[Dungy]

I casually look at this site weekly and post about once a month. Generally, I check on high school football, my favorite sport, and mostly Pineville, Middlesboro, Harlan and Harlan County (schools in places I have lived or have friends) and Hazard, where I now live. I am not interested in debates or arguments that mean nothing and solve nothing. We as fans are largely irrelevant, especially on internet gossip boards, but it is fun to simply keep up with what is going on in places you can’t get to. You can check all of my posts and will find that this is the first reply with a specific direction.

That said, a couple of statements on here are hypocritical and, while usually amusing, they are very close to offensive due to their extreme ignorance of some facts.

Due to “Bear” in a particular poster’s name and the tone of another poster’s comments, it is easily surmised that they are fans of Harlan County High School. That’s good. So am I. What worries me is that others may think because I occasionally wear a Black Bear t-shirt that I automatically think like some of the posters on this thread.

To avoid that, here are some facts worth considering:

Harlan County’s non-district schedule (the only portion they can control) was as follows in 2010:
1. Leslie County (4-8, 2A playoffs, second round)
2. Pulaski County (11-2, 5A playoffs, third round)
3. Bell County (13-1, 4A playoffs, fourth round)
4. Lee, VA (4-6, no playoffs, Class A – smallest VA division)
5. Powell Valley, VA (5-6, playoffs first round, Class A – smallest VA division)

Coach Larkey is a great coach and builds good programs. He is doing no different at Harlan County. I am excited, and with the new alignment moving Highlands, Harlan County could actually bring a title to this area this year. Nevertheless, no one at Harlan County can cast stones at Harlan’s schedule.

An appropriate comparison does not reflect favorably.

For example,

Pulaski County (2010) was a good team in the same class (5A) reaching the third round of the playoffs. Harlan is playing Pikeville (2011) this season, a good team in the same class that reached the third round. Both games are away from home. This would have to be considered an equal opponent.

Bell County (2010) was a great team that reached the fourth round of the playoffs. They were in 4A (now dropped to 3A), a class actually beneath Harlan County. Harlan can’t go below Class A, but Corbin is 2A, actually one class above, and is a good team that also reached the fourth round. Even though Harlan County was actually playing down and Harlan playing up, this can be considered a push considering all the circumstances and where all four programs are.

Now we get to the problem…
Leslie County, Lee and Powell Valley all are three and four classes below Harlan County and all were mediocre with losing records. Harlan cannot go below Class A to get teams that would compare. Granted, Harlan should not get extra credit for scheduling Class A teams or for the fact they cannot find teams three or four classes below them. However, how can any Harlan County fan bash another team’s choice of opponents when they dipped so low for nearly a third (3 of 10) of their regular season schedule? For a proper contrast, Harlan County would have to play no lower than 5A schools (Harlan cannot go below 1A). In addition, Harlan County would have to seek out teams three and four classes up (in order to match Harlan playing Knox Central or even Harlan County, as the posters seem to want). For that to be the case, Harlan County would need to schedule Cincinnati St. Xavier, Mater Dei or at least Louisville Trinity, but most definitely not three classes below to Leslie, Lee and Powell Valley.

The only real argument that can be made is distance and location. Harlan County can reasonably say that those bigger, better teams are too far away and will not play (though I doubt there are phone records seeking a regular season game with Highlands, Trinity or even Newport Catholic, as one poster pointed out). There is no problem. You play teams you can afford to get to, that hopefully challenge you and that you think you can beat. That is what good coaches like Larkey and Donahue seek. It builds programs, wins and confidence. Too many beat downs are unproductive. Too many cupcakes make you soft. At the same time, Harlan County fans (like myself) cannot disparage Harlan’s schedule at all. Harlan County is not close to many of the good, larger schools, but they cannot get extra credit for playing the weaker, smaller schools in their area just like Harlan gets no bonus for playing Class A schools (since they cannot go any lower). Based on where the programs are, both teams have coaches that have made schedules in their best interest and should be commended, but adding Harlan County when you just got rid of Knox Central would not make sense for Harlan, and adding a fourth small school to try to beat on would not make sense for Harlan County. Again, fan appeal, proximity and income generation are the real arguments in favor of such a game, but imaginations as to students transferring, fear or Harlan needing good competition on its schedule portrayed a lack of thought that prompted a response.