Pike County schools.

[Alfus21]

Coach Lawson has built the best baseball program east of Lexington, besides Boyd County, IMO. 4 region titles for Coach Lawson allready in his 7 years as head coach of Pikeville High School is pretty impressive and even though this year may be a somewhat down year I look for Coach Lawson to win many region titles in the future....there is a lot of young talent at Pikeville High right now.

 

Who couln't have won 4 region titles in the last 7 years at Pikeville? With the talent he's been handed he should have won it all 7 years...Anybody could do what Lawson is doing at Pikeville because the senior league/ little league programs there are the best I've seen and those people that run it get no credit..It all goes to Lawson, which is a shame...I do think it's good you give some credit to the parents..You're the 1st person I've seen do it yet...

[Alfus21]

The best teams in Pike County for 2006 are Pikeville, East Ridge, and Belfry

 

:confused: How is East Ridge going to be one of the best teams?

[Sidelines]

Who couln't have won 4 region titles in the last 7 years at Pikeville? With the talent he's been handed he should have won it all 7 years...Anybody could do what Lawson is doing at Pikeville because the senior league/ little league programs there are the best I've seen and those people that run it get no credit..It all goes to Lawson, which is a shame...I do think it's good you give some credit to the parents..You're the 1st person I've seen do it yet...

 

Must not have seen many Little League and Sr. League programs!

Belfry has the market cornered in Pike County!!!

[MOUNTAINFOOTBALL]

Who couln't have won 4 region titles in the last 7 years at Pikeville? With the talent he's been handed he should have won it all 7 years...Anybody could do what Lawson is doing at Pikeville because the senior league/ little league programs there are the best I've seen and those people that run it get no credit..It all goes to Lawson, which is a shame...I do think it's good you give some credit to the parents..You're the 1st person I've seen do it yet...

 

Having played in both the little league and senior league programs at Pikeville I know how much they mean to the high school program and I know several players from Central and Valley used to play in it also...dont know if they still do though. Coach Lawson is a great coach though and does a great job imo. Coach Howell was also a very good assistant coach and had been with Lawson the past 7 years...last year was his last with Pikeville, they will miss him more than a lot of people realize.

[MOUNTAINFOOTBALL]

Must not have seen many Little League and Sr. League programs!

Belfry has the market cornered in Pike County!!!

 

Doesnt Pikeville play in Cal Ripken now and not in the same as all the other area little league assocations? I am sure there are still a lot of young good players coming up presntly in the little and senior league at Pikeville...that has been pretty consistent for the past 15 years. I may be totoally off here about Pikeville not competing against Belfry, Pburg, and Paintsville now in little and senior league but I think I remember someone telling me this summer that they had switched to Ral Ripken, which I personally dont like because none of the other area teams are in Cal Ripken that I am aware of...I admit I am out of the loop though with the little league and senior league programs in the Big Sandy Area right now, having lived out of the area the past 6 summers I haven't been able to keep up with much of it at all. I would be really surprised though if Belfry has overtaken Pikeville in little and senior league though but I do think Belfry is going to be much improved in baseball in the upcoming years with the new facilites, new coach that I heard was good, and esp. if they are getting good at the little league and senior league levels.

[firebird]

Doesnt Pikeville play in Cal Ripken now and not in the same as all the other area little league assocations? I am sure there are still a lot of young good players coming up presntly in the little and senior league at Pikeville...that has been pretty consistent for the past 15 years. I may be totoally off here about Pikeville not competing against Belfry, Pburg, and Paintsville now in little and senior league but I think I remember someone telling me this summer that they had switched to Ral Ripken, which I personally dont like because none of the other area teams are in Cal Ripken that I am aware of...I admit I am out of the loop though with the little league and senior league programs in the Big Sandy Area right now, having lived out of the area the past 6 summers I haven't been able to keep up with much of it at all. I would be really surprised though if Belfry has overtaken Pikeville in little and senior league though but I do think Belfry is going to be much improved in baseball in the upcoming years with the new facilites, new coach that I heard was good, and esp. if they are getting good at the little league and senior league levels.

In the next several years you will see more and more leagues switching to Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth. Johnson Co. will have a league this upcoming season, and rumor is several other area leagues will be soon switching their affiliation.

[firebird]

I agree totally and should have added that in. First Coach Thomas did a great job in the early and mid 90s in actually turning the program into a consistent winner...I dont think they had ever won the 15th Region until 1991. The parents, Buckmaster on here and a few more do a great job of getting the kids game experiece during the fall and the Pikeville little and senior leagues do a great job of teaching the fundamentals to the kids at a early age. Coach Lawson is the perfect coach at Pikeville now. He did step into maybe the most talent at Pikeville at one time ever as far as baseball in 98 and 99 and was able to win 2 region titles in his first 2 years and I agree he has had a lot of great talent since then but he is a great coach and he is running a great program right now at Pikeville High School.

