The Best Seat in the House

It’s a different world up on Log Mountain.

Tucked into the side of that mountain, just a couple miles south of Pineville on U.S. 25E, is one of the toughest places to play football in eastern Kentucky — and perhaps in all of Kentucky.

Bell County Stadium itself doesn’t look all that formidable from the outside. It’s not a pit, but a relatively modern stadium built in the 1980s. It’s what’s inside that makes this such a tough place to play, as Boyle County might well discover when it plays Bell County there tonight in a Class 4A semifinal, and one of the football capitals of eastern Kentucky.

First and foremost, there’s a good football team, one that for most of the past 25 years has been the best team in southeastern Kentucky. The very toughest places to play are only truly tough when there’s a good team inside, and Bell almost always has that. There’s also strong, loyal fan support, the kind of fans who come early and bring a passion for the game that most other schools only wish they had.

Good as it is, though, the Bobcats’ home-field advantage is not unique. A big game at Bell isn’t much different from a big game at Boyle, except that the Rebels and their fans will be outnumbered on the road.

Boyle can win there, and I believe it will. In the battle of Bell’s powerful ground game vs. Boyle’s staunch defense, I’m giving the edge to the Rebels largely because they’ve played a tougher schedule. It’s likely to be a relatively low-scoring game along the lines of what both teams played last week, however, and that would mean the Bobcats would never be far behind.

A Bell win wouldn’t surprise me at all, but I think the Rebels will punch their ticket to Louisville if they keep their turnovers to a minimum. The pick:

• Boyle County 21, Bell County 17

Last week: 1-0; playoffs: 6-2 (.750); season: 51-11 (.823).

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Some links for the long ride to Pineville:

The Advocate’s game preview that was published Thursday, along with an accompanying notebook.

A lengthy feature from Jay Compton of the Middlesboro Daily News on Bell’s 13 seniors.

Boyle County’s girls basketball game with Washington County, which was originally scheduled for Friday, has been moved to Thursday night.

The high school basketball regular season begins tonight across Kentucky and for five of the 16 local boys and girls teams. Another intriguing season is at hand both locally and within the 12th Region, where there are clear favorites to win the championship (McCreary Central’s boys, Rockcastle County’s girls) but a number of teams in each division that could be in position to grab the top prizes a little over three months from now.

Here are some highlights from the earliest days of the regular season:

• The Lincoln County girls begin what I think is pound for pound the toughest schedule in the area when they play at Pulaski County tonight, then dive right into the fire by facing Lexington Catholic in their home opener on Tuesday. That’s followed by games against Rockcastle County and Wayne County, all in the first nine days.
• Many eyes will be on the Mercer County boys to see if they can produce a trouble-free and successful season. The Titans begin with two tough ones, Tuesday at McCreary Central and Friday against Wayne County, then play their first district game against East Jessamine on Dec. 9.
• Two of the area’s three new coaches debut Tuesday, when Steve Adams’ Boyle County boys play at East Jessamine and Jacqueline Coleman’s Burgin girls host Portland Christian. Scott Bolin debuts with the Garrard County girls Wednesday at Sayre, where they’ll play Model.

Here are the season openers for all of the area teams:

• Boyle County: boys, Tuesday at East Jessamine; girls, tonight at East Jessamine.
• Burgin: boys and girls, Tuesday vs. Portland Christian.
• Casey County: boys, Tuesday vs. Anderson County; girls, tonight at Madison Central.
• Danville: boys, Dec. 9 vs. South Oldham; girls, Thursday at Burgin.
• Garrard County: boys, tonight at Anderson County; girls, Wednesday vs. Model at Sayre.
• KSD: boys, Tuesday vs. Eminence; girls, tonight vs. Jackson City.
• Lincoln County: boys, Tuesday at Russell County; girls, tonight at Pulaski County.
• Mercer County: boys, Tuesday at McCreary Central; girls, Tuesday vs. George Rogers Clark.

And for those of you looking ahead, the district tournaments begin just 12 weeks from today (Feb. 23).

Pulaski County baseball coach Scott McAninch was found dead Friday night in a hallway at the school, where he had apparently collapsed several hours earlier. Here’s the story from Chris Harris and Steve Cornelius of the Commonwealth Journal.

McAninch was 32. He was affiliated with Pulaski baseball for more than half his life as a player, an assistant coach and as head coach from 2006-08, when his teams went 53-39. His ’06 team had the fewest losses in the 12th Region at 24-6.

My sympathies to the entire Pulaski baseball family.