Last Thursday night, Mother Nature rained on Nibroc’s parade. I mean that quite literally. It came a downpour, which was a bit of a bummer.
I was taking pictures near the starting area for the parade on Kentucky Avenue, and I think the last float had just gone past me when it started to sprinkle, which seconds later turned into a downpour.
Like many other people, I found myself running for cover and hung out for about 15 minutes under the awning at Sweeties. I had some good company.
While I couldn’t really tell from my vantage point, I am pretty sure that most of the parade watching crowd probably disbursed quickly looking for shelter like I did when the downpour started. This is a shame as it was a pretty good parade.
Too bad that it didn’t hold off for about 20 more minutes.
I didn’t stick around late last Thursday evening, but I am told that the rain actually cooled things off significantly, which made for a pleasant experience for those still down at Nibroc after the storm.
Although warm, Friday evening was nice as I went over and covered fastest kid in town and the Nibroc two mile race.
For anyone, who has ever wondered why Corbin sports teams are frequently so good, I would recommended checking out the fastest kid in town next year. These kids, who ranged in age from 3-12 years old, are already pretty fast. Some of them are really fast, and you know that a lot of them are only going to get faster as they get older.
If these speedy kids are any indication about what Corbin has coming up over the next several years, then it doesn’t really bode very well for the rest of the 50th District in several sports.
I am always amazed at how quickly crews are able to get things cleaned up after these festivals. I went down to my office about 3 p.m. Sunday to get some work done and you couldn’t really tell that there had even been a festival on Main Street and Depot Street.
Despite a hiccup or two, I thought this year’s Nibroc celebration went well.
My compliments go to the organizers for all of their hard work.
I don’t think that most people understand just how much work goes into planning a festival like Nibroc, or the Whitley County Fair, which was held last month, or Old Fashioned Trading Days, which will take place next month.
Planning for these events is pretty much a year round thing, and it is an often thankless task so thank you to everyone that works hard to make these events happen.
Now let’s talk a little high school sports before I conclude this column.
In recent years, Corbin and Whitley County high schools have managed to rise above the rest of the 13th Region in two sports, baseball and volleyball. One or the other typically goes to the state tournament from the 13th Region in those two sports. Whitley County even won the state title in baseball a couple of seasons ago.
As I interviewed Whitley County High School Head Football Coach Matt Rhymer Monday afternoon, an interesting question popped into my head.
Could Whitley County ever reach that point of parity where Corbin or Whitley is routinely in the Class 4-A state title football game most years competing for the state title given that Corbin has been a football juggernaut the past few years and the two schools are now district rivals?
While I am sure many of the Corbin faithful will disagree here, I think the answer to that question is a maybe.
Whitley County High School Football should have been better than what it has been the past decade or so. The school has some talented athletes as the baseball team has shown on a regular basis.
Simply put, one of the biggest problems that Whitley County has had in football in recent years is that they just can’t get enough athletes to come out for football at the high school level in order to be truly be competitive.
If Rhymer stays at Whitley County long-term and can build a feeder system where he is regularly gets a couple dozen freshmen joining the team each year so many of his players don’t have to routinely play both offense and defense each game, then I think Whitley County has the potential to compete at the higher levels of Class 4-A football.
At that point, it would come down to getting enough talented athletes and having the coaching ability to get the most out of them.
I, for one, will be curious to see what happens over the next few seasons.
