PIKEVILLE, KY. - The 2009 edition of the Pike County Bowl will mark a major milestone in that it will be the 25th anniversary of the football event.

The Bowl, which traditionally involves all Pike County High School football teams competing, will again see the same format as the bowl will be played over two nights with eight Kentucky teams competing. Once again, all six Pike County high schools are participating.

Brandi Webb, Marketing Coordinator for the Bowl’s sponsor Community Trust Bank, confirmed yesterday that this year’s event will be held on Friday, August 28th and Saturday, August 29th,

The first night of the 25th Bowl event will get underway on Friday at CAM Stadium at Belfry, Kentucky. That evening will see the Belfry Pirates taking on Boyd County and Phelps going up against East Ridge.

The second night of this Kentucky high school football extravaganza will be held at the W.C. Hambley Complex on the campus of Pikeville High School in Pikeville, Kentucky. The second night will see Shelby Valley take on Pike Central High School in the first game and will conclude with Pikeville going up against Covington Holy Cross in the nightcap.

“It will be our 25th Pike County Bowl so there is a lot of planning yet to do.” said Webb. She said that another meeting to finalize several items and plans associated with this year’s bowl is scheduled and will be held prior to the annual Pike County Bowl Press Conference and Coaches’ Media Day which is scheduled for August 18th at the Community Trust Building in Pikeville.

The Pike County Bowl Legends Honoree award recipient, which is a staple of the Bowl, has not yet been determined according to Webb.

“We are continuing to do the Legends Honoree award, but this year’s recipient is still undetermined. Our final discussions and decisions on who the recipient will be is a major topic of the next meeting on the Pike County Bowl. But we absolutely will be having the Legends award as always.”

Last year’s Pike County Bowl Legends Honoree was former Williamson High and Belfry High teacher and coach Dick Roddy.

The schedule of games for the bowl as announced will provide some early season, heavy duty, prep football excitement for local football fans.

The first night’s matchup of Phelps and East Ridge pit two Pike County schools and rivals against one another. While both teams records last season fell short of what either team had hoped for, much experience was gained that should help them this year. Both teams come back with experienced squads and both come off years in which they had new head coaches for teams. After a year of experience in their playbooks should make each more competitive this season.

In Boyd County versus Belfry, you have two Kentucky playoff teams from last season who both lost major impact players to graduation. However both programs are loaded with depth and shouldn’t be expected to come out at anything less than their normal high powered offenses.

On night two, Shelby Valley against Pike Central takes two of Pike County’s largest schools and pits them against one another. Pike Central did not have the record that they anticipated having last season, while Shelby Valley continued on it’s road to becoming an Eastern Kentucky football power. Both will be playing for pride and to establish a tempo for their season.

Pikeville and Covington Holy Cross will be the wildcard game of the 25th Pike County Bowl as Pikeville comes in with a new head coach and Covington comes in after losing a lot of folks from last years squad.

More information on the 25th Pike County Bowl will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.