The Political Dope

Does Paris have much size and quickness in the line?

I'm not sure if it was a big surprise. However, I think Fleming was 8-3 last year and Harrison was 0-10. Considering Harrison hasn't had a winning season since Coach Graham left, and all variables that can come into play regarding high school sports, it was a great victory for Harrison's program and community.

I believe Fleming County was 8-3 last year and Harrison was 0-10.

If Rowan County made the decision to terminate the athletic director.... why are they not also considering extending the same action to principal Ray Ginter? He was in charge and he in addition was following the leadership of Marvin Moore. Should the athletic director be the escape goat of principal Ray Ginter and Marvin Moore as they made Coach Graham the escape goat? I think these two, who masquerade as leaders do not realize that when they point...they have three fingers pointing right back at them. In my opinion, the Rowan County school board should act before their inaction comes back against them...simply an obrservation.

One of the parents who runs a workout facility in Rowan County told Coach Graham that he should move his starting quarterback to split end and start the son of the former Booster Club president's who started the debacle at quarterback. He also told him that he should change his offense. Interesting coming from a guy who couldn't make his own team in high school. Now he's a self proclaimed expert. These self-proclaimed experts also unfairly painted the Rowan County team as hazers and bullies. You can almost feel the hurt and pain from the the upperclassmen in the their quotes in the newspaper article. As a former player and son of a coach, I can only say "shame" on these sad examples of parents and adults.

I found it interesting that the lead investigator who was from Iran and of another religion made, what I believe, was a derogatory reference to Coach Graham's Christian faith. From that point on I was concerned about how the investigation might be painted.

I agree. In the direction education is going today and the current policy of the OEA not to interview those players and parents who were in support of Coach Graham, a younger coach could have been ruined. And when Coach Graham stated that the parents who made the false allegations were willing to do whatever it took to get rid of him....he meant "WHATEVER" which I believe some of their actions were illegal.

I want to take this time to comment on the actions by the principal of Rowan County. Below is what Coach Graham shared in an article that were his three options at Rowan County, after previously being told by the Principal and Superintendent they were behind him 100% and that he was the type guy they'd want coaching their children and grandchildren Graham goes on to say a meeting in “late February or early March” had a much different tone. “I was told that I had three options: one was to resign, second was to take a temporary suspension with pay, the third one was to get fired,” he said. In the article, in typical fashion that has described the attitude and atmosphere of a Marvin Moore led school system, the principal of Rowan County, Ray Ginter disputed this claim. This dispute is the typical arrogance that has, in my opinion, been exhibited by the principal and superintendent in this entire debacle. I happened to have had a conversation with Coach Graham the day after this encounter and he told me those exact words that was printed in the article. Considering the fact that the superintendent lied to Coach Graham about who would be attending a meeting with him, Principal Ginter's comment is par for the administration's course. In addition the Women's Soccer coach whose program was also under OEA investigation was provided legal representation. Coach Graham was provided none. It was apparent Coach Graham was to be their "whipping boy." They weren't even going to allow him to take notes at the meeting in which he was ambushed. It is apparent, in my opinion, these are the actions of sad little men who are not grounded in principle and should have no leadership responsibility in the education field. I believe such actions should forfeit the right of leadership.

