Remember when actor George Peppard’s character Col. John ‘Hannibal’ Smith always ended episodes of The A Team with, “I just love it when a plan comes together”?
When track/cross country coach Greg Howard became athletic director at his beloved Logan County High School three years ago, he had a plan for improving Cougar sports performances on the playing field and for building enthusiasm and school spirit throughout the student body and community.
Man, did his plan “come together” in the school year that just ended!
The most obvious example was the transformation of Cougar football from being a perpetual doormat with the state’s longest losing streak into one of the most successful teams in the state.
But there’s much more, including domination of the 13th District.
Logan County is the biggest school in the district, with slightly more students than Franklin-Simpson, approximately double Todd Central, and almost triple Russellville’s student population. Over the years, though, the availability of more potential student athletes has not always translated into wins in district competition.
Over the decades, Logan has been superb at volleyball, very good at baseball, and better than average in girls basketball. Football and boys basketball often have been at the other end of the spectrum.
This year, the Cougars and Lady Cougars were good in virtually every sport, especially those that involve district championships. It started with going 4-0 in their Class 4A football district before losing to district rival Hopkinsville the second time around in the regional semifinals.
In the seven sports involving 13th District championships, Logan teams won three titles (volleyball, girls basketball and baseball) and finished second in three more (boys and girls soccer along with softball). The only team that didn’t make it to region was boys basketball, and that team was the number one seed in the district before being upset by Franklin-Simpson.
LCHS teams fashioned a cumulative record in those seven sports of 114-82-1, highlighted by an awesome 42-12 district worksheet.
How Russellville and Logan County fare against each other in Clashes of the Cats annually is always a local topic of interest. And in the seven sports with district championships, LCHS team went 15-0 against Panther teams in 2017-18. Add in football and the two tennis teams, the overall worksheet was Logan County 19, Russellville 1.
The single Panther win? boys tennis. The Cougars and Panthers split in that sport.
Logan was also outstanding in archery (the boys won the KHSAA region and the team won the NASP region), swimming, track, cross country and bass fishing.
Most of those don’t have dual meets. Several schools usually compete at a meet or tournament.
I don’t know about golf. Neither a Logan County nor a Russellville golf coach submitted a single result last fall.
Greg Howard’s hard work and success in athletic administration has not gone unnoticed. He was named Regional Athletic Director of the Year and advanced to being a state finalist.
For evidence of how he builds school spirit and community support, read a summary he wrote for The LoJo about was happening in Cougar athletics at http://www.theloganjournal.com/Stories.aspx?Article=sports1072
Howard tells The LoJo: “As noted earlier, it takes everyone involved to make any type of success possible. Behind the scenes is a vast array of people that come together for one common thing, ‘our kids.’ I want to thank so many people that have contributed to such a great year. Our transportation and maintenance people are awesome and see that things are kept up and that our kids get where they have to go, safely.
“Board members, our superintendent, custodians, cafeteria staff, teachers, receptionists are all vital in the ‘chain of success.’ We’ve had more teachers volunteering their time working ballgames than ever before.”
Howard continues, “Working with our middle school teachers and principals has been a blessing and their part in all of this has been outstanding.
“The phenomenal job put forth by Mr. (Principal Caycee) Spears and Mr. (Superintendent Paul) Mullins has been monumental in all aspects of helping put athletics on the map. Believing that athletics are vital to the development of our student-athletes by securing upgrades in our facilities and helping acquire and train quality coaches has been a blessing.
“Our coaches and athletes put in lots of time as they work to become better. It’s not necessarily about the time than it is the quality of the time. Our coaches love our kids! Nothing better can be said.
“Our community has stepped up and have been behind our kids and the programs they play in. We hope the successful trend continues both, on and off the playing surface. We EXPEXT greatness in both areas.”
