[Orange Blaze]

I think jet is right. Hard to know but all 3 of those great programs have less titles if they are in same division. Pikeville isn’t particularly close to moving to 2A by enrollment. I do think football will eventually move to 4-5 classes or more likely the districts will have to be bigger to guarantee teams games due to avoiding scheduling certain teams for RPI purposes. That’s another thread altogether but 1A isn’t getting away from Pikeville anytime soon.

This may not be a popular opinion in Ramland but had football stayed 4 classes Raceland wouldn’t be a relevant program at the state level.  I know this because I played in that class system and 1A was no joke and it would be no joke now if that system was still in place.  When I played in the early 2000’s 1A consisted of Beechwood, Mayfield, LCA, Pikeville, and the Danville & NCC dynasties.  We were barely an after thought in that system and struggled against the top tier teams in that class much like that same struggle exists now with the only difference being there are less high level teams to contend with in the current system.

I can remember Lynn Camp having some good teams back then too. Hazard and Williamsburg were solid as well. In the 4 class system you just rarely seen blowouts from the 3rd round on. Middlesboro was a very good 1A team in the late 90s/early 2000’s until they went to 2a. Belfry played them there in round 3 on their way to the state championship in 03.

Fairview had some good teams too between 2002-2005.  Their best team was in 2003 when they had Chris Jennings who would later have stints with the Browns and the Jets.  He was an absolute man amongst boys on the field as a high school player.