[Lambert #1]

UKisN1,
But you see what the results of that consolidation was for the football team (Big Sandy Conference Championship). This was something that the East/West Letcher or Whitesburg couldn't accomplish before the consolidation happened. I do agree that it would be harder for basketball and more kids would not get to play because you can only play 5 kids at a time but it would be nice to see what a consolidated team from Letcher County could do. I know that they are now playing a basketball state tournament and we usually have 3 or 4 teams playing in the regional tournament . We haven't had a team winning it yet to this point and I think that a consolidated team could win it and could go represent Letcher County in a state tournament. There are always good arguments for and against consolidation and I can't tell you which one is actually right for Letcher County. However, If I'm correct there were over 80 kids that made their way to Whitesburg daily for practice on a school bus that was paid for by the team. Parents picked them up after practice and it worked out just fine. I am sure a few players were lost but if a kid wants to play bad enough they can find a way to get home from practice. I would bet you that now that the consolidation has happened nobody would want to go back to the way it was before except those kids that were unhappy because they didn't earn a starting position and that was a very small amount of them that seemed to be unhappy. I guess that's it's a personal opinion to everyone as to whether they think consolidation is a good idea or not and this is just my opinion and thought I'd throw it out there since you put yours on here.
Ultimately I guess the county has to decide what they are trying to achieve with the Middle School basketball program. Do they want to let all kids have a chance to play and not worry how good each school is and if this is the case you keep it the way that it is. If you want to compete at the higher level which means to play in the big tournaments against the big boys and have a chance to beat them you need to look at consolidation so you can have a legitimate chance at winning those tournaments.