We Think these players will make Team Kentucky Future Stars 2019…#Brotherhood!

Joshuah Keith, All-American QB, "Russell Wilson-clone"

Okay, this is super protected, pay-wall, subscriber type information only available to KPGFootball insiders. As we like to say, #MembershipHasItsPrivileges! As we know, Team-Kentucky Future Stars has been traveling Kentucky looking for only the best middle school football players in the commonwealth of Kentucky for its annual showdown with Team Tennessee. The following players are sure to make Team Kentucky we believe. We haven’t asked Ricco or any of the coaching staff or selection committee but, being the only publication which covers middle school football, we believe these players will be on the roster. Ready, set, go…

Class of 2023 Team Kentucky Future Stars, 7th grade…

Pikeville’s Carson Wright…

Carson Wright is 5-11, 170 pound linebacker who I probably would have had ranked behind fellow linebacker, Hopkinsville’s Oscar JT Adams, but for his incredible performance at our All-State, Mountain Combine in Pikeville, Kentucky in June. Carson’s numbers were just sick.

Wright took top honors at the combine for middle school participants, regardless of position. Truthfully, we forgot he was in middle school, at all, as he might have won top honors in the high school division too and there was some pretty stout company competing there.

Wright was timed in the Mountains running a 40 yard dash at 4.52 seconds and registered a 4.31 pro-agility shuttle. Wright clipped the L-cone drill in 7 seconds flat and repped the middle school, bench press rep weight of 115 pounds, 20 times.

That would make Wright’s estimated, one-rep, bench press maximum right around 186 pounds. Carson has made numerous Team Kentuckys including playing for last summer’s Future Stars version which bested Tennessee 31-28 in overtime.

JT Adams was the defensive MVP of the game but that distinction could have been awarded to Wright just as easily as both linebackers were exceptional in that game. Can’t imagine any scenario where Wright doesn’t tryout. If he tries out, he is on the team no question.

Hopkinsville, Oscar “JT” Adams (Christian County)…

This is a kid who is a super-freaky athlete destined to start as a 9th grader at LB playing for one of the more storied programs in the history of the 5A classification in Christian County HS. This kid made the All-American football team (Bret Cooper) and was the Defensive MVP in Dallas this past December. He then won a State Championship in Wrestling and competed for Team Kentucky’s Wrestling team garnering All-American honors in that sport too.

JT Adams, truly, had an incredible performance at the Tennessee-Kentucky Future Stars Classic at Georgetown College last year, taking the game’s Defensive MVP Award. Offensively, he has played running back and a sort of tight-end hybrid which should give you an idea about his sideline-sideline playmaking ability. His football IQ is off the charts as he is the son of a high school football coach. and, defensively, he played middle linebacker.

Last summer, for Team Kentucky, JT tallied 15 tackles, including a pivotal fourth down play, sealing the game’s outcome on Tennessee’s possession in overtime. JT’s is a frame which seems to lengthen every time we see him and his mother is taller than his dad which is really from where a kid gets his height in our opinion anyway. He is likely to captain the team this summer.

Peyton and Mason Sayers, Whitesburg, Kentucky…

These are both big bodies, mobile, and agile trench-men who have been stalwarts on Team Kentucky, FBU and Future Stars for years. They are the best two interior offensive linemen in their class and will both start Varsity along the front-line in high school as 9th graders. The Sayers twins are a great example that the 8th grade Future Stars Classic is more of a high school all-star game than a middle school one.

Both of them are considered among the elite linemen in America, have been invited to participate in everything from the FBU All-American game to Top Gun. They are physical, run well, and absolutely huge but the complete absence of information about middle school players, even middle school players who are nationally prominent like the Sayers twins, is hard to come by anywhere but on this site. Both of these hulks are deadlifting over 500-pounds right now.

We interviewed the Director of Kentucky Future Stars’ football last year after one of the Future Star’s combines and Ricco told us then that…The 7th grade (Combine) was highlighted by the tone setting aggressiveness of returning OL/DL brothers, Peyton and Mason Sayers. Those guys’ experience helped the entire group step up their efforts and intensity!  We don’t imagine Ricco’s opinion of the Sayers has changed much in a year, do you?

As for size, it is hard to say with nothing about them being on-line, but in talking with other media who cover future stars football, it is our belief the two of them are roughly 6-0 and have to be in the 280-300-pound range. The reason it is hard to say for sure is they aren’t the least bit flabby, move well, and appear quite muscled-up, so they could be even heavier than what we have listed. They are the two most dominant and devastating linemen in Kentucky’s 2023 class and a problem to figure how to handle on both the offensive and defensive fronts and will be on this edition of Team Kentucky.

Bracken Castle, Barbourville, Kentucky…

What I am about to say about Bracken is equally true of Matt Ladd from Cadiz, Kentucky, whom we also believe we be on the team provided he tries out, but every team has to have an offensive center particularly since Coach Farmer (HC-Team Kentucky 8th) prefers to operate the Spread from out of the pistol formation.

KPGFootball believes football teams are built from the line of scrimmage out, and therefor the linemen are really the most important players on the team. KPGFootball equally believes having a reliable snap, in the offense most commonly employed in today’s football, is vital to an offense’s proficiency.

Bracken has been spending a lot of time training in the weight-room with a personal trainer and the results are quite evident. Bracken who is 6-3 and weighs in the 26-270-pound range right now has an over 80-inch wing-span (6-8) making him a definite candidate to move out to tackle at some point in his career. Right now he is the premier offensive center in his class and will be on the team this summer.