Below is excerpts from an article from the Ashland Independent this morning interviewing Coach Graham Graham speaks out on OEA report, Rowan departure Ray Graham wants to move forward. To do that, the former Rowan County football coach felt he needed to speak publicly about his departure from the Vikings program in the midst of an Office of Education Accountability investigation, which concluded with its report in July. Graham has taken up for himself on the record for the first time this week. “I wanted to be able to make a statement because I care about all my players,” Graham said. “For 40 years that I’ve coached, I’ve always been a guy that’s promoted this concept right here: All for one, one for all, the team, the team, the team. Everyone’s important. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Mutual respect.” The OEA report on its look into the Vikings program painted a different picture, of an out-of-control program where senior players routinely bullied freshmen “without fear of repercussions.” And it found Rowan County Schools Superintendent Marvin Moore and Rowan County Senior High School Principal Ray Ginter in violation of state law and school district policy by not adequately investigating parents’ and players’ claims of hazing and bullying. Graham began a 32-minute phone interview Thursday by calling the OEA report “overzealous, incomplete and one-sided.” He took issue with the report’s tone and also disputed the accuracy of several points presented under a heading entitled “facts” in the report. “I felt like that it was important that people that wanted to know (what happened) could hear a different aspect (than the report),” Graham said. “There are many, many people that would be willing to put their face in a camera and make comments about a totally different viewpoint than the way that the report was said. Many parents, coaches or players would be willing to step forward and make a totally different scenario.” Graham said that he was forced out by a persistent group of “six or seven people” who didn’t like the direction of the program and “were willing to do whatever it took.” Graham also said that he was told in a meeting with school administrators in February or March, about the time the OEA began its investigation, he had three options: to accept a suspension with pay, resign or be fired — a point disputed by Ginter. ‘Whatever it took’ Graham said he was approached by a player’s parent last offseason who didn’t like his Wing-T offense and was concerned about players’ ability to receive college scholarships coming from a once-popular run-heavy offensive system that is now not widely used. The coach also said a parent advised him on personnel decisions, moving players to different positions. “Anyone who knows me knows that’s barking up the wrong tree,” Graham said. “The coach and staff make personnel decisions.” Later, at the end of the season, when Graham’s position was becoming tenuous, he said he approached the parent who had made those personnel suggestions. “Very same parent,” Graham said. “(I said), ‘I know you know what’s going on. What do you know?’ Reply: ‘I told you who to play at that particular position.’” That scenario would come as no surprise to Mercer County coach David Buchanan. As Mason County’s skipper, Buchanan coached against Graham-led Vikings and Harrison County teams three times. Buchanan is also a longtime friend of Graham’s. His first memory of Graham, he said, is when Buchanan was 4 and Graham played for Danville against Boyle County, then coached by Buchanan’s father. Buchanan said “underfunding” of high school football programs forces reliance for finances upon parents and booster clubs, which can put coaches in an uncomfortable position. “I think what Ray’s going through, it could happen to any of us,” Buchanan said. “He loves kids, and this is a good reason why guys are getting out (of the coaching profession), is this kind of stuff. It just makes you ask yourself, is it really worth it? “It’s getting to where there’s just too many negatives and there’s too many sacrifices. You’re really taking a big risk if you continue to coach right now.” Ashland coach Tony Love said coaches must be resolute in trying to do right by their players — and let the rest sort itself out. “There’s always criticism when you’re a coach,” he said, “and some of it is probably justifiable; some of it is maybe an angry parent that gets others on board with them. “You have an obligation to treat the kids fairly, and the parents entrust you with their young men, and if you can hold your head high knowing that you did your job in taking care of them, then I don’t think you need to look over your shoulder.” Disputed points Graham said when he saw the OEA report, he noted several items listed as “fact” he deemed blown out of proportion, taken out of context or simply inaccurate. He says he recalls being approached about only two incidents that could be considered hazing or bullying: a player being called a name in 2014, and a younger player having his cleat taken from a locker. The coach said he dealt with those situations immediately. “Anything that was ever brought to my attention, obviously, I would handle that situation to the best of my ability,” Graham said. “Anything that I ever knew about was handled, and didn’t waste any time doing it.” Graham also said a “prank was evidently pulled” by some seniors on some freshmen at team camp near Leitchfield before last season, but that he was not told about it until the season was over. Graham stated disagreement with the OEA’s portrayal of three events described in the report. The first was of a concussion sustained by a player in practice. The OEA report states that it was caused “when a player kicked the head of a downed player.” That note is sandwiched in the report between a statement that practice concussions “were inflicted primarily by junior and senior players” and that concussions were largely sustained by underclassmen, and that under Graham, “stories began to emerge of senior players mistreating underclassmen players.” Graham takes issue with that, because he said that incident was that an eighth-grader “accidentally” stepped on the head of a freshman whose helmet had come off during a play in a scrimmage. “I think that anyone who read the report would’ve assumed, the way it was written, that a senior had kicked a young freshman in the head on purpose,” Graham said, “(like) his helmet was off and saw a great opportunity to kick a kid in the head. ... There was no brutal act, which the report seemed to indicate.” Another allegation stated as fact in the report was an underclassman player forced to climb on a roof to retrieve his clothes, and becoming injured in the process in a manner that “affected his ability to play football that season.” Graham said he was told by players that a frisbee had ended up on the roof, and one senior had thrown another senior’s cleat onto the roof. An underclassman “volunteered to get that off,” Graham said. “I did ask him, ‘Did someone make you get up there?’” Graham said. “‘No, coach, I volunteered to go up there.’” The report also states that upperclassmen forced underclassmen to drink “an unknown concoction” at camp. Graham said that incident did not happen as stated, but that a freshman had urinated in another freshman’s