Bluegrassrivals

Guys we all know that the 15th region has went downhill over the years. The competition is just depleted. What is happening? You don't see any Todd May's or Jr Vanhoose's anymore. The kids just aren't working hard anymore to get good and become a better player. You don't see any "Gym Rats" anymore.

smile13_g: What do you think? :?

Great Topic BTW.. Ill agree we havent seen a great player out of the 15th in a while. However, I dont know the reasoning behind it..These players have just as much potential as the next..

I would say because there is more to do these days....kids get out and experience life more other than just focus on a sport....and a lot of kids....esp in the 15th....play more than one sport so therefor they arn't as good in a certain sport.

"Beef" Wrote:I would say because there is more to do these days....kids get out and experience life more other than just focus on a sport....and a lot of kids....esp in the 15th....play more than one sport so therefor they arn't as good in a certain sport.

I think that this has a lot to do with it.

Also there aren't many Vanhooses that come along in small public schools.
But i do agree about the talent being down.

I agree. I don't ever really remember hearing about a dominate player, since i have played. I played in the day of Todd "Heff" Conley, JR Vanhoose, I have started seeing the tallent drop when i started playing. Playing in the mid 90s I saw some great players, but now there is just no true standout. To me it seems like a team now in the 15th wouldn't stand a change against Elkhorn City or Feds Creek of the late 80s and early 90s. I know Feds Creek had 5 players playing college ball once they graduated. Within a couple of years to have that many good players, it's just unheard of anymore...

Definitely there hasn't been many great players come from the 15th since the golden boys from Paintsville. But I think it's made a more competitive region out of the 15th.

I think drugs are a big problem in the area. That and politics.. There are boys in this region that could have potential to play college ball but either never get the chance or throw it away on drugs.

I think that we have had some talented players come from here over the past few years, Then they go off to college and THE END

"torQQue" Wrote:Great Topic BTW.. Ill agree we havent seen a great player out of the 15th in a while. However, I dont know the reasoning behind it..These players have just as much potential as the next..

Thanks torQQue. But, I think the reason behind all of it is lazyness. I also do believe there is more to do than just play ball. If you think about that though, is that truely loving the sport?

I agree with many of the statements that have been posted because politics and poor work ethics are a big reason why the talent level has dropped. I know of a local school (better not mention any names) 8) that would be very successful in all sports, but politics run the school. When I attended paintsville, politics were never a big issue in sports that i was aware of. If you were good, you played and that was the bottom line, which is a different story at the school im referring too with the politics issue. Hopefully, with this young talent in the 15th region (Landon Slone, Jamie McCarty, JD VanHoose, etc) the level of play will be back into good shape. I miss the days a 15th region team could actually go to state and compete.

Well the 15th region hasnt seen much heigth in the past few years either if you still had the old Johns Creek and Virgie team from like 5 years back there would b u some dandes for recent times Chase Lyons was the only one left from the JC team lol.

The Virgie team this year though is going to produce some VERY VERY talented ball players i realy would suggest u all go watch them in County The Ashley kid a 6'3 7th grader and a kid nicknamed Bacon 15 i thinks his # he is a 6'3 7th grader also

slammaBamma, Im talking about later in time. Im talking about the JR Vanhoose's and Jody Thompson's. I didnt think chase lyons would hold a prayer to either of them.

Height really isn't much of a factor in a ball game. If you outplay whoever your againest, you'll win everytime unless of course it a 7'0 footer.

I went to Feds Creek and had the privilage to play against Jody Thompson and Rodney Fuller ( great guard) I also played with Shannon Keene. I have also played against JR Vanhoose at Paintsville. These players i mentioned here could absolutly smoke any of the players that are playing today. That's just the way I see it.Rodney Fuller was a threat as soon as he crossed the half court line. Jody could do it all, JR was just so tall he was too hard to guard. Shannon Keene was just a great point guard, that made the team run like a machine. He also had over 60 pts in a grade school game... The year I played with him, he probably scored 25-30 pts per game, but also would dish the ball to the open player.

OH YEAH.. I forgot to mention the great players that paintsville had, JR Vanhoose, Todd Tackett, Brian Lyons, Craig Ratliff.... This team should have won state in 95 and 96, not just 96

I spent my whole high school career on a very good basketball team. But we never could win more then 10 games a season. The reason for this is because I had to play great teams in the region, such as Paintsville, Prestonsburg and Allen Central. All these schools had great players such as Vanhoose, Andy Jarvis and Thomas Jenkins. So everyone is right there is no standout players anymore..

