Jim Mashek

ALLEN COUNTY-SCOTTSVILLE PLAYS HOST TO WARREN CENTRAL ON FRIDAY NIGHT

SCOTTSVILLE — Allen County-Scottsville High School football coach Brad Hood has a way of getting his message across.

He’s animated one moment, serious the next. He’s pretty colorful, especially off the practice field. He likes to meet with his players, individually and, of course, as a group, after practice. He’s all about communication. He’s always looking forward, always trying to keep the big picture in mind.

No one has to tell Hood his team is taking a 1-3 record into Friday night’s KHSAA Class 4A, 2nd District opener against visiting Warren Central (1-2).

No one has to tell the Patriots’ personable head coach that Allen County-Scottsville has had to make big adjustments, on the offensive line, at wide receiver, and in the secondary, after last year’s 8-5 season.

No one has to show Brad Hood how to have a little fun coaching a demanding game. Physically, it can take a toll. On players, and coaches.

Winning is a good place to start, and traditionally speaking, the Patriots know how to win.

It’s just that they’ve won only one game this season, a 47-13 rout of homestanding Monroe County. Since then, the Patriots have lost twice, first on the road, a 42-24 loss to KHSAA Class 5A Greenwood, and then last week’s 28-7 defeat at the hands of the unbeaten Glasgow Scotties.

And on Opening Night, Allen County-Scottsville actually played in the heat of the day. At Warren East High School, on the blue artificial turf, against Logan County in the J. Allen Builders Bowl. The Cougars built a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and held on to turn back the Patriots 26-16.

All of that is stored in Brad Hood’s mind. Likewise, his players.

What matters, what really matters, is what’s in front of them.

“I preach, to our team, from Day One, that it’s all about the journey,” Hood said via text message Monday night. “I tell them, daily, that my job is to have them playing their best football at the end of the year. If we keep fighting, and working, we will get better.

“And I think they get it.”

That certainly seemed to be the case on a pleasant Monday afternoon on the AC-S campus.

Hood and his coaching staff had a film session with his players for an hour or so, picking through the video of the Glasgow game with a collective eye cast toward Friday night’s district game with Warren Central. Then, the AC-S players wandered out of locker room to climb the hill for the Patriots’ practice field, where the coaches were waiting for them.

Hood met with his team for a few minutes, and then told them they’d have a little game to determine how many 10- and 20-yard speed bursts they’d be doing when practice came to a close. He broke his squad into two teams, for a pass catching contest, and linemen joined the backs and receivers in showing what they could do with a ball in their hands.

(Sometimes, it wasn’t too impressive …)

He referred to one group as the “linemen, and the ‘combo chunky guys,'” and the “backs and receivers, and the ‘combo skinny guys,'” and the Patriots’ players were down with the competition, with senior AC-S quarterback Payton Cope and his backups lofting a series of passes downfield, and their teammates displaying their receiving skills for all to see.

There were plenty of light-hearted moments.

It doesn’t mean the Patriots are goofing off.

Brad Hood likes to have a little fun on Mondays, before the AC-S junior varsity games, which he encourages the older players to attend. If they choose to go home, or somewhere else, he reminds the Patriots of their academic responsibilities, not to mention their roles in the community at large.

Allen County-Scottsville High School athletes tend to turn out for one another’s sports. You’ll see AC-S seniors Payton Cope and Zander Reynolds at basketball games, where teammate Jace Jackson plays in the backcourt for Coach Casey Napier’s team, or maybe Reynolds and Jackson in the stands in the spring, when Cope is a pitcher and an infielder for the AC-S baseball team.

“I’d say we try to keep a family atmosphere here,” Reynolds said. “Coach Hood is the father figure.”

And Coach Hood likes to have a little fun. He’s as real as it gets.

“We know when it’s time to get down to business,” Cope said, “and Coach Hood knows when he can let up a little bit … We get to be teenagers.”

Ah, teenagers.

It comes and goes before you know it.

