[Batpuff]

1.) Johnson Central
2.) Bell County
3.) Belfry
4.) Corbin
5.) Pikeville
6.) Breathitt Co.
7.) Rockcastle Co.
8.) Sheldon Clark
9.) Somerset
10.) Hazard

http://www.wkyt.com/wymtsportsovertime/h...74111.html

[EASports12]

Thank you WYMT for giving such a generous rank to us (Pikeville) It seems we have a lot to live up to ... out of that group i would have put us 7-9.

[BlackcatAlum]

Prestonsburg beat Sheldon Clark by two touchdown's and beat a legit Clay County team by one touchdown in there varsity scrimmages, and they don't make the Mountain Top 10?

No disrespect to Clay County or Sheldon Clark, but come on!

[Panther Thunder]

I would have Pikeville a little lower down, they need to prove more to me right now than what they have.

[Tomcat68]

Wow Rockcastle really got the short end of the stick, IMO. The Rock should probably be ranked 3rd.

[EKUAlum05]

Wow Rockcastle really got the short end of the stick, IMO. The Rock should probably be ranked 3rd.

The Rock got absolutely trashed and smashed in the playoffs vs. Johnson Central and lost most of their key skill players. Why would you rank them over Belfry, who has made 4 consecutive State Semi-Finals and return most of the talent off of last year's team? Belfry has been the King of the Mountains for the past five years, and this team is billed to be one of their better teams. I could see making the arguement for #4, but those Top 3 definately have the credentials for their rankings.

[GRIZZ]

Congrats to those teams and best of luck this season.

[Poseidon]

Prestonsburg beat Sheldon Clark by two touchdown's and beat a legit Clay County team by one touchdown in there varsity scrimmages, and they don't make the Mountain Top 10?

No disrespect to Clay County or Sheldon Clark, but come on!

No one really knows how the teams are going to come out opening night and play, these rankings are just for fun and to get attention for the station.

[eaglehoops]

Prestonsburg beat Sheldon Clark by two touchdown's and beat a legit Clay County team by one touchdown in there varsity scrimmages, and they don't make the Mountain Top 10?

No disrespect to Clay County or Sheldon Clark, but come on!

That means nothing...most teams don't even play their varsity starters too long anyway. Pburg will be better than last yr. but IMO they aren't a top 10 team in the mnts.

[jetpilot]

The Rock got absolutely trashed and smashed in the playoffs vs. Johnson Central and lost most of their key skill players. Why would you rank them over Belfry, who has made 4 consecutive State Semi-Finals and return most of the talent off of last year's team? Belfry has been the King of the Mountains for the past five years, and this team is billed to be one of their better teams. I could see making the arguement for #4, but those Top 3 definately have the credentials for their rankings.

King of the Mountains the last 5 years??? Come on.

[I Rule The World]

Hazard, Pikeville and Sheldon Clark? No P-Burg, Leslie, or Middlesboro? Rock 7????

[Belfry Wins]

King of the Mountains the last 5 years??? Come on.

Man the last four season's they have atleast been in a state semifinal. They have been and most ppl will agree with that.
As far as Blackcat fans go I could see them ahead of Hazard but that is it right now. As far as Rock goes. They are very inexperenced this year, this ranking is a good spot for them as now.

[Belfry Wins]

Hazard, Pikeville and Sheldon Clark? No P-Burg, Leslie, or Middlesboro? Rock 7????

Pikeville and SC could be as good as anybody on that list, although I agree Hazard didnt look that good to me, but they do return a lot of ppl, so who knows.

[bigpun]

These rankings are complete BS. The only ranking that matters is at the end of the year, when you are either holding a state championship trophy or not. Up until then though it needs to be one game at a time.

[EKUAlum05]

King of the Mountains the last 5 years??? Come on.

The past five seasons Belfry,
- Has made 4 consecutive State Semi-Finals Appearances, the only year which they didn't was a loss to eventual state champion Breathitt County in a game where the Pirates ahd the football with a chance to win with under 2 minutes remaining.

-Has won 2 state titles... the ONLY other moutnain teams to make the State Finals in these past five years were Breathitt and Corbin in 2002 (Breathitt won 52-0 and has not made it past the second round since) and Rockcastle in 2002 (lost to Boyle County 21-0).

