[Mr. Obvious]

Folks, Middlesboro football may never be what it once was. I think we need to accept that. It’s not because these coaches don’t have the knowledge or the ability to lead a football team. Middlesboro has been blessed with tremendous athletes through the years with a few pockets of unreal talent. The year you’re talking about, in 1998, we had the best collection of talent in our school’s history quite possibly. Better than the year before and even better than the year after. It’s simply not fair to compare every Middlesboro football team to the 1998 Middlesboro Yellow Jackets. Hell, very few high schools in eastern Kentucky, regardless of size, could field a team with that kind of talent. Those kids turned around in the spring semester of that same school year and made it to the Final Four in baseball. Of course fan pride and town pride was at an all-time high. It will never be like that again. Middlesboro fans need to deal with that.

Now, can we still get pockets of good talent? Yes, we have and we will. There will be years when we may have big guys up front with an inexperienced backfield. Other years, it may be the opposite. I think its been pretty tough for the coaches to build a winning mentality with such looming district games. That’s the honest truth. Also, as the well paying jobs have left Middlesboro, so have many of the families of good athletes. There isn’t a magical answer to solve all the problems in Middlesboro.

People are working hard to make something that Middlesboro citizens can be proud of. There is new life downtown and a younger generation of officials are running for office. Hopefully, this will usher in some new life and fresh ideas into Middlesboro that can make it an attractive place to work and live. In the mean time, cheer for your kids. Support your coaches. Take your family out to Bradner on Friday nights and have fun watching high school football. I guarentee you that nobody wants to win more than Massengill. He was a big part of that 1998 team you talk about and was born and raised in this town. He is acutely aware of what it used to be like and how much it means to win. I would imagine there are very few people that could say the same. Since he has come they have overhauled the weight room with significant upgrades. They have rejuvenated the facilities to make the kids proud to walk into their locker room and onto that playing field. They have overhauled the youth football program to better mesh with their current scheme and be a better feeder system than it has been in the last 10 years. They have recruited and hired a passionate middle school football staff that is equally devoted to Middlesboro sports.

I’m looking forward to watching the Jackets this year and am hopeful that our experience this year will put us in a good position to be very competitive in our new district next year.