[goBIGblue82]

You are misinformed--apparently it is not automatic--unless someone was right about the politics. Jeff Mann from KYMSFA said that it was Adams home game and that if they did not want to move it, they would not have to--which is fine. No complaints from this side about it. But that did prevent NH from making that trip on a Wednesday night.

Here's is the real story.

Our coach received an email from Coach Mann that Leslie County had requested that one official not be used. They did not know this official, had never had any prior experience with this official, and had no reason to request that this official not be used--except apparently they had talked to who knows who that had told them not to use him. Our coach questioned Coach Mann about this procedure and how he felt it was unfair to the official to be "black-balled" for no legitimate reason. Anyway, our coach relayed to the request to his AD and to the officiating crew. On gameday, this official did show up as part of the crew (at that point-what should NH have done--postponed the game until another official could have been found? apparently so) and did umpire the game. Our coach had done all he could do and at this point there weren't many options left. The only calls the Leslie County had against them were basically off-sides penalties and false-starts. There was one unsportmanlike conduct penalty against their sideline called by the head referee. (This was about the time that someone was coming out of their stands to stand on the sideline and threaten a NH player) Basically, what you have from the LC side is a bunch of whining and crying over nothing because they were soundly beat by a better football team. Their team threw 3 int's (1 of which was returned for a touchdown by NH and subsequently called back on a holding penalty) and lost a fumble. The officiating crew had nothing to do with the outcome of this game. There were no "drive-killing penalties" called against LC as "I Rule the World" tried to claim in an earlier post--only "drive killing" turnovers.

As for the game at Adams:

When the NH coach was informed that the game would not be moved, he had been up front the entire time to the KYMSFA staff, that his team would not be able to make that trip on a week night. Hope was left open that the game would be moved to a neutral site, but that never materialized. When it became apparent Sunday that the game was not going to me moved, NH withdrew from the playoffs. They were then informed that had been dismissed from the playoffs. Its kind of like the old "you can't fire me, I quit" thing.

LC, for some unknown reason, seems to have some sort of axe to grind with the NH program. New Harlan has been more than generous in the past in trying to help LC out with bowl games and other games to get their program up to speed. For whatever reason, LC has complaints. That is, and will remain, on them. NH runs a class program that has benefited many young men for several years. Ask our parents--current and former--about the way our coaching staff has treated and taught their players, and the will tell you--Coach Wood, Coach Craig, and the rest of the coaching staff are class acts and top notch.

I don't doubt that NH had LC beat without the help of the officials. NH has the better team in every aspect of the game. However, IMO if it is requested that you not use an official by a team, and then reaffirmed by the KYMSFA, then I would take that serious. As far as not wanting to travel on a week night, I respect the coach on his decision. I guess I'm just a little disappointed, because I felt like NH had a very good chance to make it to the finals. I just feel for the kids, were they asked for their opinion on the subject.