Hood is a history teacher when he isn’t charting plays and supervising AC-S practices. He’s 45 years old, married. Brad and Stephanie Hood have two young sons, Cannon and Cruz. He knows his history at Allen County-Scottsville, having spent much of his childhood there. He’s a popular guy in coaching circles, the kind of guy Warren Central coach Mark Nelson can respect.

A lot.

Nelson and Brad Hood go waaaaay back, back to when Hood was learning the ropes as a young coach, and Nelson was establishing himself as a head coach in South Central Kentucky and across the state line in Tennessee. Hood’s Patriots rolled to a 63-18 victory over Warren Central last year, in Bowling Green, but Hood knows Nelson has plenty of talented athletes, and that he’s building the Dragons from the ground floor, which often takes time.

No one could have been happier for Mark Nelson and the Warren Central football team a few weeks ago, when the Dragons snapped a miserable 61-game losing streak in resounding fashion, mauling homestanding Bullitt Central 13-0 in Metro Louisville.

“We do go way back,” Hood said. “He’s has been friends with my Uncle Joe, my family, as long as I can remember. He was one of the many coaches I’ve looked up to, for most of my life.

“Growing up the son, of a head football coach, and coming to Bowling Green to watch the NFC and AFC championship games at Uncle Joe’s house, with all of their coaching buddies, was some of the best memories of my life.

“Those were the guys I wanted to grow up, and be like, when I got older. Mark Nelson was one of those guys.”

Brad Hood learned of Warren Central’s breakthrough victory after the second game of the J. Allen Builders Bowl, when Jeff Griffith’s Warren East Raiders — another one of the Patriots’ district rivals — thumped White House (Tennessee) Heritage 41-7.

“I was super excited, when I saw the Warren Central score,” Hood recalled. “I was so happy for Mark, and even more happy for his players, that have been through so much over the time.”

Hood’s players have seen it for themselves.

Brad Hood gets along just fine with guys like Mark Nelson, and Jeff Griffith, and Franklin-Simpson’s Max Chaney, the coaches of the Patriots’ district rivals. Kentucky coaches place special emphasis on district play because that’s what determines seeding and home-field assignments for the KHSAA football playoffs come November.

Consequently, Hood’s trying to push the right buttons as the Patriots get ready for Friday night’s big game with Warren Central.

“We’ve had to adjust some, after last year, becoming more of a running team,” AC-S running back Jace Jackson said, “We had some really talented receivers last year.”

Payton Cope believes that’s one of Brad Hood’s calling cards, building an offense around his team’s strengths, rather than installing one approach and sticking with it, regardless.

“We still have a little bit of work to do,” Cope said. “We’ve got to figure out what we’re doing, and then make it work as we head toward the playoffs.

The big picture, it seems, is the big thing at Allen County-Scottsville.

“We keep it tight,” AC-S senior lineman Zander Reynolds said. “That makes it a lot more fun for everybody.”

Brad Hood was just 28 years old when he got the head coaching job at Allen County-Scottsville. He is closing in on his 100th career victory at AC-S. He had a three-year run of 4-7 seasons (2013-2015) but also coached one of the greatest teams in school history, the 2010 AC-S squad that won 13 consecutive games before falling to Lone Oak 34-6 in the KHSAA Class 4A state championship game at WKU’s Houchens-Smith Stadium.

Now, the University of Kentucky and Kroger Field is the promised land for high school players and coaches, but Hood will be quick to remind you that the big picture is what matters most. The bonds and friendships established through PLAYING high school football last the longest.

“Today (Monday) was a great day,” Hood said. “We had a great day! We watched film, we talked about our mistakes (in the Glasgow game) and what we needed to do, moving forward. Then we went out, and had a little fun (on the practice field, with the pass catching contest), and then had our Monday conditioning.

“It was a great day, and these kids are the reason for that. They hate to lose, trust me, but they were ready to move forward, and ready to go to work … To me, that’s what coaching is all about.

“This group of seniors has been a lot of fun to be around. They’ve grown so much, over the years, as young men and it’s an honor, really, for me to be a part of that. These guys will never quit working, and trying to improve. Because of that, we (the coaches) will not quit working for them, either.

“We will not die easy.”