Somerset football coach Robbie Lucas, who led Briar Jumpers to 2019 state title, has died

Charles R. “Robbie” Lucas, who guided Somerset High School’s football team for 14 seasons and won a state championship in 2019, died Sunday, according to Somerset’s Commonwealth Journal.

Lucas appeared recently on “The Coaches Office” podcast with former Mercer County coach David Buchanan and former Boyle County coach Chuck Smith and spoke about what football has meant to him.

“Football has been the best thing that’s ever happened to me by a lot,” Lucas said. “It got me an education. It got me into education. It got me a job. It’s kept me a job. I can’t tell you how appreciative I am just to the game itself.

“I hope the next generation can see that and use that part because I don’t know that you can come into this halfway and give half your heart to anything. Especially your leading and directing 50, 60, 70 young men.”

Lucas, 51, had been dealing with a prolonged illness that kept him from the sidelines for much of this season. He was not with the Briar Jumpers for their playoff game on Friday at Lexington Christian.

“He was a good guy. He was the best,” LCA Coach Doug Charles told the Herald-Leader. “Other than the two hours every so often we had to compete against each other, we had both had a lot of respect for each other and our programs. And he was so kind to me … I just hate it, man. It’s just a big, big loss.”

Somerset’s coaching staff suggested a lights-on tribute in Lucas’ honor at high school football fields across Kentucky on Monday evening.

“He is the best man and person that you can find. X’s and O’s meant nothing to him,” Somerset defensive coordinator Jared Swearingen said in an email to the coaches. “Helping the player and or student succeed in life was his life calling. A great coach and a much better man has gone to a better place.”

A longtime assistant, Lucas’s head coaching career at Somerset began with an “interim” tag in 2009 when then-coach Jay Cobb resigned abruptly just before the start of the season. Players lobbied on Lucas’s behalf and the Briar Jumpers went undefeated to district and region titles on the way to a runner-up finish in the Class 3A state championship game to Paducah Tilghman.

The interim tag was removed and Lucas went on to lead Somerset to five straight region titles and state semifinals appearances.

But the pinnacle of his career came in 2019 with a team led by players like quarterback Kaiya Sheron, now at Kentucky, and wideout Kade Grundy, now playing baseball for Louisville.

In what has to be one of the greatest championship finishes in Kentucky high school football history, Somerset won the Class 2A title 34-31 over Mayfield on an untimed down as Sheron found Tate Madden in the end zone for the go-ahead score.

Somerset’s winning drive started on its own 14-yard line with just 28 seconds left. A pass interference call as the clock ran out helped set up Sheron’s 20-yard pass for the score. Games cannot end on a defensive penalty.

“The kids won this. I just had the greatest seat to watch it,” Lucas said after the game.

A player and 1990 graduate of Lincoln County High School, Lucas got his first head coaching gig with the Patriots in 2002 after a few years as an assistant at Somerset. After two 2-8 seasons, he was let go and returned to Somerset’s staff. During his podcast appearance, Lucas reflected on the lessons he learned as a brash young head coach.

“Going back after I got fired I went back and became an assistant and it was invaluable,” Lucas said. “I saw where I stumbled. I saw where I failed. I saw the mistakes. I should have saw them anyway, but at that time I was hell-bent for leather that, ‘We’re going to take this school and we’re going to get better.’ And I couldn’t get anybody to follow me and therefore I was back at Somerset in 17 months.”

Lucas learned those lessons well, earning a career mark of 118-78 with a 114-62 record at Somerset and eight region titles. The Briar Jumpers, one of the oldest football programs in the state with a proud 116-season history, have been to the state finals six times with the 2019 championship, four runner-up finishes under John Cain around the 1980s and the other runner-up under Lucas in 2009.

Game-winning touchdown drive makes Somerset a state champion for the first time