It was getting late in the game and with North Hardin hanging on to a shaky 20-13 lead over homestanding Elizabethtown, the Trojans had just stopped the Panthers on their last offensive possession. With a little less than seven minutes remaining, head coach Brent Thompson needed a time consuming drive to eat up time. So with the ball resting around their own goalline, he ordered a steady diet of handoffs to junior runningback Lavell Wright. Set up behind the center in the pistol like a quarterback, Wright carried the ball on nearly every play during the Trojans all important drive. He gained positive yardage as North Hardin finally crossed midfield and inched closer to the Panthers goalline as Wrights powerful legs behind a veteran offensive line ate up the rest of the clock for the Trojans all important victory.
Not that it should have been a surprise, but Thompson’s strategy turned out to be a genius move as North Hardin’s offensive game plan over the past several seasons has been give the ball to the 6’0 athlete from Radcliff, KY and as his carries increased so did the win totals. In his freshman season in 2017, he carried 121-times for 377-yards and three-TDs during a three-win season. In 2018, his carries increased to 178 for 1,316-yards and 17-TDs as North Hardin won nine-games and last season, the junior’s workload increased to 259-carries for 1,819-yards and 25-TDs as the Trojans scored 578-points and went 13-1.
Wright was a college scouts dream as the powerful back is a strong runner with great speed out in the open and the ability to hit the hole hard along with being hard to bring down and the durability to carry the ball over 250-times and survive the punishment of hard hitting tacklers.
Wright’s stellar season came at the right time as the North Hardin football team was loaded with all kinds of D-1 talent at all positions. Last season, he was a 2nd Team All-State selection for MaxPreps and was on a lot of college recruiters lists until he announced that he would attend the University of Kentucky along with Octavious Oxendine and Jordan Lovett.
The 2020 Football season looked like a perfect swan song for the powerful runnignback as he finished with 889-yards rushing on 127-carries and 11-touchdowns and caught 27-passes for 278-yards and one score. Wright was also showing a flair for the dramatics with big plays in road wins for North Hardin over Belfry and Frederick Douglas, but all that came to an end in a peculiar way. In week seven against Central Hardin Wright suffered an injury to his foot on his 20th carry on a run around left end and would miss the next three games. Their was hope he could be ready if the Trojans could make the Final Four or the 6-A Final, but with North’s defeat to St. Xavier in the Region Championship game that dream ended.
Still, Wright has much to be proud of playing on a team which won 30-games in three years and now he will turn his attentions to Lexington where he will be playing next season. Even there, he’ll have to prove that he has the “Wright Stuff”, but if college is anything like high school, then he’ll most likely get it done.
