Al Starnes won 175-games, six (6) districts, and the program’s second ever regional title in 2008
🎶...I'm a rocket man
Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone...🎶
Elton John and Bernie Taupin, "Rocket Man," 1972
Al Starnes is the Crittenden County “Rockets” all time winningest football coach. He launched a program which became among the western Kentucky area’s more soundly successful programs at its level of competition. Starnes served his program, and his school, for 27-seasons on its football sideline before handing the program over to his (then) offensive Coordinator, Sean Thompson. Thompson would take the lessons learned serving on Starnes’ staff to Paducah Tilghman where he would win the 4A title (2024) and polish off a 15-0 record. Starnes was the Crittenden County “Rocket Man” and the program kept achieving new heights while under his direction. One thing is for certain; I don’t know when the program will again see Coach Starnes equal coaching the football around there but 🎶I think it’s gonna be a long, long time ’til touch down brings [him] round again to find…🎶
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Marion, KY: Crittenden County used to be the “Shamrocks.” Then in 1954, the school newspaper decided it wanted to be called, “The Rocket.”
The name was a success, leading to the adoption of the “Rockets” as the school’s emblem and mascot. While the school’s yearbook was still named the “Shamrock,” the nickname “Rockets” became widely accepted.
These days, when you hear “Shamrock,” it is in regard to Louisville’s Trinity High. When you think of one of western Kentucky’s preeminent, 1A football programs; everyone knows them now as the Rockets.
People far and wide knew of their coach, Al Starnes. He was Crittenden County’s “Rocket Man.”
🎶Rocket man, burning out his fuse up here alone…🎶 Tell the truth, you are hearing the tune in your head right now, aren’t you?
Starnes and his wife worked at Crittenden County 27-years before retiring
KHSAA Press Release about Angela’s HOF induction
Al Starnes coached football at Crittenden County High for 27-years. He and his wife, Angela (Payne Starnes), both enjoyed a perfect match for a couple of athletes. They met in college, married, and spent 27-years together teaching and coaching.
Angela may have been the more decorated of the two coming out of high school. Angela won seven (7) KHSAA titles at Todd County High in track & field. As a senior she swept the 400, 200 and 100 sprints.
Payne’s winning time of :12.20 in the 100 meters her senior year at Todd stood a long time as the class A state record in that event. It may still be the state record for all we know. We’re a football publication.
Angela’s accomplishments, along with nearly three decades in coaching and sports administration at Crittenden County, earned her a spot in the Dawahares/KHSAA Hall of Fame. Al and she always did things together. Perhaps his induction could make this another “thing.”
Al met Angela at Murray State University. Starnes was at Murray to play football.
After playing college football in the OVC, Starnes got the job at Crittenden County. Starnes and his staff built the Rockets into perennial class 1A powerhouses on the western end of Kentucky.
Starnes would win 175-games over his tenure. Starnes would win six (6) districts, and the school’s second, all-time, regional title at the time in 2008.
Starnes 2008 team would finish 10-4 and make a trip to the semis. This team would arguably be his best squad over his 27-years.
Starnes hired Sean Thompson to coach his offense. Thompson had played for Starnes at Crittenden and then collegiately at Campbellsville.
Thompson would succeed Starnes after Starnes stepped down in 2017. Thompson’s being tabbed as his former coach’s successor was Marion, Kentucky’s worst kept secret of all time.
Thompson would enjoy a great run at the school. Starnes didn’t leave the cupboard barren. The Rockets were 8-5 in 2017, Starnes’ swan song.
In 2018, Thompson took the Rockets to an 11-2 record. He followed that up with 10-3 (’19), 7-3 in the pandemic shortened season (’20), before bolting to Paducah’s Tilghman High School in 2021.
Thompson has done very well, just like Starnes trained him, with the Blue Tornado. That is if you consider 42-wins and two trips to the state championship, losing in the finals to Belfry in 2021 and beating Franklin County for the 4A title in 2024, doing well.
In four years at Tilghman, Thompson’s worst showing was making the regional championship game. He has made the semis thrice. He’s made the title game twice. He has won a title, all in just four seasons since leaving his alma mater.
You can tell a lot about a coach from his “coaching tree.” The success his former player, Sean Thompson, has enjoyed since succeeding him at Crittenden, coupled with what he has done at Tilghman, stands a testament to Starnes and the caliber of football he instilled in both his former players and his former assistants.
Many of you who have appeared in this series owe our coverage of you to one of our agents in your area and their persistent recommendation. One of our key guys recommended this particular coaching legend for a feature.
This guy’s recommendation holds tremendous sway around our office. We don’t turn him down often, if ever.
Al Starnes, the Hoover Niece of the West?
Friday Night Fletch
The guy texted the magazine. He told us “Al Starnes is the Hoover Niece of the west.” That is a right strong statement to make about any HS football coach.
Those of you who don’t remember, Niece is a guy who fielded tough, competitive teams at a place where it wasn’t easy to compete. Niece coached at Estill County for 27-years winning 128-games a pair of sub-district titles.
Starnes coached at Crittenden County. Crittenden is a program not too unlike Estill County before Starnes took the job. Starnes has led his “Estill (if you will)” to 175-wins, 6-districts, and a regional title with a semi-state appearance thrown in for good measure.
Niece is in the KHSAA Hall. Starnes should also be like his wife, Angela, who was inducted in 2018.
Whether Starnes ever gains enshrinement in the Dawahares, KHSAA Hall of Fame or not; one thing is certain. Al Starnes made Crittenden County’s Rockets launch into the KHSAA football stratosphere.
Starnes created that program. Then Starnes did the truly difficult task of sustaining what he had built at a level of excellence for many, many seasons.
Who knows when we will ever again see another Starnes on that sideline in Marion, Kentucky. To borrow from the song co-written by Sir Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 🎶I think it’s gonna be a long, long time…🎶
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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