[jamesdeane]

"Clay County High School proudly announces that Gemma Parks has been named as the new head coach for the Clay County Basketball Lady Tigers."

https://www.nolangroupmedia.com/manchest...ium=social

[Spud6]

Is Gemma from outside the program or inside? Anyone got any info?

[UKCC]

Is Gemma from outside the program or inside? Anyone got any info?

Played at every level in Clay County with a ton of success as well as I believe an All-American at Alice Lloyd. Had been coaching and teaching in the county since graduating college.

[Spud6]

Is Gemma from outside the program or inside? Anyone got any info?

Played at every level in Clay County with a ton of success as well as I believe an All-American at Alice Lloyd. Had been coaching and teaching in the county since graduating college.

Sounds like a perfect fit and a great hire

Thanks for the info

[cchsfan4life]

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

[BUFFALO]

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

So, call me crazy. You guys have Glenn Gray as boys coach. His background if I've read this right is coaching elementary school at Hacker Elem.. The new girls coach is his niece whose background is coaching middle school and elementary school at Hacker Elem.. A trend ?

[Hogsnot]

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

So, call me crazy. You guys have Glenn Gray as boys coach. His background if I've read this right is coaching elementary school at Hacker Elem.. The new girls coach is his niece whose background is coaching middle school and elementary school at Hacker Elem.. A trend ?

Ya know, for a security guard, he’s got an awful lot of information, don’t ya think?… 


Party on! 

[BUFFALO]

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

So, call me crazy. You guys have Glenn Gray as boys coach. His background if I've read this right is coaching elementary school at Hacker Elem.. The new girls coach is his niece whose background is coaching middle school and elementary school at Hacker Elem.. A trend ?

Ya know, for a security guard, he’s got an awful lot of information, don’t ya think?… 


Party on! :D

All this info has been posted on here. I'm just a guard with lot of time to read what Clay people post. Just repeating stuff. Good luck to the lady.

[Fan of many]

Congratulations to the coach, hope she does great things at Clay and get the tradition back on track.

[Mountain-man]

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

?? high standards

---

She coached the Middle School girls for several years as well as Hacker Elementary.

So, call me crazy. You guys have Glenn Gray as boys coach. His background if I've read this right is coaching elementary school at Hacker Elem.. The new girls coach is his niece whose background is coaching middle school and elementary school at Hacker Elem.. A trend ?

Ya know, for a security guard, he’s got an awful lot of information, don’t ya think?… 


Party on! 

All this info has been posted on here. I'm just a guard with lot of time to read what Clay people post. Just repeating stuff. Good luck to the lady.

I wish her luck as well. Everything this dude is saying is correct. When did CC become the OBI of the 13th region. I’ll always be a CC fan you can’t deny their history. I’m blaming the top dogs in these high positions for throwing all that in the can. Now all it takes is a few winning seasons at a local elementary school and maybe a few losing seasons as a middle school coach to be named coach of what used to be the pride of the mountains. Bobby Keith is cussing up a storm right now.

[nedreader]

Don't worry guys, Clay Co. is renovating the gym, building new baseball/softball fields and maybe more stuff. Supposed to be one of the nicest facilities in the state soon. It will be like having a Ferrari but no gas to drive it. They should probably shut the top level of the gym down and use it for something else because they'll never need it again for fans. #puttinglipstickonapig

[LOOKAYANNER]

I believe one thing that has changed the level of play in all sports at Clay County and most other mountain and coalfield schools is loss of enrollment. In the golden days of one championship after another in their sports programs Clay County had over 1200 students 9-12. Now they are around 700. That is not much over half of the student pool that Bobby Keith and others had access to in his coaching days. Bobby always developed talent from the elementary level and up and in some years was able to bring in additional talent to supplement his own kids, usually at the expense of in-county school Red Bird or other nearby counties.
The same loss of enrollments has also affected 14th and 15th region programs, too. Knott Central was around 1300 in 1975 and today have under 600 students. Breathitt County had 1100 in the ‘70s and ‘80s but I was told by a Breathitt administrator that they are under 500 in 9-12 nowadays.

[Spoozer12]

I just heard Clay numbers are now between 600 & 700, population loss if real in Big Clay.

[HCS]

I believe one thing that has changed the level of play in all sports at Clay County and most other mountain and coalfield schools is loss of enrollment. In the golden days of one championship after another in their sports programs Clay County had over 1200 students 9-12. Now they are around 700. That is not much over half of the student pool that Bobby Keith and others had access to in his coaching days. Bobby always developed talent from the elementary level and up and in some years was able to bring in additional talent to supplement his own kids, usually at the expense of in-county school Red Bird or other nearby counties.
The same loss of enrollments has also affected 14th and 15th region programs, too. Knott Central was around 1300 in 1975 and today have under 600 students. Breathitt County had 1100 in the ‘70s and ‘80s but I was told by a Breathitt administrator that they are under 500 in 9-12 nowadays.

I remember when Cawood was in AAA with Breathitt, Knott and Leslie at various times in the 70s and 80s when they had enrollments as you mentioned. It is amazing to look at the changes. Harlan County had 12 high schools in the early 1960s.

[UKCC]

I just heard Clay numbers are now between 600 & 700, population loss if real in Big Clay.

I believe it’s between 700-800, not that it is that big of a difference. A large portion of that could be found in a neighboring county. Which is probably the case for most rural communities. These somewhat bigger towns spread across the state are growing rapidly on the backs of places like Clay, Bell, Letcher, Harlan, etc. whereas for decades people would simply drive to neighboring towns for work and then return home. Now they want to live there.

[Old School Hound]

I was told by someone who starred at Clay Co. that physical conditioning was a big problem in recent years. Apparently that was something that wasn't stressed as much as it maybe should have been. At least, that's what this young lady told me. Maybe that will change with this new hire.

[nedreader]

Clay will be around the middle of the pack in girls and boys basketball for years to come. Families are finally starting to see the multiple benefits of moving from the county. Conditioning has been an OBVIOUS concern for the girls program for the last 5 years or so...and most likely will continue to be.