The Best Seat in the House

Mercer County has named former Boyle County coach and current Campbellsville University offensive coordinator Chris Pardue as its new football coach, according to a report from WKYT-TV in Lexington.

Pardue spent 16 years as an assistant coach or head coach at Boyle. He was 22-15 in three seasons as head coach, and he was the offensive coordinator for all five of Boyle’s championship teams from 1999-2003. He was inducted into Boyle’s football hall of fame last fall.

He continued to live in Perryville even as he spent the last four seasons at Campbellsville, where he helped lead the Tigers’ resurgence under head coach Perry Thomas.

Pardue becomes the fourth coach in five seasons at Mercer. He replaces Paul Rains, who resigned after a single 5-7 season to take the job at Letcher County Central.

On a side note, it seldom fails that whenever I take a couple of mental health days, I miss some news, and it’s happened again. Even so, I’ve come to realize more and more how much the mental health days matter. The rat race goes on even when you sit out a couple of laps now and then.

Regional track and field meets are being contested across the state this week, including the three meets that feature Advocate-area teams.

The regionals of local interest began Thursday with the Class AAA, Region 7 meet in Richmond, where six Lincoln County athletes won championships.

Two more regional meets will be held Saturday:

• Class A, Region 5 at Admiral Stadium: Includes Burgin, Danville. Begins 10 a.m.
• Class AA, Region 5 at Corbin: Includes Boyle County, Casey County, Garrard County, Mercer County. Begins 10 a.m.

Look for coverage of both meets in Sunday’s Advocate and at amnews.com.

Emily Fox of Lincoln County has been named to the Kentucky Junior All-Star basketball squad as part of a new format debuting this summer.

Fox won her spot at a tryout earlier this month. She is on one of two teams that will scrimmage the Kentucky All-Stars, who will be preparing for their summer series against the Indiana All-Stars. Her 12-person team will play June 6 in Louisville, two days after six of those girls and six other girls play another scrimmage in Lexington.

Following those games, 12 of the 18 players will be chose for scrimmages against the Indiana juniors June 15 in Indianapolis and June 16 in Goshen.

The Mercer County girls tennis team clinched its fifth consecutive regional team championship tonight when Christy Ingram and Erin Pigman won the girls doubles title in the 12th Region Tournament at Berea College.

Ingram and Pigman defeated Haley Owens and Allie Tinsley of Casey County 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 to win their first individual title and give Mercer an insurmountable lead in team points.

In tonight’s other regional finals:

• Colin Hart of Lincoln County won his second consecutive regional title in boys singles, beating Sam Jackson of Berea 6-2, 6-1.
• Defending boys doubles champions Tanner Barrett and Jonah Johnson of Garrard County lost to Austin Kirksey and Corbin Kirksey of Wayne County 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
• The girls singles final between Tylyn Leigh of Casey County and Caitlin Baer of Mercer was suspended in the third set due to rain. The third set is tied at 2-all and will resume at 4 p.m. today.

Berea won the boys team championship; Garrard was the runner-up for the second straight year.

Mercer’s girls will play in a four-team sectional tournament Saturday, which will be hosted by the 10th Region champion. The winning team will advance to the team competition at the state tournament May 17-19 in Lexington.

All regional semifinalists and finalists advance to the state individual competition. Here are the Advocate-area qualifers:

• Boys singles: Hart; Ryan Martin, Casey County.
• Boys doubles: Barrett-Johnson; Ben Akers-Ben Kendrick, Boyle County.
• Girls singles: Leigh; Baer; Emily Major, Garrard County.
• Girls doubles: Ingram-Pigman; Owens-Tinsley; Sara Coffman-Chelsey Lynn, Casey County; Mary Baxter-Catheryne Claunch, Mercer County.

Four Advocate-area players — two singles players and one doubles team — earned No. 1 seeds for the upcoming 12th Region Tournament.

Colin Hart of Lincoln County, who is the defending boys singles champion and who reached the quarterfinals of the boys state tournament last year, is the No. 1 boys singles seed for the first time. Tylyn Leigh of Casey County is the top seed in girls singles, and Christy Ingram and Erin Pigman of Mercer County are seeded No. 1 in girls doubles.

The defensive boys doubles champions, Tanner Barrett and Jonah Johnson of Garrard County, are seeded second behind a team from Wayne County. The seeds in all four regional brackets are below.

The regional begins Friday at Berea College and Madison Southern, with two of the five rounds of singles and doubles play scheduled to be completed by Saturday afternoon. The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Sunday, and the finals are scheduled for Monday afternoon.

The one wrinkle in the schedule this year is that moving the matches to indoor courts at Richmond in case of rain is not an option, so if it rains the tournament manager will have to decide whether to wait it out or call it a day and push the schedule back.

12th Region Tournament
Seeded Players
Friday-Monday
At Berea
Seeds
BOYS
Singles

1. Colin Hart, Lincoln County; 2. Sam Jackson, Berea; 3. Reza Katanbaf, Somerset; 4. Ryan Martin, Casey County; 5. Steven Gadd, Berea; 6. Ethan Smith, Garrard County; 7. Chris Fuller, Mercer County; 8. Brian Wray, Boyle County.

Doubles

1. Austin Kirksey-Corbin Kirksey, Wayne County; 2. Tanner Barrett-Jonah Johnson, Garrard County; 3. Dylan Jones-Steven King, McCreary Central; 4. Ben Akers-Ben Kendrick, Boyle County; 5. Jacob Crowell-Nathan Sheehan, Mercer County; 6. Cyrus Sadrinia-Ian Stuart, Pulaski County; 7. Morgan Gebert-Hunter Sheegog, Boyle County; 8. Clay Cannon-Skyler Wright, Casey County.

