Boosters can't pay coaches. Only the board of education can. Now, boosters can donate an amount of funds to the board of education and that board can choose to use that on supplements to athletic coaches...

Boosters can't pay coaches. Only the board of education can. Now, boosters can donate an amount of funds to the board of education and that board can choose to use that on supplements to athletic coaches...

 

True.

One thing is for sure. McCracken just hired an achieved girls soccer coach from Texas, a good boys soccer coach from Texas that just won a regional championship, a wrestling coach from Texas that seems to be getting the wrestling program in the right direction, and Jackson came from Georgia. All that to say that McCracken has shown they're looking nationally for their coaches and I'd be shocked if their next head coach is from anywhere around here. Their track record is looking for proven coaches from other states.

 

McCracken County's boys soccer coach coached ... a while ago. He was at Central Hardin for the previous six seasons. That ain't exactly luring a coach away from the Lone Star State. He also played college soccer in Georgia before getting another degree at a larger Tennessee university. He's also coached in high school in Tennessee and South Carolina and coached in college in West Virginia.

 

As far as the girls soccer coach, he was a boys assistant under Wiersema just last. He didn't leave Texas directly for the girls' top job. FWIW, the new girls coach (former Wiersema assistant) coached in Texas at the same school that Wiersema had previously. Two guys coaching in Texas (at the same high school, but different times) who know each other and winding up in the same Kentucky high school does NOT make it looking nationally.

 

As far as the wrestling coach, he is a Wyoming native who coached in Colorado and New Mexico before arriving in Texas ... at the SAME exact school the boys soccer coach (Wiersema) and the girls soccer coach came from.

 

You didn't hire three guys away from Texas to be your head coaches:

 

- One was at Central Hardin

- One was already on staff as your boys assistant (granted just for one year)

- The third probably knew the two above ... or that's a really strange coincidence

 

While Jackson might have come from Georgia, he also coached in Missouri (Hayti High coach, Caruthersville High coach, Mizzou assistant for recruiting, Lindenwood University staff), Tennessee (Obian Central High) and Arkansas (Blytheville High). He also interviewed for another Georgia job (Wayne County) after just one season in Paducah.

 

As far as Allen, Texas, losing coaches, I don't think they're too concerned. It is one of the richest school districts in the country. It's also humongous, both in physical layout and enrollment (nearly 6,000). They lose coaches to other jobs all the time and have no trouble filling them.

 

All four coaches you've gotten from other states have bounced around and have no problems pulling up roots and going elsewhere.

 

Let's not make it out to be that you're luring/stealing away/enticing longtime notable coaches to leave their cushy/awesome jobs at bigger pastures to come to West Kentucky. That ain't the case when you do some research.

 

McCracken is like Western Kentucky University: It's a stepping stone, not a final destination (even with awesome facilities and the biggest enrollment for miles)

(And there's NOTHING wrong with that. The Mustangs and the Hilltoppers do quite well for themselves).

 

But they don't have name-brand, national appeal. Not hardly.

I think it will be Steve Pardue

This program could and should be a top 5-8 program in 6A year in and year out wiith their following and facilities

This program could and should be a top 5-8 program in 6A year in and year out wiith their following and facilities

 

But, let's not forget here that despite those two things that this is still a program playing in by far our toughest classification. This is a program that was made by taking three schools where one had just had recent success before the merger and two other programs that were more or less dead.

 

Not only were those bottom two struggling, but they were doing so in 2A.

Facilities don't always equal success.

This school is still working out the kinks. They just recently started combining their middle schools teams into one.

2013 was McCracken County's first varsity season ever. 2017 will be their 5th season. They will start that fifth season with their 3rd coach or the 3rd time you will have to start from scratch. I would call that low stability and maybe the biggest hurdle they have in the short term.

 

This is a critical hire. My first question to a prospective candidate would be: Will you stay here 3 years (something no previous coach has done)? If I don't get a good read on that I would likely keep looking. With that said, every day you go without a NEW coach at this point is time lost IMO. Time is of the essence for McCracken County.

They will never complete with the 6A schools in Louisville or Northern Kentucky

Why do you say that?

They will never complete with the 6A schools in Louisville or Northern Kentucky

 

They can compete, and beat, the 6A schools in NKY. They haven't proven anything. Louisville and Scott County are a different story.

Why do you say that?

 

My earlier post got me thinking about something, and I guess it's "Mustang's" related, but nobody expected Muhlenberg County to be a major player in 6A even though they have done quite well all things considered to be honest, so why do people expect McCracken County to be much more?

 

Their stadium's and surfaces are one in the same, and Muhlenberg's might be bigger. Muhlenberg North and Muhlenberg South merged to become one in 2009 and neither of the prior schools had any kind of tradition.

 

Lone Oak, Reidland and Heath merged to become one in 2013 with Lone Oak being the only one that had any kind of success in recent years leading up to it. I went back and looked at schedules of all, and the bulk of Reidland's wins came against either Fulton County, Fulton City, Heath, Webster County or Muhlenberg North.

 

Most of Muhlenberg South's wins since 1998 came against like competition and they more or less split between Reidland and Heath over the years.

 

The same could be said for Heath also. Go back and look and Fulton City, Fulton County, Reidland, Muhlenberg North, Muhlenberg South, Lone Oak and Webster County made up for almost all of their wins.

 

So why is it that McCracken was all of the sudden tabbed with the expectation of them becoming a 6A major player?

Edited January 16, 20179 yr by Auburn

The program has potential but it also has the potential to end up like a Henderson Co. To say that this is a critical juncture is a understatement.

I'm settling the comparison with Jefferson county KY. North Gwinett assistant will make more than McCracken HC for sure.

 

My apologies. My reading comprehension is off sometimes :lol2:

They will never be a state power in football