Sept. 06 Notes

[drifter]

KENTUCKY GIRLS’ BASKETBALL NETWORK
Anchor: Louis Meadows
Web-site: www.kygirlsbbnews.com
E-mail: [e-mail]
September 06, 2011

More information on new coaches:

When I went through the list of schools on the KHSAA Site a couple of days ago, I missed one school. That is because I looked under the letter “W” for the school and could not find it. I should have looked under the letter “T”. But anyway, Tommy Wall is the new coach at Whitesville Trinity. Tommy was assistant at Daviess County for nine years and then assistant at Whitesville Trinity for the past five years. Brad Payne was head coach at Trinity last year.

And the position at Breathitt County has been filled. Josephine Stamper is the new coach. Peggy Moore was head coach for several years.

CORRECTION: I printed in my Sept. 02 Notes that Brown is a private school in Louisville. According to about half a dozen people, that is wrong. Brown is a public school and is the only school in Louisville that houses grades K-12. I get the feeling it is some sort of specialty school.
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In my files, I found a paper copy of the 1999-2000 girls’ statewide basketball schedules published by the KHSAA. That was the last year that the KHSAA published papers copies of the schedules. After that, they put the schedules on their web-site. Made it much easier to adjust schedules for whatever reasons as the season progressed.

I made a special point to notice the coaches then and how few are still head coaches at the same school, then and today. Thought I might just do some print on my thoughts.

Here are some of the schools and coach that fit that category:
Anderson County----Tony Kays
Barren County--------John Butler
Berea High------------Jerry Bingham
Boone County--------Nell Fookes
Boyd County----------Pete Fraley
Calloway County-----Scott Sivills
Casey County---------Randy Salyers
Elizabethtown---------Tim Mudd
Green County---------Chris Blaydes
Henderson County---Jeff Haile
Mercer County--------Chris Souder
Murray High-----------Rechelle Cadwell Turner
Paintsville--------------Mark Baldwin
Perry Central----------Randy Napier
Villa MaDonna--------Don Shields
Woodford County----Jay Lucas

We have a couple of current coaches at the same school now and in 1999, but took a hiatus away from the job for at least a year. Paul Green, coach at Owsley County at that time, gave it up for a couple of years to become principal there. Later he retained the job as principal but also took back the job as head coach.

Kay Aleshire, head coach at Hickman County in 1999, also gave it up for a couple of years but returned to the job and still holds it.

And we have a couple of head coaches in 1999 that did not move, but their schools took on new names and became larger due to consolidation.

Dickie Adams is one of those. He was head coach at Whitesburg in 1999. Whitesburg consolidated into Letcher Central and Dickie was the original coach at Central and remains so.

Mike Harper was head coach ay Muhlenberg North in 1999. He was the original coach at Muhlenberg County when North and South consolidated and remains such.

OK, OK, I didn’t forget you. Don’t get upset. There are three coaches I left out of the list at the top. I wanted to put them into a special group. These are coaches that fit the criteria mentioned above but who have won the Sweet Sixteen in that ntime.

Sacred Heart----------Donna Moir------2002, 2003, 2004
Mercy-------------------Mark Evans------2010
Rockcastle County---Chrysti Noble---2011
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We have a few head coaches in 1999 that are no longer head coaches, but have moved up as athletic director or principal at the same school.

Betsy Layne-------Cassandra Akers-----------principal
Bullitt Central-----Christy Coulter--------------principal
Butler (Lou)--------Stephanie Greathouse---Jefferson County central office
Hopkins Central--Nancy Oldham--------------athletic director
Johnson Central--Phillip wireman-------------principal
Sheldon Clark-----Robin Newsome-----------athletic director
Warren Central---Todd Steward---------------athletic director
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We have several coaches at given schools in 1999 that are still head coaches but at a different school.

Cindy Halbert Stuart from Belfry to Pikeville High
Jeff Patton from Breckinrige County to Whitesville Trinity to Frederick Fraize
Josh Hurt from Gallatin County to Meade County
Alison McCarthy from Holmes to Beechwood
Al Northington from Iroquois to Fairdale to Moore
Stacy Pendleton from Jeffersontown to South Oldham to Manual
Pete DiStefano from LaRue County to Metcalfe County
Andy Groves from McLean County to Hopkins Central
George Bellamy from Morgan County to Fairview
Todd Gilley from Oldham County to Henry County (he was also at Henry pre-Oldham)
Kristi Orem from Scott County to Fleming County
Judie Mason from Somerset to Boyle County to Danville

I am going to mention one more name on this list. Andrea Forrester was head coach at Caldwell County in 1999. She is now an assistant coach at Lexington Christian.
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We had two head coaches in 1999 that later moved to head jobs in Indiana.

Willis McClure was head coach at Apollo and moved. I think he has since retired. He coached Apollo to the Sweet Sixteen final four one year. That team was led by Natalie Powers. The last I heard, Natalie was an assistant at Apollo.

Joe Voelker was at Presentation in 1999 and later moved to Floyd Central in Indiana. The last I heard (last year), he was still there.
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We have a few head coaches from 1999 that have since moved up to the college ranks.

In 1999, Ginger High was head coach at Campbellsville High School. Geographically she did not move, but she did change her last name. She is now Ginger Colvin and the head coach at Campbellsville University.

In 1999, Mike Riffe was head coach at my alma mater of Carroll County. He moved from there to the head job at Andrew Junior College, located in Georgia. That was several years ago, so I am not sure if he is still there.

In 1999, Kent Miller was head coach at Madison Central. Since then, he has become an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University (I know Kent is still there. Right, Kent).

