Mikes stay the course, carry strong finish into 2027
Sarah Smith
Ken Perkins’ career as Carmichaels head football coach couldn’t have gotten off to a better start.
The Mikes opened the season with a 20-13 non-conference road victory at Leechburg to kick 2026 off on a high note.
The year suddenly went south from there, at least for the following six weeks in which Carmichaels piled up six consecutive losses.
Sitting at 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the Class A Tri-County South Conference, it would’ve been easy for the Mikes to go through the motions over the final three games.
Perkins kept his group together, though, and facing a trio of Greene County rivals to wrap up the season, Carmichaels swept all three games to finish at 4-6 and 3-4 in the TCS.
“Losing six straight, it was a struggle no doubt,” Perkins said. “They were phenomenal in keeping that hope alive that there was light at the end of the tunnel.”
The Mikes got a huge boost down the stretch from their offensive line and their running game, sparked by the blocking of senior fullback Job Smith and the running of junior tailback KC Shook.
Shook ran the ball a combined 82 times for 717 yards and eight touchdowns in wins at West Greene (22-14) and Jefferson-Morgan (33-0) and at Coaches Field over Mapletown (40-26).
He ended the year with 1,189 yards.
“The whole team kept their heads up,” Shook said. “We could’ve easily just packed it in, but we didn’t want to do that. I had that in my mindset, to keep working and keep trying to get better.”
Shook showed his team-first attitude when discussing the game against the Maples.
“I knew what I needed to reach 1,000, which was like 30-some yards, and I had never done that before so that was a goal,” Shook said. “But winning the game, beating Mapletown, finishing with another win, that’s what came first, that was No. 1 on the list.”
When asked if it perhaps his team took a while to adjust to Perkins as the new head coach, Shook denied that theory.
“Coach was already there,” Shook pointed out. “He was our offensive line coach so taking over as head coach, we already knew him and what he was like, so it wasn’t super hard to adjust to him.”
Perkins explained what he felt helped turn the season around.
“We adjusted our blocking scheme and how we did things a little bit and that’s how our offensive line started to become more successful,” said Perkins, who admitted although there was familiarity between the coaches and players there also was a bit of an adjustment period with the altered coaching staff.
“Being a first-year head coach and having a first-year offensive coordinator we were kind of feeling our way a little bit at the beginning but he ended up doing a fantastic job and I think we all got better as the season went along,” Perkins said. “We have a better idea now of what we want to do and how we want to do it.
“This has allowed us to really spring into next season.”
Carmichaels returns all but five seniors for 2027.
“I feel like this is going to carry over but we have to keep doing the work,” Shook said. “I know I’m going to keep going in the weight room and try to make myself better for next year. I’d like for us to have a winning season and have a chance at making the playoffs.”