Team Spotlight….Mason County Royals

If there is another team in Kentucky which lost more than the Royals from Mason County, Kentucky; we, here at KPGFootball, would like to see them. I mean Malcolm Devine and his 1,147 rushing yards and 10 rushing TDs are gone, as are the 594 rushing yards and 5 rushing TDs contributed by QB, Chandler Dunaway. With Dunaway’s matriculation to college, sophomore, Carson Brammer, is the only returning QB on the roster who has thrown a pass in a varsity game. His stats from last year? Brammer was 1-3 for 24 yards. The good news, the 24 yard completion was for a TD. The Royals are a team which rushed, last season, for 2,170 yards but have just graduated 1,741 of those ground gains just between Devine and Dunaway. Through the air, with Dunaway’s departure, 836 yards of the team’s 860 passing yards are gone and 12 of the 13 passing TDs. In total, 2,601 of the team’s 3,030 offensive yards, which is a fraction under 86% of its entire offense, is gone.

Well maybe the defense returns in tact. Not so fast my friend! Just in graduating Tykeise Henry the defense lost 89 solo tackles and 4 interceptions. Levi Dunaway and his 4 picks are gone too. Camdyn Washington and his 62 tackles have departed as well. So, as a recap, 86 percent of the offense is gone, 8 additional possessions provided by interception are gone, and almost every leading tackler on the team is out of eligibility from off a 7-4 football team which departed the KHSAA playoffs in the first round to Johnson Central by a final score of 43-0. Probably the class of the defense returning will be 2019’s, OLB, Seth Chambers Jr., who is, far and away, the best defender returning. He had 52 solo tackles last year and will be called up, on both sides of the ball this upcoming season, if Coach Jonathan Thomas’ charges are to make any noise at all in Class 4A, District 7.

Still, as Alexander Pope once said in his poem An Essay on Man, [h]ope springs eternal in the human breast. This hope for the Mason County Royals will likely stem from the addition to the roster of its middle school Regional Championship football team and players like Dravin Routt and Jayven Hesler who may be called upon to enter the lineup much earlier than Coach Thomas would find ideal if the Royals are to be competitive this next Fall. Now, before anyone should lose all hope, I should mention we really don’t know, outside of Mason County, how the JV and freshmen teams looked last year. There could be some real players down on the farm who are looking forward to their opportunity to shine. Those levels of football haven’t, before KPGFootball, ever drawn any coverage. To those young ballers who have had the seniors clear out and now have the opportunity to show what they have…Coach Thomas and the Mason County faithful want you to know there’s no time like the present!