SuperMario Wrote:Guys we all know that the 15th region has went downhill over the years. The competition is just depleted. What is happening? You don't see any Todd May's or Jr Vanhoose's anymore. The kids just aren't working hard anymore to get good and become a better player. You don't see any "Gym Rats" anymore.

smile13_g: What do you think? :?

No "gym rats" because of the likes of Microsoft and a little invention called XBOX 360 (Live) ..my son seems to spend every free minute he has on that stupid thing.....and Halo 2..... and talks more about the release of Halo 3 than any other thing on the planet.....geeezz I hate the day I agreed to buy that thing.....I thought I was being "smart" by paying for it on a reserve and when it came in there would be no lines, no fighting....hell I hate that thing so bad now that if my house was robbed and it wasnt taken.....I would hide it and say the robbers got it LOL!!!! We built a full court cement court for his friends and him to shoot around and play ball.. ..they completely began ignoring it existed.....its a good thing I coach pee wee basketball for my daughter and youngest son's team ... my husband ended up lowering the goals to 8 feet and the little kids love it......NOW if I could just get my oldest son to stop bringing 5 or 6 friends over for Halo 2 tourneys and turning my kitchen into what they think is a 7-11 ( more like a 24-7) then I would be ok LOL!!!

I agree to many "gagets" to play with today. I hardly ever see anyone on an outside court in the summer. It is hard for me to get guys to go to the gym in the summer to play. Crazy!!!

Beef Wrote:I would say because there is more to do these days....kids get out and experience life more other than just focus on a sport....and a lot of kids....esp in the 15th....play more than one sport so therefor they arn't as good in a certain sport.

I completely agree with this.

J. R. VanHoose Wrote:I agree to many "gagets" to play with today. I hardly ever see anyone on an outside court in the summer. It is hard for me to get guys to go to the gym in the summer to play. Crazy!!!

Just to prove the point. How many times during the summer, when you were a kid, did you come by the gym and there NOT be someone there?

The same when i was in the 7th or 8th grade and i asked coach about getting in the gym during the summer or at night. He told me just to go down there. Well, if i went, there was one of 4 people, always there and sometimes a full load. Notice I said, "always."

John, Jerry and Keith lived there. So, that's what I started doing and noticed there about 4 or 5 other guys my age that started playing all the time during thed summer. By the time I was a senior at Paintsville, it was the same way for when J.R. was in middle school. We had a bunch of guys from Paintsville and Central that would play all the time during the summer for hours and hours.

The best part was all the guys that played when I was in middle were all in college when i was in high school. They'd show up at random times all summer and play. They'd bring in players from wherever they were and we would flat out ball. Real runs with real players...all day. I can just think up about 10 guys I've known over the years that had their own key...including myself.

I'm not home now, but I assume none of this is happenning. When you play against that kind of comp from the time you're a kid, the college game is less of an adjustment. Plus, all the young kids are more interested. It's not about "just playing ball." It's about learning some dedication and discipline, so you know what it takes to get an education or get your education paid. Anyone who thinks it's just about basketball, is being very obtuse and not considering the residual affect of not only the kid, but other kids. If a bunch of ball being played at the gym or rec center keeps one kid's idle hands out of trouble, it's more than worth it.

JR, Does coach still have his camp?
Anybody still come in for it?
I assume not, since I haven't heard about it in a couple of years. If so, wtf?

Anyway, the point is, if it's not happening, it would behoove everyone to try and revive it and I'd help anyway I could. :Thumbs:

Nice post Big Jim.

I agree it has declined since the playstation. However, you don't find many kids built like J.R. or Todd May either. We used to have fun by playing wiffle ball, tackle football, or play some basketball. Now it is play Madden and smoke dope.

Teams are made in the fall and winter, players are made in the summer. I remember in the winter of 1994, then Superentendent Leon Burchett told the story that we and his wife Patty went to the board office on a Sunday morning. After being there for a few minutes they heard a basketball bouncing and they looked out the back windows to see who would be playing basketball in February, and it was JR VanHoose. This was less than 24 hours after being named to the 57th District All-Tournament team as an 8th grader. Thats why he, and the other kids that been named in the above post were as good as they were.
Honestly, I've watched a lot of basketball games this year and one thing I've noticed, there is a technical foul almost everynight from a player, not a coach. That's something that bothers me. Do these kids think there so good, they can say or do whatever they want? Until you've been a winner, don't try and act like one.

John Pelphery Nuff Said