[Sidelines]

OK. This is weird. My buddy called me long distance this morning to tell me I was being "trashed" on this sight. First of all, I am glad to see there is another sight (that is free) to talk about high school sports! I am also surprised to see that I am being talked about on it! I thought I was long forgotten.

Moderators, I assure you I am who I say I am, please let this post go on, it will be my first and last.

My name is DAYNE BROWN. I live in St. Cloud Florida. Let's get that out of the way that I am not like some of the gutless cowards on this sight who get on here and trash people that they don't know, and talk about things that they have no idea what they are talking about- while hiding under the security blanket of a false name.

I will say this first. When I took over the football program at Magoffin in 1999, I decided I was going to build everything around "class". That is harder to do than it sounds but I started first and foremost by never saying anything negative about the coach whom I was replacing, Eric Ratliff (Who I happen to respect very much for his football knowledge and coaching ability by the way). We tried to give people incentive to be at practice, by both making it fun and by not allowing them to play if they skipped out.

I started the job only three weeks before the first scrimmage and it is a credit to coach Ratliff that we finished the season as well as we did because the kids had worked alot on fundamentals during his tenure which left me with the ability to install the new system.

Secondly, I will say this. It is obvious that in the eyes of some I did a good job in my time there, and others think I was lousy. I will let my number of wins and losses speak for itself over time but simply say that when we were fortunate enough to win it was because our kids did a great job and when we lost it was my fault because I did not have them prepared enough. BUT, I did my best. I mean I gave it everything I had. EVERYTHING. It hurts when you give your all to a goal, especially towards helping young people (which after all should be the main purpose for any teacher or coach right?) and people talk about you and criticize you...sometimes the you are backstabbed or criticized by people you tried to help the most- parents of kids who's camp you paid for, or maybe the ones you gave a ride home everyday, or people who you considered friends who stood at the fence on Friday night and called you and your kids losers. But still that is a part of the job that I have learned to live with, it goes with the territory.

Thirdly, let me address those who say things like "this football team never lifted weights in four years" and things that insinuated that we didn't work hard. THAT IS A LOAD OF CRAP! You can question my record, wins- losses, play calling, whatever you want but ask kids like T. Allen, J. Helton, A. Smith, B. Marshall and tons of other players I had during my tenure why we didn't lift and you will be laughed at!

Fourth, I wil make one personal comment. I loved (and still love) my kids. PERIOD. I miss all of you guys and think about you everyday. YOU are the stories I tell my kids in St. Cloud!! I am so proud of all of you!! When we left Salyersville, we left alot of students, faculty, friends and family that we cared about deeply. After driving as far as Savannah Georgia, in the old U-haul, we stopped to get gas and were still wiping the tears out of our eyes. In the deepest part of our hearts we will always be HORNETS. That was the thing that made the decision to leave the hardest thing I have ever (or will ever) have to do! It turned out to be the right one, we are happy and fortunate to be in another great community.

Finally I will address all of the "critical" people on here (you know who you are) As I have said before, I believe as any coach should, I had my priority list in good order. I put the kids first and worked as hard as I could. Also notice that I have never once said anything negative about the administration, players, or current staff in the process of posting this....which is something some of you need to learn, CLASS! I would like to wish the new administration and football staff- especially coach Howard luck in their endeavors.

On a side note, "vince" (whoever you really are) you seem to know an awful lot about me and the terrible job I did during my tenure at MCHS. You also seem to be very aware of what is currently going on with the Magoffin football program. I guess what I am trying to say is that speaking from my personal experience, you seem to be someone who is "in the know"....perhaps you are someone MCHS should hire as a consultant or, maybe you are someone who is actually on the staff presently. If you are on staff or are considering hepling the MCHS football program get back to it's illustrious glory days, I have a couple of suggestions for you-

1. Don't say anything that could be mis-interpreted as being critical of the previous staff-we loved those kids and as you can see many of them are very loyal to us and you would only be alienating the present staff by doing so.

2. Make sure to get copies of all of those great playbooks you mentioned, the one from Marty Jaggers, Ken Roark and especially the ones about special teams since I was too stupid to ever waste time practicing "that there dumb kicking game" .

3. Don't spend so much time in front of the computer! Perhaps if you are currently helping MCHS or you do in the near future, your time would be better served helping with after school conditioning,weightlifting, or supporting other MCHS events such as boys and girls hoops, baseball, or whatever. After all you may run into some recruits at these events.

4. Make sure to keep mentioning "That there big losing streak Coach Brown had"
It makes you look really smart and gosh when you say that I can almost envision Bill Belichik saying the same thing about the coaches he replaced...It will also detract from any unsuccessful or future unsuccessful events in which you are or could ever become affiliated.

5. Sign your name to your posts, especially when you are going to be negative or disrespectful of all of the blood sweat and tears that someone gave a good portion of their life to.

6. If I come up north during the spring or the holidays (if you have given your name by then) could you sit down with me and show me perhaps how real people
run a football program? Gosh that would be great!

Very Sincerely,

Dayne Brown
St. Cloud Florida

Coach Brown we miss you too, I played for you all the years you coached at MCHS and never once had a complaint to say about you, we might not have been the best but we had fun trying...