Four seniors from the Allen County-Scottsville High School Patriot football program will have the opportunity to play on the gridiron once more prior to furthering their education at the collegiate level. Seniors Jacob Kinslow, Logan Stewart, Will Calvert, and Jack Ward have received invitations to play in the first All-Star game pitting senior players from the Southern Kentucky Athletic (SKY) Conference and the Western Kentucky Athletic Conference.
The inaugural game---the first of what coaches hope becomes an annual event---will be played June 10 at Warren East High School. AC-S coach Brad Hood will lead the SKY conference team.
“Last year, the SKY conference was invited to play the Western Kentucky Conference in an All-Star game at the end of the year,” Coach Hood explained. “Last year, we were just getting the SKY conference back together and we were just not ready to jump in with that. But, with a year under our belts, we looked at it again and met and we are going to try to make this an annual event.”
The All-Star game will pit outgoing seniors representing 13 SKY conference teams pitted against outgoing seniors from teams in the Western Kentucky Conference.
“We want this to be an opportunity for kids to get one more chance to play high school football,” Hood said. “We feel like there are a lot of good kids in both our conferences and this will be a last opportunity, some their last opportunity ever and some their last opportunity before going off to college.”
The process of inviting players to participate in the game---with rules similar to other high school All-Star games---started with each conference school given the opportunity to select a pair of players.
“We have 13 teams in the conference so each team has two automatic bids,” Hood explained. “That will give us 26 kids and we wanted to invite 45 in the first go around. We wanted to find 22 offensive and 22 defensive kids and a kicker. We sent out invitations. We built from that and then filled the needs. It’s going to be a neat thing.”
Coach Hood feels that the Patriots’ four selections bring strong credentials to the team.
“The way I choose to do it was to give automatic bids to players that were awarded SKY conference First Team honors, Jacob Kinslow and Logan Stewart,” Hood said. “Then, the crew that was inviting selected Will Calvert and Jack Ward.”
Stewart led the AC-S offensive line last season---a line that cleared the way for the Patriots to rush the ball for 1,411 yards, an average of 117.6 yards rushing per game. Stewart also help block for a passing game that amassed 2,256 yards on the year.
Kinslow was the team’s Defensive Player of the Year. He recorded 45 unassisted tackles and 31 assisted tackles. Kinslow had 8.5 tackles for 27 loss yardage. Kinslow recorded two interceptions and blocked a kick last season.
Ward---the Patriots’ Most Valuable Player Award winner---caught 51 passes for 831 yards, averaged 16.3 yards per catch and 92.3 yards per game. Ward also set a new single season record for most catches (51) and single game record for most receptions (11). Following an injury to starting quarterback Chase
Wilson, Ward switched to quarterback where he went 22/59 for 331 yards and three touchdowns. Ward also rushed for 97 yards.
Calvert anchored a defensive line that held opponents to an average of 4.2 yards per carry. Calvert recorded 27 unassisted tackles, was in on 10 tackles, and recorded one sack on the season.
Hood earned the honor to coach the first team based on the coaches deciding to select the head coaches based on an alphabetical first-last system.
“We decided to go alphabetical from top to bottom,” Hood said. “This year I have the honor with Justin Chaffin from Warren East as the associate head coach. Next year it will be his team with Barren County as the associate. It will crisscross after that.”
Hood’s staff will also include head and assistant coaches from conference schools as well as Patriot offensive coordinator Cory Cooper.
Practice will start June 7 with the All-Star game slated for Saturday, June 10, at 7 p.m. on the blue tuff field at Warren East. East was given the opportunity to host due to their recent field and stadium renovations. Hood expects the game to be played at a Western Kentucky Conference school in 2018 with sites alternating between conferences.