Not only has Buckmaster helped kids in Pikeville become better ball players, he has helped many kids in the Big Sandy Valley get the opportunity to improve. Buckmaster is a great fan and supporter of Pikeville baseball, but he is one of the very few guys that I know of that is still 100% for kids regardless of where they go to school.

[Alfus21]

Must not have seen many Little League and Sr. League programs!

Belfry has the market cornered in Pike County!!!

 

:laugh:

[firebird]

:laugh:

Mankind,

 

I think what Sidelines is trying to say is that Pikeville is no longer invoved in LL and Senior League since they have gone to Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth and that Belfry would be the strongest of what is left still playing under LL . But Belfry has had one of the better LL programs in this area the past few years.

[MOUNTAINFOOTBALL]

Not only has Buckmaster helped kids in Pikeville become better ball players, he has helped many kids in the Big Sandy Valley get the opportunity to improve. Buckmaster is a great fan and supporter of Pikeville baseball, but he is one of the very few guys that I know of that is still 100% for kids regardless of where they go to school.

:thumb:

I agree Buckmaster has done a lot for the Pikeville program and like you said baseball in the Pikeville area regardless of what high school the kids attend....he is a great supporter of Pikeville baseball and EKY baseball. I personally never played fall baseball because of football(if I had attended any school besides Pikeville or Belfry though I would have played fall baseball.)but when I was at Pikeville High there were other people that were running fall ball and it helps the program a lot. I hope that Buckmaster will continue to do it even though his son graduated from Pikeville. If not I am sure someone else will though.

[15thSportsFan]

With all due respect Firebird, Dave Thomas built the baseball program at PIkeville long before you or Buckmaster were around. He won 3 consecutive regional titles at Pikeville in the early 90's. I doubt if you or Buckmaster had anything to do with that. Coach Lawson won two regions in 98 and 99.....also long before you guys were around. He won one in 2002 with kids that NEITHER of you coaches. I think Lawson deserves all the credit he gets......

[jdubb104]

:confused: How is East Ridge going to be one of the best teams?

 

Who in Pike County do you think will beat them besides Pikeville and Belfry?

[firebird]

With all due respect Firebird, Dave Thomas built the baseball program at PIkeville long before you or Buckmaster were around. He won 3 consecutive regional titles at Pikeville in the early 90's. I doubt if you or Buckmaster had anything to do with that. Coach Lawson won two regions in 98 and 99.....also long before you guys were around. He won one in 2002 with kids that NEITHER of you coaches. I think Lawson deserves all the credit he gets......

Nobody said that Coach Lawson didn't know what he was doing or was not a good coach. I think he is a very good coach, please dont take that I am trying to insinuate that for one second. If you look at the three high schools teams that come out of the 15th region about every year, they all have very good summer youth baseball.

 

I think Little League and summer ball was still around in Pikeville during the Dave Thomas days as well. Different era ,different people, same situation.It's called developed talent that steps on the field come springtime. It's a huge advantage that not every team in the 15th can claim.

 

Is this the same Dave Thomas that Pikeville people just a few short years later claimed didn't know what he was doing?

[15thSportsFan]

With that kind of thinking, Charlie Adkins doesn't deserve credit for winning a state championship and a bunch of regions. Mike Collins deserves no credit for building the program at Johnson Central. Because Paintsville has the best or 2nd best little league program in the area.

 

The HEAD coaches take all the heat when they lose.......they should get the credit when they win. Is there NO head coach who deserves credit??

[firebird]

With that kind of thinking, Charlie Adkins doesn't deserve credit for winning a state championship and a bunch of regions. Mike Collins deserves no credit for building the program at Johnson Central. Because Paintsville has the best or 2nd best little league program in the area.

 

The HEAD coaches take all the heat when they lose.......they should get the credit when they win. Is there NO head coach who deserves credit??

Do you find it odd , that those three programs are the dominate ones EVERY year?

 

Do you find it ironic that these teams are the ones that are blessed with the class youth programs?

 

Yes they should get credit for many things, managerial skills is a huge asset that they all possess, but to make the statement that each built their respective programs from ground zero is not totally correct. I am meaning nothing more than that.All the coaches that you named are all very good baseball people, they just were fortunate enough that they did not have to do all of it by themselves. I think even they realize that they have had great advantages that many other 15th region teams have not been able to take advantage of. They have all been able to capitalize on the resourses available to them. That is a good thing, and one I compliment each on.

 

 

BTW, Glad to have you back.How's things in the big city?