The Times-Tribune
CORBIN — By Les Dixon / Sports Editor
The Corbin Redhounds had one final get-together before they switched their focus to 11th Region champion Scott County.
Redhounds players and coaches joked and told stories at assistant coach Brent West’s house on Sunday, while being treated to a good ole down home fish fry.
“To me, this is just great for the kids,” Corbin coach Tony Pietrowski said. “They have really worked hard to get to the state tournament, so we needed to have something like this before we get back to business.
“We like to reward the kids when they do things the right way,” he added. “This group of kids just likes to hang out with each other. If they weren’t here, they would probably be hanging out at Sonny’s or Applebee’s instead. This group of kids has done anything the coaching staff has asked them to do and my hat is off for the kids.”
West said he threw around the idea this past week to have a fish fry at his place.
“This is just something we wanted to do for the kids,” he admitted. “We used to do it when I was coach at Williamsburg and Tony has done things like this in the past, too. I just wanted to have them over to show how much I appreciate all of the hard work they have put in this year.
“We wanted to get in just a bit more celebrating before we get things going with the game against Scott County coming up,” West added. “It’s always good for the kids to get together and to bond a little bit more.”
West said this year’s version of the Redhounds reminds him of his 1998 Williamsburg squad that captured the school’s first 50th District championship since 1987.
“Both teams have a lot of kids that had to play different roles and they both accepted that,” West said. “We had Derrick Davenport and Mark Vernon and some younger players at Williamsburg that had to adjust to different roles. Winning wasn’t totally unexpected, but both teams had a lot of obstacles to go through.”
Senior Luke Stewart said all of the players were appreciative of the coaching staff’s efforts to have the players together before getting back to practice.
“This is great,” he said. “It gives us a chance to joke around and get our minds off of the game coming up. We’re all joking some and cutting up and it’s great to do that before we leave.
“The food was great,” Stewart added. “I could eat this stuff all of the time. I just can’t wait to go to the state tournament because everyone always has a good time.”
