[Orange Blaze]

To all the Raceland fans that are down on their Coach. Let offer you a “Cautionary Tale”. In 2004, Coach Mac had just won his 3rd Regional Title in his first 6 seasons as Coach. Some grumblings around town from some fans was that Pikeville could “Do Better” than Chris MacNamee as its Head Coach. As laughable as that statement is now, there were some that seriously BELIEVED it at the time. Unfortunately, the ”Braintrust” at PHS at the time were listening to those statements and Mac leaving for Pike Central in ‘05 was a direct result of it.

The same administration who ran Mac out of Pikeville, then decided in their infinite wisdom to hire “The Snake Oil Salesman” Mike Jackson as Head Coach. Mac had always had a healthy roster with at least 45-50 kids playing. In Jackson’s last year as Coach in 2007 before he bolted back to Louisville…30 kids came out for football and 12 of them were seniors. Then the administration doubled down and hired Jackson’s top assistant Mike Copley as Head Coach who’d never been a head coach anywhere before and it showed. Dude was in WAY over his head. Another year of 25 kids out playing and another down year by Pikeville standards. Copley was fired after a year in ‘08 after getting embarrassed at home by Hazard in the regional finals (only our second regional appearance since Mac left and were blown out in both games.

MAC finally gets back in the saddle in 2010 after the alumni finally threw a big enough fit to get him back along with some much needed turnover in administration. The rest as they say is history.

In 2015, Mac wins his 1st State Title and Pikevilles first since 1989….He got ran out of town in ‘05….So, you see, thinking you can “do better” sometimes literally sets your program back 10 years….just keep that in mind…

Coach Salmons has done a great job at Raceland and no one should complain about the success his teams have had.  He has won several regional titles and had 2 finals appearances. Most programs would be very happy with that.  He also cares about the program and loves everything that is Raceland and has been instrumental in making the various upgrades to our facilities over the past few years.  I think the biggest criticism about him is he is somewhat stuck in his ways and is resistant to change at times.  The Ram faithful also have to realize that we have had to face really good teams in Pikeville, Paintsville, and Beechwood over his tenure that have been legitimate road blocks in front of the coveted state title.