[doubledown]

The Paintsville/JC game was great during the "golden days". But Paintsville has no business even considering stepping on the same field as them anytime soon. I'm sure IF, and that's a BIG if, PHS starts improving and becomes competitive in 1A you will hear a huge wave of "We can take them on. They're not that good. We can play with them." just as there always was when I was coming up through the ranks, but in all reality there is no shot of them ever competing with, and definitely not beating, Johnson Central ever again as long as Jim Matney is there. The man can flat out coach. No other way around it. He has an outstanding coaching staff, a great scheme, the facilities, and most important of all he has a group of young men that would run through a brick wall for him if it meant they wouldn't let the man down. Until Paintsville starts getting serious commitment from players and improvement from top to bottom, they will continue to be a doormat for teams in their district, and will without a doubt have no business playing against a 4A title contender. They need to worry about the task at hand, and that's making this team competitive again in 1A football. And that will prove to be a very difficult task I feel like. I'm not doubting the ability of the coaching staff at all because I like them all personally and I hope they do a great job, but you've got some kids on this team that have no idea what a winning season feels like. Losing so much for consecutive years makes some high school athletes sick to their stomach and want to do whatever it takes to change it, and then there's others that start to get the "Well we tried hard." attitude. Which I feel like has been the general attitude in the past few years. Again I'm generally speaking as an overall team attitude. That will be the biggest influence that Runyon will have on this upcoming bunch for the rest of his tenure, is that they will learn that having a running clock in half of your games is not acceptable, losing your last 8 games is not acceptable, and being ranked as the worst football team in 1A isn't gonna cut it either.

agree with your post & very well said. BMR will return the Tiger program too district & regional contenders and maybe more.