After starting the 2024 season 7-0, Hancock County stumbled down the stretch, finishing the year 8-3 and dropping a heartbreaker in the first round of the playoffs. While they lost their quarterback Dylan Morris to graduation, they enter the year with Brady Eubanks under center. The junior recently dealt with an elbow issue, but is ready for the season.
“It was scary initially because you hear of all the baseball guys who undergo Tommy John with all of the UCL and other elbow injuries,” Brady Eubanks said. “But I felt very safe with the doctors at Owensboro Health. I felt great after it was all over.”
Eubanks enters the season with plenty of weapons around him, including receivers Cooper Jones and Christian Yanez and the return of Jack Roberts to the backfield. The senior missed last season with an injury, but adds an extra dimension to the Hornets’ offense.
“He’s a tough-nosed kid and a hard runner,” Eubanks said. “The injury he sustained in baseball was a hustle play. He didn’t have to reach out and try and run through that bag, but he did. That just speaks for his character and we are just super excited to have him back.”
Despite plenty of roster turnover on all three sides of the ball, Eubanks and his staff are confident in their program’s ability to reload.
“We haven’t gotten to where we graduate players and then have dips,” Eubanks said. “We have been intentional about how we’ve done that through our youth and middle school programs where we just sustain every year.”
Having spent the last few seasons in 3A, Hancock County enters the year in a competitive 2A district that includes McLean County, Owensboro Catholic, and Fort Knox.
“It’s really similar to everything that we have been doing for a lot of years,” Robert Eubanks said. “We had the chance to jump up alongside McLean, and we didn’t lose anything by doing that. We come back to 2A and were just looking to get in there and compete like we always have.”
The Hornets start their season this Friday when they host John Hardin and will also have home games against Breckinridge County, Apollo, and Tell City, IN. Their road games include traveling to Ohio County, Union County, and Bethlehem. For district play, they travel to Owensboro Catholic on Oct. 3, and host both McLean County on Oct. 10 and Fort Knox on Oct. 24.