Michelle Feistritzer was head coach at Boyle County in 1999. Since then, she took a job as assistant at Centre College. I am not real sure if she is still at Centre or not.

Hey, big man. I wasn’t about to leave you out. Save the best to last, as they say. Greg Todd took over as head coach at Lexington Catholic in the fall of 1999. He coached that team to the Sweet Sixteen title in 2001, 2005, and 2006. A few years later, he took over the head job at Transylvania University.

Speaking of Transy, the other day I saw a special on one of the PBS channels featuring the current Speaker of the House John Baehner, Nancy Pelosi, and another former Speaker of the House. They were all at Transylvania University giving a salute to Henry Clay, the Great Compromiser from the Civil War Days. Henry Clay is considered one of the greatest Speakers of the House in history and he was from Lexington. The whole show at Transy was done with a lot of class. I was very impressed.
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That leaves me with one last category of coaches from 1999. It is a sad one. I am aware of two coaches that are no longer with us.

In 1999, Ralph Sallee was head coach at Lexington Christian. He then moved to East Jessamine. He later became ill with cancer and succumbed to it.

John “Hop” Brown coached West Carter to the Sweet Sixteen title in 2000. A couple of years later, he developed brain cancer and, he too, lost that battle.
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If I left anyone out in the mentioned categories, it was not on purpose. I tried to be as complete as my mental state will allow me.

All of these folks mentioned above make up the fabric of girls’ basketball in the state of Kentucky. Young coaches may have ideas and have lots of energy, but it takes a few years’ experience to become part of that fabric. (Not saying anything bad against young folks---all these people above were young folks at one time. It takes a mixture of older and young for things to evolve).

Let me mention a part of my history in all things, especially for the new folks on the Network. I retired from teaching high school math at Williamstown in 1994. I knew I needed a hobby to take up my time. For whatever reason, I made a deliberate choice to start following girls’ basketball on a statewide basis. Part of that deliberation was to get to know the state geographically and to know the top players and coaches. I have never coached a game in my life and, in fact, never played. But I always had a good repore with the female basketball players in the classroom when I taught and that carried over to my retirement years.

So I started going to a lot of games statewide. I have used this description before, but it explains it best. “I would go two hundred miles in one direction one night and two hundred miles in another direction the next night”. And I did that five nights a week. I tried to make all the events in the state where I could watch several games in one sitting.

My point is, I got to know first-hand a lot of the movers-and shakers of the game, including about all of all the folks mentioned at the top of this article. I didn’t go to any shenanigans to do that, it just came natural as things evolved.

In August 2000, I came up with this idea of doing a newsletter on the happenings in girls’ basketball. I first thought I would write it as a newspaper article and send it to the papers across the state to print. And a few papers were printing my articles.

But after a couple of months, I decided to take my newsletters directly to the coaches and leave the newspapers out of it. So then I started gathering e-mail addresses of head coaches and other folks involved in the game, both professionally and general fans, and start our own Network. Basically it has been growing ever since.

Of all the folks I mentioned above, I can’t think of one not on my current mail list. I feel comfortable doing the working with the Network because I am so comfortable with so many folks on it. I feel like I am dealing with personal friends.

There are so many others I remember from those days: Jim Wright of Shelby County, John High of Breathitt County and Montgomery County, Garry DeWitt from Allen County-Scottsville, Tommy Adams from Hart County, Terry Buckles from Central Hardin. Ray Kues from Bishop Brossart, Walter Estes from Hancock County---I will stop there. This list could go on and on. But there are so many folks that have influenced the game and made it what it is today.

And I cannot out into words how much we all miss Hop Brown. He might be the anchor of the whole group.

To take my personal history one step further, in 2004 they found I had cancer. I tried to keep up what I had been doing, on the road several times a week, for a couple of years. But gradually, I slowed down on the attendance. Now I go to about five games a year. I used to do more than that in a week.

But I still deal with the Network. That is something I can do at home. And it gives me a focus—my way of giving to others to keep my mind off my own problems. I still say working with the Network is the reason I have so well with the cancer the last several years. I love working with the Network for about two hours. Then it gets tiring and stops being fun.

But sitting at home writing words is not the same as being out there. Being out there and seeing things with your own eyes and drawing your own conclusions is the only valid way to do it. It is not the same sitting at home and reading about events in the newspaper and hearing about them on the news. You have to witness them with your own eyes.

Hey, maybe it is time for me to stop my salute to the fabric of the Kentucky girls’ basketball profession and shut up. My two hours are just about up (about three hours ago).
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FROM ANDY GROVES, NEW HEAD COACH AT HOPKINS CENTRAL:

Date: 9/2/2011 9:32:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: [e-mail]

Hopkins Central plans to host a 4 team freshmen AND 4 team JV tournament on Saturday, January 14. Cost would be $75 per team (Example: $75 for Fresh. + $75 for JV = $150) if you bring both. Games would be scheduled for Fresh 1st Round at 10 am and 12, JV 1st Round at 11 am and 1, Fresh Consolation at 2:30, JV Consolation at 3:30, Fresh Championship at 4:30, JV Championship at 6:00. Please let me know if you would like to enter. First come, first accepted. Thanks.
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FROM RODNEY ROWE, HEAD COACH AT SHELBY VALLEY:

Date: 9/2/2011 9:55:16 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
From: [e-mail]

Shelby Valley is in need of one game. The dates could be December 6, 7 or 20. Contact Rodney Rowe.
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Until I am Back in the Saddle again, may all you Trails be Happy and all your Water be Cool.







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