[WaterBoy15thregion]

To me , it’s simple math. It doesn’t sound like coaches are lining up at Hazard’s door. Huff is probably as good - if not better than the other applicants , and he’s promising to bring players with him. The Hazard administration & Hazard parents are backing Huff because they believe recruiting is the only way they can compete next season.

You’re probably right about your last sentence. Hazard High’s enrollment for the 2024-25 school year is 301. Those size schools usually have problems sustaining competitive programs year in and year out without transfers. It’s not always that way every year but it is the majority of the time. Paintsville also falls into that category. My guess is the independent schools have good developmental programs but also pick up a few players from the county systems in order to stay competitive. 
If I recall correctly the great Harlan Independent teams of the mid 1990s had players that were from all over Harlan County. Their best player was from Cumberland.

I think all of this is accurate but…losing Happy a couple years ago hurt development and middle school feeder program, people liked him, and now with Al gone, it could get interesting.

Huff was hired as coach. They won’t officially hire him until he tries to get a couple of the knott county players to transfer to hazard. You have to really want to coach to take a $18,000 a year pay cut. If hazard has to play with its own players it’s going to be a hard few years. They don’t have big Al and all of his contacts in the county now

18k is laughable, but Huff definitely wants to coach. And players seem to like him. It’s a long time until season starts. Who knows which players will be where.

so why are these players so against playing for Honeycutt? He’s proven to win a regional championship and huff has not. So why would they follow him? Just curious!