One of our favorite TV shows from The Golden Era of television was The Andy Griffith Show. One of its most loved characters, outside Andy Griffith of course, was diminutive deputy, Barney Fife, played by the late Don Knotts.
From time to time, this show, about a good-natured and unarmed sheriff in a small, North Carolina town, and his deputy, who had an unloaded firearm but for one bullet in the breast pocket of his uniform shirt, would call upon this two-man department to lock someone up in it’s jail. After being locked up, Knott’s character, Deputy Barney Fife, would pace back and forth in front of the prisoner spouting off, with swelled importance, the rules of being housed here at The Rock.
At the time of that show’s airing, The Rock would have been a reference to the country’s most feared prison, Alcatraz. Not sure a jail cell where the keys to the cell hang within an arm’s reach of the bars on a neighboring wall, and where prisoners get a home cooked meal from Andy’s Aunt Bee three times a day served on a try replete with a flower in a vase for decoration, harken to mind the reported terrors of Alcatraz prison; but, that is what made it funny. Irony is a common comedic device.
Anyway, Barney’s swelled up speech about the rules at The Rock is one of the better examples of a little man with a little power we often hear discussed. Not that this, in any way, has anything to do with Rockcastle County high school football, it’s just that we always think of Barney’s speech when covering Rockcastle County.
You see, to high school football fans across Kentucky, when we hear a reference to The Rock we think of neither Alcatraz Prison nor the Andy Griffith Show. To us, it is a reference to the high school football team commonly called The Rock. We think of the boys from Mt. Vernon, Kentucky.
Today, on the eve of football teams across the Bluegrass donning full gear and going full contact for the first time this preseason, let’s take a look at The Rock. Let’s break down the Rockcastle County High School football Rockets from Class 4A.
Rockcastle turned in a 5-6 record in Class 4A, District 6 in 2018. In its 11 games, the Rockets scored 209 points and allowed 373. The Rockets gained 2,624 yards on the ground, allowing opponents to rush for 1,912, and passed the football for 253 yards on the season, allowing opponents to throw the ball for 1,571.
QB, Noah Parkey was a sophomore in 2018 and will be a junior this season. Parkey threw for 253 yards on 21 of 57 passing with a TD and 4 interceptions. Parkey ran the football 79 times in 2018, gaining 268 yards from scrimmage with one rushing TD.
The Rockets suffered some tremendous losses to graduation, particularly in the yards rushed from scrimmage department. Hunter Sargent and Jaden Payne are both out of eligibility. The tandem, last season, accounted for 1,579 of the team’s 2,624 rushing yards, or right at 60% (.60175305) and scored 19 of the 27 rushing TDs, or slightly over 70% (.7037037). The two departed players also scored 130 of the team’s 205 points, or 63% (.63414634) of all the points.
There is a ray of sunshine in the ground-game returning in Class of 2021, Logan Brown. Brown had a fine sophomore season, carrying it 87 times for 565 yards with 4 scores.
Not that the team threw the ball very often anyway; however, the team’s leading receiver graduated in 2019. Jacob Hansel caught 10 of the team’s 21 total receptions for 117 of its 253 yards accumulated via the airways.
The returning defense paints a rosier picture. Leading tackler Matthew Chasteen returns after a stellar freshman season.
The 2022 prospect had 69 tackles, 12 TFLs, and led the team with 9 QB sacks. Rylee DeLeon, a 2021 prospect, returns bringing along with him the 5.5 QB sacks he contributed last season, ranking second on the team in that category.
DeLeon also registered 56 tackles in 2018 with 12 of those occurring behind the line. DeLeon forced two fumbles, recovering one.
Class of 2021’s Andrew Mink returns in the secondary where he lead The Rock with 3 interceptions a year ago. He mounted 88 interception return yards, housing one of the three picks for a much coveted pick-six.
The key to Coach Parkey’s team taking a step forward in 2019 will be the play on the defensive side of the ball. The Rockets, which is bitterly ironic considering its chosen mascot, ran a ground based offensive attack, primarily, in 2018. It is expected to be a similar offensive emphasis in this coming season. While 209 points in 11 games is far from stellar, it is understandable in light of the team’s offense employed.
That being said, The Rock can’t continue to surrender nearly 34 points a contest, 174 yards rushing per game, nor 143 yards passing a night. If a team is going to be that porous defensively, they need to be way more open to throwing the football than the 4-5 times a game Parkey threw it in 2018.
Look for The Rock to make marked strides defensively in 2019 with the returning talent a year older and a year more seasoned. With the losses to graduation on the offensive side of the football and virtually all of the defensive standouts returning, defense is where there will be hay to be made.
We hope you enjoyed this look into the boys from Mount Vernon, Kentucky and lets get ready to enjoy some high school football this year. Because Here at the Rock… Yeah, we hear ya Barney Fife.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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