-The ONLY mountain team to defeat Belfry since 2003 was Sheldon Clark last season.

-Although Belfry did not win the state title last season, they defeated the 1A State Champion NCC.

-The Pirates won 27 consecutive games against Kentucky teams during one stretch of the past five years.

[Tomcat68]

Before any teams in the mountains claim to be "King of the Mountains" they need to play the other top tier teams in the mountains. The only 2 who play each other on a regular basis are Rock and Bell. Understandably JC doesn't play Rock or Bell because of the playoff format where they would meet later in the playoffs. As for Belfry, they don't play any of the 3 teams, no matter which schools decision it is. If Belfry fans want to be considered the top of anything, they need to be considered "King of 2A or smaller (now 3A or smaller) in the Mountains." Year in and year out, with the exception of 1 year or 2 over the last 8 or so, I would take Rock or Bell over Belfry head to head.

Being a state finalist in the previous 2A is nowhere near the same as being a state finalist in the former 3A. Compare getting past Russell, Belfry, Breathitt, etc in 2A to getting past Covington Catholic, Fort Thomas Highlands, or Lexington Catholic in 3A.

[57th crazer]

pikeville is too high, but thet do have the best team in the region right.

[Panther1]

I would have Pikeville a little lower down, they need to prove more to me right now than what they have.

Agreed. I'd say the folks there worry less about PRE season rankings than those done at a different time of the season.

Fun for the fans to get to discuss though.

[EKUAlum05]

Before any teams in the mountains claim to be "King of the Mountains" they need to play the other top tier teams in the mountains. The only 2 who play each other on a regular basis are Rock and Bell. Understandably JC doesn't play Rock or Bell because of the playoff format where they would meet later in the playoffs. As for Belfry, they don't play any of the 3 teams, no matter which schools decision it is. If Belfry fans want to be considered the top of anything, they need to be considered "King of 2A or smaller (now 3A or smaller) in the Mountains." Year in and year out, with the exception of 1 year or 2 over the last 8 or so, I would take Rock or Bell over Belfry head to head.

Being a state finalist in the previous 2A is nowhere near the same as being a state finalist in the former 3A. Compare getting past Russell, Belfry, Breathitt, etc in 2A to getting past Covington Catholic, Fort Thomas Highlands, or Lexington Catholic in 3A.

And what qualifies Rock and Bell to be the best in the mountains?

Take last year for example, Rock was clearly the class of the two as they were the district champs. That powerful Rock team only bested a "lowly" 2A team named Corbin 2-0....
if Rock is truly the cream of the crop, why did they get absolutely crushed by Johnson Central last season in the Regional Finals?

The best Bell County team the past five years was the team who lost to Highlands in the State Semi's in 2004 featuring Shawn Robbins. That Bell County team LOST in the regular season to another "lowly" 2A team named Prestonsburg. Belfry defeated that same Pburg team twice that season en route to a state title.

I have no problem agreeing that it is alot tougher to beat the LexCath's, CovCath's etc in the state semi-finals.... 3A was by far a superior class than 2A. BUT, only ONCE in the past five years has a mountain team defeated any of those schools listed, in fact, witht he exception of the before mentioned Bell County team (who lost to District runner-up Pburg) and the 2002 Rock team... the other games have been blowouts. So as far as that goes is it really a big deal to play those 3A powerhouses if you get your ehad handed to you? As Isaid, 3A is stronger than 2A,,, but that doesn't mean that the mountain 3A schools over the past five years were stronegr than the 2A schools... 2A Region 4 has been the toughest 2A region in the state BAR NONE... 3A Region 4 has been the arguably the weakest 3A region.

