[Old School Hound]

I'm an outsider and I don't pretend to know as much about Clay Co. sports as those who live around there. It sounds like there is a lot of politics in play at Clay(as there is in a lot of other places).  As far as in-game coaching goes, from what I've observed, Gray is a pretty good coach. He's beaten a lot of good coaches. I don't think coaching is the problem. Politics seems to be the problem and why Clay doesn't have the level of talent that we are used to. 

Coach Keith gave us 13th region fans a lot of good basketball to watch over the years. My favorite teams to watch play were the Richie, Russ, and Russ teams. Just phenomenal. Those teams helped gain the 13th region a lot of respect. I'm thankful I got to watch those teams play. 

One of my favorite games was at Corbin. People were lined up four deep on at the ends of the gym(I was one of them). It was Richie's junior or senior year. Clay was ranked near the top of the state polls(maybe AT the top). Corbin was really, really good, led by a transfer from Middleboro who was really good. Eddie Sutton was in the house to watch Richie, who lit Corbin up in the first half. Clay blitzed the Hounds in that first half and led by 30 at halftime. I thought they looked like one of the best HS teams I had ever seen play live.  Corbin made a furious second half comeback and cut the lead to 4, with the place going bonkers. Clay held on to win the game by around 10, I think. Great memories.   Ritchie has a connection to Corbin, btw. He was born in Corbin. Too bad he couldn't have played for us. lol

Outsider or insider how can you think Gray is a good coach???  Are you kidding me??  During his 6 years he has accomplished nothing......He has literally won 2 regional games and not in the same year.  2 years he didn't even get out of district to make it to region (which never happens at Clay Co)......He has had talent but they got worse under his coaching so you can't blame the kids.....He is hands down the worst coach in the history of our program.  Keith was a legend and his teams preformed every year.....Mike Jones at least had 1 regional tournament championship in his coaching days at Clay........Spurlock at least made it to region during his years and was a threat........Ivy Burchell can't be judged in his boys coaching days because he inherited a program that was down and didn't have time to build it up...Marcum was the best coach Clay has had besides Keith.  Marcum made it to the regional finals 5 our of 6 years and won it twice and Clay was competitive night in and night out with the best teams in the state. The political sheep can say all they want that Clay is the youngest team in the state and lost 100% of their scoring and that is why they are down this year.....and I will answer the same way everytime......a good coach builds a program....you don't put all your money into one group and neglect another and that has happened in the past 4-5 years under Gray and now you are reaping the benefits of that.  If you want to take it one step further if you are a good coach then guys will want to play for you.  Clay has had several kids leave and several sitting at the high school that could help but the team but have made it known they refuse to play for someone like Gray....and you know what I support their decision and courage to stand up for that.

I agree that results are what matter and results have not been good. Clay had only missed making region one time in something like 70 years from 1947 to 2017 and missed back-to-back in '18 and '19.  I'm not arguing results.  I am simply saying this--- I have watched a number of individual games where Gray has outcoached some really good coaches. I've watched games where he outcoached Sizemore at North Laurel and Pietrowski at Corbin. And those guys are really good. And I saw in last year's regional where he destroyed one of the best coaches in the 13th region, Jeff Davis, at South Laurel.

Now, are there some kids that don't want to play for him? I don't know. My guess is that their mommies nd daddies don't want their Jimmies or Johnnies to play for him. Richies' kids played for him and played very well. I'm just saying that in some of the games I have watched, Gray has demonstrated that he can coach. I think that politics and mommies nd daddies have contributed to the downfall of Clay County basketball. It doesn't all fall on Glenn Gray, in my opinion. But, again, I'm looking at it from someone on the outside just watching games.