Long time Anderson head football coach has amassed 166-career wins
Calling something a “Peach” has a positive connotation. Calling an item or person “a peach” is a term of endearment, a term of praise. It means someone or something is pleasing, attractive. It likely stems from the sweetness and desirability of the fruit itself. In Mark Peach’s case, it is tied to that being his surname, but the surname itself has significance. According to House of Names, found online and linked for your easy access, the name “Peach” reached English shores for the first time with the ancestors of the Peach family in England following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Peach family lived in Kent. It is thought that Peachy is of topographical origin, distinguishing a bearer who lived near a peach tree, sold peaches, or was associated with the fruit in some other way. In French it was written peche, and the addition of the letter y on to the end of the name is probably the result of its Anglicization. Regardless it is the surname of an elite coach who has enjoyed immeasurable success coaching high school football over a substantial period of time in the commonwealth of Kentucky.
HB Lyon, Scouting Director, “KPGFootball”
Stanford, KY: One of my all-time, favorite movies was Caddyshack. The movie’s plot was comical and somewhat formulaic; but, it was a formula I enjoyed.
The story went something like this: Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe), a teen down on his luck, worked as a caddy at the snob-infested Bushwood Country Club to raise money for his college education. In an attempt to gain votes for a college scholarship reserved for caddies, Noonan volunteered to caddy for a prominent and influential club member (Ted Knight) who happened to be a Judge (Elihu Smails).
Danny struggles to prepare for the high pressure Caddy Day golf tournament while absorbing new age advice from wealthy golf guru, Ty Webb (Chevy Chase). Danny wins the tournament but finds himself later on in the movie playing in a high stakes, golf match for big, big money.
If Danny “throws” the match, like Judge Smails (Ted Night) wants, Danny gets his scholarship. If Danny should win the match, he enriches his partner Ty Webb and himself and impoverishes Judge Smails and his partner, Dr. Beeper. There is more to the movie than just that, but you get the gist.
There is a particularly funny scene in the movie’s beginning which pops into my mind anytime someone mentions Mark Peach to me. This happens more often than you realize. It would appear Coach Peach and I run in similar circles and know a lot of the same people.
Anyway, the scene has nothing to do with Mark Peach. It is just the strange and curious way my mind works.
The scene involved an elderly couple, in the movie’s opening scenes, named the Havercamps. Mr. and Mrs. Havercamp are playing a round at Brushwood Country Club and being serviced, during the round, by the same caddy.
The entrepreneurial, young caddy (Tony) appears to be attempting to double up on the caddying fee and (perhaps) the gratuity, provided he does a good enough job. The young man, in question, is exhibiting quite a bit of patience.
That’s a peach, hon!
Mr. Havercamp, “Caddyshack”
Anyway, Mr. Havercamp lines up a shot, duffs it, nearly decapitates Tony the caddie, and hits his golf ball right into the drink. Meanwhile, Mrs. Havercamp is whiffing across the fairway and screaming “Whee!” to her considerable delight, not appearing to realize she is playing a scored round nor appearing to care that she is incurring strokes with every whiff.
She’s having a marvelous time. She may even be tipsy, though this is information not expressly provided the viewer.
After one of her whiffs, and resultant “Whees!,” Mr. Havercamp looks up and delivers the immortal movie line, “That’s a peach, hon! Oh, by golly, I am hot today!”
Mr. Havercamp wasn’t hot, either that or any day. Havercamp stunk at the game, or was too elderly to still be good at it, take your pick.
However, there is a “Peach” who spent an entire career being quite “hot” on the KHSAA football fields across Kentucky. He really was a “Peach” and by golly, hon, he was hot both this and every other day.
Mr. Havercamp’s movie line, calling his wife’s shot “a peach,” had a meaning attributable to our purposes here. The saying “that’s a peach” originated as a term of endearment and praise, meaning something or someone is very pleasing or attractive. It likely stems from the perceived sweetness and desirability of the fruit itself, implying that the person being described was both equally delightful and enjoyable.
We didn’t contrive any of this. We got it from the Collins online dictionary.
What was undeniably both delightful and enjoyable about Mark Peach’s coaching was his level of success, his overall coaching record. Peach’s winning rate and coaching résumé were the real peaches.
Coaching records are hard to track in the KHSAA. Unless you have won enough to be listed on the KHSAA TOP KENTUCKY FOOTBALL COACHING WINS LIST (Top Coaches List) your won/loss record will have to be recreated going from year to year, stop to stop.
To make the Top Coaches List, a coach has to win a minimum of 200 games. Wins accumulated while working at out-of-Kentucky schools are not counted. Those are the rules. These rules are there’s, not our’s.
We are able to dive into the statistics and recreate coaching records, but it takes some effort and we aren’t always 100% accurate. We have Mark Peach at 166-wins against 97-losses. That would give Coach Peach a slightly better than 63% winning rate.
In addition, over his career, Peach won four (4) regions, made two appearances in the state championship game, and developed a “Mr. Football” in Travis Atwell (Hancock County, 1999). Peach also enjoyed a pair of undefeated regular seasons.
Peach spent the lion’s share of his tenure at Anderson County. There, Peach won 114-games in 15-seasons against 63-losses. That comes out to 7.6-wins a year.
Peach led Anderson County to its first and only appearance in a KHSAA title game (2011). Peach led Hancock County to its first and only appearance in a state title game (1999). Interestingly, both teams (Bearcats and Hornets) finished the run to the title game with identical 12-3 final marks.
Peach developed the first and only “Mr. Football” to ever play for Hancock County. There are those words we have learned always “pop-up” when discussing all-timers, “first and only.”
We were talking to a great football coach in his own right, and member of the first family of KHSAA football, Marty Jaggers. We asked Coach Jaggers what characteristics denote for him that a certain coach may be an “all-time great?”
Jaggers told KPGFootball, “I can tell you this, there is no hard and fast formula, if that is for what you are looking. I look for guys who have had unprecedented success at a school.”
Jaggers continued, “Sometimes, the ‘greats’ are the guys who coached at schools which never had much success before the coach got there nor after he left. Sometimes these guys are at schools which were winning but the coach took that program up a notch.”
Jaggers, continuing down this line of thought, “The guys who have won the most games or championships, or maybe the guys who have won the program’s first championship, or some school’s only championship; those are the guys I tend to think of as ‘greats.’ To me, and this is just I and no-one else; it is hard to overlook guys who put places, schools, or communities on the map from prior positions of relative obscurity or guys who have taken winners up a notch to periods of success a school has never before experienced.”
Jaggers concluded, “That isn’t the only criteria. It just seems to be valid criteria, at least to me.”
Who are we to argue with a Jaggers? Who is anyone?
This is Friday Night Fletch, reporting for KPGFootball and KPI Newspaper Group, reminding you to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE!
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