[HSFOOTBALL]

Considering we know how good Belfry can be when the talent pool is up...

It may be more appropriate to tell the rest of the state to enjoy beating Belfry while they are reloading... unfortunately with the exception of Ashland by a slim margin in 2020... 3A teams were not able to take advantage of this fact.

With the number of Freshman and Sophomores playing key minutes for Belfry this year (I want to say 12 of the starting 22 spots are Freshmen or Sophomores), the Pirates will be the huckleberry to all comers like they were from 2011-2016 soon enough.

Belfry definitely benefitted from a weak 3A two of the past three years, no denying that (although as mentioned previously Belfry would have been just fine in 2A in 2019), but to be fair, a large reason the class was so weak is because Belfry was in their leanest stretch of depth, roster size, and talent and took a significant drop off from their 2015 & 2016 teams who noone outside of the best of 6A would have felt confident beating.


**SIDE NOTE: I fully expect Belfry not to be 3A much longer. It would surprise me if Belfry is not a 2A school in the next realignment.**

Yea, I didn't say they 2024 Pirates get rolled, because I haven't seen them play.  All comers is definitely stretch, and I can't give you 2011 or 2012 because JC and Lville Central were still beating you guys soundly, but 2013-2016 would have won 1,2 or 3a you are correct.

Beating you guys soundly?



2011: 
Louisville Central beat Belfry 15-14
Johnson Central beat Belfry 21-14

2012:
Belfry beat Johnson Central 17-12
Central beat Belfry 12-6 in OT


Central outscored Belfry by one point in those two meetings in regulation, Belfry went 1-1 against Johnson Central those two years with a TD margin.

Beating soundly is not accurate at all.

I gotcha, that's my bad I was thinking of 2013-14 which you also included in your 6 year stretch. When JC outscored you 89-28 ... mathematically of course.  Would you say that was dominant?

Winning back to back State titles (including beating Central in 2014).

Losing a game that was closer than the score in 2013 to a very good 4A Johnson Central and then losing a 2014 game where Belfry I think was missing 8 starters to once again a 4A team that was ranked in the Top 5 of their class.

2013: Belfry beat the brakes off a Somerset team who went all the way to the 2A Semi's and lost by a point to NCC. Belfry also beat a 5A Harlan County team that might have been the best team they have had since. They also beat a Christian Academy of Knoxville team who was the defending state champs. Belfry took down a great Bourbon County in the Semi's and then the best Wayne County team in history who smoked all comers until belfry beat them on a cold/wet day in the Finals.

You are a big Bourbon guy... so I would think you would attest that the 2013 Bourbon team was probably the best in school history outside of that Dudley Hilton title team. They laid waste to everything in their path until Belfry took care of business against them. No team had been able to stay within 4 TD's of Bourbon until Belfry went to Paris and took them out.

2014:
This was probably the weakest Belfry team of that stretch but they still took care of Central in the Finals and posted a season opening win over 6A Henry Clay that surprised a lot of people because Belfry dominated throughout. Belfry beat two 5A teams in Southwestern and Harlan County.. Southwestern went to the Regional Finals that year.

In other words.. 2013 and 2014 Belfry clearly showed they were worthy of their hardware. 2014 probably was the least impressive team of that 4 year title run, the Pirates relied heavily on a strong Sophomore Class. With that said, I would think if anyone would not question how good that 2013 team was it would be you having seen them first hand knock off your alma mater. Speaking of which.. I think I took some avatar bets that week that never got paid off? Were you one of those unpaid bets? Maybe I should go in the archives to see?

Every state title Belfry has they were worthy of their hardware, that's not debatable, you don't get there and win it without being worthy of it. That's where all of this gets twisted, and it has nothing to do with Belfry, more so their fans, and even more so, the ones who light candles every night to pictures of Haywood.  I appreciate a good fan, I can't stand a delusional fan and a vast majority of the Belfry fan base seems to fall into the latter.  So to bring some of you back down to earth, it's easy to point out that you have benefited from a traditionally weak 3a football since the restructure.  That's not Belfry's fault, that's what size their school is and it just so happens that there isn't another reputable 3a program in Eastern Ky. again, not their fault, but it also doesn't make them the best football team in the state or anywhere close to it, and that has been proven year in and year out when they play out of 3a.