Looking BACK

 Last Wednesday I was at White’s Pro Billiards visiting with my buddies when two couples came in for lunch. The one couple looked familiar to me, a few minutes later Bill White, the owner of White’s Pro Billiards, called to me and he asked if I knew these people. As I walked toward them I realized the one gentleman was Tommy Adkins, an all-time Redhound great and former University of Kentucky football player.

Accompanying Tommy was his wife Barbara, as well as  and his sister and brother-in-law. As a young boy I would listen to Kentucky football games and of course hearing the name of Corbin boy Tommy Adkins would always make me proud of our local hero. Tommy would become the first Corbin Redhound to my knowledge to play professional football as Tommy played with Toronto of the Canadian Football League.

Tommy’s wife Barbara was the former Barbara Vermillion and one of the Redhounds prettiest cheerleaders. It was great to see them.

Although I did not get an opportunity to speak with him, it was great to see Billy Hicks on the sidelines coaching Scott County in the high school basketball bonanza at the Arena last week. Coach Hicks will always have a very special place in Redhound basketball history. Hicks restored pride and tradition to what had become a stagnant program.

Coach Tony Pietrowski, a disciple and former All-State player for Coach Hicks has picked up the program and is advancing it in the right direction.

After one of the most successful seasons in Redhound history last year, Coach Pietrowski embarks on another journey through a very demanding schedule.

The 13^th Region challenge will come from the likes of Clay County, South Laurel, Knox Central, Bell County and Whitley County, The schedule also includes Scott County, Lexington Sayre, Rowan County, Lone Oak, Louisville DeSales and two tournaments. It should be a very exciting season.

I just finished reading a preview of the 13^th Region basketball, which quotes South Laurel Coach Steve Wright as saying, “Corbin beat us three out of four last year. They were the better team last year, but it didn’t take away from the four in a row (region titles) we won.”

Actually coach, Corbin beat you four out of five last year and the last one by 35 points.

Coach John Calipari seems to be very frustrated as his young Wildcats have fumbled and bumbled their way through six early wins. They don’t seem to be able to get to loose balls. They seem to be poor defenders and they don’t have a pure shooter unless it would be Darnell Dodson, and for some reason, Coach Cal plays him very sparingly.

With all their problems, however, the Cats will enter a three game test with North Carolina, UConn and Indiana at 6-0. I believe Coach Cal will get things lined out and though there will be more bumps in the road, everyone will live happily ever after.

The Kentucky football ‘Cats had another pretty good season and that is about all you can expect, they simply are not going to ever be better than pretty good. For those of you who can remember, Paul “Bear” could never beat Tennessee when he was at Kentucky.