If any of you follow me on Twitter (@ppp24 if you don’t follow me you should) you must know that I am not happy with the football coach at Cumberland Gap Middle School. If you are wondering why it is because he is, in my humble opinion, a yellow bellied coward.

The Gap has been scheduled to play Jacksboro Middle School all season. The Gap brought a fairly good-sized football team to the Jacksboro Jamboree. The Gap has claimed they are down to nine players and kept rescheduling the game against the Eagles. Monday night they just didn’t bother to show up.

Let me tell you where I see the problems. First off I was a coach at Jacksboro for years, I played with one member of their coaching staff and coached another, so I feel pretty well qualified to talk Jacksboro Football. The problem is this is a dominant Jacksboro team. They have steamrolled over the competition this year. This is the kind of Jacksboro team that is dominant even when showing mercy and playing the back ups. I am pretty sure it was the fourth string that gave up the safety to Norris.

The problem lies in the fact that the coach at Cumberland Gap is afraid of the beating he will take from this team. Soldiers Memorial from Claiborne County was absolutely dominated by the Eagles in all aspects of the game. I imagine when the coach of the Gap saw this game he probably peed his pants. He needs to man up and bring his team down. Yea there is a better than decent chance they will get beat but at least they will have learned to compete against long odds.

You see a coach is also a teacher of life lessons. In this the coach of the Gap is a failure. He is teaching that it is OK to just not show up for an obligation. He is teaching them to fear defeat. From what I am told of Monday he is teaching them it is OK to lie. YOU see Monday about 20 minutes before kickoff someone from the Gap called and said that someone from Jacksboro called and canceled the game. I know this is not true because all the proper preparations were in place for the game. At Jacksboro they know that sometimes we play football in the rain.

I also have heard some parents concerned about their kids playing in the rain. Though I can appreciate parents that care about their children’s well being I know that football has been played in the rain and worse weather for ages. It is OK the rain won’t hurt them. I see teams play in the rain all the time. I have yet to see an injury that would not equally occur in dry conditions.

Finally I have to call out whoever it was that canceled the CCHS Homecoming Bonfire. REALLY??? I hear it is unsafe. That just sounds like you do not have faith in your faculty and administration to maintain a safe environment. Why don’t you just tell everyone involved they are incompetent because that is exactly what you did by canceling it. You made yourself the captain of a huge failboat. There will be a homecoming bonfire next year if I have to put it on myself.

As football fans we all have the answers for what to do when things are going badly for our team. Fire the coach. Bench the quarterback. Run this play. It is fun to discuss stuff like this on message boards and on talk shows. But it really yanks my chain when you have these experts in their own minds at games bleating out their advise to the coaches like a bunch of old goats.

Last week I was at the Campbell County Seymour game. I am on the field most of the time as that is where the action is. But I am also fat and the food is in the press box. John, Luke and Kelli Jo were also in the press box filming and doing the player of the week poll. When I got up there I could not help but here some guy trying to call down to the field from the top row about a variety of topics. I’ll give him credit he had an impressive set of lungs. After talking to my cohorts I learned he’d apparently been bleating his football brilliance throughout the game.

Obviously any of us who have ever coached from the stands is guilty of this from some extent or another. But honestly when you do it the whole game you not only irritate the folks around you but you also show how little you know about what is really going on.

Bleacher coaches are not at practice. They do not know the ins and outs of what ever is going on in a coach’s system. They may get second hand knowledge from a player but that is always biased of their playing days.

For example, there was a guy last information. They just make assumptions based on things they hear in the media or from foggy recollections Friday who kept screaming for the team to snap the ball because a receiver was uncovered. Of course he was completely ignorant of how the offense works. The system is that the defense lines up and Coach Price calls down a play that he feels would be good against that defense. Now I am sure this bleacher coach must seem brilliant to himself and all of the people around him but in reality what he had in mind may work once and that is if everyone on the offense is able to pull off blocking assignments on a randomly snapped play. No coach in his right mind would call that every time. Of course that is why they are paid to coach and the bleater is paying to watch the game.

So fans go to the games. Discuss the team throughout the week. But most importantly support your coaches. I promise they know more than you or I do.

Football season is here. We now have full padded practice going on and the season is literally a few days away. Fall football practice is the test of life for many players. This takes me back to my early days of coaching. So of course that is what I am going to write about this week.

My first year of coaching started out at Jacksboro Middle School of course. I did not even want to do it but my best friend Steven Robbins, God rest his soul, talked me into it. I really did not know what I was doing going in but he and I were given the junior varsity team to work with. I did the line work, Steven did running backs and linebackers, and I am thinking we had somebody else doing receivers and defensive backs but I do not remember who that was.

I can say this I was an absolute tyrant. I mean I was on the level that Darth Vader himself would have shaken his head at how brutal I was. I literally carried a kendo stick; a lacquered rattan wooden used for practicing sword fighting, and hit the players in their helmets with it when they messed up. Granted it couldn’t actually hurt them through their helmets but it is still something that I imagine would get me fired and arrested if I did it today.

There was also much running. I literally ran the players for the smallest of transgressions. I got a sick thrill from making them throw up. I figured I would have a very fit team with this method.

