[buckets]

Harlan doesn't seem to be very competitive in basketball. How many district championships or even district runners up has Harlan achieved in the last ten years? I hear that there are some talented kids at Harlan that aren't even on the team. Why? I think we are ready for some new blood at Harlan. And... just how do you go about letting a long time coach go? Come on, he's 87 and 155 in 9 years. I say give someone else a chance. Coach Lester devoted a large part of his life to Harlan,but if he doesn't want to leave how do you let him go without hurting his feelings. There will be hard feelings any way you go about it. How many years would HC or any other school let a man coach and average winning less than 55% of his games and no trophies to boot. Not 9 years I guarantee. Let someone take that job and have a winning season next year and see how fast they jump to give Akal the job. Coach Lester should be praised for his efforts at Harlan and allowed to go gracefully,but now is the time for change and change we should. Coach Lester nor the administration at Harlan should make this any harder than it has to be. Coach Lester is respected in the HHS community and he should be remembered that way.

In the 9 years that Lester has been there what other boys sports teams has a winning record? I would guess to say that not one sport has a winning record over the last 9 years or so. That is just a guess. If no team has a winning record over that time period then why so harsh on the basketball coach. Who are the players walking the halls that are so talented that did not play? From everything I gathered from talking to Coach Lester they had a plan, it did not work out and they told him he could come back for another year. Who would want to do that? Also, they will have a hard time winning a district title. They would have to beat Bell or Harlan Co to have a chance to win a district title. That will not be easy, unless they go out and get some players from the county. The last 15 years the only time HHS has had some success was because half of the team was made up of county kids.