Garrard County coach Jerry Perry puzzled from football standpoint about why he was fired

Garrard County coach Jerry Perry had mini heart attacks and a stroke during the 2021 season and was officially fired Monday — three days before he's scheduled to have triple bypass surgery. (Brandon McGlone/Central Record)

The first time Jerry Perry was the head football coach at Garrard County he had a 65-18 record in seven years from 1990-96 before leaving to coach under Sam Harp at Danville for 17 years and then one year under Larry French at Boyle County.

In 2014, he decided to return to Garrard County as head football coach — a cause for joy in the community as he was welcomed back with a huge community rally.

His first team went 9-3 followed by 7-5 in 2015, 5-6 in 2016, 4-8 in 2017, 2-9 in 2018, 4-7 in 2019, 2-2 in 2020 and 5-7 in 2021.

However, his tenure at Garrard County is over. Perry was told Nov. 9 by principal Michael Anderson that he would no longer be coaching football at Garrard County and received official notice of his dismissal Monday.

“He basically said that he and the community was wanting to go a new direction,” Perry said.

Perry understood the irony in what happened.

“It is actually pretty cool to be one of the few people ever fired while suffering mini heart attacks and a stroke during their final season,” Perry said.

He is also scheduled to have triple bypass heart surgery Thursday — three days after he was officially fired at Garrard after he refused to resign after being asked to do so.

Perry tried to offer some perspective on the last four seasons.

2017 — Garrard won a playoff game as a No. 4 seed and led No. 2 seed Lexington Catholic at halftime in the second round before losing.

2018 — Perry said this ended a “tough four-year span” where Garrard was in the same district with Boyle County, Lexington Catholic, and Western Hills and star player Wan’Dale Robinson.

“We played 16 games against teams that would be state champions or state runners-up,” Perry said.

2019 — Garrard had to start six freshmen, including three who were only 13 years old.

“We were a lineman team with only a handful of varsity-ready skill players,” Perry said. “Still, we finished 4-7 and looked to the future with another good (freshman) class coming in.”

2020 — Garrard only got to play four games in the 2020 COVID season. However, in the losses to Rockcastle County and Bell County both went four quarters after both teams beat Garrard with running clocks in 2019.

2021 — Garrard lost by 12 at eventual district champion Bell County (which is unbeaten and hosting a third-round playoff game Friday) and beat Rockcastle in the regular season before losing at Rockcastle in the playoffs when three straight Garrard possessions to end the game had touchdowns nullified by penalties.

“Needless to say, I felt our progress was hampered by me missing time due to illness and the fact that we were still the youngest team in our district,” Perry said. “We had six seniors to start the year with two being first-year players and we lost one to a season-ending injury in the first game. As a coach, you can only laugh when having just five or six kids with a driver’s license.

“So from a football standpoint it is very puzzling that when you are finally looking at a season where you more than likely will be the district favorite and you will actually match up with opponents age-wise, you don’t get to coach them.”

Perry has never been one to mince words or hide his feeling. He says he was told it was a “community outcry” that led to his ouster but yet no one approached him about his job performance.

“This is supposedly a community outcry but yet no one has approached me and I have not been informed about anything until now. Most of the time people in charge will meet with you and give you heads up or insights or something … unless you are one of the disenchanted,” the former Garrard coach said.

“I have been able to put together a small list of people that are possibly disenchanted … simply for my knowledge .. but it really is insignificant. The real losers here are future coaches. If all it takes is some dislike from some parents to get you fired then good luck finding quality coaches.”

Perry admits he’s bitter and probably feels a bit betrayed by some he helped.

I’ve known Perry a long time. He’s a UK fan and I always enjoy his perspective on UK basketball and football. He’s also a fan of all high school sports. Not only does he attend a lot of high school sports events, but he’s always been one to help promote any athlete at a school where he’s coaching or at any other school.

No, he’s not perfect. But he cares and has helped a lot of high school athletes in a lot of ways. Here’s hoping his bypass surgery goes well and he finds more ways in the years ahead he can stay involved in high school sports so he can keep helping athletes.