[GOREDDEVILS]

GOREDDEVILS

Congrats to Fleming.  Makes Greenup look pretty good.  West must be down this season.

It will be a long night  for West Carter in the Battle for the Barrel.

Kinda like it’ll be a long night for the Red Devils tomorrow. East vs West will be a good game. Remember Tim Champlin is 1-6 against West Carter and we won’t even speak of the score margin.

Looks like I struck a nerve.


Dude, really? This is why people look down at Russell. I am a graduate of RHS and I have enough problems telling people I am from there and them going, "Oh..." or this and that, and it's because of responses like these. Dude didn't do anything to you, lay off.

I played football at Russell, love the coaches at Russell and I do care about the school but let me tell you something right now -- East and West Carter have put out some extremely high-level athletes and it is because of the people in those communities grinding and understanding the importance of success academically and athletically.

I have a great respect for Russell's tradition academically and athletically, but folks like you ruin it for the rest of us who do care and appreciate about the quality of football being played, the gains being made, and most importantly, the obstacles some of these kids have to climb in these communities outside of the little bubble most see in Russell and Flatwoods.

I live in the Kenwood subdivision. The poverty level is four percent, which is amazing. To my southeast in Bellefonte, it's less than one percent. Much of Carter County has between a 25 to 40 percent poverty rate and it is a struggle for some of these kids to even have the support to make it to practice or even have a good, hot meal at home, let alone bust it out there for four quarters on game day. They have more worries than the average Russell kid and that is just a fact, and that's me admitting it, being one of those average Russell kids.

Point is, the Russell boosters are amazing and I was so blessed to have their support in high school as were my teammates. Considering the resources and funding that the Red Devils have, we should be beating Carter County teams and it really shouldn't be competitive, so the fact that they are not only making it competitive, but the fact that East and West are having greater postseason success by making it to the state semis in back-to-back seasons tells me they have progressed enormously through hard work and dedication.

Why knock that? And no, the schools aren't failing -- they've actually had some of their best academic successes within the last five to seven years.

Russell folks like yourself need to quit worrying about other programs (Raceland fans are extremely guilty of this too). I know that as an alum, we need the Red Devils back into the success of 2002 to 2006 when we went to five consecutive state semifinal appearances with two straight state championship game appearances and a title.

Until we get back to that, there should not be any talking about what any other program is doing. I'm not saying that five state semi appearances in five years or you're out should be the expectation, but folks at Russell need to band together and help T.J. and his staff build this thing to get it back to where it needs to be.

You don't like what I post don't read it. I'm a Russell alum as well and I won't let tell me what to post. I think you need to get over yourself and get some thicker skin.