[CoachJ]

He formed a staff that had one member ( Wheeler) that knew anything about championships .He took over a regional championship program if you dont expect and demand it, it will not happen. With the talent they have had over the past 3 years and the schedules and strength of the teams they have played IMO the have not lived up to their potential. ONe last thing, Jackson said he is the most head coach ready assistant he has ever had. If Jackson has had so much success over his tenure of coaching ZERO regional Championships and beating allen central and a poor paintsville team to even get to his first region, why dont they just allow him to pass the job onto copley 0 regional championships . I am sure pikeville wont mind 2-3 more years of destruction in the program until they awaken again.

I REALLY hesitate posting in this thread, but since one poster insists on bringing up my record -- and making the implications that I got the job by using "smoke and mirrors," that I'd never coached in a regional championship, and that I "formed a staff with only one member that knew anything about championships, I must reply and make some needed corrections.

1) My teams at Oldham Co. made THREE regional championship games. This at a school that had only been to the Regional Championship TWICE in their 50 year history, and before I took over hadn't even won a PLAYOFF GAME in TWELVE YEARS.

We did it while playing in regions that included Trinity, Boone County, Highlands, Covington Catholic, and Louisville Waggener.

The teams we lost to in those regional championships all went on to the state championship (Trinity won theirs, Highlands lost a close game to Boyle Co., and Waggener beat Bowling Green on the way to losing to Jared Lorenzen's Highlands team).

For proof (something 3Cat fails to provide), please check www.khsaa.org and check the Riherd's scoreboards for football since 1999.

2) 3Cat calls it "smoke and mirrors" -- but isn't it more accurate to call what HE'S doing "smoke and mirrors" when you try to make a case for something using inaccuracies in the process?

(By the way, maybe he could list the "powerhouse teams" Pikeville played to achieve Regional Championships in the 90s. I believe the most impressive of that list would be WILLIAMSBURG.)

For proof again, please check the Riherd's scoreboards at khsaa.org.

3) As to how I "formed a staff," when I came to Pikeville, the first three people I asked to join on were Coach Wheeler, Jason Howell, and Chad Salyer.

I offered Chad the position of Co-offensive coordinator -- giving him control of the passing offense. He at first accepted, but later declined telling me he had been offered a coaching position at Pikeville College. When that fell through, I offered again and he said he would likely be too involved in building his house to make a full commitment. I appreciated him taking the amount of commitment I was requiring into account and we parted on good terms.

Coach Howell told me it would be better for him at the time to make a total move out of Pikeville and get a fresh start somewhere else. Perfectly understandable, and he got a job at a very successful 4A program in Lexington.

The following year -- before spring practice -- I again offered for Coach Salyer to join the staff. His house was still in the process of being finished so he could not make a full commitment again.

This past season, Coach Salyer was ready to join the staff and we had been talking through the spring about our offensive attack. The week before our first practice he let me know that since he was up for the vacant AD job that he wouln't be able to coach.

So, as you can see, I TRIED to retain members of the previous staff -- MANY times. To imply that I did not shows either that D3 wasn't involved and lacks full understanding of the situation (thus, shouldn't be posting ANYTHING about it) or DID know what happened and has chosen to post falsehoods (hoping I wouldn't read them and post the truth).

For proof, call and talk PERSONALLY to Coach Wheeler, Coach Howell, and Coach Salyer.

(And by the way, didn't Jason "Gravy" Anderson, Matt Branham, and Paul Sullivan learn a little about winning championships? Last I checked, they were all guys I brought on board to coach at Pikeville.)

* And one other "smoke and mirrors" approach 3Cat seems to like is to make a derogatory remark about our scheduling and then mentioned only "Allen Central" and "Painstville" (district teams we HAD to play).

He failed however to mention how we tried mightily to beef up the schedule with Lexington Catholic (4A Champions), Ashland (5A team and winner of over 75% of their games the 4 years prior to our scheduling them), and Holy Cross (a 1A power who was knocked out of playoffs by Danville by fewer than 2, 5, and 5 points in 3 of the last 4 years prior to our scheduling them).

BTW, I truly believe Coach Copley IS the most-ready-to-be-a-head-coach of any former assistant coach I've ever had (there have been 5 in my 11 years go on to become head coaches). But I would have to admit that it's CLOSE between him and Brian Rector -- an assistant of mine that went on to win 2 5A state titles in Tennessee.