[Bob Seger]

I'll have to disagree with that statement. Floyd County had not only Prestonsburg but Wheelwright as far back as I can remember. (Wheelwright is now part of South Floyd.) Pike County had Belfry, Millard, Elkhorn City, at least 2 other schools that are now part of Pike County Central and maybe another team or two many years ago. Perry County had M. C. Napier and maybe another one or two. And Letcher County had Jenkins and Whitesburg. And that's just what I can think of right now. There may have been as many if not more county schools playing football in this area back then than city schools or county schools located in the county seat. Pike County skewed those numbers.

But were those not all city schools, or what you would refer as coal camps, and were all independently governed?....I think at one time, Van Lear may have had a team as well, but at that time Van Lear was a bigger city than Paintsville. When Johnson Co. consolidated I don't think they had a team then though. I would feel save in saying too that Wheelwright, in it's heyday may have had a larger population than Prestonsburg too. Granted perhaps not all were at the location of their county seat, (I said usually) but I think you can see where I was coming from.......As an example, in Floyd Co. did Maytown, McDowell, Garrett, Martin, or Wayland have teams? In Johnson Co., did Oil Springs, Flat Gap, or Meade Memorial have teams? In Martin Co., did Inez or Warfield have teams? Did Salyersville have a team?.....etc. My example is probably not 100% perfect, but everybody should be able to get my jest. I just think that it's a pretty fair statement though to say that consolidation lead to most county schools developing programs here in the mountains. Heck, even right now, I can think of Elliot, Menifee, Lee, Owsley, and Wolfe counties that are in this area that still don't have teams.