[Tiger27]

Paintsville has always had kids playing football who did not live in the city school district. I have absolutely no problem with that. Walter Brugh offered to find me a ride to Paintsville when my family moved out to the county during my 8th grade year if I wanted to continue playing football at Paintsville.

I think every student should be able to switch schools at the beginning of the school year and attend whatever school they want. I also think that they should be eligible to play sports and participate in other extra-curricular activities immediately. So I have no issue with non-district kids playing for any school, including Paintsville. I don't believe in holding kids hostage to a school system if parents believe their kids would be better off elsewhere.

On average, it does not matter whether you randomly pick 100 boys born in Paintsville or 100 boys born outside of Paintsville in Johnson County. Both groups have the same athletic potential. They are, for the most part, descendants of the same ancestors. Johnson Central is several times larger than Paintsville, so it has several times more potentially good athletes. For much of its history, bad coaching and politics kept Johnson Central's program from achieving its potential in sports. The county never lost enough athletes to Paintsville that it should have hurt their sports programs.

If you want to re-read my posts, you will find that I have repeatedly complimented Paintsville's past football coaches, which were the primary reason for their long tradition of excellence. I am most familiar with Coaches Brugh and Lemaster, both of whom were outstanding IMO, but I am not close enough to the current program to either criticize or defend the current staff.

As for out of district players, I have never said and will never say that they are the only reason Paintsville has ever had good football teams. Paintsville fans should be proud that many players over the years chose to enroll at Paintsville for their high school years - not be defensive about it. It means that Paintsville was doing things right and those kids wanted to be part of a successful program. Students, including athletes are a school's customers and they should not be forced to put up with a bad product.

:Thumbs:
Good post