Blanton Collier: Coaching the Eyes, Leading the Heart
“You can accomplish a lot if you don’t care who gets the credit.” This Blanton Collier quote is posted in our weight room. During my eight years in Paris, I really enjoyed meeting people that knew Coach Collier. His daughter,…
Friends Who Make You Better
Friday night, Jan. 4, 2013: Yesterday was a tough day. I got an email in the morning from my good friend, Coach Leon Hart, that he was going to retire as the head football coach at Ashland Blazer. He was…
Trusting God and Doing What You Do
I’ve never personally met Coach Tony Dungy but, along with my dad, he has helped me to change for the better so that my wife, Stephanie, hasn’t kicked me out of the house after 21 years of living with a…
The Flatwoods Legend
*This was originally printed in June, 2013 by the Maysville Ledger Independent It was 1996 and my first trip to Flatwoods to face the Russell Red Devils. It was past 7:30, time for kickoff. And I walked to the hash…
Starting the Season: Firsts Things first – Remembering What is Important
We started a ceremony here a few years ago to start our pre-season. The purpose of the ceremony was to help us focus on the things that are most important: 1- Football is fun. We have grown up watching…
The Process and the Plan
Although Cincinnati is obviously not on the Pacific coast, it’s where Bill Walsh was an assistant coach for the Bengals and coach Paul Brown when he built what has become known as the West Coast offense, long before he led…
Maysville’s Loyal Bulldog, Billy Goldsmith
Billy & Boone Goldsmith This may be my toughest column because many readers will know much more about the topic than I do. But, I let John Combs, my son, pick this topic. After looking at a list of…
The Wise Old Coach On the Mountain
A few years ago I was looking through old UK football programs and found a picture of then-Virginia Tech Head Coach Jimmy Sharpe. Coach Sharpe was in Bear Bryant’s first freshman class at Alabama. He later was an assistant for…
The Thin Thirty Survivor Who Came to Maysville
Of all the coaches I have met, none were more wound up and passionate than Coach Homer Goins – and that was 10 years after he had coached his last football game. He was a high-energy and high-intensity guy from…
Where You Are is the Best Place to be
I didn’t realize it at the time, but my college coach was a legend – or at least well on his way to becoming one. I went to Centre College as a freshman quarterback in August 1983 and our coach…