Lexington HeraldLeader

Rebels on a run: Boyle County seeking a fifth straight state football title ... again

By Jared Peck,

1 day ago

A few Friday nights each fall, Boyle County High School’s football players make their way down from the locker room to meet their opponent in Rebel Stadium.

The Rebel Bell tolls as a warning. The three-story stone press box blares a “Purge” siren for good measure. Thousands of fans who spill out from the grandstand and surround the low stadium fence roar. A fireworks blast startles the unaware.

Sixty-some players march shoulder-to-shoulder clad in their black and gold uniforms on the Rebel Walk, a narrow path down to the turf both hallowed and well-worn by the teams who came before.

With each step, they’re reminded of what Boyle County has achieved on the football field and the legacy they’re charged with keeping.

Painted on the asphalt beneath their feet are the years and the team mantras of each of Boyle County’s 12 state champions from 1999’s “THE BOTTOM LINE” to the soon-to-be emblazoned 2023 creed “ALL FOR ONE.”

This year, for the second time in program history, Boyle County will try for a fifth straight state football championship. This season’s motto — “Stand on Business” — is a relatively new slang phrase that means taking care of your responsibilities and backing up your claims.

That’s a fitting oath for folks who hail from a place dubbed “Title Town.” But it’s also a responsibility that could weigh heavy on other teams and coaching staffs.

In Boyle County, it’s just part of being a Rebel.

“You’ve just got to work like the guys did before,” said senior standout Montavin “Tavi” Quisenberry, who was the MVP of last season’s Class 4A state championship game. “Coach always says that. We haven’t done anything that they haven’t done. So, it just gives us motivation to keep pushing to do better and win the state championship and be up there again.”

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1eZR4y_0uyxPoAj00 — Head coach Justin Haddix has guided Boyle County to four consecutive Class 4A state football championships and has the Rebels poised for a fifth in a row in 2024. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com

Stepping into Title Town

In 2020, Justin Haddix accepted the biggest challenge of an already successful career when he not only took the head coaching job at Boyle County, but had to succeed Chuck Smith, the man who helped build the Rebels into a multiple state champion.

“Some people kind of shy away from the challenges of following ‘ the guy .’ And, you know, Chuck Smith, no doubt is ‘ the guy’ here with what all he’s done and how he set it up,” said Haddix, who had led Corbin to the Class 3A state finals in 2017 and 2018. “But that was something I was looking for. I was saying ... ‘I want to go to a place where this is the expectation.’ I wanted the challenge of that.”

Smith won five straight state titles at Boyle County from 1999 to 2003 before stepping away for a time. Boyle won two more state titles in 2009 and 2010 under legendary coach Larry French (now at Middlesboro). Smith returned in 2014 and had the Rebels back on top in 2017 before retiring two years later after one of Boyle County’s two state finals losses.

Haddix knew Boyle County well. As a quarterback at Breathitt County, he faced them as a sophomore in 2000. He later went on to help lead the Bobcats to the Class 2A state championship as a senior in 2002 and had a notable career at Western Kentucky University.

As a high school coach, Haddix lost the first of his two state finals appearances to Boyle County in 2017. His Redhounds exacted revenge a year later by knocking Smith’s Rebels out of the Class 3A state semis.

Now, Haddix has led Boyle County to four straight state titles and helped the Rebels surpass their Title Town rival Danville with 12 state crowns to the Admirals’ 11.

“I never thought I’d win one. It’s just amazing. Just for the young men to have that,” Haddix said. “You know, it takes a lot of people to make all that work. It takes our quarterback club, it takes our school, it takes everybody to make all that work and really everybody pulling in the same direction.”

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2WSdkF_0uyxPoAj00 — “I think handling success is harder than handling failure,” Boyle County coach Justin Haddix said. “(Winning) happens because we do all these things. It doesn’t just happen. We go make it happen every day.” Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com

Success doesn’t come easy

Haddix’s first season at Boyle came under the cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, the Rebels went 11-0 and beat Franklin County 31-28 in overtime in the state finals for the first title of Haddix’s run.

“When Haddix came in, I was like everybody else — I said, ‘Well, let’s see what’s going to happen,’” said Boyle County play-by-play commentator Steve Bertram. “He and his staff managed the COVID year very, very well and they got a few breaks here and there and took advantage of them.”

Bertram has been calling Boyle games on local radio (WRNZ 105-FM) since 1994. His sons Joshua and Andrew came up through the program during Smith’s first stint as head coach.

“For a county school to do what Boyle County has done has been nothing short of amazing,” Bertram said, noting that winning seems to breed winning. “When Chuck Smith had his first decent run, it seemed like the more success the football team had, the more people wanted to be a part of it.”

Smith’s challenge back in the late 1990s was to build a contender alongside the tremendous success of rival Danville. Then he had to keep it going.

