[16thregioner]

I agree with most of your post praising Mays. He was the best coach our area has seen with regards to leadership, culture, and legitimate contacts to help kids play in college. He exposed the other area coaches for being what they are for the most part, lazy gym teachers who are picking up an extra check. He brought in big time teams to play in our area and even hosted an NCAA sanctioned recruiting event where ALL area teams were invited to play in front of big time college coaches. Look at the success of Zander Carter. He’s a sophomore with D-1 offers already. He would not have had those offers had he stayed at Greenup. He has them now, though, because he chose to come to Ashland to play under Mays, go through his practices, play with better players, and learn from his culture. Carter is a different player for having come to play for Mays.

You are wrong, however, that there weren’t some questionable things going on. The boy from Cabell Midland didn’t even graduate at Ashland but rather moved back as soon as the season was over. There would also be many question how a 6-10 player goes from the Sudan to Bath County to Ashland, even though that player displays no discernible basketball ability. Obviously, Mays had talks with Bell, Deboard, and Spurlock as he revealed in the call. You say 4 transfers in 4 years, but there have been many more than 4. You’ve seen the 4 that have been on the floor in varsity games. Ashland has gotten a few other younger transfers, though, mostly from Boyd, in the past few seasons. Mays messed up by not leaving the recruiting to parents and henchmen as other schools do. That’s all.

Some small town high school hoop dreams might be fulfilled for some county kids now, but the area is worse off for losing Jason Mays.

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I will add…Randall Anderson is about to be crucified this season if he does not win the region after his parents have removed the main obstacle.