It turns out my methods basically kept us from having a JV squad at all. We started out with about 25 sixth graders on the team. After a week we were down to four. Those four were Anthony Douglas, Patrick Nichols, Bill Rutherford, and Josh Cureton. They all went on to be great players at Jacksboro in spite of my awful treatment.

I ran into Bill last night at Charley’s Pizza after Jacksboro had a scrimmage. We talked about our time together as player and coach both at Jacksboro and later CCHS. He remembers it as fondly as I do. In fact he was telling people how lucky they had it with their coaches because none of them were as harsh as what he had to deal with. I am glad none of those four hate me because lord knows I gave them plenty of reason to.

Monday is what many people would consider the unofficial beginning of fall. Just as Memorial Day somehow signifies summer to people, even though it begins in late June, early August signifies football season and as that one country singer says in that one country song football players are the boys of fall.

This season holds much promise for the Cougars. With a year under his belt Justin Price is now seasoned as a head coach. Last year put him and his staff in a bad starting spot. They did not get to really have an off-season. This season they did and I expect it to show dividends.

Today I am here to share my thoughts on Justin and twin brother Matt. I start off by saying I am very biased towards the Price twins. They played on a Jacksboro team that was near and dear to my heart. I am closer to members of that team than any other that I ever coached. That team is also where my friendship with Rodney Ellison began and we were the dynamic duo for some time afterwards. But Rodney is a story for another time and by that I mean next week.

Justin Price was the quarterback for that Jacksboro team. Matt played both running back and linebacker. Justin did not get to play defense because, with the exception of Phillip Wells, defense usually was not an option for Eagle quarterbacks at the time. As I was a line coach I did not really have a hand in coaching the Price twins. But I am proud to say I coached a team they were on.

I also was quick to follow their high school exploits. They were a special pair. I would certainly put Justin as one of the top 5 quarterbacks to ever play at CCHS. Matt’s accomplishments were a little quieter but he also had a great career. What can I say quarterbacks get all the glory. I knew that they would go on to have good college careers. Their wonderful mother Cindy always kept me updated on them when they were playing on the college level.

Then I heard they had gone into coaching. This also seemed natural. Do you want to know how I know someone is a good coach? When a high school coach trusts you enough to be a coordinator under him then I know you are a good coach. It was clearly a good indicator

I was very disappointed when they did not get the CCHS job. I was willing to get over it because Mynatt had a pretty impressive resume. Then of course the ugly sag unfolded and the Cougars were left coachless. Fortunately the Price Twins were able to step in and take the job that should have been theirs the first time.

I really do get extremely proud when I see Matt coaching on the field and Justin running the show in the pressbox. I know I had very little to do with that but just the fact I coached a team they were on a team I coached makes me feel good. The Cougar Nation got lucky to have them.

Almost none of you really have seen the amount of work they have put in. I am lucky enough to get a view from behind the scenes with them. I have seen how they work with the players in the weight room and on the practice field. When Ethan Jeffers completes a pass to one of his plethora of targets that has Justin Price’s fingerprints all over it. When Nick Bailey punishes the ball carrier you can see a little of Matt Price’s handiwork. This year when the Cougars take the field you can truly appreciate what these guys do. This is not to take away from the rest of the staff but this column is about Justin and Matt.

Fans if you can’t get excited for this football season I truly feel sorry for you.

The Anderson County fair is now in full swing. Honestly it would take the promise of tons of bacon to get me to attend it but it seems to draw quite the crowd from here. All of the Twitter minions have been tweeting about it this week. This of course brings me to the yearly question. Why do we not have a Campbell County Fair? I mean people always complain that we have nothing to do here and this seems like it could be a good solution.

I know we have the ground to have one now. The area across from Lonas Young Park would be ideal. It would also allow the county to showcase the park. I know it had a rough start but it has really come a long way since I went there last year.

Money is one concern for having a fair that I am sure would get brought up. It would be pretty easy for the towns to kick in some money; a few private businesses could kick in some money. And the county itself could kick in some money, even if they only did it via the commissioner’s discretionary funds. It would be nothing but good publicity and advertising for the local businesses to throw some dollars towards this project and have their names plastered all over the event. I know people would attend.

There is also the concern of security. I know that we are all uncivilized barbarians here prone to riots and mass drug use, oh wait that is not true at all it is just a convenient excuse that is often given when something like this comes up. Yes there would be some bad apple show up, which is inevitable. I am also sure it happens at fairs all over the place. Heck they have fairs in Kentucky that actually is a land of uncivilized barbarians. We actually have some fine police forces here in Campbell County and I am willing to bet they could cover security.

I am not saying that we should have something the equivalent of the Tennessee Valley Fair overnight. It could start small and grow. Heck we’d likely have it in the middle of tourist season and all the folks from up north would love to come spend some of their money seeing how southerners have summer fun. It could easily make moiney to put towards growing the fair.

I know this is a pipe dream. Most of our county leaders are too busy restricting free speech and raising taxes to worry about doing something good for the people who elected them. On the upside we do have the Louie Bluie Festival to look forward to. It is not quite a fair but it is a wonderful event.