Gatorade bottle. “No senior urinated in anybody’s bottle,” Graham said. “No senior forced anybody to drink anything.” Didn’t like the tone In addition to portraying a rudderless program, the report negatively depicts the last two years' Rowan County upperclassmen, Graham said. “Those are just a couple examples of what was in the report that if you read it, you would think, what kind of guys are up there?” Graham said. “But these are fine young men ... they’ve got great moms and dads, and I know that hurt them when they read that, and I know how upset it made the boys to be reading something like that.” Graham wasn’t the only one to notice. “It depicted us as thugs, and as people who didn’t care about others’ well-being or that we lacked empathy or that we were bullies,” said Devin Helvey, a senior Viking last fall. “It makes you feel a little angry that adults would say that about teenagers and depict us in that way, as if we weren’t teammates with those freshmen or underclassmen. “I think that bothered a lot of us in a way that we can’t change, but seeing adults talk about minors in that way was kind of disheartening.” Graham, instead, touted his seniors’ leadership, citing an event at camp when seniors stopped freshmen from going on an unsupervised night trip against Graham’s orders to Nolin Reservoir Lake, which bordered their camp near Leitchfield. “Now I spent a great deal of time with my seniors about accountability, dependability, leadership,” Graham said. “I spent a great deal of time with them, and I’m very proud of the fact that they bought into that and they tried to be good leaders. They’re teenage boys, and they tried to be the kind of leaders that were gonna set a standard of excellence in Rowan County football that would go on and continue and make Rowan County football strong.” Dillon Thomas, a sophomore last season, started a petition in the school in support of Graham last spring. He said he doesn’t recall being bullied or hazed by seniors either of his two seasons playing for Graham. “The two years coach Graham was with us, I was a freshman and sophomore,” Thomas said, “and I think if anybody would have a picture of (hazing), I think I would be one of them.” Two sides of a meeting Graham also said he was initially given a vote of confidence after last season. The Vikings finished 2015 strong, winning two of their final regular season games after a 3-4 start before a competitive loss at Scott in the first round of the playoffs. But talk of Graham leaving soon began to swirl, he said, and he said he asked for a meeting with the administration to “see where we stand.” Graham said he was told in that meeting that he is “the kind of guy that we’d want coaching our grandson” and that “we’re 100 percent behind you.” Graham goes on to say a meeting in “late February or early March” had a much different tone. “I was told that I had three options: one was to resign, second was to take a temporary suspension with pay, the third one was to get fired,” he said. Graham said the reasoning he was given for those options was the alleged hazing, and events occurring at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp that he said was not mandatory for the Vikings to attend. Graham said he was accused of imploring players to pick up Bibles and FCA T-shirts and wear an FCA tag at a camp. Graham said the camp was not mandatory, and neither was participating in the Christian activity at camp. He said about 40 players participated. “No one voiced any displeasure,” Graham said. “Everyone knew they were going to an FCA camp. No one was forced to go. Players that were not at either camp were on the team and played last year.” Graham refused to resign. “There was no way I was going to walk away and make someone who was reading news and hearing things think that I had any kind of guilt at all over any of this stuff,” he said. Graham was suspended and barred from contact with school personnel. Eventually, his contract wasn’t renewed. That account of the meeting isn’t how Ginter remembers it. He said he was present with Graham and assistant principal Ed Jones, and that “we never mentioned the word ‘being fired,’ ever.” Ginter said Graham asked him what he would do in Graham’s position. “I said, ‘I’d go to the house,’” Ginter said, meaning retire. “I thought I was talking to him as a friend. That wasn’t anything to do with me as an administrator. We never said, ‘You’re gonna be fired.’” Graham’s supporters Graham said he knew immediately when he returned to Rowan County in 2014, having skippered the Vikings from 1980-82, that he wanted to “change the culture.” “I don’t know exactly what it was like before I got there, but I know it’s always been important to me to try to make a positive culture, and it’s very important to me to treat every young man like I would want my son treated or my grandson,” Graham said. “I coached my own son, so I know what that’s like, and I’ve always taken the approach that every player is somebody’s son. I want them being treated fairly.” Two of his former players said Graham succeeded in that regard. “I feel like he was more like a father figure towards us,” Thomas said. “He was a coach, but then again, he showed us football wasn’t just a sport, it was about life, and he always told us to have fun with the sport and always treat it like we would a job or life in general.” Helvey concurred and reciprocates. “I feel bad that I can’t do more for coach Graham, but me and him have the understanding that he told me to focus on football and class, and my spirit,” said Helvey, now a freshman football player at Kentucky Christian. “That’s my agreement to him, and I’ll always help him in any way that I can.” Graham said he attended freshman and junior varsity games between Rowan County and Harrison County on Monday, and that he was approached by the young Vikings. “And so I obviously hug them, tell them hi, good luck, stuff like that,” Graham said. “So after the freshman game was over ... the JV team came down and one of them said, ‘Coach, we want you to do something for us. Would you do this for us?’ I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Would you pray with us?’ So I said, ‘All you all really want me to do that?’ They said, ‘Yes, coach.’ “So I thought that spoke volumes to me, that each player had just seen me and that’s what they wanted me to do before the JV game.” Graham said he’s received “an overwhelming outpouring of support” from friends, fellow coaches and former players. ‘No hard feelings’ Despite all this, Graham said he takes a content demeanor to his new job as an assistant coach at Georgetown College and that he still “love(s) Rowan County Schools.” “I’m happy. I want Rowan County happy,” Graham said. “I want everybody happy going forward and doing the best they can, and I want everybody to know that. I’ve moved on, Rowan County’s moving on forward.” He also expressed favor for his successor as Vikings coach, Gene Peterson. “I’m very confident in Gene Peterson being the kind of guy that I would have hired, and I told Gene that,” Graham said, “that he would be the kind of guy that I want coaching players that I care about, which I care about them very much.” Now he turns his focus to the Tigers. “I am where God wants me,” Graham said. “I think it’s more important to be spiritually correct than politically.”