For a review of how each Logan team fared in The (Super) Year That Was, see below:
Football
Undefeated regular season, including wins over Hopkinsville, Madisonville-North Hopkins, Calloway County and Russellville
Ran win streak to 12 straight games
Last undefeated team in the state in Class 4A
Ranked 5th in state by Associated Press
District 4A champion
Earned first-ever playoff game on the LCHS campus
Playoff win leads to regional Final Four
Named state football team of the year
Todd Adler state coach of the year
Caden McKinnis received many honors
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RHS
4-1 District
Finished 11-1
Baseball
Won 10th district championship in 21st century
Bradley Taylor named state player of the year and 4th athletic director player of the year
Ethan Smock, Koby Wall, Braxton Meguiar and Taylor named to West All-Star squads
Austin Rayno, who has signed to play collegiately and was a Governor’s Scholar, was named Baseball Scholar Athlete for the Fourth Region by Super Preps and signed with Lindsey Wilson College.
Outscored opponents 289-118
Tied for top seed in district
Finished 24-9
3-0 RHS
7-1 District
Ethan Smock, Kaleb Justice, Bradley Taylor all signed to play ball with Frontier College.
Volleyball
Won 15th straight district championship
Won 112th straight district match and 246th consecutive district game
Reached regional semifinals
Top seed in district
Finished 23-15
2-0 RHS
8-0 District
Keirra Cornist signed first D-1 with Evansville
Shelby Hardison signed with Brescia
Girls Basketball
District champion for fourth time in five years
Tied for top seed in district
Won regional opener
Finished 22-11
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RHS
7-1 District
Softball
Top seed in district
District runner-up
Lost 1-0 to AC-S at region
Finished 17-11
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RHS
7-1 District
Boys Soccer
District runner-up
Finished 7-11-1
3-0 RHS
5-3 District
Girls Soccer
District runner-up
Won opening regional match
Finished 6-11
No RHS team
3-3 District
Boys Basketball
Tied for top seed in district
Mykal Hamptons igned with Campbellsville-Siomerset.
Finished 15-14
2-0 RHS
5-3 District
Swimming
Riley Wharton named top Scholar Athlete in region by Super Preps
Wharton finished second in regional 100-meter breaststroke and was named All-Region
The 400-meter freestyle team of Wesley Abney, Jacob Orndorff, John Hendricks and Joey Higgins placed fourth at region.
Finishing fifth was the 200-meter relay team of Matthew Jenkins, Wharton, Higgins and Wesley Abney.
Wharton finished 14th in the state in his individual event and is expected to swim for the U.S. Naval Academy
Archery
Boys won regional KHSAA championship with four middle schoolers’ scores counting. Scores that counted came from Michael Drake, Isaac Stanley, Asher Liles, Jaden Hayes, Mark Lynch, Clacy White and Evan Dana.
Lady Cougars tied for second in KHSAA regional with three shooters—Rhonda Reeves, Chloe Watkins and Taylor Haley—qualifying for state.
Reeves named Fourth Region Female Archer of Year
Drake named Fourth Region Male Archer of Year.
Cougars won NASP regional championship.
Haley won NASP regional title with teammate Chloe Watkins and CJ Raymer second and third, respectively. Kaylen Skipworth finished fourth.
Taylor Haley signed with Campbellsville and is believed to be Logan’s first collegiate archer.
Cross Country
John Hendricks and Meredith Johnson qualified for the state meet
Johnson became first Lady Cougar to sign to run cross country in college.
Bass Fishing
Team ofTrevor McIntosh and Thomas Lockhart qualified for state
Team of Briar Webb and Matthew Mullins qualified for state
Track
Meredith Johnson won Class 3A regional 400 meter championship
Johnson was named 4th Region Female Track Athlete of the Year.
Hendricks finished third individually in the Class 3A regional meet following that up with a 10th place finish at state while shattering the school record in the 3200M again.
Johnson signed to run cross country and track at Lindsey Wilson College.
Tanner Morrow set school record in 800 as regional runner-up and finished 7th at state in the 800M
Morrow joined Reggie Powell, Gage Cousineau and Evan Hughes in finishing second in regional 4x400 relay.
Girls Tennis
Team of Lauren Barnes and Kara Noffsinger won regional opener 6-0, 6-0 over AC-S
Barnes-Noffsinger reached regional quarterfinals.
Katie Noffsinger, Camden Williams and the team of Bella Bond and Hannah Goss won regional openers
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RHS
Boys Tennis
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RHS
Boys and Girls Golf
No individual or team reports