[HAIL PIKEVILLE!]

If you think six high schools for a county the size of Pike County is too many, I am sorry, but I am going to have to disagree with you on that one.

I have covered sports in both Kentucky and Ohio and having traveled to Pike County as a football player (Russell-Belfry twice, 2008 and 2010) and as a sports reporter (West Carter-Pike County Central, 2016), I can tell you that six is definitely not too many. If anything, a case could be made for another.

However, I wouldn't know where you would put it in Pike County unless it is in the far southeastern section of the county. Like many have commented, I feel terrible for the kids and families who live in the far southeastern part of the county. I can't even imagine how far it takes for them to get to school every day, especially those who live in Paw Paw, Argo, Woodman, Stopover, and Majestic. It's probably not a walk in the park for those who live in Ransom or McCarr, either. I'm sure that folks in Ashcamp and Shelby Gap in the far southwestern end of the county or Hatfield, McCombs and Gulnare wouldn't mind a shorter drive.

With population dropping by nearly 10,000 in the county over the last 10 years, however, building another high school isn't feasible to me. Six is probably going to be the way it is for a while but I could see that number dropping to four eventually if the county population keeps trending in the wrong direction.

Consolidation, and more particularly the placement of high schools in the consolidation plans, are hurting Floyd, Harlan, Letcher and Pike Counties. Obviously, the loss of jobs and what I believe to be a lack of attention by our governments to helping with those issues are feeding into that, as well. Then you have Leslie, Magoffin and Martin Counties, who should only have one high school like they do but really need serious help with road construction.

The idea of Interstate 66 being built in southern Kentucky was supposed to help with a lot of the counties above, but because that never came to pass, the problems that many kids and families have had for basically two generations now is enhanced even more because of these consolidations and the lack of jobs.

I-66 was some scam to make a few politicians rich. Everyone around here pretty well knew that. We knew if that road ever got built( and that’s was an IF big enough you could see from space) our Great Grandchildren would driving on it if they’re lucky…