Boyle County and Johnson Central will battle for the Class 4A state title game on Saturday.

During a pep rally on Thursday, a man who appears to be a Boyle County school official was recorded on video saying, “I hope that uh…a lot of people in Johnson Central people can’t even count to 100, so I vote for Boyle County’s defense to hold them under 100 yards rushing, and our offense to score 100 points. I’m picking Boyle County 100-0.”

It appears the original video was deleted from all social media sites. Though it has been reposted by other individuals. That did not stop Eastern Kentuckians from reacting on social media.

“I’ve been insulted in my playing career and my coaching career too,” said J.R. VanHoose, a Johnson County native, in a Twitter post. “It’s just a shame that some people in this state continue to insult others because of where they live or how smart they think they are. I’m proud of where I live!”

Superintendent of Boyle County Schools Mike LaFavers has given a statement where he wrote:

I heard about this a couple of hours ago. I would like to apologize to the Johnson County School system and its community. These comments do not represent my feelings or the district I serve. I plan to investigate this matter further on Friday and I will take steps to ensure this does not happen again. Once again, my apologies to anyone who was offended.

Earlier in the week before the Boyle County video surfaced, Johnson Central Head Football Coach Jim Matney addressed the stereotypes kids from the mountains face.

“We’re labeled sometimes as lazy and ignorant,” Matney said. “And I think the one thing that this really proves is that all these six teams going from the Mountains is that we’re far from stupid, we’re far from lazy, we’re far from ignorant. Sometimes the size of the heart of these people here in the Mountains is just overwhelming.”

While things are heating up between Boyle County and Johnson Central an old rivalry has come to an end as two schools support each other.

Johnson Central and Paintsville Independent’s rivalry has been put aside as both teams travel to Kroger Field to compete for the State Championship in their respective classes.

Everybody has come together as a community to send the players off.

That support was shown throughout Paintsville as restaurants, stores and government buildings displayed encouraging messages on their signs and windows.

“Tiger Town” and “Eagle Nation” were graffitied on many windows and some stores are offering discounts for mountain teams that made it to Kroger Field.

“All our teams that are going to the championship, we would like to offer them a 10 percent discount here at Prime,” said Tibbs, who works at Prime Diner and Grill.

That spirit of support is contagious on Paintsville’s Main Street.

“All of the businesses try to support the schools as much as possible, ’cause, I mean, they’re our customers. And their parents are our customers. So we want to do anything we can to support them,” said Lynette and Laurel owner Victoria Childers, whose storefront was bathed in blue and gold.

The support of the community, according to the men who lead both teams, does not go unnoticed. A community-sponsored celebration luncheon was hosted for both teams at the Ramada in Paintsville on Thursday.

“Everybody is excited in Johnson County,” said Paintsville head coach Joe Chirico. “Paintsville, Johnson Central, they’re both behind their schools 100 percent, wanting them to do well.”

Jim Matney agreed.

“It is incredible. Most places we go, we take more fans than the home team does,” Matney said. “There’s so much interest here in Johnson County.”

Chirico and Matney said the joint-lunch was a great way to kick off the trip to Kroger Field as the schools represent their county.

“We like to go and compete and just show that the kids in the mountains, from all of the schools in the mountains, are special kids. That they’re hard-working, that they’re honest, and that they’re very capable of anything,” Matney said.

The Tigers will take on the Pikeville Panthers on Friday for a 2 p.m. kickoff. The Eagles will face off with Boyle County Saturday. at 4:30 p.m.