[Cardinal Fan 12]

Roger Harless has been a BIG WINNER everywhere he has been. In the '90's at SCHS in only 4 seasons he won 2 districts back-to-back. He was the last 57th coach to be able to claim mastery over Runyons of Paintsville. After Harless left SCHS, Paintsville ran roughshod over the other teams. Harless lost the regional tournament in '93 to Elkhorn City (with Todd Conley) in OVERTIME by 1 point.

At Tug Valley Harless was 115 - 28. The most games he ever lost in a season at TV was 6. They won 5 Sectionals in a row, and 4 regionals in only 5 years! That's a remarkable performance for any coach anywhere, anytime.

Roger Harless (a phenominal ball handler himself) taught KY's Miss Basketball, Ida Bowen, to handle the basketball among many other great players over the years. He has produced many all-staters like Kyle Gilman and John Slone in his career.

When Harless returned to SCHS, he turned Lady Card program around in 2 years. They were 3-21 the year before he came. First year with Lady Cards he was 17-16, the next year 17-15 and they won their first district game in four years all the while having Robin Harmon on the bench as headcoach in name only. That was the most unselfish coaching I've ever seen. If he had lost he would have taken the blame - if he won there was no guarantee he would get any credit.

Harless has taken over a really thankless job, now, of turning around the SCHS Boys team. It was an abysmal program for years. Everybody knows that - look at the record. Roger won more games last year in his first season than the previous years and got the first District win in 4 years. Harless is respected by everyone who appreciates great basketball and understands coaching. He is devoted to the game of basketball and coaches players that are dedicated to basketball too. Importantly, he is the most knowledgeable person about basketball you will ever talk to and willing to share what he knows.

Harless supports all the other sports at SCHS. He goes to all the different sports' games and even stepped in to coach the volleyball team last year when no one else would so the kids could play. His basketball team pays for many of the smaller sports and Harless is a very good fundraiser in the community too. These are the facts about Roger Harless and everyone at SCHS knows it.

When people attack him it has to be because of JEALOUSY, or lingering hurt feelings over the fact that the previous BB coach was fired. That's like everyone being mad at the new CEO of AIG on Wall Street because of loyalty to the fired CEO of AIG who ran the company into the ground. Harless did not covet the SCHS boys job as has been slanderously implyed in the Martin Co. newspaper's sports pages. ( the writer is a buddy of the previous coach) Harless was happy coaching the SCHS girls BB team and was enjoying the success. He had trained up the best player in the region in Carla Booth, only a freshman. He NEVER spoke a word against the previous boys coach that anybody ever heard. The Martin Co Bd of Ed fired the previous boys BB coach after warning him the previous year he had to do better. He didn't do better. Roger Harless had absolutely nothing to do with their decision.

Harless took the job because he was aked to by many, many citizens and parents and because he is a life long Martin Countian and just wants the best basketball for our kids. We in Martin Co. are thankful to have such an experienced, classy gentleman as our coach and look forward to the inevitable day when gripes about our coach come from other schools because we're beating them!

A long-time SCHS observer

Coach,

Could we quit living in the past? Come back to the future and
join us and please get over yourself. Get over yourself coach!!