[baseball1974]

Coach Keeton left him in a position to be successful. Loaded group of sophomores with a pitching staff led by Chandler Shepard. Probably one of the best classes to go through Lawrence County along with 2008 class in a long time. Most coaches would have rode this class thru graduation. A monkey could have coached the 2011 class and won a couple regions. Factually 2 of Feltner's titles were won by this class.

A direct comparison is Pikeville's Steve Priode who has won 164 and lost 81 over that same period with 2 region titles.

My point is that just because you have a better record does not always mean you have a better coach. Feltner works hard and I will give him that, but lets not give him all the credit when there are so many factors involved.

Neither he nor Priode are near the top of the region. That distinction in my mind would go to Shane Simpkins. Took a program that was under a heap of rubble and turned them into region contenders annually and got fired. Huge travesty to the baseball players of Prestonsburg who have not graduated. The Principal threw them under the bus and that is a shame.

I keep wondering if Lawson will be able to build at PCC what he had at Pikeville? If a descent group comes through there he could win several titles. I was disappointed in JC this year, and I thought they should have ran through the region and been able to win a couple games in Lexington. I couldn't believe some of the teams that beat them this year. They have some extremely good arms. I only seen them play once but I'm assuming their offense let them down this year. That has been an issue for them in the past too. I remember seeing them get "no-hit" one year during the first round at the state tournament. East Ridge has a good coach and I'm assuming he is staying for awhile. I haven't heard different. They will start to flourish. Belfry needs to get over their hump of being content with just being above average. Doesn't seem to be much fire in those guys on the baseball field. Pikeville will be good but they'll only be good when they have a lot of talent. Nothing against Priode, but I don't think he's capable of competing for a region unless he is stacked with talent. I believe that trip to lexington may have saved his job for awhile. I don't know enough about the coach at Paintsville. I've heard he's a great guy. Paintsville is kind of like belfry in that their talent is much better than their results. They've had good enough teams several years to win the region and I'm surprised they haven't won more. LC has the best facilities and has had them for a decade. They are able to be way ahead of every other team in the region when the season starts. By the time other teams are getting into mid-season form, the district tourney is beginning. Coach Keeton deserves to be credited for that success. If he would've had a huge ego he would have stayed until Chandler graduated because he was well aware of how he had set things up. That is why he felt comfortable enough to leave. He would never have left that baseball program unless he knew it was setup for success. If they had moved sooner to the 15th, Keeton would have won several titles. Unfortunately, he was staring down the barrel of Jody Hamilton and Boyd County every year the post season began. It would have been very difficult to mess up what he built at LC.