[Mr.Kimball]

You know i watched him play his freshman year and was like dang this kid is going to be something special, not only him but that whole team. Then years past and the comotion of what they were became to what they could be. The mountains crumbled with all the talk about them, about the arguments between players to some were transfering. Now they are in their senior year and now talk is cheap. They are a team and to be honest i feel they know now that they must work together and not be individuals and its sad that with their talent its took this long for them to figure that out. They now know that when they are on the court Pride flows through those blue and white jerseys. As the same name flows across the chest as when Pelphrey and Vanhoose played. They now realize that when they step on the court they are not in the halls of Paintsville High as indviduals but are one, as they wear the same jerseys and their goal is the same. I hope all this hype about Landon going D-1 can die down until late March so this young man can focus on his goals and can live a normal teenage life. B/c his whole life it has been anything but ordinary. Good Luck Landon and may God bless you and lead you in the right direction.

Do you think that that pride runs any deeper than that of say, Virgie/Shelby Valley or perhaps Allen Central/Maytown/Wayland/Garrett/ Martin or Meade Memorial/Oil Springs/Flat Gap/Johnson Central or Inez/Sheldon Clark. I would say definately not. This group has nowhere near the talent of the former Paintsville teams and for the life of me I cant figure out why everybody wants to keep comparing them to the former teams. Shelby Valley and Virgie may have the most reveared tradition in the mountains, not Paintsville. Pike ville won 7 regional championships themselves under Trivette, and one under Thomas, so they perhaps have a richer tradtion themselves. Virgie and Johnson Central pretty well ruled the 70's. Paintsville had about a 15 year run with some staggering talent. That particular amount of talent is what made them successful. Paintsville was a nothing in basketball before the mid to late 80's and since 1998 they have just been very mortal, with a couple of losing seasons in that time span. Folks that has been 10 years ago. Keep in mind that this current group of players only got the chance to play at an early age because there was simply no one else to put on the floor. Paintsville was dry of talent. There were simply no upperclassmen on the roster, period. Paintsville certainly does not own a patent on what pride means or stands for.