[Redneck]

I never said when Paintsville was blown out by Bellvue and Beechwood - it may have been the late 80s or the 90s.

The bottom line is that Paintsville may never compete for another state title regardless of who they hire because of their small enrollment and the other factors mentioned above - but that does not mean that the right coach cannot rebuild the program into one that can compete with the best small schools in the eastern Kentucky and with most small schools across the state. Paintsville's population has been shrinking and the district boundaries have not expanded. Johnson County and Paintsville may grow but the Paintsville Independent school district is as big as it is going to get.

BTW, I did find the two scores below on the KHSAA website and I think that they qualify as blowout losses, so maybe I have not developed Alzheimer's just yet.

1998 Beechwood 39-8
2001 Newport Central Catholic 59-8

Yea, that wasn't Paintsville's glory days. You said you remembered Paintsville playing Lynch back before the big mines closed down, and Paintsville getting blowed out by them, Bellvue, and Beechwood. That would have been around the mid 70's to mid 80's, which Paintsville did not get blew out by those teams. Close games, won some, lost some. As for the 2001 Pville/NCC State Semi-Final game, NCC was loaded, had their All-State RB not got injured in the game against us and missed the State Championship, NCC wins, should have won anyways. There's not one of Matney's JC teams that could have played with NCC, Beechwood, or Danville back then. I am in no way saying that with the right hire that Paintsville could compete for State, that's just not realistic. Mayfield and Beechwood are in a league of their own. Look how good Hazard has been the last few years, and look how they faired at State. Right now, I think all the Paintsville fans will be happy just to be competitive in district and region play.