Multi-Sport Athletes…

We have before written many times about the multi-Sport athlete phenomenon. We have before recorded for posterity the opinions of renowned coaches extolling exactly why they prefer recruiting to their respective schools athletes who perform in more than just one sport.

Photo of Reece Fletcher taken by Randy White

So, nothing we write here should be surprising to anyone. If you are a 14th region basketball fan then you know the team which qualified for the Kentucky Sweet Sixteen which the Coronavirus has threatened to keep from ever transpiring was Hazard. Hazard was the home of one of 1A’s very finest and more athletic second level defensive players in Reece Fletcher, a former Team Kentuckian. Should come as no surprise Reece Fletcher was also an unstoppable scoring and rebounding threat in the paint for the Bulldogs in basketball this year.

Keane Mumford, Hopkinsville High School

For those of you on the western-End of Kentucky you are aware the anchor of the Hopkinsville High School Offensive line at Left-Tackle for the past several years, and an All-Conference performer, has been Keane Mumford. Not only has Mumford before played varsity basketball for the high school known for producing some of Kentucky’s finest athletes but he is also a state qualifier in both shot put and discus for the Field Team at HHS.

Lane Weddle, a superstar multi-faceted, football All-Stater is too good of an athlete to just play one sport. He may be a finer baseball prospect than he even is in football and college teams in the area are perked-up and looking at him in both sports.

Preston Spurlock at Leslie County is not only one of the most feared inside LBers in the 7th district of the 2A classification, as his All-District selection this past year certainly supports, but he is also a fantastic baseball player. As one would expect, he bats in the middle of the batting order. He’s also someone I wouldn’t pitch inside if you catch my drift.

William Long, II, of Breathitt County, whose photograph is featured in this particular article, is a two-time AP All-Stater along the offensive line and one of only three All-Staters this year to be honored as at least an Honorable Mention or higher on two sides of the football (1st Team OL; HM, Defensive Line) (other two: Grayson Cook, Punter (1st-Team), LB (HM); and Michael Mayer (1st-Team WR and 1st-team LB). William is considered one of the 250-pound weight class’s finest powerlifters in the history of Kentucky high-school powerlifting. Most everyone in Kentucky is aware of this and realize the only way he is stopped from winning his third-straight State Championship in Powerlifting’s 250-pound weight class in 2020, to go with his titles won in 2018 and 2019, was for some National Emergency to be declared to warrant the governing body’s not holding the competition; which (as luck would have it) is exactly what happened. William is also a middle of the batting order varsity baseball player for Breathitt who plays first base and is one of the team’s more-lethal base stealers.

Grayson Cook, who is headed to Air Force to play for the Falcons as the only 2020 Linebacker headed to the FBS to play collegiately out of all the Kentucky players thusly positioned is a player the Falcons covet as a TE almost as much as the Bandit for the defensive second level. He’s formerly starred as a varsity basketball player and a member of the Track & Field team while at Belfry. This athleticism being a major reason why this athlete is so prized.

These are just a few of the examples from around the commonwealth of Kentucky of multi-sport athletes some of whom are college prospects in more than just the sport we happen to cover. They are what makes covering football fun and especially what makes the offseason literally our busiest season for the hard-core, high school football fan.

We can’t wait for the sporting world to return to normal. We can’t wait for these star athletes to get to take the field and wow us with all the many things at which they thrive apart from football. We will be right here covering it for you when Kentucky comes out the other side of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

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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