Fletcher Long

Storm Warning: Waylon Carter looking for some extended PT and production in multiple phases next season @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @khsaafootball, @HopkinsCentral, @CountyMustangs

May 29, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

You could just about define this kid after burying his mom in seventh grade. Approximately five hours after her service, Carter took the field against Union County and scored four (4) TDs. You talk about tough. You talk about clutch. This is a kid who has faced down adversity and spat in its eye. Carter had a solid sophomore season. Carter had a hand full of carries, caught a pass, played on several coverage units, and logged 25-tackles and half a sack in only seven (7) games of PT. This is a kid looking to start every game. We believe he will have that chance in ’25 and going off of what he has before done, the chances are he will make the most of it. Enjoy this feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Monty Joe Lovell and his Madison Model High ‘Royal Purples’ @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @MCentral_FB,

May 23, 2025 Fletcher Long 1

We have been featuring some of the greatest football coaches to ever grace a sideline in our Slow Motion Replay series. We have an entire panel of “experts” who guide and direct our selections. Not everyone appearing on this or that “All-Time” list is amongst the greatest in the coaching department as there is more to coaching than raw wins-losses. This guy here, Monty Joe Lovell, had an incredible run as both an athlete and coach in the Richmond, Kentucky area at the old Madison Model High School. He was yearly in contention for state supremacy for his 11-years and took his team to the 1A title game in 1979 dropping a heart breaker to Bellevue, 7-0. Lovell would lose playoff games to the likes of Poppa Joe Jaggers and Marshall Patterson, two all-time Hall of Famers both of whom struggled to beat Lovell and both of whom (Jaggers in ’72 and Patterson in ’78) went on to win it all. Enjoy this look at a truly remarkable former football coach.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf(e)? Perhaps everyone should be! @MaleBulldogs, @LMHSCoachWolfe, @Aspirationsgym, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans

May 22, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

We don’t know ultimately who’s afraid of the big, bad Wolfe; but we know who should be…the teams having to face the Bulldogs this coming Fall. Chris Wolfe has been among the very best coaches in the business since he took his first job at Hancock County in 1997 and quickly led them to a 10-3 finish in 1998. Wolfe then went 46-25 at Waggener (1999-2004), taking them to the 2000 semis, and finally 18-16 at Pleasure Ridge Park (2005-2007) before landing at Male High as Bobby Redman’s successor. This is a pass-first, explosive play hunting, offensive innovator who recognized he would have to move the ball, through the air, and for large chunks of production to regularly compete with and overcome the teams in Louisville he would have to schedule. Enjoy this feature, Tra la la la la.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Ewell E. “Judge” Waddell laid down the law around Highlands High from 1942-1954 @HighlandsFB, @WaddellScholars, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @WKUFootball

May 21, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

We don’t make head coaches anymore the ilk or equal of your Doc Farrells, your Judge Waddells, or even your Homer Rices. No sir, those days appear long gone and who knows if we will ever see them reappear. Still, it is fun to remember when our high school football coaches were way more than just coaches. Many of them were fine teachers, accomplished academics, and community leaders. They were heroes to some and fine gentlemen to all. They required their players to act in conformity with a certain code of conduct from the young men they would lead and the young men they would coach. Enjoy this look at Judge Waddell, perhaps the first, great coach of the Highlands High School era. His efforts would result in the construction of one of the KHSAA’s all-time football factories, football dynasties.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Doc Ferrell walked through Prestonsburg like a Demi-god @PrestonsburgFB, @SrHighFootball, @khsaafootball, @UKFootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans

May 20, 2025 Fletcher Long 2

I think the world of Dan Goble. I am also mindful of the responsibility of this online magazine to be the recorders of KHSAA football history. I don’t know why the job has fallen to us, I just know that it has. That is why when I got a call from Coach Goble asking me to feature a former coach who meant the world to him, I was eager to comply with the request. From that phone call, this article materialized. I would like to thank my mother, and the DAR, for contributing to this piece. We have resurrected the story of a former great we were required to rescue from the dustbin of history, soon to be forgotten forever. Thank Goodness we got to it before it was gone. Enjoy this article.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Bob Redman, Renaissance Man @ItsChris_Redman, @OwensboroSports, @bigassfans, @minguabeefjerky, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @MaleBulldogs

