the officials..shows anything can happen if you stick around long enough. The best coach in the state is Flynn at Highlands,,Hands down..nobody close. not even a chance of anyone being better.
He wouldn't be close if he hadn't left the 13th region. Bobby kieth had his number.
Bobby is the primary reason he left the 13th region. A wise choice, I might add.