Class of 2024…Team Kentucky Future Stars, 7th Grade…

Jordan Miles, Browning Springs Middle School;

First of all, what kind of athlete is Jordan Miles? Well, how about the fact he is a between 15-20 point a game scorer in basketball for Browning Springs? How about the fact the present 7th grader is already back squatting 250 pounds? How about the fact the “Team Kentucky FBU Elite” squad (7th) member ran the fastest combine timed, 40 yard dash, in Kentucky at its try-outs…a hand timed 4.7 seconds flat? Are you convinced? 

“Hey, KPGFootball, what kind of frame does the kid have?” Well, he’s 5-10 now with long arms, a high waist, long legs, and narrow across his shoulders. Let me physiologically translate for you…he’s not done developing and will add both height and heft to his 140 present pounds. The fact he’s not an “early developer,” an undeniable anatomical fact, sort of illuminates (even more brightly) the 250-pound back squat and 4.7 second, hand timed, forty-yard dash time, doesn’t it?

Cole Hodge, QB, 5-9 and 145 pounds, Goshen;

Cole Hodge is quite a football player who is really quite an impressive athlete in a variety of sports. At this time last year, Cole Hodge was not just the best QB in his class but probably the best QB in the three class ahead of him too. Joshuah Keith has something to say about that best QB in the 2024 class thing as the incredibly gifted, All-American, dual-threat QB is someone with whom to reckon for sure.

As far as his being an athlete, Cole is also a star in basketball which gives us a favorable impression of his athleticism and feet. As a basketball player, the 5-9 Hodge made All-State, Division 1, in leading his AAU basketball team to the State Championship last summer. Hodge, in basketball, was named 2nd team, National NYBL AAU Circuit All-American. 

That particular circuit boasts some of the best players in the nation. What Cole has accomplished, both in basketball and last summer leading Team Kentucky to an improbable victory in the Future Stars Classic, can neither be discounted nor dismissed. For KPGFootball and the selection committee to Team Kentucky, it can’t be forgotten.

Cole came in to QB Kentucky’s 7th grade Future Stars’ team with the good guys trailing Tennessee 20-7, with a little over 7 minutes remaining in the game. At the time, Hodge was a 6th grader (rising 7th) so Tennessee gets to see the same QB in the same All-Star Classic again this year (lucky them).

Until Cole Hodge entered the game, on the biggest stage in Kentucky middle school football on which a young man can possibly play, it looked as if the rout was on for Tennessee. Cole led Kentucky back to tie the game, at 28 all, at the end of regulation and then won it in overtime, with a little help from Colin Fratus, 31-28, for one of the most exciting football games I have ever watched.

For his efforts, this rising seventh grader, on a team comprised of rising 8th graders, was the game’s Offensive MVP. We hate to tell Tennessee this, which is a fact we are sure they won’t relish, but Hodge will be back this summer and once again in the 7th grade game.

Joshuah Keith, QB, 5-8 and 160 pounds, Elkton, KY;

Words can’t describe the year Joshuah Keith has put together. For one, the 7th grader led his middle school football team to a 9-0 regular season and a berth in the playoffs as a Region I, 1-seed.

After that, Joshuah Keith was selected to the most prestigious Junior All-American football game (The Bret Cooper, Dallas, Texas) where he was QB-1 for the 15-under East team though only 13-years old. That just never happens.

Keith was awarded the Russell Wilson Award at the All-American game which was fitting as every coach on the East All-American staff felt Russell Wilson was like whom he played and the QB with whom he shared the most skills in the tool-box.

Joshuah Keith ran a 4.7-second 40-yard dash at the Bret Cooper, ran a 4.73-second 40-yard dash at the BAGOS elite-Sevens combine at the Sportsplex in Hopkinsville, then ran a 4.69-second 40-yard dash at the Future Stars combine in Barren County last weekend.

Can he throw the football? Well, he tossed it over 50-yards in the air at the WKU QB camp which selected him the outstanding QB at the camp grades 7th-10th grade. The most telling thing about him is this is a prospect KPGFootball did text Ricco about post-Barren County. We asked Hughes, How’d the QB from Elkton, Ky do? Ricco’s response…You mean, little Russell Wilson? We would say he will be on the team.

Andrew Nason, 5-10 and 130-pound, Safety, Hopkinsville;

Here’s a guy who thinks he’s a QB and desperately wants to play QB and at HMS next season will play QB and will play the Hell out of it. All of that being said, and KPGFootball wants to make it clear we aren’t saying he won’t end up a QB in high school or college, Andrew Nason is the type of back-end height, length, coordination, and quick-twitch to be one of Kentucky’s premier back-four defenders. Andrew played safety for the Team Kentucky FBU team, played safety for the Bret Cooper East All-American team in Dallas, and if Ricco is smart, which we believe him to be, he’ll be QBing the defense’s back-four this summer for Team Kentucky.

Nason tried out for the Team Kentucky Future Stars 7th grade team as a sixth-grader last summer. He didn’t make the 7th grade team but would have been on a 6th grade Future Stars’ team had they had one at the time. Nason is a special player who appears to have a tall and long frame with the athleticism to play, going forward at many positions. For right now he’s a safety and he should easily make the team there.

Okay guys, these are just a few players we fully expect to be on the Team Kentucky Future Stars’ rosters for the 7th and 8th grades. Sorry we couldn’t shed any light on the 6th grade team but it is in its first year and we haven’t covered kids that age yet. We will be at the game this year and we will be watching.

Reporting for KPGFootball, this is F.W. Long, reminding all of you ballers out there to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.

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Important Future Stars tryout information!


About Fletcher Long 1446 Articles
Two-time winner of Kentucky Press Association awards for excellence in writing and reporting news stories while Managing Editor of the Jackson (KY) Times-Voice

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