[Mr.Kimball]

For one, Shepherd did nothing with the talent he had here at Prestonsburg. He did present more disipline but wasn't much better than the previous coach. He couldn't motivate any of his players at all. Two, Allen Central does not have near as much talent as Prestonsburg. Shepherd was the reason why they lost to Allen Central in the 58th district tournament, having batters bunt in the 6th inning down by 3 or 4 runs, also leaving Rodebaugh into pitch when the Rebels were hitting everything. He has much more to learn as a coach.

Down the road Shepherd will be a very good coach but your comments only make me laugh.

You know Blackcat it all goes down to what I told you in the preseason. PBurg is a football school. They always have been , they always will be.

The plain truth of the matter is that no matter who the coach at PBurg may be they will always struggle because of the simple fact that for the most part you will see kids play baseball at PBurg starting Feb 15 and then stop playing whenever the district tournament is over. You may have one try some summer ball of some sort every now and then, but as a team they are done whenever PBurg discontinues post season play. You cannot expect to have a program at the high school level when you are never, ever going to have the commitment by all involved to really go the extra distance to produce a true program. John Derossett will always see that that possibility will never happen. PBurg aways has good athletes, the trouble is they are not particularily skilled athletes on the baseball field. Regardless of what you may think PBurg was not loaded with talent, they just had some good athletes at excell at other sports. Allen Central does have better baseball players. Maybe not better athletes but more skilled players. It's when you combine the two aspects, that you have the ingredients to produce great baseball players. Right now it is doubtful that PBurg will ever attempt to achieve the consistant quality of baseball programs as Lawrence Co., JC, Paintsville, or Pikeville. It is not something that the administration and the fan base is really willing to put the time into.

I tried to tell you you did not have two D1 players early on, did I not? I tried to tell you that they in the big scheme of things they are actually substandard at the college level and are very average even by eastern Kentucky standards at the high school level.. Did I not tell you that Marc was young and could in time be a good coach, but at this point in time was kind of being thrown to the wolves? Are you not the one that exalted him to this seasoned veteran stage way before he ever coached his first game? Not meaning to jump all over you because the mentality that you have of what baseball is all about and of the mentality of what it takes to become a great baseball player is not much different than the majority of eastern Kentucky folks. Some of you all just dont understand much about baseball.