We would think at KPGFootball we don’t have to tell you we are Ricco Hughes fans. The Director of Kentucky Future Stars football takes a lot of flack from the families and loved ones of players he doesn’t select. However, the years have proven no one has a keener eye for talent than he.
That shouldn’t be taken to mean he is infallible. Ricco would never even suggest he’s infallible.
There are kids he HAS NOT selected who have gone on to be superstar players. All Ricco would suggest is (and the data would bear this out) the kids he HAS selected have gone on to be stars the vast majority of time, barring injury.
We very candidly, but gently, suggested that Hopkinsville’s Andrew Nason, who was an alternate but not selected to the regular team, was a miss on the selection committee’s part. We believe Jonah Adkins, from Belfry, stridently demonstrated not being initially selected was in error as he was added from off the alternate list, reported to camp, and played splendidly in the game. He showed everyone in attendance he clearly belonged.
We are not immune to the missed star phenomenon. Remember when we failed to select Charles Collins, Class of 2020, to our 2017 KPGFootball, sophomore, All-State team? He had only run for 2,004 yards that year and scored 29 rushing TDs playing Class 5A football. Yessir, we were mighty embarrassed.
So, the moral is, it happens. It happens to Director Hughes with Team Kentucky Future Stars and it happens to our selection committee for the MS, 9th, and 10th grade All-State football teams.
Not to pick on Ricco, of whom we are enormously in awe and really respect, but it is our position Hayes Preston (c/o 2025) from Garrard County, Kentucky was a miss. We will explain how a miss like this happens but it was a miss, we think, nevertheless.
First of all, the Kentucky Future Stars is a non-contact tryout in shorts and shirts. Similar to most prospect camps and combines, sometimes great athletes not too good at football can really impress at the short-shirt workout. They are plenty athletic just don’t much care to hit. We call that being a short and shirt All-American.
Now many, but not all, great football players, who hit like a ton of bricks, may thrive at these combines. Therefore, they do quite well and look the part because they are the part. Then there are the players who can’t be accurately assessed until you pad-up and hit. Hayes Preston is one of the latter.
Preston is 5-9 and weighs 177-pounds. Let me assure you it is nearly 180-pounds of well put together, no fat anywhere to be found. He’s the kind of kid who looks like he ways 30 pounds less than he does. Muscle is dense, weighs more.
Hayes played for the Mountain Athlete Development Academy (MAD) last season and started at both OT and DE. He was on the 6th grade Team Kentucky FBU Elite team and scored an invite to the FBU Top-Gun Academy.
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Preston, selected from off his game tape, was a 6th grade All-American evaluated and chosen by the True Talent All-American Bowl. At that game, he played offensive center and was selected captain and O-line MVP at the game’s conclusion. Hayes has also been chosen to attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame Academy July 12-14th, 2019.
As you can see, there have been lots of eyes evaluate Hayes Preston both in short and shirt workouts, padded up, and from off his game tape. He has been selected many times and an alternate once (Future Stars). When he has played, like in his All-American game, he was selected team captain and even the MVP of his position group.
In other words, and we would have to say the evidence in support of this is right compelling, it is clear to us Hayes Preston can play the game of football and quite well. Now there will be questions about how tall he may grow as he is quite developed for his age. The theory is that early-developers don’t get as tall and long as late-bloomers. Well there is a piece of anatomical evidence which flouts that particular generalization.
Hayes Preston is already wearing a size 13 football cleat. We know tons of evaluators who consider gigantic feet a better than fair indicator a kid isn’t done growing.
When we look Hayes we can tell you what we see. We see a long, slender neck, fairly narrow shoulders, a short trunk attached to disproportionately long set of arms and legs with generous sized hands and feet. Generally, it is the short necked, barrel-chested, broad-shouldered, short-armed and short-legged kids with long trunks and low waists which top-out early.
This isn’t 100%, though we are really good at predicting a kid’s ultimate frame, but we feel this is a kid destined to grow to well over 6-feet tall. He isn’t put together like a short man but rather proportioned like a taller man. With him playing on either the OL or at DE, that is certainly a good thing.
Here’s the bottom line, this is a Class of 2025 kid who we would rank toward the top of his graduating class among football players his same age, commonwealth-wide. He was an alternate on the Future Stars team after a tryout not exactly tailor-made for a player like him. When given the chance, after game film was evaluated or the tryout was a padded one, he has thrived both in selection and in game performance.
This guy proves to KPGFootball that Director Hughes is fallible and capable of missing on prospects just like the rest of us. Our own fallibility being long-since established, it is nice to know we aren’t alone.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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