[Old School Hound]

The school enrollment is not what it was when Keith was at his peak of success in the 1980’s. Clay County has lost almost 4,000 people since the ‘80’s. It’s tougher to keep up the high level of success when the numbers of boys in all grades aren’t the same as 30 years ago. It lessens the talent pool. Some schools are able to develop and keep the talent levels very competitive after losing enrollment but after a closer look many of those same schools also have a few talented transfers to help reach that level.
However, my guess is Clay County will develop talent for the future. Their school is just going through a low period but it will probably improve. I’m not from there, nor do I know their coach, superintendent, principal, etc. But I am from an adjacent county in a different region and have always kept up with the Tigers in most years.

But all factors considered with this year’s team, the talent just isn’t there. Which is an anomaly for them and their fans. It’s hard to digest when you’re used to being one of the regional contenders every year.
There’s an old saying that I heard a retired coach say one time: “You can’t take a mule and win the Kentucky Derby”.

Coach K would not be any better than 3-10 right now with this Clay team. If the talent is not there, you can't win regardless who is at the helm. When Gray had more talent, he won a lot of games. Yes, he came up short in regional wins but he has some impressive wins on his resume( see my other post) and he has beaten all of the "elite" coaches in the region multiple times. He has winning records against Valentine at NL and Akal at Harlan, both of whom has had some incredibly talented teams the past few years. 

I have only seen one CC game in person this season. While it was evident that they were not very talented, the kids never gave up and played hard until the very end and Coach Gray coached his tail off the entire game. That's just factual.  Some on here have an over the top disdain for the CC coach. Whatever the reasons for the personal acrimony, the fact remains that Gray is not a bad basketball coach. His results against good teams and good coaches back that up. Look, I am from Corbin, not Clay. I don't know Coach Gray, never spoke to him that I know of. I have watched him coach quite a number of games the past six years and I've always thought he does a pretty admirable job. He's still the only high school coach that I've ever seen shut out a quality opponent in the fourth quarter. The team had two or three D-I starters and had Clay down by 10 after three quarters. Gray's Tigers outscored them 11-0 in quarter four to win by one. I talked to a lot of CC fans that night and NONE of them were lamenting what a terrible coach Gray was.  Winning tends to mute talk about how bad a coach  while losing exacerbates such criticism. 

Clay may never be the dominant team they were for decades but they will be good again. Life is all about cycles.