ON AUGUST 22 AGAINST FLOYD CENTRAL (INDIANA).
THIRD-YEAR COACH TANNER HALL: ‘WE LIKE FLYING UNDER THE RADAR’
Warren East High School’s football team has always embraced being the underdog.
“We like flying under the radar,” third-year Warren East head coach Tanner Hall said last week after practice.
The Raiders are looking to improve on last year’s 6-5 finish, which included a skid that included four losses in their last five games. It also marked the end of the Dane Parsley Era, the multi-talented Warren East quarterback/defensive back. Toward the end of the 2024 campaign, Parsley took on the kicking duties, too, handling place-kicking and punting.
Parsley became Warren East’s starting quarterback in 2021, his freshman year, and he did it all for the Raiders. Parsley and fellow senior Jackson McCool tallied the vast majority of the Raiders’ rushing output last season, but Warren East will be looking toward a new leader in sophomore quarterback Xavier Isable, a transfer from Bowling Green High School.
Hall said Isable has all the physical tools, and he “sees the field very well.”
“We’ve got a lot of pieces, we just have to keep working on putting them together,” Isable said. “I think we can surprise some people.”
BY SENIOR LINEMEN DEMONTRE BARNETT (LEFT)
AND GRAYSON BLAIR.
That’ll be a tall order in the KHSAA’s cut-throat Class 4A, 1st District, which spans from Allen County-Scottsville all the way to Paducah Tilghman and Calloway County. The six-team district also includes perennial 4A contender Logan County, Warren East and tradition-rich Franklin-Simpson, which moves up from Class 3A for the next two-year cycle.
Warren East closed regular-season play last November with a rousing 50-27 victory over Franklin-Simpson, in a non-district game, before the Raiders gave John Hardin High School all it could handle before falling short in a 48-42 defeat.
Two of the six teams in Warren East’s district won’t qualify for the KHSAA playoffs.
ADDRESSES HIS TEAM AFTER PRACTICE.
BROKE SEVERAL PASSING RECORDS
IN HIS WARREN EAST CAREER.
“It’s a loaded district,” Warren East coach Tanner Hall said. “Two teams will miss the playoffs. We want to take it, one baby step at a time.
“We got gassed, a little bit, late in the year, leaning on Dane Parsley and Jackson McCool. The defense took it upon themselves, in the offseason, to work hard, and get better, for the season.”
One of those Warren East defenders is senior defensive end Demontre Barnett, who usually plays tight end when he’s on offense. The Raiders often have to use their best players on both sides of the line of scrimmage, which is why Hall is emphasizing building depth as his team heads toward its opening game against Floyd Central (Indiana), on August 22, on the blue turf of Warren East’s Jim Ross Field.
“You’ve got to turn the page on last year,” Barnett said. “We can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”
INTO THE STARTING ROLE AT QB.
ON THE RAIDERS’ ADJACENT PRACTICE FIELD.
Hall has been encouraged by Xavier Isable’s passing touch in practice. The Raiders like to emphasize physical work on the practice field, but they’ll have to pull back on that once they get into their weekly routine. Staying healthy, Hall admits, is critical to their long-term success.
“I think we’ll have a physical team, up front,” Hall said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do this year. I like to put together a tough schedule, to get us ready to our district.”
The Raiders will open district play on the road, against Calloway County, on September 19.
“Even after Tilghman, you’ve got teams that played for state championships in the last decade,” Hall said.
Paducah Tilghman unleashed a juggernaut last season, going 15-0 on its way to the KHSAA Class 4A state championship. Warren East gets the Blue Tornado on its home turf, this time, before closing its district schedule on the road against Logan County. Logan County is looking to bounce back after a subpar 4-7 season in 2024.
Hall has plenty of experienced players he can count on, after Barnett, including linebacker Za’Travion McMillan-Cofer, offensive tackle Jayden Richey, linebacker Levi Faulkner, cornerback Arias Douglas and offensive guard Grayson Blair.
“We’ve got to keep the intensity up, keep working in practice,” Blair said.
Perhaps that’s because Warren East embraces the underdog role, with a hard-working group ready to challenge itself in one of the KHSAA’s toughest districts.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what this team can do,” Hall said.
WATCHES A PLAY UNFOLD FROM THE POCKET.