Mark Peach tabbed by Trigg County to lead program

We published an article last week about the hot board at Trigg County High School. We highlighted five candidates we believed to be in play at the school which has traditionally been a powerhouse in western-Kentucky football. We featured two assistants from off of the outgoing staff (Rusty Goble & Dixie Jones), a top assistant (Adam Dowland) who is leaving to become a defensive coordinator in Tennessee’s Class 5A incidentally, a former AD (Marty Jaggers) and Coach Peach.

We alluded to Coach Peach’s excellent résumé and we even did something even cleverer still. If you will notice, when we linked the article on Twitter (@KPGFootball), the picture which was tagged with the link was Coach Peach’s. That is KPGFootball’s way of telling you something it knows but has to hold in confidence.

We have a penchant for this. If you will recall during the recent Todd County coaching search we ran an article, four days prior to the announcement, and the article was tagged with the picture of the coach who was announced. We did this while the matter was supposedly still being decided. The point…we know things before anyone else.

We knew the Trigg job was Coach Peach’s to lose. The only way Trigg wasn’t hiring him was if his financial demands just well exceeded what it was willing to invest. Those of you who personally know me can attest I told many of you last week it was Peach’s job.

I am not putting this here to brag. I am putting this here to demonstrate why you pay us $9.99 a month to get to read this information. This information is for the true insider.

So, what does the hiring of Mark Peach mean to the Trigg County program? Let’s talk about it.

First, Trigg is getting a coach with 150 career wins at the high school level and who has headed up a college program. Peach is a “splash” hire.

Peach was 114-65 at Anderson County in 15 seasons, leaving the school as its all-time winningest coach, and won two regional crowns, a semi-state, and played for the title once at Anderson. Peach also went to the title game at Hancock County, early in his career, while coaching “Mr. Football” Travis Atwell at Hancock County. He’s been district coach of the year three times and was the Class 5A Kentucky coach of the year in 2007.

Peach went 17-8 at Paul Laurence Dunbar and was Campbellsville University’s head coach in 2003-2004 leading the Tigers to a 15-7 record and NAIA national ranking before returning to the high school game. He has won everywhere he’s been.

Knowing the terrain a bit, many of the kids playing football at both 5A Christian County, a program which is 4-18 in its previous 22-games, and Hoptown, a team which is 19-18 in the three years since Craig Clayton returned, have family residing in Cadiz, Kentucky. We have seen some migration back and forth between schools even prior to Peach’s hire.

Navy Midshipmen quarterback, Cameron Jordan played in middle school at Christian County and was a running back there before playing his high school ball for Colby Lewis and the Wildcats. Ty Meacham played at Christian County before finding his way on the Trigg County roster and Tayshaun Barker played for Trigg County in 2017 on its varsity, on Hoptown’s varsity in 2018, and back at Trigg for his senior year in 2019.

This is the level of migration which occurred under Colby Lewis who managed 45 wins in 9 seasons. What will the migration be with this sexy of a hire at Trigg County, with a coach with Peach’s curriculum vitae, and Christian County on life support and Hoptown likely headed for a down turn owing to the huge losses it suffered when the Class of 2020 used up the last of its eligibility? Well, common sense would tell us it will be higher.

For that matter, Steve Lovelace, who was a teammate of Peach’s at Campbellsville and long-time close friend, provided he helped Peach get the job which every tea-leaf indicates he did, may well have relocated his replacement at Christian County to the area code. We can’t see Christian County winning a single game in 2020 (provided we have a season at all) and one has to wonder how long he gets to hang around with a team which, should they go 0-11 again, will be on a 26-game losing streak?

That is the danger with a Peach hire on the Trigg side of the equation. There will be bigger jobs opening around the area after 2020 and they will be in a fight to keep him provided he performs as expected. Then again, that is always the danger in hiring a guy like a Mark Peach-high risk, high reward.

We hope you enjoyed this very candid look at this hire and how it impacts the landscape in the area and across the commonwealth. We aren’t taking shots at anyone or trying to hurt feelings, we are just providing our subscribers with the unfiltered and unvarnished assessment of the hire and the many implications it sparks.

This is Coach HB Lyon, reporting for KPGFootball, and we’re JUST CALLING IT LIKE WE SEE IT!

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About Henry Lyon 1210 Articles
Have coached at the high school and middle school level. Have worked in athletic administration. Conceal my identity to enable my candor on articles published by this magazine. Only members of the editorial board are aware of my true identity.

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