GIRLS
Singles

1. Tylyn Leigh, Casey County; 2. Caitlin Baer, Mercer County; 3. Emily Major, Garrard County; 4. Nicole Davis, Wayne County; 5. Haley White, Pulaski County; 6. Kathryn Miracle, Lincoln County; 7. Jodi Gay, Danville; 8. Kelby Cowan, Somerset.

Doubles

1. Christy Ingram-Erin Pigman, Mercer County; 2. Haley Owens-Allie Tinsley, Casey County; 3. Anna Duncan-Sarah Nolan, Boyle County; 4. Meredith Frankel-Hannah Frankel, Danville; 5. Emily Erwin-Ashley Erwin, Madison Southern; 6. Lynn Farner-Rheanna New, Southwestern; 7. Alana Perry-Jamie Peters, Somerset; 8. Haley Stockham-Katherine Stockham, Pulaski County.

The Danville baseball team will miss the statewide All “A” Classic for the fifth consecutive year as a result of a 7-1 loss to Covington Holy Cross in a sectional game tonight between the 9th Region and 12th Region winners.

The ninth-ranked Admirals committed five errors, had only four hits and had three runners thrown out on the basepaths.

Meanwhile, the Danville softball team is gearing up for its appearance in the All “A” state tourney this weekend in Owensboro. The Lady Admirals, who went 1-2 in their state All “A” debut last season, will play Jenkins, Gallatin County and Nicholas County in their four-team pool Saturday at Jack Fisher Park.

Two boys basketball coaches who left their footprints in this area have left their coaching positions, one willingly and one unwillingly:

• Justin Yeary, a former Boyle County player who presided over a turnaround at Paul Dunbar, resigned unexpectedly after two seasons, Mike Fields of the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. The Bulldogs were 3-22 in the 2009-10 season before Yeary came on board, and they went 10-19 and 17-15 in his two seasons.
• Mark Starns, a former coach at Burgin, was fired at Henderson County, Kevin Patton of The (Henderson) Gleaner reported. Starns was 99-45 in five seasons at Henderson, including 18-15 this season.

It will be much more difficult for a 12th Region baseball team to put together the kind of state tournament run enjoyed last year by Mercer County, which made it all the way to the state finals before falling to Central Hardin.

Parings for the state baseball tournament and state softball tournament were drawn today, and the baseball draw did the 12th Region no favors. The 12th Region champion will play the winner of the 7th Region in the first round of the state tournament June 4 in Lexington.

The 7th Region is home to six of the 26 teams currently ranked in the latest Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches Association poll, including No. 1 Male. There’s also No. 3 St. Xavier, No. 8 Eastern, No. 15 Louisville Christian, No. 20 Trinity and No. 22 Ballard. The 12th Region’s only ranked teams are No. 9 Danville and No. 12 West Jessamine.

The 12th Region fared better in the softball draw, landing a first-round game against the winner of the 8th Region on June 7 in Owensboro. Neither the 8th nor the 12th Region has any teams ranked in the current Kentucky Softball Coaches Association poll. Oldham County (8th), Boyle County (12th) and Pulaski County (12th) are the only teams receiving votes from those regions.

The KHSAA will draw the pairings for the state baseball and softball tournaments during a live webcast at 2 p.m. today.

The draws can be seen on www.khsaa.tv, and parings will be posted to the KHSAA scoreboard soon after their completion.

The state baseball tournament is June 4-9 in Lexington; the state softball tournament is June 7-9 in Owensboro.

Did you ever wish that blowout basketball game would just end already? Now it will, thanks to a rule change adopted today by the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control.

It was one of three significant moves made today by the board, which also set the dates for this fall’s state football finals and completed its alteration of the postseason soccer format. (Details on both moves are below.)

But the headliner is the new mercy rule in basketball. Beginning next season, high school games at all levels (varsity, junior varsity and freshman) will feature a running clock once the margin reaches 35 points in the second half.

Once the margin reaches 35 points and the rule kicks in, the clock will stop only for charged timeouts, stoppages due to injury or blood and free-throw attempts. Once the official signals for the timer to stop the clock, it will start on the last missed free throw or once the ball is touched inbounds.

“This change helps ensure that the proper level of sportsmanship is emphasized, without having an impact on winning and losing,” KHSAA commissioner Julian Tackett said in a news release. “There are countless stories detailed about ‘out-of-hand’ contests and the negative impact on school and working relationships.”

Kentucky already uses mercy rules in football, soccer, baseball and softball, and adding one for basketball is a good idea, too. I’m a little surprised that the score at which the rule takes effect is as low as it is, but on the other hand it’s virtually impossible for a team that’s down by 35 to come back in 16 minutes or less with no shot clock.

Football finals set

The KHSAA board approved the dates for this season’s six championship games, which will once again be played in Bowling Green at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium:

• Friday, Nov. 30: Classes 1A, 3A and 4A.
• Saturday, Dec. 1: Classes 2A, 5A and 6A.

Game times were not announced.

The regular season opens Aug. 17, with the playoffs starting Nov. 2.

Soccer postseason changes

The state soccer tournaments will expand to eight teams this season, with a one-game semi-state round replacing the sub-sectional and sectional rounds.

Winners of the 16 regions will advance to the semi-state round. The 12th Region winners of the 12th Region, which includes all Advocate-area teams under the new alignment taking effect this year) will play teams from the 9th, 10th or 11th Regions under a six-year rotation.

The semi-state winners will advance to the state tournament, where pairings will be determined by blind draw.

“This is something our soccer coaches and advisory committee had explored for several years – finding a way to make this happen,” KHSAA assistant commissioner Michael Barren said in the release. “We are pleased with the solution the Board has approved and we will give it a chance to allow soccer to grow.”