“It was hard to win the first one. It was very difficult because there was no experience to fall back on,” said Smith, who continues to help his son and former Rebels quarterback Brandon Smith at South Warren, where the younger Smith has won three state titles as head coach. “People ask all the time, ‘What was hardest? — to win the first one or the ones afterward?’ They’re both equally hard. I don’t know the correct answer to that.”

Haddix noted there’s always a temptation for players to listen to outside influences and believe they can win by just showing up.

“I think handling success is harder than handling failure,” Haddix said. “(Winning) happens because we do all these things. It doesn’t just happen. We go make it happen every day.”

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4g0CY5_0uyxPoAj00 — Boyle County High School in Danville is in pursuit of the school’s fifth state championship in a row and 13th overall in 2024. “You know, it takes a lot of people to make all that work,” head coach Justin Haddix said. “It takes our quarterback club, it takes our school, it takes everybody to make all that work and really everybody pulling in the same direction.” Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com

Historic rivalry suspended

Danville’s struggles in recent years illustrate how hard it can be to keep winning even for an 11-time state champion.

For a time, Boyle County and Danville enjoyed tremendous success at the same time. They both won state titles in their respective classes in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2017. Their battles against each other during those high times were legend.

But after two losing seasons and a 4-3 pandemic year, Danville administrators stunned the community by dismissing championship coach and celebrated alumnus Clay Clevenger in 2020. The Admirals went 8-5 and then 5-7 under Mark Peach and then suffered an 0-11 season under first-year coach Frank Parks in 2023.

That run of poor form led Danville to seek a suspension of Title Town’s nearly 60-year rivalry this year, a hiatus that occurred just twice before. Danville leads its series with Boyle 35-24-1 but has lost its last three games to the Rebels by a combined score of 156-7.

“This game is not as competitive as it needs to be at this time because of the new landscape of high school sports in Kentucky. It was mutually beneficial to push pause on this series to benefit both programs,” Danville principal Chad Luhman said in a statement at the time of the announcement in March.

It is uncertain when the storied Danville-Boyle County rivalry will resume.

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=4LLgO0_0uyxPoAj00 — Boyle County head coach Justin Haddix, center, celebrated with his team and son after the Rebels defeated Covington Catholic for the program’s fourth straight KHSAA Class 4A state football championship at Kroger Field last fall. Silas Walker/swalker@herald-leader.com

Rebels looking forward

When Haddix was hired at Boyle, some speculated the young coach might be using each new job as a stepping stone in his career. Haddix coached Perry County Central for four seasons before his six at Corbin. The husband and a father of three seems content, however.

“I want to keep winning. That’s the thing I enjoy doing. I value winning over a lot of things,” Haddix said, noting he’s not interested in joining the college ranks or doing anything else. “There’s always jobs. As far as the college thing goes — I get to sleep in my bed every night and I get to go and take my kids to school every day. That’s more important to me than the other things.”

As for that winning thing, Boyle County appears well positioned for that too this season. The Herald-Leader’s Class 4A preseason survey of coaches ranked Boyle County as the No. 1 team in the division for a third straight year.

No. 2 Paducah Tilghman, No. 3 Corbin and last season’s runner-up No. 4 Covington Catholic, among others, will surely threaten the Rebels’ reign as four-time defending champions.

Boyle County returns 15 starters, including a number of dynamic playmakers like Quisenberry who excel on offense, defense and special teams.

Quisenberry, a 5-foot-9 West Virginia commit, topped the Herald-Leader Hundred list of the state’s best players. His video game-like moves in the open field make him a threat to score from anywhere and a serious contender for this year’s Mr. Football award.

“He does everything the way it’s supposed to be done,” Haddix said. “When your best player is one of your hardest workers, usually good things happen for your whole team.”

The Rebels also bring back two-way standout Demauriah Brown, another 5-9 senior, and 6-2 defensive end Brock Driver, an Eastern Kentucky commit.

It doesn’t end there. Two of Boyle’s most sought after college recruits are just sophomores — tight end/defensive ends Seneca Driver, who stands 6-7 and Maddox Hager, who stands 6-6.

“We’ve just got to play our best,” Haddix said. “I’m worried about our team and what we do every day. If we do what we’re supposed to do, everything’s going to work out. We’ve just got to continue to get better.”

https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1Z8gq7_0uyxPoAj00 — Boyle County’s Montavin “Tavi” Quisenberry prepared to line up for a play during a practice on Aug. 6 at Boyle County High School in Danville. Quisenberry, a West Virginia commit, ranks as one of the top players in the state. Ryan C. Hermens/rhermens@herald-leader.com

Best games this season

Schedule highlights: Aug. 24 vs. Lexington Christian (at Western Kentucky University); Aug. 31 vs. Bryan Station; Sept. 13 at Scott County; Sept. 20 vs. Taylor County; Sept. 27 at Lexington Catholic; Oct. 25 at Wayne County; Nov. 1 vs. Frederick Douglass.