[Hoot Gibson]

Hoot, you always make very good points with your posts. Another poster had said this earlier and I can agree that you always make valid points that can alter peoples opinions at times.

Thank you both for the kind words. I try to support JC whenever I can but I came under heavy fire a few months ago when I criticized the school's attempt to stay in 5A. I still think that that process was badly botched by JC's administrators, but I digress.

Coach Matney's record speaks for itself and he does not need me to defend him but I remember during his years at Sheldon Clark a game in which he stopped calling a play that totally baffled JC for two first half TDs to avoid running the score up in the second half. It is the same kind of thing that Johnson Central's former coach, Bill Musick, would have done if the shoe had been on the other foot. Johnson Central is very fortunate to have been able to hire Musick and Matney. Both men have been instrumental in building the school's program to what it become.

I first met Jim Matney during a wrestling weigh in for a match between JC and Belfry back in 1974 or 1975 and he struck me as a class act even at that young age. Intense, confident (maybe a bit cocky), and very competitive, yes...but he was always a good sport and willing to share his wrestling knowledge with his opponents (JC was just starting its wrestling program at the time and we were really green).