LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — The 11:00 a.m. game on Thursday at Rupp Arena, part of the Sweet 16, had a little extra meaning for the team in the visiting blue uniform.
“It's great to have some positivity when there's negative things going on in your life, and our basketball team has helped bring that to our community,” said Breathitt’s Athletics Director, Kyle Moore.
Breathitt County took on North Laurel in the Boys Sweet 16, roughly 6 weeks after another devastating storm sent flood waters rushing through their community. This happened just 2 ½ years after a historic storm did catastrophic damage to a large swath of the region. Breathitt County’s head coach lived through that 2022 storm while living in Knott County at the time.
“It's been a storybook ending of us,” said the coach’s wife, Kelly Honeycutt. “We moved to Breathitt two years ago, and to get to finish at Rupp for my son's senior year and for my husband,” she added, has been incredibly special.
The couple’s other son is the team’s scorekeeper. “We’ve just been involved with basketball for a long time,” she continued.
The playoff tournament and advancing to Rupp Arena for this event has served as a nice distraction for the community. But they don’t need for this to be a fairytale ending come Saturday. We’ve come to learn a lot about the people of this community over the last few years and there isn’t much they can’t and won’t bounce back from.
“I can’t say enough about this community. They're resilient, they rally together, and they're just wonderful,” Mrs. Honeycutt said, moments before her son would knock down a three-point field goal to help the team take an early lead.
“We've got a great group of kids, great coaches, and the community has pulled together, and they always do when we battled through some things,” Moore said.
Moore then walked off the floor and into the tunnel to offer the team some words of encouragement before tip-off. He sounded like someone who wanted to thank them for what they’ve done, too.
