Mar. 21—CUMBERLAND — For the second time in three seasons, Fort Hill’s Zack Alkire has been voted Coach of the Year by the area’s head coaches.
The Sentinels had an unbeaten 13-0 season, capped by a 45-21 rout of county rival Mountain Ridge for a third consecutive Class 1A state championship in three years under the head coach.
The title was Fort Hill’s 10th in program history and eighth in the past 10 seasons. The Sentinels have a 130-7 record over that stretch.
Mountain Ridge’s Ryan Patterson, Frankfort’s Kevin Whiteman and East Hardy’s Devon Orndorff also received votes for the award.
“It’s a great honor,” said Alkire, who is 40-2 at his alma mater. “It goes more toward your assistants. It’s easy to coach games when you have a lot of great guys behind you. You’re like a puppet master, and they’re doing all the dirty work behind the scenes. We had some great kids to work with too.
“The kids work extremely hard. Oral traditions and old history are passed down from one generation of seniors to another, it’s been this way as long as I’ve been here.”
The 2023 Fort Hill squad will be remembered as one of the great teams in school history, with an all-senior line paving the way for fullback Jabril Daniels to have one of the greatest rushing seasons ever in this area.
Fort Hill finished the campaign ranked No. 8 in the state media poll, which includes both public and private schools, and was the third-highest-ranking for an MPSSAA team behind only Class 4A champ Wise and 3A title winner Oakdale.
Fort Hill, which has won 21 consecutive games, outscored its 12 opponents (not including a forfeit win over Southern), 386-42 — an average halftime score of 32.2-3.5.
The Sentinels were actually outscored in the second half, 95-123, because they often pulled their starters early to get younger players experience and not humiliate…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/fort-hills-zack-alkire-voted-131600639.html
Author : Cumberland Times News, Md.
Publish date : 2024-03-21 13:16:00
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