Class 4A extras ...

We're getting closer to the start of high school football season, which means we're also winding down The Paducah Sun's series of previews. Today, we take a little closer look at a Class 4A race that figures to be one of the most interesting in western Kentucky, with three teams that feel as if they have a legitimate chance to win the district title.

Calloway County — on paper, at least — looks like the district favorite, with Hopkins Central and Lone Oak also expected to be in contention. One advantage for Lone Oak is that it gets both the Lakers and Storm at home, and even if that delivers another district title to Lone Oak, it doesn't mean the Purple Flash will have the same travel-friendly playoff road that it had last year.

This is an even-numbered year (2008, right?), so the odd-numbered districts and regions will hit the road during the postseason. That means there is a good possibility that the District 2 champion (either Warren East or Franklin-Simpson) hosts the regional championship game for a berth in the state semifinals.

Warren East returns 13 starters, including Louisville-bound running back-linebacker Shenard Holton, from the squad that lost to Lone Oak on a late field goal in the state semifinals. Franklin-Simpson's talent level has been down somewhat over the last few years, but word is that coach Tim Schlosser (a former Mayfield star and assistant coach) feels the Wildcats have the speed and athleticism to make a run. Franklin-Simpson's Courtney Dalcourt, a speedy quarterback and defensive back, is getting some Division I interest, particularly from Kentucky.

• There is no word yet on the status of Calloway County quarterback Casey Brockman for the Lakers' opener with archrival Murray on Friday night. Brockman broke his left (non-throwing) hand in a practice session a few weeks ago and has been able to work out and throw on the side. Indications are his status will be a game-time decision.

Coach Josh McKeel doesn't have a problem with the notion that the Lakers could be this year's version of Lone Oak — a senior-dominated team that makes an unprecedented playoff run. In its 30 or so years of varsity football, Calloway has never advanced farther than the state quarterfinals. The Lakers have done it twice, losing to Franklin-Simpson in 1981 and Hopkinsville in 1996.

"You win football games with upperclassmen," McKeel said. "We've got to stay healthy, and you've got to have some breaks along the way.

"We've added some different wrinkles, defensively, but it's experience as much as anything that will make us better. We're a year older and stronger and more experienced."

• Jamarielle Brown's move to quarterback wasn't one that Lone Oak coach Jack Haskins made lightly. And although the Purple Flash is committed to the idea of Brown running a spread-option type of attack, there remains a chance that Lone Oak could return to the pass-happy offense it showed last year, with Brown back at his natural position of receiver.

Lone Oak has a talented sophomore quarterback waiting in the wings in 6-foot-5 Conrad Gholson, and it wouldn't be shocking to see him move into the starting lineup sometime this year, putting Brown back in a role as a game breaking receiver than can stretch the defense.

"It could happen," Haskins said. "Conrad's got talent and a good arm. We'll see how things develop."

Chances are the Flash offense already has a package of plays in place to utilize Gholson — Lone Oak's coaching staff did such a thing for Brown a year ago, although it was never used during the playoff run.

• Hopkins Central's program has undergone some drastic changes since the Storm started to become a factor in western Kentucky football circles in the 1990s. Back then, the Storm regularly fielded huge offensive and defensive lines with an emphasis on the running game.

In recent years, the Storm has adopted a spread offense to fit its stable of athletes. The linemen aren't normally as big and strong, but Hopkins Central has a veritable arsenal of speedsters right now in Kelsey Bowman, Troydale Rorer and brothers Keith and Kevin Couch.

Coach Rick Snodgrass feels it's a unit better than the one he had in 2005, when Hopkins Central put up a lot of points with the best skill-position corps in far western Kentucky.

"We've got more depth and these guys are a little more physical than that bunch was," Snodgrass said. "We're stronger and faster. We feel like that anybody we get the ball to can make plays for us.

"Rorer is a really special kid. He's big and fast and strong and he's a playmaker. And our quarterback (Jacob Powell) is a good athlete and the strongest kid on our team. He's like another running back."

• Muhlenberg North coach Shane Sams is in year three of a massive rebuilding project.

Actually, "rebuilding" is a misleading term. The Stars haven't been competitive at all in recent years and only last year snapped a 34-game losing streak that dated back to September 2004, beating Ballard Memorial late last season. Three years ago, the program barely had enough player to field a team. Muhlenberg North hasn't had a winning season since 1998, when it was playing as an independent and not competing for a district title.

"We're kind of in the middle of our five-year plan for a turnaround," said Sams, who played for perennial power Corbin. "We have 25 players in the sophomore class, and that's who we're building the whole team around. Our numbers are right at 50, and we've done a really good job of building that up."

The Stars will play six consecutive road games after this week's opener with Muhlenberg South, with which it shares a field.

"We had a team (Louisville Evangel) drop us, and it was either that or just play nine games," Sams said.

It isn't inconceivable, however, that North could be 4-0 going into its first district game with Hopkins Central — the Stars' first four opponents are Muhlenberg South, Clinton County (in its second year of varsity competition), Todd Central and Reidland. Those four schools were a combined 4-38 last fall.