Coach David Jones has been at Phelps for two years entering 2018 (2016, 2017) and has won 9 games since his arrival. Coach Jones followed up a 4 win campaign in 2016 with 5 wins last year and this steady improvement has Hornet fans wondering what is upcoming for the squad when we begin in earnest in August. Absolutely none of this may seem significant to you, but then again, you probably don’t know crap about Phelps High School football. You see, the Hornets, thanks to a win against Allen Central, narrowly escaped being winless in 2013 under then Head Coach Antonio Price. They were an opening 0-0 tie away from being winless in 2014 under first year Head Coach Randy Smith. In Smith’s second and final year, the Hornets were blown out by every team on the schedule in 2015. Enter David Jones. Suffice it to say recent memory had yielded nothing but misery for the boys from Phelps, Kentucky donning the blue, white, and grey in the years leading up to handing the reigns to the former All-State Football player from Belfry High School and the University of Kentucky’s Wildcats.
There have been a combination of things which have led to the ever brightening fortunes around the Phelps’ program. The energy of one of the areas most accomplished football players and bright, young coaches taking the helm has infused excitement and confidence into the players. The commissioning and retention of the Murphy Design Group to build a new athletic complex for the Hornets’ home games has infused the community with a pride which has netted more favorable results too. Of course, having young football players with the ability of Brandon Lee Turnmire sure hasn’t hurt either. Brandon won top honors at our Mountain All-State Football Combine recently held in Pikeville, Kentucky for slot receivers and defensive backs. When you analyze his combine results on the respective tests conducted, it is easy to see why that would have been.
Brandon has plenty of straight line speed, particularly for a Class 1A slot receiver and defensive back, which he demonstrated in running a 40 yard dash at 4.62 seconds, hand timed. His spacial quickness was off the charts as he recorded the quickest pro-agility shuttle (5-10-5) I have seen all summer long at 4.0 seconds. His ability to drop his hips, change direction, and accelerate out of that direction change demonstrated in the performance of what we call the L-cone drill equally impressed as he recorded a low of 6.7 seconds in that particular task. From his performance on the respective NFL combine tests which we conducted it is easy to see why Brandon would be very difficult to tackle in space and equally apparent why he has both the speed to recover in the defensive back four coupled with the quickness to close on the football while its airborne.
What’s next for the Hornets from Phelps, Kentucky? Well, in 2018, based off of what we saw in the Mountains at our combine, KPGFootball would maintain the Hornets look well poised to continue its ascension toward meeting the caliber of football played by more traditional football powers which play all around the Hornets. Pretty soon, the Hornets will be the rage of the Mountain high school football sect rivaling the talk which annually circulates around teams like the Pirates, Eagles, Panthers and others.
This is Fletcher Long, reporting for KPGFootball reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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Brandon Lee Turnmire Highlights
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