Month: May 2025

Slow Motion Replay: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf(e)? Perhaps everyone should be! @MaleBulldogs, @LMHSCoachWolfe, @Aspirationsgym, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans

May 22, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

We don’t know ultimately who’s afraid of the big, bad Wolfe; but we know who should be…the teams having to face the Bulldogs this coming Fall. Chris Wolfe has been among the very best coaches in the business since he took his first job at Hancock County in 1997 and quickly led them to a 10-3 finish in 1998. Wolfe then went 46-25 at Waggener (1999-2004), taking them to the 2000 semis, and finally 18-16 at Pleasure Ridge Park (2005-2007) before landing at Male High as Bobby Redman’s successor. This is a pass-first, explosive play hunting, offensive innovator who recognized he would have to move the ball, through the air, and for large chunks of production to regularly compete with and overcome the teams in Louisville he would have to schedule. Enjoy this feature, Tra la la la la.

Friday Night Fletch

Storm Warning: Conner Miles is looking to lead @HopkinsCentral, @_CoachManning, @evans02_mike, @scott_khristian, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball

May 22, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Connor Miles, a ’27 DE for the Storm, looks to have all the right measurements to thrive where slotted. Mile is a DE. Miles is 6’5″ tall. Miles weighs a slight, but thickening as he lifts and conditions, 215-pounds. Miles played some his sophomore year and did well when presented with opportunity. Coach Manning believes both Miles and Aaron Wells are growing into roles on his team. That means we should see much more from this prospect over the next couple of years than we have the first two. Big, tall, lengthy kids can take longer to develop. However, when they finally arrive… Enjoy the article and be careful out there; looks like a Storm is brewing!

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Ewell E. “Judge” Waddell laid down the law around Highlands High from 1942-1954 @HighlandsFB, @WaddellScholars, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @WKUFootball

May 21, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

We don’t make head coaches anymore the ilk or equal of your Doc Farrells, your Judge Waddells, or even your Homer Rices. No sir, those days appear long gone and who knows if we will ever see them reappear. Still, it is fun to remember when our high school football coaches were way more than just coaches. Many of them were fine teachers, accomplished academics, and community leaders. They were heroes to some and fine gentlemen to all. They required their players to act in conformity with a certain code of conduct from the young men they would lead and the young men they would coach. Enjoy this look at Judge Waddell, perhaps the first, great coach of the Highlands High School era. His efforts would result in the construction of one of the KHSAA’s all-time football factories, football dynasties.

Friday Night Fletch

Aaron ‘AD’ Johnson, from Perry County Central, is the Mingua Beef Jerky Protein-packed Performer of the Week @minguabeefjerky @bigassfans, @KyHighFootball, @PCCHSFootball, @kyhssportszone

May 21, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Aaron David Johnson, or “AD” as he is called around Perry County Central circles has been making some real, off-season strides. He is getting taller, getting thicker, getting stronger exhibiting more arm-strength, and getting much, much faster. This kid has got the home folks around Hazard, Kentucky going plumb crazy. We believe this kid, coming off a solid junior year under center, is poised to have quite the senior season. Together with “little brother” Bryson Johnson (“Mr. B”), these two have the Commodores from Perry County Central trending in an upward trajectory. Enjoy this feature and don’t forget to pick up a few bags of some of the world’s finest beef jerky products. #SavorTheFlavor out there in Perry County, KY.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Doc Ferrell walked through Prestonsburg like a Demi-god @PrestonsburgFB, @SrHighFootball, @khsaafootball, @UKFootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans

May 20, 2025 Fletcher Long 2

I think the world of Dan Goble. I am also mindful of the responsibility of this online magazine to be the recorders of KHSAA football history. I don’t know why the job has fallen to us, I just know that it has. That is why when I got a call from Coach Goble asking me to feature a former coach who meant the world to him, I was eager to comply with the request. From that phone call, this article materialized. I would like to thank my mother, and the DAR, for contributing to this piece. We have resurrected the story of a former great we were required to rescue from the dustbin of history, soon to be forgotten forever. Thank Goodness we got to it before it was gone. Enjoy this article.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Bob Redman, Renaissance Man @ItsChris_Redman, @OwensboroSports, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @MaleBulldogs

May 19, 2025 Fletcher Long 5

Bob Redman was a true Renaissance Man in that he was able to do a variety of things while doing them all very well. Redman was among the greatest high school football coaches the Louisville area has ever known and managed to beat both St. Xavier and Trinity more than any other Louisville area coach in spite of coaching a team in one of those powerhouses’s districts in 30 of his 35-years. Redman averaged over 9-wins a season for 35-seasons. Playing against the best and most talented rosters the commonwealth of Kentucky had to offer, that is really something quite remarkable. Enjoy this feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Jesse Clark, Murray High, is on quite a few prospect lists across KY @GoldRushNathan, @JesseClark2027, @murrayhighFB, @Coach_Hugo33, @Dickerson_Coach, @MurrayQBClub, @PrepRedzoneKY, @Chapman42071, @DCHS_Football, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball

May 19, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Jesse Clark is a 6’3,” 260 pound DE who many believe is about the best DE on the western end of KY. Clark has the frame, length, and size you want at the “big schools” and with a 3.5-GPA he is also sure to gain admission pretty much everywhere from the SEC to the Ivy-League. This kid has plenty of “leg kick” and get off coming around the end and his explosion will only increase as he matures physically. This is a long, tall, lengthy, edge presence schools love to be able to slot defensively. Enjoy this feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay, Series Article No. 50: The near misses, the guys who would likely have been HOFers if they hadn’t moved on to something else @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @LCAEAGLESFB, @mercer_football, @CentreFootball, @HighlandsFB

May 18, 2025 Fletcher Long 3

We all know Phillip Haywood and Dudley Hilton are the two winningest football coaches in the KHSAA history. Haywood at 491 will be tough to catch but Hilton is 30 or so behind him and he’s still going strong. What about the guys who shone like bright, shining stars then moved on to “greener pastures.” Could some of those guys have been “the best?” Perhaps. If there is a short-timer who could be considered, we believe he may be in this particular grouping of three. Enjoy this feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Union needed a RB in 2021 and Isaiah Wright, from Last Chance U, was the man for the job @isaiahwright01, @KyHighFootball, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @UnionBulldogs, @CoachLuttrell49

May 17, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Isaiah Wright got another chance, both on the series “Last Chance U” and in Barbourville, Kentucky, to follow his dream. We were there to catch his rushing output against Campbellsville which was the second most prodigious output in Union football history. Wright’s performance that day crystallized an important message to young, KHSAA football players…if you think you are “too good” to play NAIA football, you better rethink it. There is talent abundant at all levels of college football and the developments involving the transfer portal and NIL have done nothing but make the “lower levels” of college ball even more competitive than prior times. Enjoy this feature, and try to learn something.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Mike Glaser from St. Xavier was ‘Everyone’s Coach’ @GlaserMglaser, @StXTigerSports, @CoachKWallace, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @StXTigersFB

May 16, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

You just can’t write a series of features about the best football coaches in KHSAA history without featuring the great Mike Glaser from St. Xavier. Glaser won over 81% of his games in football, won seven (7) titles, went to the title game 11-times, all the while making these men better players, athletes, students, Catholics, and citizens. Glaser focused on the good of the team, its players, and its coaches without ever really focusing on himself and what he did or failed to achieve. He was completely selfless. He was completely a class act. Enjoy this look at a guy who embodied “The Xaverian” principles of humility, simplicity, trust, compassion and zeal as well as any person to ever work for that diocese, or that school. Enjoy the feature.

Friday Night Fletch