May 19, 2025 Fletcher Long 5

Bob Redman was a true Renaissance Man in that he was able to do a variety of things while doing them all very well. Redman was among the greatest high school football coaches the Louisville area has ever known and managed to beat both St. Xavier and Trinity more than any other Louisville area coach in spite of coaching a team in one of those powerhouses’s districts in 30 of his 35-years. Redman averaged over 9-wins a season for 35-seasons. Playing against the best and most talented rosters the commonwealth of Kentucky had to offer, that is really something quite remarkable. Enjoy this feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Zai’Vion Meads from Central High (Lou.) is the @bigassfans Kentucky Comfort Creator of the Week and Ziggy tells opponents what you see is what you get @Tmalone0, @Aspirationsgym, @CoachDantzler, @Ziggy41_, @minguabeefjerky, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball

May 16, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Zai’Vion Meads has been working out with Aspirations Gym this offseason. Aspirations Gym proprietor, Chris Vaughn, has been working out Louisville’s elite athletes for a long time, as long as we have been covering this sport. Vaugh has Meads “looking right.” Meads has exploded the myth the camera adds weight as he looks good live, or on film. Today, we award this prestigious, weekly distinction to one of the Derby City’s better DL prospects playing for one of Louisville’s deeper and most talented rosters. Enjoy the feature and let’s keep it comfortable out there, Kentucky!

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Crittenden County and its ‘Rocket Man,’ Coach Al Starnes @CrittendenCoHS, @tanner_tabor, @KyHighFootball, @khsaafootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @coachthomp9, @pths_football

May 15, 2025 Fletcher Long 0

Those of you who have been featured in our “Slow Motion Series” may not realize this, but you owe your inclusion to one of our intrepid staff members or agents at Kentucky Prep Gridiron. Many articles begin with “Hey Fletch, you need to feature this guy or that guy” together with a small explanation why the coverage is warranted. This article began that very way. We were contacted, last night, by our central Kentucky agent, who formerly coached on this end of Kentucky, and he told us we needed to feature Al Starnes. His reasoning was Starnes is the Hoover Niece of the western end of the commonwealth. Well, that was good enough for us…Enjoy the feature.

Friday Night Fletch

Slow Motion Replay: Justin Haddix, whether playing or coaching, is just a freaking winner! @CoachHaddix11, @BCRebelFootball, @BreathittFb, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans, @CountyMustangs, @KyHighFootball, @kyhighs, @khsaafootball

May 13, 2025 Fletcher Long 2

Justin Haddix is a mountain legend. Much like Jay Cobb at Trinity, people from outside the mountains tend to forget from where Justin Haddix comes. The important thing is the former WKU QB-ing great hasn’t forgotten. As the Appalachians would be proud to claim, “Justin is one of ours.” Haddix has had a Hall of Fame run both as a player and coach. He still talks with the great Mike Holcomb regularly and the two of them run a QB camp together which convened on Joe MacDaniel field at Andy Frye stadium a year ago. Enjoy this look at a guy who, like Mark Spader, is a future Hall of Famer.

Friday Night Fletch.

Slow Motion Replay: Dan Haley had the Midas Touch! @pths_football, @bryanstationfb, @PurplesFootball, @khsaafootball, @KyHighFootball, @minguabeefjerky, @bigassfans

May 12, 2025 Fletcher Long 1

Dan Haley finished his career with an overall record of 253-79-3 with stints as the head football coach at Bryan Station in Lexington, Paducah Tilghman, and Bowling Green Senior High. Haley did something else rather singular, he took every program he ever coached to the title game, winning titles in ’73 at Tilghman and ’95 at Bowling Green. His ’95 title likely stands alone as he won that title over Fort Thomas Highlands, and its enigmatic and brilliant head coaching legend, Dale Mueller (28-12). Haley won four COY’s in four (4) different decades and was enshrined in the Dawahares, KHSAA Hall of Fame in 2007. Enjoy this look at one of the finest coaches the sport has known, a guy with a real “Midas Touch.”

Friday Night Fletch