Coach Lyon’s Class 1A, preseason Top-10 Football Poll…

In what has become a tradition at KPGFootball, we are going to make a preseason top-10 prognosis. These teams will be ranked according to whom we believe are the top 10 football teams in each classification. Some of these teams are (unfortunately) in the same district. That aside, this is who believe to be Class 1A’s best football teams as we head into the 2019 season.

Class 1A…

1. Pikeville High School; Pikeville, lost a year ago to Beechwood by a single point in the State Championship Game. The team which beat Pikeville, Beechwood, has moved up a classification. Pikeville features the best QB in Kentucky’s Class of 2022 in Isaac McNamee, two of the best WR/DB combos in Jackson Hensley and Seth Pugh, two stud linebackers who happen to be related in Carson and Connor Wright, and have had two elite 2023 offensive guards transfer in from Hazard, of all places, in the Sayers twins, Peyton and Mason. Oh yeah, we know they are freshmen, but the Sayers twins start, day-one/snap-one, for 99% of Kentucky high schools regardless of its classification, just saying.
2. Campbellsville; Aaron Hash is one of the best QBs in his class having been named to both our freshman and sophomore All-State Football teams. His old buddy Reggie Thomas, a favorite target of his in middle school, is rounding into form too. Campbellsville is in a week district and will get no fight from any of its district counter-parts.
3. Paintsville; Paintsville is one of the elite teams in the 1A Classification. So is Raceland. The two teams are pretty equally matched with Raceland beating Paintsville in the Regional Finals in 2018, 14-7. Just weeks earlier, Paintsville went to Raceland and beat the Rams on its own turf 6-0. For the year, the teams played twice and the score ended up Raceland 14, Paintsville 13. This one could go either way.
4. Crittenten County; Crittenden County has been the best team, at least historically, in this district. Crittenden County was 11-2 in 2018 and bowed out of the playoffs in the Regional Finals at the hands of Campbellsville who has one of the better QBs in Class 1A in Aaron Hash. Sean Thompson’s Rockets will face some stern competition this year in the face of HC James Bridges and his hard-charging Fulton County Pilots.
5. Williamsburg; Williamsburg was 9-3 a year ago with many important pieces returning.
6. Raceland; One of the best teams in 1A with the misfortune of being districted with Paintsville.
7. Hazard; Remember what we said about Raceland? Well, ditto for district seven’s Hazard being districted with Pikeville.
8. Fulton County; The Pilots have the best RB on the western end of the commonwealth by many accounts in Caleb Kimble and Broc Bridges is a player whose length, speed, and athleticism have many forecasting big things out of this DE/TE combo standout. If they get good QB play in 2019, the Rockets may find a new Pilot steering the district one ship.
9. Newport Central Catholic; Newport Central Catholic comes down from Class 2A to be re-aligned in Class 1A, District 4. Ludlow was the District bully in 2018 but Ludlow played Newport last year with Newport beating Ludlow thoroughly 43-19.
10. Nicholas County; Nicholas County was 8-4 in 2018 but was edged out of the district crown by Paris High, who won the district with an under .500 final record (5-6), but managed a 4-0 district slate. In the Region, however, Nicolas County was 6-2 while Paris finished 5-3, so we suppose it could be said the Bluejackets finished ahead of Paris in the more important of the two.

There it is folks, the KPGFootball, preseason top 10 football teams in the 1A classifications. Join us tomorrow as we publish our top-10 preseason teams in Class 2A.

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!

If you enjoyed this article and wish to gain full-access to the site, then subscribe monthly to Kentucky Prep Gridiron by following the prompts!

© The information contained on this site is the copyrighted intellectual property of KPGFootball. Any unauthorized dissemination of this material without the author’s express written consent is strictly prohibited!