[bball_fan]

I graduated from Betsy Layne in 2004, before my freshman year in 2000, my father begged me to go to Pikeville to play football. I didn't go because I wanted to stay with my friends, got way out of shape and played football only one year because it just was not worth it. We had four different coaches in my four years, and only won two games. When I started coaching middle school basketball from 2008-2014, Betsy Layne would have great programs in middle school but kids would go everywhere afterwards. What did stay together gave Betsy Layne the only real good three year run at football they ever had but even then, they had players starting at Pikeville and Prestonsburg that should have been at Betsy Layne.

Skip forward to me and my wife marrying and raising my (step)son. She is born and raised in Magoffin County, and we lived there for a few years. One of the first things I did was get my step children out of North Magoffin and transfer them to Johnson Central feeder school Highland. I had no faith in Magoffin County because it reminded me so much of Betsy Layne (and now Prestonsburg). The program does not support the kids and they do not go out of their way to commit to someone who can truly build a program and pull hometown kids back into the fold. Eastern Kentucky is like that from one corner to the other.

Prestonsburg has been taking steps to rebuild, not just football but a lot of different sports but the damage is done. This team use to be a power house. They should have won the state title in 93, and would have won it in 03 and 04 if it hadn't been for Belfry. Does anyone remember Belfry, Prestonsburg and Sheldon Clark (I believe in 04) being ranked 1, 2 and 3 in the state in Class 2A and all in the same district? The district was LOADED!