[Mr.Kimball]

I think it goes deeper than just 15th Region titles. I think it is what teams do after getting out of the mountains and to the state tournament that gives them a tradition to build on. Also, having one coach (Coach Runyon) that is there during those runs into the KHSAA Final Four and State Championship games helps to maintain that tradition. Is it great to win a 15th Region titles, you bet, and it is a great acomplishment, but getting to the Final Four, or playing in a State Championship game, helps build tradition and maintain it for years. I would think that basketball tradition also includes what accomplishments your players get in high school and after. Paintsville, I believe has had 13 players sign D1 scholarships (probably another one with Landon) and numerous others have gone on to play at the D2, D3, and NAIA level. Paintsville has also had well over 30 players named to an All-State team since 1944. Not to mention that Paintsville is one of only a few schools in state history that can claim to have 2 Kentucky Mr. Basketball's. I am not trying to put down any other schools, but I just feel that based on everything involved with a "tradition," that Paintsville has the most in Eastern Kentucky.

Hopefully, those boys will be able to build on it this year and add to the legacy of Coach Runyons brilliant coaching career and that of Paintsville High School basketball!!!

All I was tring to say is that Paintsville only has a tradition worth talking about in basketball ranging from the years of only about 1986 to 1998.


By the way I think that Inez has a total of TWO state championships. I think that that may top anything that any of our teams in Johnson County and the entire mountain region as well have done. Would you not say that that gives the folks at Sheldon Clark a little reason to puff their chests out a little as well when it comes to tradition.(Heck throw some of the great Hazard teams of years gone by in this equation. Perhaps, nobody can even come close to their tradition.) I think that Russell Williamson might have the edge on coach Runyon as far as legendary status and with bragging rights that go with it as far as his and their accomplishments because of his longivity and his TWO state titles . The difference being is that there is not a person that posts on this board that can remember the first game that they ever played or he coached, so obviously they are going to be slighted and not recieve the respect of what they accomplished during their times of dominance. You'll probably never see the first person from that era toot their own horns, so in a way they have been and will completely forgotten by us all. Those series of teams certainly never had the media exposure that the teams of this era to exalt them. And not to take anything away from anybody in this day and time, but I would just have to imagine how tough it would have been back in those days to win a regional championship, let alone a state title.

Most posters that post on this board as well as the players on this years squad were not even born when John Pelphrey and Joey Couch played and these same Tigers were not more than 8 or 9 years old when you played, so all they really know about the tradition and pride is what has been told to them, or of what they may have read. If you hadn't come back to be part of the Paintsville system and associated yourself with the area and program, I fear that even the great things that you helped your teams to do would not be in our memories quite as vivid. Heck, even the fact of your being an active poster on this board helps to keep your teams and the memory of yourself a little fresher than what it could have been. Sorry to tell ya JR but the years have swiftly gone by since you wore the Tiger Blue, and the bad part is they go on by even quicker the older you get. Just remember that time has a way of tarnishing the memories of anything that any of us have ever done. Just ask a couple of other mountain boys such as Johhny Cox or WahWah Jones how many 18 years old kids worship the grounds that they walk on. I'm betting that maybe if polled you might find 5% of todays kids that had a clue as to whom they even were or who they played for. Try to keep this in perspective with what I am saying: during their respective reigns that were the best players in the United States. Even yourself, being the history buff that you are, are slighting the reins of the former past great players and teams.

Glad that you had the chance to experience what you have .