[NEXT]

I appreciate the thoughts, DH. You'll notice by my few number of posts (12 now) that -- despite many erroneous statements about me or the way I run the program -- I refrain from posting on this or any other 'fan-based' message board (though I do troll through the sewage occasionally in case there's something that might be damaging to one of our coaches' or players' reputations).

It's been pretty hard not to respond to some of the negativity spewed toward our program in light of a tough loss (one that prompted one to request there be a new offensive coordinator -- even though the offense gained over FOUR-HUNDRED YARDS of total offense in the game), but one hopes people that read on here can actually sift through such pieces of garbage I've read lately like:
1) "Coach J doesn't let his players play SUMMER baseball" (TRUTH: I actually postponed all our usual JUNE passing work the last two years and moved it to July JUST so the kids that play summer basketball and summer baseball wouldn't be over-extended).
The issue on this came up when one of our Freshman players became a VARSITY STARTER due to an injury to an older player...then he went to play in a "summer league" (granted, it was September) baseball tournament the next day against our wishes.
We have NO PROBLEM with our younger kids (7th, 8th, 9th graders) playing summer league baseball games -- even though we know there's a chance of injury that could hurt their Jr High or JV team; but once they become VARSITY contributors, we draw the line.
To this point, I was told by the summer league baseball coordinator that if I didn't "give in" on my "hard-line stance" that I should brace myself for losing many "key" kids when they choose not to play football in high school if they couldn't also play in weekend baseball tournaments from June through September. I told that man that if those kids were capable of becoming VARSITY football players but were unwilling to COMMIT to their HIGH SCHOOL sport in-season enough not to play in baseball games continuously from February through September, then I would hope the SUMMER BASEBALL coach would realize that's "overkill" and let the kids go to play for their HIGH SCHOOL VARSITY sport. We basically agreed to disagree at that point.
2) "they practice 4 and 5 hours a day" (TRUTH: practices lasted from 3:25 to 6:10 at the latest; the last four weeks of the season, we were getting done between 5:30 and 5:40 daily)
3) they lift until 6:30 four days a week in the off-season (TRUTH: I got the administration to agree to in-school weightlifting last year just so kids could get the bulk of their work done during the school day...which then left only about an hours worth of work after school -- so we got done usually at 4:30...unless we had some kind of "competition" after weights they could do to earn rewards).

As to "Pikeville football is dead," as I've seen written on here by some 'fans' of the program...it seems many on here (and quite a few of the kids in the school) think you'll have the best chance to win if you get AS MANY PLAYERS OUT AS POSSIBLE due to making little or no requirement on work in the off-season to get faster, stronger, quicker, etc. and no accountability for those that don't. My approach has always been to work hard those that really WANT to IMPROVE THEMSELVES in the off-season (meaning my staff and I take our own personal and family time to develop and run detailed, sport-specific speed, strength, and plyometric workouts daily that kids in Huntington, Lexington, etc. pay other professional trainers up to $300 per month) but not exclude ANYONE that wants to come out on day one of the season, regardless of how little they've worked to get better in the off-season.

I will agree that one thing is and will be DRASTICALLY different about Pikeville football--gone are the days of getting the best football players in the county to come to Pikeville. Until there's an individual or class-action suit won using No Child Left Behind laws against them, the Pike Co. BOE's cancellation of the reciprocal agreement has ended the days of Pikeville having 50% or more of its starters coming from outside the city limits. The only way NOW to "compete with the big boys" is going to be to DEVELOP the "city kids" we're going to get as well as we can by continuing some things we've already started (direct involvement by HS program in Little League football, reorganization of Jr High and Frosh football to have younger PHS kids play against OLDER kids at other schools -- like what's helped build Belfry and Johnson Central into what they are -- and yes, making them as big and strong and fast and explosive as possible in the OFF-season but still ENCOURAGING kids to play sports other than football).

I'd venture to say it's true that you can get more players to be "on the team" if there's little required of them to prepare or if kids that are starters in football games on Friday night are allowed to slide into bases in "summer league" baseball games the very next day. Maybe that's a better approach than holding kids accountable for improving in the off-season and then requiring a full commitment to their SCHOOL sport (rather than having them share allegience with their "summer-league" or "AAU" sport) while in-season.

If that's the case, I'm not the one that needs to be leading it but I wish the VERY BEST to the one that takes it over. My main goal for the program is for it to go in the best direction possible to allow the best chance to once again compete for a state championship -- if I think that would happen better with someone else leading it, I'll put my resignation in as soon as possible.

You still have a reciprocal agreement, just limited to about 300 kids total in your system and I'll be honest, if your BOE and the Pike BOE does not change their stance on hold backs you and Belfry are going to have problems after this Sophomore class is through the schools. You probably understand, but the average parent and board member does not have a clue on how much different the body of a 18-19 year old is compared to a 16-17 year old, and thats what your dealing with at LCA, Johnson Central, Breathitt, Shledon Clark, Beechwood, etc.......