By Jason Frakes jfrakes@courier-journal.com
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Brad Hood was working at Ferguson Enterprises in Louisville in 2003 when he decided that becoming a football coach might not be a bad idea -- even if it meant a pay cut.
Brad Hood
"I was just sitting there and it was hot outside and I had worked a long week," he said. "I just decided then that I wanted to do something else. And coaching is in my family."
Seven years later, Hood has been recognized as one of Kentucky's best. In his fifth season as Allen County-Scottsville High School's head coach, he led the Patriots to the Class 4-A championship game before they fell 21-14 to Boyle County to finish 13-1.
Coaches around the commonwealth took notice, voting Hood as The Courier-Journal's 2010 Kentucky Football Coach of the Year.
"I'm very proud of our accomplishments this year," said Hood, 33. "Does it still hurt to come that close to a state championship and lose? Sure it does. But I thought our kids played very well. We just got beat by a very good Boyle County football team."
He received 15 of 165 votes in a wide-open balloting process in which 54 coaches got at least one vote. Hazard's Mark Dixon and Mayfield's Joe Morris tied for second with 13 apiece. Harlan County's Tom Larkey, Belfry's Philip Haywood, Trinity's Bob Beatty and Ryle's Bryson Warner received 11 each.
Hood is the second member of his family to win The C-J honor. His uncle, Joe, won twice -- after winning the Class 4-A title at Butler in 1979 and after losing in the 1989 4-A final while at Warren Central. Joe Hood now coaches the freshman and junior-varsity teams at Allen County-Scottsville.
But it's Brad Hood's father, Royce, whose ties led the son to Scottsville. Brad grew up in Scottsville and watched his father coach at the local high school, serving as head coach of the football team for eight seasons (1979-86).
When Royce Hood was fired as coach, Brad was 10. The family moved to McLean County, where Royce got another coaching job.
"I just remember leaving Scottsville as a hurt 10-year-old, having to leave all the kids I grew up with," Brad Hood said.
He attended McLean County High for three years before moving again and graduating from Ohio County in 1996. He played football at Campbellsville University, graduated in 2000 and figured his days around the sport were finished.
Two weeks after Brad's graduation, Royce Hood had a stroke.
"I just put off some of my dreams and stuck it out with him for a while," Brad said. "The next couple of years we lived in Bowling Green and I took care of him. I worked part time at a gas station and convenience store, and about a year and a half later we moved to Louisville."
Then came that hot day at Ferguson Enterprises. His first call was to Mark Peach, who had been hired as head coach at Campbellsville University. At the time, Hood was making around $42,000 a year in Louisville.
"All Mark could offer me was a job as a graduate assistant making $3,000," he said. "So I quit and went to Campbellsville for spring practice."
Hood coached there for one season, then spent two years as an assistant under Larry French at Lincoln County High. Then he got the call to return to Scottsville in 2006 -- 20 years after his father had been fired there.
"I just remembered how hard my dad worked to get the program off the ground ... and it was time to put some of those hard feelings aside," Hood said. "The administration was really supportive, and I wanted the opportunity to be a head coach."
The Patriots went 6-5 in 2006 and 1-9 in 2007, but they have gone 33-6 over the past three years. Led by 1,000-yard rushers Brandon Boards and Hunter York, they reached this year's 4-A final -- the first time any team from the school had played for a state championship.
The town turned out for the game just 25 miles away in Bowling Green. It drew 13,167 fans, the most ever for any state final not involving St. Xavier, Trinity or Male.
"We left our school at 4:15 that day, and there must have been 500 to 700 people lining the road from Allen County to the Warren County line," Hood said. "It really hit home then. And then when we walked out of that tunnel and onto the field, it was a breathtaking moment. I always remembered that this town was good to this school when it gave them something to be proud of."
Hood will lose 18 seniors from this year's team but plans to keep the program among the best in Class 4-A.
"We don't want to be a one-hit wonder," he said. "Right now this community is really behind football, and hopefully we can continue to grow that."
Hood also won the 4-A Coach of the Year honor. Other winners were Ryle's Warner (6-A), Harlan County's Larkey (5-A), Somerset's Robbie Lucas (3-A), Owensboro Catholic's John Edge (2-A) and Hazard's Dixon (A).
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046
