If you are a traditionalist when it comes to Kentucky High School football, you are certainly aware that the previous years of Middlesboro struggling to win football games is far from usual. While Middlesboro may have gone 1-10 in 2018, the school has an all-time record of 651-358-30 and has been playing football since 1921.
Perennial losers don’t attract coaching legends like Larry French. French, whom the Yellow Jackets hired away from Class 5A Southwestern (Somerset), has a career record of 325-163 in his 42nd year and is 2-1 in championship game appearances. Just last year, his last at Southwestern, he was 10-3, losing 13-6 to Pulaski in the Regional Championship game at their place.
Can’t really compare this Middlesboro team, which is 3-1 on the year so far with dates with undefeated Pinneville and Breathitt County coming over the next two weeks, with the squad which finished 1-10 a year ago. Why not? Simple, its superstar this year was playing basketball and soccer in 2018.
You have probably never heard of Jabari Kyle, pictured to the left in a photograph taken by photographer Chris Jones with the Harlan Enterprise. The reason…he has never played football until this, his senior year in high school. Kind of reminds one of Dre Boyd at Warren Central, doesn’t it?
Kyle is certainly making up for lost time. The 5-10, 130-pound lightening bolt of quicks, who averaged 15.1 points per game and 4.2 assists in 31 games as Middlesboro’s point guard, has gained 631-yards rushing in Middlesboro’s first four games.
That isn’t all either. He has done this in only 57-carries, for a per-rush average of 11.07. He has scored 12 rushing TDs, has averaged 157.8 yards per game, and has even lead the team in receptions, yards receiving, and TD receptions (12, 241, 3). Kyle has scored 92 of the Yellow Jackets 132 points in 2019.
More importantly than all of that, Larry French, Jabari Kyle, and the Yellow Jackets are relevant again, presently ranked 7th in the KHSAA’s first RPI rankings, in Class 2A, and the top vote-getter in the Others Receiving Votes category in the Class 2A, AP top-10, weekly media poll.
One thing is certain, it would appear Middlesboro is back and they will be heard from in Class 2A’s, 7th district. That is both a mouthful and something we wouldn’t have been saying had Kyle decided to play soccer this Fall.
This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!
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