[EKUAlum05]

Here are some neat scores from the past five years:

2002 (aka the best Rockcastle team, advanced to State Finals)

Rockcastle vs. 2A Mason County (at the time 2A).... MC 19 Rock 12

Bell County vs. Sheldon Clark (3A at time, has been 2A ever since).. @ Bell County in playoffs... BC 29 SC 21. The enxt season SC returned nearly that entire team and Belfry defeated them 21-0


2003
2A Corbin 24 Bell 14

2004 (aka the best Bell team, lost controversial game to Highlands in semi's)
2A Pburg 27 Bell 24
2A Corbin 42 Rock 22

2005
Not alot to compare here except it was Bell who advanced out of the region, both they and Belfry played Henry Clay early in the season and lost by nearly an identical margin.
HC 42 Bell 16
HC 43 Belfry 14

2006
Bell 17 Corbin 14
Bell 7 Leslie County 0 (Leslie did not even win their district, and eventual district champ Middlesboro got SPANKED by Belfry)
Rockcastle 2 Corbin 0

It looks like the difference in mountain 2A and 3A ootball the past five years isn't very different... and these are all 2A teams who Belfry finished ahead of.

[All-American Lineman]

Congrats to these teams

[HazzBeen]

Here are some neat scores from the past five years:

2002 (aka the best Rockcastle team, advanced to State Finals)

Rockcastle vs. 2A Mason County (at the time 2A).... MC 19 Rock 12

Bell County vs. Sheldon Clark (3A at time, has been 2A ever since).. @ Bell County in playoffs... BC 29 SC 21. The enxt season SC returned nearly that entire team and Belfry defeated them 21-0


2003
2A Corbin 24 Bell 14

2004 (aka the best Bell team, lost controversial game to Highlands in semi's)
2A Pburg 27 Bell 24
2A Corbin 42 Rock 22

2005
Not alot to compare here except it was Bell who advanced out of the region, both they and Belfry played Henry Clay early in the season and lost by nearly an identical margin.
HC 42 Bell 16
HC 43 Belfry 14

2006
Bell 17 Corbin 14
Bell 7 Leslie County 0 (Leslie did not even win their district, and eventual district champ Middlesboro got SPANKED by Belfry)
Rockcastle 2 Corbin 0

It looks like the difference in mountain 2A and 3A ootball the past five years isn't very different... and these are all 2A teams who Belfry finished ahead of.

Maybe you two guys should start another thread.

[truthful]

Thank you WYMT for giving such a generous rank to us (Pikeville) It seems we have a lot to live up to ... out of that group i would have put us 7-9.

So would I.

[truthful]

Before any teams in the mountains claim to be "King of the Mountains" they need to play the other top tier teams in the mountains. The only 2 who play each other on a regular basis are Rock and Bell. Understandably JC doesn't play Rock or Bell because of the playoff format where they would meet later in the playoffs. As for Belfry, they don't play any of the 3 teams, no matter which schools decision it is. If Belfry fans want to be considered the top of anything, they need to be considered "King of 2A or smaller (now 3A or smaller) in the Mountains." Year in and year out, with the exception of 1 year or 2 over the last 8 or so, I would take Rock or Bell over Belfry head to head.

Being a state finalist in the previous 2A is nowhere near the same as being a state finalist in the former 3A. Compare getting past Russell, Belfry, Breathitt, etc in 2A to getting past Covington Catholic, Fort Thomas Highlands, or Lexington Catholic in 3A.

Idon t think Belfry was claiming to be KING of the MOUNTAINS .Isnt this why we have different classes so we can now have 6 kings?

[truthful]

Hazard, Pikeville and Sheldon Clark? No P-Burg, Leslie, or Middlesboro? Rock 7????

If they are rated by last years performances P burg and Middlesboro would not be in the top 10 from the games I saw.

[FullCount]

They said that the coaches voted on the top 10 as well.

[truthful]

Idon t think Belfry was claiming to be KING of the MOUNTAINS .Isnt this why we have different classes so we can now have 6 kings?

I stand corrected EKU said Belfry was KIng of the Mts the last five years I don t agree but I do think they have been dominant in the mountains for years and again 6 kings will reign come seasons end.

[truthful]

Maybe you two guys should start another thread.

Why this is about rankings.

[bigpun]

I stand corrected EKU said Belfry was KIng of the Mts the last five years I don t agree but I do think they have been dominant in the mountains for years and again 6 kings will reign come seasons end.

How can you have 6 Kings of the Mountains, which is what we are talking about here, when the biggest mountain school is 5A?

[bigpun]

Why this is about rankings.

This is about rankings. Not about who is better between 2A and 3A teams in the mountains compared to teams from the north. That is why.