Franklin County’s Joey Thacker, who developed the Flyers’ girls basketball program into a perennial 11th Region power and became one of the winningest girls high school coaches in state history, announced his retirement from coaching Monday at the team’s postseason banquet.
“I never really imagined that I would end up a girls basketball coach during the majority of my vocational life, but I can honestly say that no one has been luckier than me after leading this program for the last 22 years,” Thacker wrote in a social media post Monday night confirming his decision. “There are so many memories, wonderful young ladies and families that l’ve had the privilege to share this experience. All of you have been a true blessing to the utmost degree.”
Thacker, who took over at Franklin County in 2003, led the Flyers to seven 11th Region titles in a 10-season span, which included back-to-back trips to the KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 state championship game in 2016 and 2017. That run of dominance included two sets of region championship three-peats — 2015 to 2017 and 2020 to 2022 — along with the 2024 region crown. The Flyers fell to Frederick Douglass in this season’s region semifinals.
His state finals teams featured future college athletes Princess Stewart (Xavier), Rebecca Cook (Western Kentucky and Kentucky track) and a very young future Miss Kentucky Basketball, Brooklynn Miles, who showed her tremendous potential as a seventh and eighth grader during those years and grew up to play at Tennessee, Kentucky and Pitt.
“We’ve had some kids that could play a little bit and that always helps,” Thacker told the Herald-Leader. “We’ve had good players and good parents and that is not always a given combination in this day and time.” Thacker estimated he’ll have sent 30-31 of his players on to the collegiate level when his current crop make their commitments known in the coming weeks.
“I would trade anything to have him as a coach one more year!!” Franklin County senior forward Juliana Frazee posted on X Monday. “So much love for you Coach Thacker! I’m so grateful to have been coached by you my high school career! Thank you!!!”
Combined with his two seasons at Frankfort before taking the Franklin County job, Thacker amassed a career record of 538-232. That ranks 12th on the KHSAA’s all-time girls coaching wins list and first among girls coaches in Central Kentucky’s 11th Region. “He’s going to walk out of coaching and into the hall of fame,” said Madison Central coach Scott True, who Thacker dragged back into coaching as one of his assistants for three seasons after True was fired as head girls coach at Lexington Catholic. True has gone on to become a two-time 11th Region coach of the year with the Indians.
“What he’s done there, you just don’t do anymore,” True said. “How many coaches have been somewhere 25 years and done what he’s done to promote the game and to promote the program? We’re just not in a culture where that happens anymore.” Lafayette’s Allison Tate Denton takes over as the region’s winningest active girls coach with 461 wins. Her Generals have faced the Flyers in six region tournaments, including three finals.
“Coach Thacker has dedicated years to building a competitive girls basketball program. His passion and commitment to Franklin County is going to have a lasting impact,” Denton said. “Personally, he made me a better coach by always challenging me to think outside the box when competing against him. … He left a legacy.”
The coach with the quotes During his career, the 51-year-old Elkhorn City native could usually be counted on for a colorful quote, like when his team was picked to win its fourth straight region title ahead of the 2022-23 season. “Sometimes people put you at the top of the ladder because they’d like to kick the bottom of it out from under you,” Thacker joked.
The Flyers’ title run ended that season with a region semifinals loss to Lexington Catholic. They reclaimed the crown a year later. The pandemic-hampered 2020-21 season posed many challenges for the Flyers, including quarantines, injuries and bad weather. “At any time, I look for a hurricane to show up during the regional tournament,” Thacker said. Asked whether he’d scouted first-round opponent Shelby Valley ahead of the 2016 state tournament, Thacker said, “I know nothing. And I know nothing on purpose. We worried about a lot of things last year, and we went and laid an egg. This year I’m gonna worry about us.
The Flyers reached their first state finals that year. This season, Franklin County outlasted Taylor County for the midseason Kentucky 2A Championship tournament title, but almost gave the game away. “Our free-throw shooting is like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re going to get,” Thacker explained.
Three decades in coaching Thacker
began his coaching career in 1995 as an assistant baseball coach at his alma mater, Elkhorn City High School, while he was still a student at Pikeville College. In 1997, Elkhorn City won the 15th Region baseball title with Thacker as associate head coach.
Thacker moved to Frankfort in 1999 as the Panthers’ football and baseball coach. He took the Frankfort girls basketball coaching job when it unexpectedly opened ahead of the 2001-02 season. The Panthers went 10-15 his first year and 20-9 the next. Thacker jumped to Franklin County for the 2003-04 girls basketball season. During his 22 seasons with the Flyers, they won 16 41st District titles, including the last 12 straight. In fact, Franklin County hasn’t lost to a district rival in the last 12 seasons, going 93-0.
Over the years, Thacker has also been an assistant football coach at Franklin County, Lexington Christian and Paul Laurence Dunbar, usually as an offensive coordinator.
At LCA in the late-2010s, his “Thackerisms” became legendary. Admonitions to his football players included: “You’ve gotta be able to stand on your head and gargle peanut butter at the same time;” and “There’s two things that don’t survive in November: Dogs that run in the road and teams that can’t run the football.”
Somebody else’s turn’ Thacker
acknowledged he might return to the assistant football coaching ranks some day, but for now, it’s time to take a break and stick to his day job as assistant principal at Bondurant Middle School and enjoy life with his wife, Matosha.
“There’s a time in your life where you actually want to have time to watch the six o’clock news. And outside of COVID, I’ve not really had an opportunity to do that since 1995,” Thacker told the Herald-Leader. The youngest of their three daughters is graduating from Franklin County High School this spring. Josie, Gracie and Kelsie Thacker all donned Flyers basketball jerseys during his career
I’m not getting younger, and I’m going to have two kids in college at two different institutions next year,” Thacker said. “And you know, there’s times we’ll want to go see them and do things where they are. … You just get to a point where you feel like it’s somebody else’s turn.”
If this is the end of his coaching career, Thacker knows how he wants to be remembered. “I just hope we did it the right way,” he said. “We didn’t go out and beat the bushes and try to take other people’s players. I hope I’ve been good to my colleagues. And I hope my players got a glimpse of what a good husband and father should look like during their time around the program. … “I heard Rick Pitino say one time he’d been lucky enough to make his vocation his vacation. And I agree. I don’t think I’ve ever really worked a day.”
