[Do-double-gg]

I do remember in 2004, Johnson Central was scheduled to play Pike County Central... but sometime in the summer, Pike Central backed out/bought out their part of the contract.

It's good to play a few local teams... and when I say local I mean a team within your home county or a team from a county that borders you.

Prestonsburg, Betsy Layne, South Floyd, Allen Central, Sheldon Clark, Magoffin County, Morgan County, Lawrence County and Paintsville are the teams that would fall in to the category I mentioned.
Of those, Prestonsburg, Sheldon Clark or Lawrence County would be a great Home/Home series. I would like to see JC and P-Burg have a game on the Friday night of Apple Day or Jenny Wiley Days.

I have no idea if Lawrence County has been contacted by Johnson Central, but I would love to see us play every year. With that said the bulldogs were down quite a bit in the last 3 or so seasons so I don't know how playing us would have helped the eagles much. The Lawrence county program is starting to show some life and I am expecting a good season this year. Also the last coach we had had no plans to stay in Kentucky and went back to his home state but he gave us a very weak schedule to make himself look good that would have been in 2008 through 2010. I think coach will start to crank the schedule up after this season and the contracts with Boyd, Rowan, Raceland and Fairview will be over so if you have any say so over the team then give coach a call.

[oneijoe]

I tend to side with Oneijoe's argument. Pburg seemingly schedules to the level of their program.

When Pburg is "Up" they schedule "Up" traditionally.That's why they were not afraid to play Belfry out of district in 2009 or 2010. That's why they weren't afraid to play teams like Bell County and Ashland in 2004.

Let's be honest... over the past decade there may have been two...at the most three... years in which Pburg even would have been competitive with JC. I'm all for stretching your legs out and playing teams that will challenge you, but playing teams that will dismantle you year after year is a recipe for disaster. It's the same reason you don't see Matney scheduling elite Ohio teams or schools like Bowling Green or Trinity. It's the reason you don't see Belfry looking to start a series with the same.

I know it is frustrating for JC to struggle to find local teams who want to play them...but at the same time there are not many local teams JC SHOULD be playing

Well put, my friend. And very true.

If a team schedules the same opponents year after year it's altogether too often laziness on the part of the coach (or AD if he does it). It's one of the biggest reasons a team with a brand new coach gets plastered so often in their inaugural year - you're seeing an already made schedule smack up against a team whose coach doesn't know his personnel and had no part in setting that schedule.

Frankly, I just don't get Central's fixation with P-burg. The fixation on Paintsville could -somewhat- be understood due to the schools' common location/history of playing. But there never really was much history between the Eagles and Blackcats. Paintsville, Prestonsburg (and Pikeville) DOES have a long history...but JC was never a part of that old-time bunch of rivals.

Unless Central is satisfied with being the best local team (ignoring school size), the path to success for JC does NOT lie in a victory over Prestonsburg.



:popcorn:

[oneijoe]

Good post. :Thumbs:

And... I hate to beat a "dead horse" but.....
With the coal industry dying day by day, the number of players per school and the talent level WILL DROP over the next few seasons in Eastern KY. Across the board, in every sport. We will see a decrease in the number of kids coming out.

It's looking like we (JC) had better get used to playing out of state teams on a regular basis, season by season.

I would LOVE TO SEE JC play some upper middle/high class level teams from the Cincy area..... it may be a tough game, but I know the players would benefit.

Yes, agreed...

But IMO Central's players wouldn't benefit, nor do I think you'd personally end up enjoying Central playing Cincy-X, Moeller, Elder, or Colerain caliber programs. Maybe Roger Bacon or LaSalle would be useful games, though..

[Brandon40403]

Hate as a former player or hate now as a fan

[Cats2012]

As a Pike Central Alum I have to say i'm pretty disappointed with the Belfry hate on here. We all know Pike Central never was and probably never will be the program that Belfry is. I always did and still do look up to the Belfry program. However calling the kids up at Buckley's Creek arrogant is quite another matter. You have to realize they came from a program that was used to 4-6 and 5-5 seasons. Then here comes Chapman and they are winning 7, 8 and 9 games. That kind of new success would give any high school player the big head. Heck, it made me so proud to be a graduate of that school with what they've done up on the hill the last few years. Hating on a program for being proud of the new success they have? I don't agree with that at all. We even took Belfry to the wire a couple of times. I'm proud that we could compete with such a program. I also saw a Belfry fan post something about Pike Central doing something with horse feces. I'll tell you one better. When I was in high school at PC, the night before we played Belfry at Buckley's Creek some Pirate faithful or players came and ruined our facility. They spray painted red paint on our bleachers, our goal posts and in the middle of our field. If we really wanna get technical, yeah that happened. I've only ever known PC to respect Belfry. For their success. Apparently we can't be respected for a little success over a grown man who couldn't control his emotions. I expected better Pirate fans.