Lyon County's Ryan Perry named Courier Journal Boys Basketball Coach of Year

It’s been three weeks since the Lyon County High School boys basketball team won the school’s first Sweet 16 championship, and life in Eddyville is pretty grand for the teenagers who made it happen.

Lyon County coach Ryan Perry said his players have grown so accustomed to getting free meals around town that they were left scrambling one recent evening.

“They didn’t even take money because they expected the meal to be paid for,” Perry said with a laugh. “They were sitting around looking because no one had offered to pay for it yet, trying to figure out how they were going to pay. They’ve been pretty well taken care of.”

The Lyons have been the stars of the town for years and rewarded their fans with the ultimate prize last month, beating Harlan County 67-58 in the Sweet 16 final to cap a 36-3 championship season.

Perry has been rewarded as well, as he was voted The Courier Journal’s Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.

“It’s really cool,” Perry said. “I definitely didn’t expect it. I was blessed and had a really good team and a really good coaching staff around me. Those guys made us look really good. I’m thankful for all the people who thought I deserved this award.”

Perry received 47 votes from the 118 coaches who returned ballots. Harlan County’s Kyle Jones was the runner-up with 19 votes, followed by Great Crossing’s Steve Page (11), Newport’s Rodney Snapp (seven) and Campbell County’s Brent Sowder (five).

Perry can thank a trio of seniors he’s coached since they were second graders. His son, Travis Perry, was named Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball after finishing his career with a state-record 5,481 points. Brady Shoulders (Mercer University) was a second-team All-State pick, and Jack Reddick (Florida Gulf Coast University) earned third-team All-State honors.

They played an exciting brand of basketball, leading the state in scoring at 83.4 points per game and averaging 25 3-point attempts per contest.

Earlier this season, Ryan Perry explained his fast-paced approach.

“It’s so miserable playing against junk defenses,” he said. “We decided we were going to play so fast that they couldn’t even set their defenses up. We did it and ended up winning like 18 in a row and we’re like, ‘Man, this is fun.’ The fans love it, the kids love it. It’s hard to coach against, so it stuck. If we’re doing it right, it makes us hard to guard.”

Perry, 44, took an unusual route to high school coaching.

A 1997 graduate of Crittenden County High School, he played golf for three years at Northern Kentucky University before transferring to the University of Kentucky to pursue a degree in pharmacy.

When Travis was in the second grade, Ryan began coaching him, Shoulders and Reddick on an AAU team called the West Kentucky Wildcats. Over the years, the team added players from Virginia, Tennessee and Louisiana and traveled the country, becoming one of the nation’s top AAU programs.

“I joked with the guys after we won the championship that it was 200,000 miles and $200,000 to get this thing,” Ryan Perry said.

Perry has a 141-30 record over five seasons and has led the Lyons to three straight Second Region championships. He also works as a pharmacist at a hospital in Caldwell County, showing up at work at 6 a.m. so he can leave at 3 p.m. to lead basketball practices.

“If you’re going to do the high school basketball coaching gig right, it takes a lot of time,” Perry said. “There’s a lot of scouting and all that kind of stuff. So it’s kind of like two full-time jobs. …

“If I had known I was going to be any good at coaching, I definitely would have gone down that path (in college). But we’re lucky I have a good profession and I’m able to work and do both things. It would be nice to be in the school system all day with the guys you’re coaching. Probably would be a little bit easier.”

While Travis will start his college career at UK next season, Ryan said he has no plans to give up coaching. Travis is the oldest of four Perry children. The youngest, third grader Parker, jokes he’s going to break his older brother’s records one day.

Ryan Perry plans to be Parker’s coach in the Lyon County High School purple and gold.

“I’m planning on trying to hang in there and keep it going,” Perry said. “I think we’re going to be good for a while. Everybody’s on fire with basketball in Lyon County right now.”

Jason Frakes: 502-582-4046; jfrakes@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @kyhighs.

Past Courier Journal Kentucky Boys Basketball Coaches of the Year

1946 — Bobby Laughlin, Breckinridge Training; 1947 — Earle Jones, Maysville; 1948 — McCoy Tarry, Brewers; 1949 — Letcher Norton, Clark County; 1950 — Ralph Carlisle, Lafayette.

1951 — Dale Barnstable, Manual; 1952 — Norton, Clark County; 1953 — George Conley, Ashland; 1954 — Delmas Gish, Central City; 1955 — John Burr, Adair County; 1956 — Bill Carter, Heath; 1957 — John Bill Trivette, Pikeville; 1958 — Norton, Clark County; 1959 — Charlie Lampley, North Marshall; 1960 — Jim Morris, Flaget.

1961 — Bob Wright, Ashland; 1962 — Elmer “Baldy” Gilb, Henry Clay; 1963 — Morton Combs, Carr Creek; 1964 — Gene Rhodes, Male; 1965 — Bill Harrell, Shelby County; 1966 — Harrell, Shelby County; 1967 — Bob Fox, Earlington; 1968 — Jim Richards, Glasgow; 1969 — Bob Graves, Louisville Central; 1970 — Gary Schaffer, Pleasure Ridge Park.

1971 — Jack Upchurch, Anderson County; 1972 — Ray Vencil, Elizabethtown; 1973 — Bob Barlow, Bryan Station; 1974 — Graves, Central; 1975 — Wade Houston, Male; 1976 — Richard Schmidt, Ballard; 1977 — Schmidt, Ballard; 1978 — Wayne Chapman, Apollo; 1979 — Charles “Jock” Sutherland, Lafayette; 1980 — Bobby Watson, Owensboro.

1981 — Barlow, Bryan Station; 1982 — Allen Feldhaus Sr., Mason County; 1983 — Craynor Slone, Carlisle County; 1984 — Gerald Sinclair, Logan County; 1985 — Glenn Collie, Seneca; 1986 — Feldhaus Sr., Mason County; 1987 — Bobby Keith, Clay County; 1988 — Keith, Clay County; 1989 — Keith, Clay County; 1990 — Gary French, Elizabethtown.

1991 — Nolan Barger, Tates Creek; 1992 — Danny Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1993 — Tim Davis, Marion County; 1994 — Billy Hicks, Corbin; 1995 — Gary Moore, Franklin County; 1996 — Curtis Turley, Greenwood; 1997 — Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1998 — Haney, Lexington Catholic; 1999 — Ernie Simpson, Bowling Green; 2000 — Jimmy Just, Iroquois.

2001 — Bryce Hibbard, Male; 2002 — Rodney Woods, Wayne County; 2003 — Kelly Wells, Mason County; 2004 — Wells, Mason County; 2005 — Mike Szabo, Trinity; 2006 — Buddy Biggs, Pendleton County; 2007 — Billy Hicks, Scott County; 2008 — Champ Ligon Jr., Bryan Station; 2009 — Jason Booher, Shelby Valley; 2010 — Szabo, Trinity.

2011 — Wayne Breeden, Tates Creek; 2012 — Allen Feldhaus Jr., Madison Central; 2013 — Feldhaus Jr., Madison Central; 2014 — Scott Ruthsatz, Covington Catholic; 2015 — Rod Drake, Owensboro; 2016 — Josh Cook, Mercer County; 2017 — Tim Sullivan, Cooper; 2018 — Hicks, Scott County; 2019 — Jared McCurry, John Hardin; 2020 — Jason Mays, Ashland Blazer.

2021 — Kevin Listerman, Highlands; 2022 — William Unseld, Warren Central; 2023 — Unseld, Warren Central; 2024 — Ryan Perry, Lyon County.

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This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Lyon County's Ryan Perry named 2024 Boys Basketball Coach of Year