[Red and Black]

Coach Chandler of Hazard took a team from 1 win to 8 wins with the same schedule and the same roster was my pick in All A.  State titles should not exclude coaches from the award, but should not be the sole criteria. Coaches selections can be biased just like the media polls, My 2 cents

My thoughts are similar. The award should go to the most impressive coaching job, not the one who wins the most, I think. My example would be in 2A- nothing against Coach Morris, I think he’s an excellent coach and OC is a tremendously run program, but #1) there are certain advantages that private schools have over public schools which I assume most on this forum are aware of and #2) there are other coaches who I thought did a more impressive job with what they had than OC did this year. Volker in his 2nd year at Beechwood comes to my mind first, but I’ll also throw a shameless homer plug for my guy Wes Hager at Prestonsburg too. He did a tremendous job in his first year leading a team to an 11-2 record and the programs first regional championship appearance in 10 years after taking over a team that went 5-6 in ‘23 and before that hadn’t won a single playoff game in 8 years. I’d rather see new guys that turn programs around get it instead of just the ones who win the most. There’s something to say for both kinds of coaches, certainly. On the flip side I could make a good argument for why Coach Morris deserves this award, but personally I like public school turnaround coaches better than private schools that make deep runs every year.