Raceland Rams Make History with 600th Win
Proof That “It's Different Here” In Raceland
By James Collier
For the Ashland Beacon
Longevity and success are not words that are often uttered in today’s society.
However, Raceland football has shown it has a recipe for both. Friday night the Rams added a new accolade to their storied 99-year history in a 56-6 beatdown of Fairview bringing the with it the programs 600th win!
Raceland head coach Mike Salmons was an assistant coach under TJ Maynard in 2013 when the Rams notched their 500th win and admits the program milestones sometimes seem surreal. “All of us very grateful and humble to be a part of that, the 500th win and the 600th win of our program,” Salmons said. “There is a lot of tradition in that little town that we call home. A lot of guys have put a lot of time into it as we close in on 100 years of football. At one time the job and the economy market may have been booming and it's not there no more. But for whatever reason, our little town has held onto our football team. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself.”
Raceland’s first season in 1926 saw the Rams finish with a 2-4-1 record under head coaches Jimmy McCoy and LeRoy Harmon. It wasn’t until 1930 before the Rams saw their first winning season after finishing 4-3. Now the Rams are considered one of the top teams in class A football while still searching for the elusive state championship. “Obviously, we are happy to get number 600, and our program is still chasing that last one of the season,” Salmons said. “We certainly feel like we have made progress toward that every step of the way.”
Salmons, working in his eleventh season as the head coach and his nineteenth overall in Ramland, picked up a career milestone as well Friday night as the win gave him win number 100. But Salmons quickly deflected the praise to his players and staff for the success. “It's about Jimmys and Joes and we’ve been blessed with some really good players,” he chuckled. “We have really good players in the program now and have had really good players in the past 10+ years. We have really good players coming behind them. You put those two things together along with community support and you get the result we see.”
When Maynard departed the program for Russell in 2013, Salmons said there was uncertainty for the future, but the nucleus of coaches who are still in the orange and black were not about to split up. “When we had the coaching change in 2014, all of us went in not knowing how this thing was going to work out,” Salmons said. “The only thing we did know was all of us was going to be back coaching together in ‘14 no matter how it shook out and I think that is what you see is all the guys who stuck through that.”
Gary Fannin, Mike Francis, Seth Pack, Randy Vanderhoof, Mark Lewis and Randy Helton were the building blocks of Salmons staff, and all remain with him today, each leading a specific group of players on both sides of the ball. “Just a bunch of selfless guys who have bought into the program and I think you can see that,” Salmons added. “Everyone has kind of found their own niche in the program. In other words, their stamp on the things that’s theirs. Just really a collective effort.” Vanderhoof adds head coaching duties to his resume after leading the Rams from 1997-2009. Lewis spent several years coaching in Ohio before crossing the river to join the Rams in 2006.
“It takes a village to keep things moving forward when self-gratification is at an all-time high,” Salmons said. “The thing that we are most proud of is we have a bunch of guys who are in the program that hasn’t been here for a decade, but multiple decades. There were six or eight guys on the sideline Friday night who we have been together for over two decades. You have some guys who go back four and five decades. Just a lot of consistency there and that is what has led us to this point.” Raceland is a mere blip on a map of Kentucky and anyone who has worked around Salmons has certainly heard his description of the small but tight-knit community he calls home.
“We’ve got a railroad track, a four-way stop sign and a football team,” he laughed. “And not necessarily in that order. Raceland is not a destination place. You don’t look at a map and say, let's move there. It doesn’t work that way. You might want to move somewhere where it's warm or is heavy populated or has something that you like. You don’t want to move somewhere where there’s no jobs or economic growth. To me, that’s what makes the connection even stronger.”
Salmons has registered only one losing season during his tenure (4-6 in 2020) and has led the Rams to three state championship runners up finishes since 2017. But even with a 71 percent winning percentage during his time at the helm, Salmons admits there is still work to be done to get the program to its ultimate goal.
“We’ve certainly been blue collared all the way through with a bunch of guys who pull for each other,” Salmons said. “It hasn’t always been perfect and it's not going to be perfect but it's a bunch of guys with a common goal and if you can get the eyes on the goal, you can get there. We feel like we’ve made some tremendous strides over the last decade plus, but we still have a little way still to go.”
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