[The Guru]

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.

JMO, but to answer your question.....YES I DO.
Of all these teams you have mentioned only AC, JC, SC, SV and Pikeville are presently High Schools. So IMO it is imppossible for a defunct School to have any kind of "Tradition" They have "History", but that is all.
Of the remaining schools....I would say that Paintsville has a lot more "Tradition". Granted their "Tradition" has been boosted by what they have accomplished in the last 20+ years to overtake say...Pikeville, but I truly believe that they have.

Go Lando!!!! Go Tigers!!!