It is difficult for any team to get the full roster to the first game with the rigors football places on the human body. That is why strengthening and conditioning the body appropriately is such a pre-requisite. Still, you can strengthen and condition around the clock and injuries will never be completely eradicated from any sport, even the non-contact ones.
In this article, we will relate a few noteworthy items from the “injury news front.” As it would seem from our selection of a “featured photograph” for the article, we will begin in Belfry where the injury significance seems quite dire and impactful on the team’s prospects going forward.
In what has to be one of the more unfair developments, Joe Chafin, who had just returned from an injury which sidelined him in 2018, appears to have re-injured the same knee. Joe had worked really hard this offseason to get to come back and help Belfry win a championship in what would have been his senior year. Chafin played FB and DE, when we last saw him on the field, and was being counted on to star at both deployments this coming season. Joe goes for a MRI next week, its being reported to us, but the initial prognosis isn’t encouraging. It is believe this will keep him out all season.
One of Belfry’s stellar outside-linebacker-DE hybrids, and one of the best at this position in the Class of 2021 anywhere in the commonwealth, is Brad Lowe. Brad re-broke the same arm he had broken during wrestling season last year. Brad has undergone surgery and expects to return in between 8-12 weeks. It is possible Belfry might get him returned to action for a late-season, playoff run, which would be huge. The loss of both Chafin and Lowe for the Pirates can’t be overstated as both were “penciled-in” to start for Coach Hayworth. As they say in Belfry, Kentucky, Well, next man up!
There can be little doubt the best two defensive players on the Class 4A, District 1, Hopkinsville Tigers are Denarius “Red” Barnes and Erick “Fat Daddy” Grubbs. Grubbs, pictured to the left of this paragraph in a photo taken from Grubbs’ Hudl page uncredited, got rolled into from the side, injuring either his media collateral or anterior cruciate ligaments.
As of the date of publication, KPGFootball hasn’t learned whether it is sprained or torn and whether it is the MCL or the ACL. We have heard he may be back in as few as two-weeks and we have heard his expected return could be between 5-8 weeks, and we have heard it could even end his season (which no one wants).
It would be better if it was a sprained MCL which might not require surgery and could be “braced” permitting him to play. Grubbs had been practicing at ILB for the Tigers and he is an All-State candidate in the class of 2020. Let’s hope for the best here and pray for Grubbs’ speedy return to the Tiger defense for his senior season.
In other injury news, star OT for Hoptown, Keane Mumford, who wore a brace on his surgically repaired knee all last season, has now, it appears to practice observers, “tweaked” the other knee. In any event, it has limited both his mobility in practice and the number of practices in which he has actively participated, preseason, as well as confined the two-way, first-stringer to only practicing on the offensive side of the football. This is a player critical to the Tigers’ offensive front where the Tigers report being thin. Needless to say, they could ill-afford for Mumford to miss, literally, any game-time.
At Johnson Central, Zach Russell, who is one of the best football prospects in Kentucky in the class of 2021, and a member of both KPGFootball’s freshman (2017) and sophomore (2018) All-State teams, has been nursing a bad-back we first noticed at Marshall University’s prospect camp. Now, word is, he may have suffered a groin-pull to go along with a back he is still favoring. Needless to say, the Eagles need this TE-DE stalwart back healthy and in the lineup as soon as that can be accomplished.
These are the notable injuries we have had reported to us from around Kentucky and these appear to be right impactful for the effected teams. What we mean by that is these are players all of whom are stars their teams can ill-afford to lose. Let’s hope each and every one of the injured players, from around the commonwealth, get back healthy and are able to compete in 2019.
From what “feels” like a M.A.S.H. unit, this is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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