[WideRight05]

Yes, Jeremy Howell was released for being "too tough" on the players. I have Ashland ties and a connection to this situation. It disappointed a lot of people but due to the pension issue being so big right now it has hardly received discussion in the public arena with the exception of sports-oriented websites like BGR.

Jeremy was tough on his players, but he's not nearly as tough as the last two coaches and he's certainly no Bob Knight with regard to how he treats his players. If anything, he's real laid back but still has a competitive drive he uses in motivating his players. One of the differences in Jeremy compared to the prior coaches is he will actually play to his players and not try to to make them play to his system even when it's not the best style for them. He will make the needed adjustments.

There may be something I'm missing here, but I doubt it. The administration would not tell me anything when I reached out to them about it. Ashland has Tony Love and Steve Dowdy coaching them in football - both are much tougher on their players than Jeremy is with his in terms of perspective of yelling at them, etc. They have been at Ashland for 20+ years as assistant and Tony will be on his 6th season as head coach. Jeremy assisted for probably 4-5 years before he took the head basketball coach job and had there been a serious issue with him, it probably would have come up before he took the position. They only hired Jeremy because everyone else turned it down due to the shape of the program. I thought it was a real steal, knowing his coaching ability as well as how well he can relate to players.

I definitely think there was something political in them letting Jeremy go. The situation is just not adding up. The same thing was done in baseball to Jeff Wilcox when he had a down year with a young team after winning the region back to back years. Ashland's current baseball coach was hired, he has done well but I don't see anything he has done that Wilcox couldn't have accomplished.

Jeremy is awful young, but had he been this age in 2000 and Ashland hired him they would not have that long streak without a regional title that they have. Ashland has not won the region since 2002, but they have reached the regional finals several times and come up short. Had Jeremy been coaching during that time, he would probably have several regional titles and maybe a deep run in the state tournament. Ashland has created a mess, and I sure hope Jeremy goes to a local rival and beats Ashland. Jeremy turned around a program that was lacking in talent and he didn't deserve this. So far I have not encountered one person that is for his firing - not one.