[EKUAlum05]

What the heck is going on on Pond Creek? In all honesty, with Jones at Mingo now, I expected some departures, especially for the ones who came from there in the first place. But the Stanley and Warren transfers to Pikeville really surprised me. Belfry has lost a lot of kids in a short amount of time.

It's like a dam busting.

You have to think outside of the Belfry football program. Belfry football was been the only thing holding the flood waters back that have been rising for a decade plus.  

Pressure has been building, two rival schools are applying pressure in their own ways.. Pikeville with success in almost all athletics, facilities, academics, and a football program that is marketing itself at a level to match their dominance on the field. Mingo Central is applying pressure with a former Belfry star, his gossip rag Facebook site that treats transfers like D-1 college commitments, and plenty of playing time and promises to hand out.

Throw in bad press in different forms, uncertainty about how much  longer Haywood will be the football coach, and a booster system that isn't exactly ripe with industry and coal mines struggling in the area and Belfry is seeing the water start busting through. For those that probably would not have left, it makes it easier to leave when everyone else jumps ship.