[Superman20]

Chet Griffith would have been a different player had Matney taken over the program in 2001, as would have everybody else on that team. Paintsville has always had some talented players and they always will have but bad coaching could make them look much less talented as it did at Johnson Central.

The secret to Paintsville's success in the past was solid coaching. I can still remember Walter Brugh flattering me from 6th grade through 8th grade as a potential PHS football player. That was what he did in the off season. When my family moved out of the district, he told me that if I wanted to play football at Paintsville, he would find a ride to school for me. Paintsville coaches back then used the carrot and the stick. If you chose not to play football, you could expect to be asked repeatedly why a big (or fast, or strong, etc.) boy like you did not come out for football. There was a lot of peer pressure to play in those days as well. Very few good Paintsville athletes dared to say no to Coach Brugh. That is part of what is missing today from Paintsville football.

It is ironic that Paintsville had a coach in David Lemaster who actually beat a Matney coached team at least once. But a lot of Paintsville alumni were never satisfied with Burr's calm demeanor and low key approach to coaching. Paintsville lost one of the best football coaches in eastern Kentucky when he decided to quit coaching. I would have loved to have seen him take over at Johnson Central when Musick left.

As long as Matney coaches Johnson Central, Paintsville will not have a team that will be anywhere near the Golden Eagles' level and it has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with superior numbers and good coaching. Even if Coach Lemaster had kept coaching Paintsville, the Tigers would not likely have beaten JC either but they would have fielded a much more competitive team than they have now.

The people who did not appreciate Lemaster as a coach are getting what they deserve but it is a shame that the players are suffering the consequences. Having lived through three very lean years of Johnson Central football, I sympathize and I hope things start to turn around soon for the Tigers.

Your right. I can agree that JC should beat paintsville every year because of the numbers. JC has done everything right in their coaching hires. Used to, paintsville had better coaching in almost every sport. Since Bill Mike retired, and Burrhead resigned that hasn't been the case. Like I have said on here before, the schools have completely flip flopped. It's all Paintsville's administrations fault, and in the past it was Jc's fault. Atleast when JC tried to replace musick, they went after coaches that actually had coaching experience, instead of what PHS did by giving the job to a man with one years experience. lol