By JON WEBB
Glasgow Daily Times
GLASGOW — In his introductory press conference on Feb. 18, newly-hired Barren County football coach Jason Esters laid out one of his major goals for the 2010 season: shorten the expanse between the Trojans and their three district opponents (Warren Central, Bowling Green and Grayson County).
“We can’t set back and wait for any large things to happen,” Esters said after the press conference. “We have to be proactive.”
I agree. And in the spirit of that pro-activity, allow me to toss out a suggestion that could go a long way in transforming the Trojan football mind set and close the widening gap between the team and its western opponents:
Drop Glasgow from the schedule.
No matter how often coaches cast the annual late-summer matchup between the two teams as “just another game,” it’s undoubtedly encircled in red ink each year by players and fans alike. Attendance booms every season, so much so that the annual game is one of the selling points in expanding the seating at BCHS’s football stadium. The game is great for the community, but from a football standpoint, the contest is a needless, pointless distraction. As long as the Trojan players remained geared up for a game against a 2A opponent, catching up to the likes of Grayson County will always remain secondary.
This suggestion has nothing to do with whether I think Barren will beat Glasgow this year. I have no idea what will happen. A team’s fortune can shift drastically from year to year (see: 2008 Scotties; 2009 Scotties). Despite Glasgow’s recent dominance of the series — eight wins in 10 seasons — a Trojan win in 2010 is perfectly feasible.
A win over the Purples or Dragons ... well, maybe not. In the last three years, Barren posted a combined 0-7 record against Bowling Green and Central. The Purples outscored the Trojans 159-9 in three contests, while the Dragons bested Barren 209-26 in four matchups.
Esters said his team will have to focus on overtaking Grayson before tackling its two Warren County adversaries, but that may not prove any easier. The Cougars have posted 7-4, 7-4 and 9-2 marks over the last three season and have defeated Barren two years in a row by a combined score of 56-6.
To help erase these bad memories, the Trojans could use the week usually allotted to Glasgow to play another top-tier 5A school. Barren is, after all, a large institution and should be measured against its similarly-sized brethren. Barren proved it could play with such schools in its postseason matchup with Christian County, and another regular-season game against a possible playoff opponent would only help the Trojans in the 5A Commonwealth Gridiron Bowl.
There are, of course, legitimate arguments against all this. The Scottie/Trojan matchup is a major event in the community, and creates large amounts of revenue for each competing school. But there are other ways of generating that revenue.
Allow me to toss out another suggestion.
In lieu of a regular season game, Barren and Glasgow could face each other in a preseason scrimmage, a la the ones they played against Russellville and Corbin last year. But the schools could turn the event into much more than a scrimmage. Cheerleaders and the bands could each perform. Other fall athletes could be brought out onto the field and introduced, Meet-the-Scotties/Trojans style. Non-athletic extracurricular groups could sell raffle tickets or baked goods or T-shirts or anything to raise money for a previously agreed-upon local charity that would change each year. Such an extravaganza would (possibly) attract non-football-loving members of the community and render revenue far greater than a normal football game and still contain football at its core.
An event like that would render a Barren/Glasgow rivalry, at least when it came to football, non-existent and free each team to focus on the postseason.
You know: that thing that, if won, brings about state championships. And if Barren or Glasgow are proactive enough to win one of those, imagine what kind of boost it would give to the community.
Jon Webb is the sports editor for the Glasgow Daily Times. He can be reached at jwebb (at) glasgowdailytimes.com
