[2000PHS]

Sun Tzu wrote in “The Art of War” that “Every battle is won and lost before its ever fought” Coach Mac and his staff did a phenomenal job preparing these boys this week and it showed. No need to really say anything about the game. The scoreboard said it better than I ever could. A person could make a pretty compelling argument that this is the best team in Pikeville History. They certainly have some numbers on both sides of the ball and the schedule they played that would be hard to argue against. On a personal note, it was hard to fight back the emotions I felt when I saw my son trot out on to Kroger Field late in the game and play a couple of snaps with his JV teammates. Proud of this team and this entire community!

As for Paintsville. I think y’all know I don’t like you very much and I’m sure the feeling is mutual (Wouldn’t have it any other way!). But let me tell you a story that hopefully cheers you up a little:
In 2008 I sat at Paintsville watching my Brother play against you guys. It was senior night and there were 3-4 seniors being honored on a team with that consisted of 15-16 players at the most. I remember feeling very sad seeing a once proud and respected program fall on such hard times. I remember rumors flying around that Paintsville may not even have a team the next year if more kids didn’t come out. So, in 11 years Paintsville has went from the brink extinction to playing in a State Championship Game. That’s one heck of a turnaround in a relatively short amount of time. Coach Chirico deserves a ton of credit for that! I thought about my Ole pal Joey Couch this week and the good natured “Smack Talk” we’d enjoy on Facebook during the week of a Pikeville/Paintsville game. I hope I don’t have to tell you that regardless of what that scoreboard said today, Joey would’ve been proud of you! See y’all next year....HAIL PIKEVILLE!!!

Thank you for saying that about how far the Paintsville program has came under the direction of Joe Chirico. I do not think there was a better person (within reason) to take over the program during that time. Was this the best ever Paintsville team? No. Joe has had 3 or 4 better team since 2013 but this team found a way to get to Lexington. I do not like to make excuses and this game’s outcome was never changing but Paintsville was severely banged up, a lot of the guys that played did so because it was the state finals. True warriors. Proud of them.

Pikeville was an outlier in 1A. It was a bunch of decent 1A teams that could compete and then this super team that could have won 1-3A and played with/beat 95% of 4A.