[PHSForever]

The blame for the PCB being as bad as it is sits at the feet of 2 Pike County Board members - VIRGIL OSBORNE and EARL THACKER.


Their insistence that Pike Central and Shelby Valley be included and even one of them host a game started the down fall. Add to the fact that Chapman at PCC will not play anyone but Phelps and you have to have 2 year contracts and play team that Pikeville can beat = you get the joke that is now the Pike County Bowl.

I got a problem with a part of your statement. Pikeville ALWAYS tries to play quality opponents. There is no "requirement" or anything that it be a team Pikeville can beat. Go back and look, until we started having to keep all the county schools happy (SV, East Ridge, Phelps, etc), we were playing high quality opponents year after year (Belfry AND Pikeville, I mean). Then, for whatever reason, schools weren't happy with just getting the money, they wanted to host, wanted to play, etc and the quality went down hill. I certainly have ZERO interest in watching Phelps play, for example. Not because I'm hating on them, but simply because they never have a competitive game. Maybe someone could get Piarist or The David School to start a team, then they could be competitive? Still wouldn't want to watch them in the PCB. I go to see teams like Lex. Catholic, Lex Christian, Henry Clay, Beechwood, etc.

Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that OTHER teams don't want to play in it for reasons such as travel, etc. and would rather schedule a game closer to home for their fan base. But I will guarantee you, you bring in Harlan County to play Belfry, and maybe Russell to play Pikeville, you'd get good walkup crowds, great traveling fan bases, and more competitive games. I can remember when Pikeville and Russell played some in scrimmages, and there was a good turnout even for those. Lexington schools are so locked in to the iHigh Frenzy right now (even though they're 0-fer the last 2 years), we would have very little chance of getting one of them to commit to another bowl game.

Having said all of that, the turnout was still outstanding for this year's PCB. Having local teams actually contributes to the problem of turnout though. They never stick around for the other game. I saw maybe 3 East Ridge fans and a handful of Shelby Valley fans, saw the coaches, and a couple of players from each team stick around after their game was over. I paid 7 bucks each for tickets. I'm getting my money's worth and watching BOTH games, painful as at least one may be. So as a result, by the time the second game starts, crowd looks a little thinner and concession sales start to slip. If more people stuck around and got into the games, might be different. When Belfry and Pikeville only played other schools, you couldn't move, people got there early, tailgated, then went in for BOTH games. It was awesome.

Anyway you cut it, although it is not as awesome as it used to be, it's an easy fix, really. One day, MAYBE 3 games, and other schools quit your belly-aching and just take the money you get and be happy with it. It isn't a joke, just some of the schools that try to play are, and they should grow up and realize it.