[BlackcatAlum]

Has Prestonsburg ever been this bad? Is Magoffin County good? Have they ever beaten PBurg before?

I’m not sure on the history of the series, but I know in my lifetime Prestonsburg hasn’t ever struggled this bad for this long.

I looked back and the program started dipping after the 2014 season. The Blackcats are 25-39 since 2015 (including last nights game). The previous six seasons before that they were 53-23. They haven’t been past the second round of the playoffs since 2014.

Why has the program dipped since 2015? Well if you looked at the last 25 years of Pburg football you’ll notice that they’ll be very good for 2 maybe 3 seasons and then dip for 1 or 2 seasons. That’s the trend I’ve noticed. The dips haven’t ever been this severe, but Pburg was really good in 2014. Then you had over a dozen football players from the feeder program transfer to Paintsville for the 16-17 school year that helped lead Paintsville to a Class A state championship last season. You also had some leave the high school program after Derossett that played a role in Pikeville winning the state championship in 2019. If you followed the trends of success at Pburg you’ll notice that if that group had stayed at Pburg then you’re looking at 2018-2020 seasons being very successful.

However, I could be wrong. I’m just playing the trends game. Obviously a lot more has played into the program struggling the last 5-6 seasons: Soccer has been great since 2018, interest in football isn’t what it use to be, the economy is bad, and a lot of Floyd County families have lost faith in the FC School System. So while they live in the district, they’re sending their children to schools in bordering counties.

The list of top athletes living in or from Floyd County that are thriving or have recently thrived at Johnson Central, Paintsville, and Pikeville is crazy. But Floyd County has no one to blame but themselves. I won’t dive into that mess.