[BlackcatAlum]

First of all, congrats to coach Ratliff and Shelby Valley. This isn't a bad loss at all for the Blackcat football program. SV has always had pretty good athletes, just seemed to lack coaching. They have that now and have played right with Pburg several times over the last decade.

I don't like how the whole Shane Simpkins deal played out either. I don't know all of the details, but the guy was bringing a lot of excitement to the Blackcat baseball program and did a lot with it while he was there. Not sure why he was retained by the administration. Very bad move IMO. The kids really loved him.

As for coach John & James, they're two outstanding individuals who know football. They can coach, no doubt about that. They aren't perfect, but who is? I don't blame them for the state of Prestonsburg athletics. Prestonsburg just doesn't field the same type of kids anymore. I couldn't tell you the last time I heard a pad pop at one of their games. Old Prestonsburg teams were intimidating to a lot of teams. They were downright mean and didn't care who knew about it either. Those teams were loaded with athletic young men. Prestonsburg also had a streak of some of the best quarterbacks in the mountains for over a decade and some great running backs too. Just a ton of guys who could take it for 6 any time they touched the ball. The last player Prestonsburg had that could do that was Grant Anderson & Bryson Williams. They don't have any played like that on this team nor did they have that last year. Just not a good crop of athletes over the last few years. You can blame a lot of that on the grade school programs. Allen Elementery football program has been non-existent. Adams middle hasn't been what it used to be. Coaches just rotate in and out too much and you can't build anything without stability in your feeder programs. Kids just aren't what they used to be. Thanks mostly to technology. Not many want to go practice for a few hours a day when they can be playing video games or playing on their phones. The numbers are down for nearly every football program in the area from what I've seen. But Prestonsburg is a small school. They're going to have their bad years and good years.

I think some changes do need to be made at Prestonsburg. There's a lot of negativity around the administration and I'm not close enough to the situation to believe one thing or the next, but it doesn't look good on anyone.