2024 Interview with Head Coach Michael Salmons from Raceland High School (KY.)

 

Name
Michael Salmons

School
Raceland HS 

Position
Head Coach

College
Thomas More College, 2003 grad
Morehead State, 2009 grad

Would you share with everyone your coaching career, from your first job up to your current position?

I was hired at Raceland in July 2021 as an assistant coach and have spent 17 years here now. 
7 as an assistant, and the last 10 as head coach.

Who are some of the coaches you have learned the game from, and how much of what you have learned from them will you incorporate into what you do?

I worked under Coach Randy Vanderhoof for 3 seasons and also played for him for 2 years in high school. He was a very strong mentor of mine. I also worked under Coach TJ Maynard for 4 seasons, and college coach Dean Paul has been influential in my career. And all-time Raceland wins leader Coach Bill Tom Ross was my first high school coach and helped me fall in love with the game of football!

What are your thoughts on playing out-of-state teams, and will you be playing any once you have openings in your schedule?

We have typically played for out-of-state teams due to our location and difficulty finding games. We currently do not have any of our state teams on our schedule, but that could change at any time.

What are your thoughts about students playing multiple sports?

Raceland is a high school with 300 kids, so the ballpark has 150 males. The sports program here cannot excel without kids playing multiple sports. In school history, our best athletes have always played multiple sports in an effort to field as many competitive sports teams as possible.

How important is it to you that all of the lower levels throughout the program play a full schedule?

This is a major point of emphasis for us, from JV to middle school to our youth league. We try to make sure all teams play a weekly game to follow along with the schedule of high school football. It is also very important to make sure all those players have adequate practice time to address the things learned during competition in games.

What are your biggest concerns heading into the 2024 season?

2024 brings new challenges for us, just like any new season does. We have had really good senior classes the past few seasons, but the standard doesn’t change. Our players know what is expected and really work hard to excel on the playing field. This team will really grow as they gain more and more game-time experience. We lack experience and will most definitely be a work in progress in hopes of playing our best football come playoff time.

What are you going to miss the most from the 2024 class?

The class of 2024 left a legacy at Raceland that has no match up to now. Those guys really were selfless team-first players who gave great effort every time they stepped on the field. The one thing that we will try to duplicate from this class is their business-like approach to the process. They had lots of actions and few words! 

Could you name some of the best players that you have coached?

Raceland has been blessed with many good players over the years! Naming them would undoubtedly mean someone would be missed, and we don’t want that. It’s all about the team, and players have excelled individually through our team's accomplishments.

When you are in a blowout-type game, when do you pull the starters?

We usually try to pull starters and/or rotation guys when the clock begins to run nonstop. This is by a margin of 36 points in the state of Kentucky.

As the head coach, what do you do to help your players get recruited?

Recruiting is one thing that is always evolving in today’s game. Our biggest resource is our one-stop shop for all player information through our website, www.racelandfootball.com. This houses all important information for our potential college players, such as contact information, grades, camps, highlights, etc. Also, we encourage all of our kids to attend multiple camps over the course of the course of multiple years of their careers to gain exposure. The one thing that we are completely confident in is our ability to be accessible and in constant contact with college coaches to get our kids in the best possible situation as they enter the next phase of their career.