Sports

Kickoff time has been set for WKU’s season-opening football game versus Kentucky.

The Hilltoppers will open their 2013 campaign on Saturday, August 31, at 6 p.m. at L.P. Field in Nashville.

The contest will mark the first games for both teams’ head coaches—Bobby Petrino at WKU and Mark Stoops at Kentucky. The Wildcats will be looking to avenge last season’s overtime loss to WKU in Lexington.

At athletic and academic standout from Hardin County has been named the Gatorade Kentucky Baseball Player of the Year.

Central Hardin High School senior Drew Harrington is a 6'6" left-handed pitcher who has signed to play his college ball at the University of Louisville.

Harrington has helped lead Central Hardin to a 26-4 record, and is 7-0 as a starting pitcher for the Bruins. He has 89 strikeouts in 50 innings pitched this season.

The Gatorade award also recognized Harrington's 3.59 GPA.

WKU head men's basketball coach Ray Harper announced Monday the hiring of 16-year collegiate coaching veteran Shawn Forrest as assistant men's basketball coach. Forrest spent the 2012-13 season at Louisiana-Lafayette, and prior to his time in Lafayette, Forrest had been an assistant coach at North Texas, Arkansas State and Troy, as well as Florida A&M.

Forrest helped the Ragin’ Cajuns to the quarterfinals of the 2013 Sun Belt Conference Tournament after coming to Louisiana-Lafayette after spending four seasons from 2008-09 to 2011-12 as an assistant coach at North Texas.

"I am really looking forward to working with Coach Harper and the rest of the staff and student-athletes here at WKU," Forrest said. "The job Coach Harper has done in the last two seasons is very impressive, and I think that WKU is one of the best basketball jobs in the country. It is not every day you get a chance to coach at a school that has been to the Final Four. I have admired this program for a while, and I could not turn down the job when Coach Harper called."

Forrest received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 1998.