[Jarons]

I hear a lot on this site about "Mountain Football." Perhaps more than any region in the state, this area claims an interesting mantra about "King of the Mountains," or "Never beaten by a Mountain team since . . ."

This started me thinking about why this "Regional Pride" is so great. So I went back to look at the # of State Champions from the "Mountains" since 1975. Here's what I came up with.

Class A Champs

1998 Middlesboro
1989 Pikeville
1988 Pikeville
1987 Pikeville

Class AA Champs

2004 Belfry
2003 Belfry
2002 Bardstown
1996 Breathitt
1995 Breathitt
1982 Corbin
1980 Corbin
1976 Corbin

Class AAA Champs

1991 Bell

Class AAAA Champs

2008 Bell

Now Ashland won AAA in 1990 and Russell won AA in 2005 and AAA in 1978 but I've seen some people debate whether they are NEKY teams or Mountains teams so include them if you wish.

That's 14 state champs over 34 years and mostly 4 classes (except for the last 3 years where there were 6 possible state champs).

Just a cursory look shows NKY with 36 Titles, CKY with 20 and WKY with 20 and I won't even count the Louisville area.

Why such pride over a region that has probably produced the fewest State titles of any region in KY? Just asking.

To answer your question about EKY football (I cannot stand the term mountain football because you are excluding schools such as Raceland, Ashland, Russell, Fairview, etc. also in the Eastern part of the state). High school sports is all we have in EKY. NKY you have Cincinnati Bearcats, Reds, Bengals and other forms of entertainment. CKY of course you have UK, and Louisville area you have UofL. I grew up in EKY, at Raceland all we talked about was football 365. I now live in the Louisville area the passion for HS sports is not here, everyone cares more about UofL or UK. Tell me a pro team or a major college to take away the attention in EKY that other regions have taking away from their HS sports.