[Old School Hound]

I've followed these Clay kids for three or four years now. I remember going to a Corbin-Clay game three or four years ago in Manchester (I think Connor was a freshman) and Clay had something like thirteen kids that were either a freshman or sophomore. While a lot of them were pretty green, I thought they were very talented and had a huge upside. I remember telling a Clay fan at the game that I thought they would have two or three regional titles banked by the time those kids were seniors. Instead, they were a first round exit in 2017 and , I believe, missed the region in '18 and '19. Those results just don't match up to what I expected when I saw these kids a few years ago.  Someone help me out.

I thought the same thing.  It was a special group for sure.  It boils down to small town politics.  Hired one of their own, instead of a coach.  The last few years have been a disaster.  A true underachievement.  Clay has had a few quit, few transfer, and the rest is there.  Bad player development and lack of preparation and knowledge.  I say that as when I watch this year, some kids look lost and they look miserable out there playing.  I like to think clay has a chance this year, but they will fail again.  Gray just can’t get it done as a coach.  A player feeds off of their coach and gray is a nervous wreck in the post season.  And more bad news, after this year the program will be so bad for so long it may never recovery.  Gray had no intentions of developing the program and keeping its rich tradition, he just tried to ride the coat tails of his good players to win a region, but players must have leadership and a coach to direct them.  Clay doesn’t have that sad to say.

Thanks for the info. I appreciate it.  Not to take anything away from their present coach because I am not  close enough to the situation to judge,  but I was thinking a couple of years ago if someone like Pietrowski was coach of that group of kids for three or four years the sky would be the limit. I think he would have had them doing big things at Rupp. Just my opinion. I was really impressed with the talent when they were freshmen and sophomores. Apparently, it just didn't develop as I thought it should have.