According to the Rihards football scoreboard for the 2018 season, Perry County Central High School turned in an 8-3 worksheet on the year. Last year, PCCHS was a Class 5A, District 8 ball club who drew Southwestern in round one of the KHSAA playoffs. That is not a great draw for a team which had gone 8-2 during the regular season.
Coming forward to the present, Perry County Central has now been reclassified. The Commodores have dropped down to Class 4A from 5A but are still in the 8th district. Before anyone things the burden has somehow lessened, now they must contend with Johnson Central in their district. Well, the reclassification hasn’t done the Commodores any favors.
So while the Commodores sustained substantial losses via graduation this past Spring (15 of the 43 players listed on last year’s roster were seniors), one has to wonder whether this is a perfect Chanse for McKenzie to seize the reigns of the offense full time. It would seem to us McKenzie showed in 2018 that 2019 could be his year, his time.
Chanse McKenzie did something rarely done in Kentucky High School football last season. He got what we call considerable Friday night run on a Kentucky Class 5A football team while only a sophomore at the hardest and most visible position on the field, QB. McKenzie, who doubles on defense as a LB, is 6-1, and weighs 218-pounds. The poster child for LB frames acquitted himself admirably when called upon a year ago to drive the offense from what is the most visible and difficult offensive assignment.
McKenzie completed 33 of the 75 passes he attempted for 480 yards with 5 TDs thrown against 5 interceptions. The entire team’s passing output in 2018 was 934 yards. PCCHS only threw 12 TDs as a team. So, as the numbers indicate, McKenzie’s contributions were significant in spite of his newness to the varsity roster.
Looking over McKenzie’s body of work and talking with some well placed sources around Hazard, Kentucky, Chanse is a very athletic, big-bodied athlete who is well coordinated and extremely athletic. It is our understanding McKenzie performs equally well on both the hardwood and the gridiron for PCCHS. Combination football and basketball players are often among the most athletic people dotting any high school hallway.
We believe McKenzie will seize his Chanse to have a break-out year for the Commodores in 2019 against the 4A competition. We believe he will earn the starting nod at the QB position and his performance will flourish with the added live game repetitions he will undoubtedly get.
This is a player and prospect one should remember as we enter 2019. When he has the type performance we expect, and starts playing to his enormous potential, remember where you heard of him first. Hey, that’s why we do this sort of thing for a living.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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