[EKUAlum05]

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.

I'll be honest, I am not sure where you are going with your argument then?

The restructure to six classes occurred in 2007. I think you are completely wrong labelling 3A football as weak since the restructure 15 years ago.

3A has definitely been weak for the past three years, I have said that proudly myself, but on the whole, it has been the epitome of what you expect for 3A for good or better. There has been a few years where I would have taken the best two or three teams in 3A over 4A. By and large I would say as a class, 3A is exactly what you would expect for the picture of 15 years. Some years are stronger than others with the best teams being up, some years you had 1A and 2A powerhouse programs  who probably we're better than the best of the class... it's small school football and that is going to be the cyclical nature.

Since 2007, Belfry has thrived existing only in this class. It's not fair to say "What if they were in 4A?" because they aren't a 4A school... if you said that for 2A... then I would say they would have had probably the same amount of success if not slightly better during this 15 year stretch. Would they have titles in 2021 and 2019? Probably not. Would they have won the title in some of the years they didn't? Probably so. If you want to say Belfry wouldn't have had this success in the old 4-class system.. well yeah... you would be right... but that's not what we have. You also would probably have three or four other blue blood programs that wouldn't have had the same success either.

It sounds like you are reaching to find any argument because you don't like the Belfry fanbase. Hey.. I get it... fair enough if you take issue... there are some delusional fans on here or have been on here. When this website was formed it was from an EKY starting population base right as the Belfry program was starting to take off to that next level and the height of this site was during the highwater mark of the Belfry program. Of course you are going to have a great number of Belfry fans and with that the delusional fans would be here in a higher quantity as well. I see some stuff on other sites for delusional fans from some WKY powerhouses, NKY powerhouses as well. Heck.. that 2013 special Bourbon County team had some real pieces of work who came out of the woodwork as well.

I am also going to make an inference and put words in your mouth, so forgive me, but I also get the impression you also have a little bit of a rub with Coach Haywood and either think he shouldn't deserve the accolades or he should have some form of asterisk to his status. It seems between the little comments like the one bolded above and the crux of the argument you are reaching for about "weak class", is so you can basically put a bigger argument together against Haywood's merits. That's a whole discussion we can have another day if so. 

Nonetheless, what is non-debatable is the fact Belfry won 2 state titles in the old 4-class system and 6 state titles since the 6-class system playing against the schools that were put by the KHSAA to be on equal footing as them. They also have 3 Runner-Ups in the old class system and 4 Runner-Ups in the new system playing teams deemed to be on equal footing. Philip Haywood didn't necessarily build Belfry from the ground up, but all of these Final Appearances save one in 1979 were under his watch. He has been coaching forever and that has helped him become the State's winningest coach no doubt, but he has also consistently put winning teams who have been unafraid to schedule up for that same long period of time. He did all this at a Rural Public County School in the economic constraints of coal mining country using what most consider to be an antiquated offensive philosophy. Pretty impressive and "Dems the facts".