Owsley County has hired Gary Bowling as their new head coach

Congratulations to Gary. I've known him since he was a toddler. Good guy from a good family. He will do fine as coach. The grade school and middle school teams did well last year and the future looks promising for Owsley. He has some building blocks for the future, but it's going to take a few years.

Owsley County is a small high school, about 215 in enrollment, so there's around 100 boys from which to mold a team. When you're a small school you're going to experience up years and down years in cycles. Owsley was fortunate in the 1980's, '90's, and early 2000's to have teams that won 11 district titles, was twice runner up in the 14th region , and won 4 All A regions, making it to the state championship game in 1990 and to the semis in 2000. Hopefully the Owls can get back on track to that kind of success again. But it's going to take time, and Owsley's enrollment was close to 300 in past years but nearly 100 less nowadays.

 

Some info on the new coach:

Gary Bowling was a guard on the 1983 Owsley County team that went 28-5 and was runner up in the region. He graduated in 1984. He played at Lee's Jr College for two years, walked on at Morehead State for one year, and following graduation from college has worked for the Department of Justice for the past 20 years. He has coached in Owsley's youth leagues and was the 5th-6th grade coach last year. His family is originally from Bowlingtown near Buckhorn but had to relocate following the building of the Buckhorn Dam in 1959. Most of his brothers and sisters were born in Perry County but Gary was born after the family moved to the Vincent area of Owsley.

Good luck to Gary in his future as the Owls' coach.

Best of luck.

I think that is exactly who needs to be leading Owsley then.... A confirmed competitor that nearly took the owls to the state tourney....A proven competitor to get those kiddos excited representing their community.