Channel 27 WKYT-TV is advertising that Thursday Night the 25th at 6:00 a special interview with Coach Ray Graham "A Lesson for His Players; He Now Takes to Heart" A long time coach finally speaks out about violations against his former team. Looks like it will be worth watching.

The Office of Education Accountability final report did not mention all the unsubstantiated charges against (brought by no more than four parents) Coach Graham that could not be validated but did say the Athletic Director should have done more to see if the charges brought against him were true. It was damning to her, the principal and superintendent. They were already investigating another sport within the school. This could have been one of the reasons they elected to hang Coach Graham out to dry.

I understand the new Rowan County football coach is a good guy and congratulations to CC for the win, however, when the superintendent, principal and athletic director of Rowan allow false charges of few parents to terminate coaches that would be hard to coach under and best wishes for him.

I believe the Open Letter below from Coach Graham's father to Rowan County sums up in many ways the issue. He is a retired educator and legislator, having spent thirty-two years as a teacher, coach, counselor, and administrator in public schools, the state department of education and private colleges, as well as two years as assistant to the state highway commissioner. Also, as a state representative, he served eight years on the Education Committee. He understands the nuances of the field of education and state government. AN OPEN LETTER to the CITIZENS of ROWAN COUNTY My name is Gippy Graham. I am the proud father of the former Rowan County football coach, Ray Graham. Most likely the citizens of Rowan County who follow current events are aware that several months ago the parents of some football players initiated a malicious campaign attacking Ray’s leadership of the football program. While this was happening I was spending the winter months out west. Since I do not participate in the world of Facebook, email and internet, I was only vaguely aware of the bizarre, vicious, hurtful and conspiratorial conversations and acts taking place in Rowan County. Upon my return to Kentucky I have read copies of numerous Facebook, email and internet postings regarding this matter. I have also had discussions with individuals close to the situation. I now feel I have a clear understanding of what transpired and am using this venue to share my assessment of this debacle. For clarification, I am a retired educator and legislator, having spent thirty-two years as a teacher, coach, counselor, and administrator in public schools, the state department of education and private colleges, as well as two years as assistant to the state highway commissioner. Also, as a state representative, I served eight years on the Education Committee. I state this to point out that I am both an education and state government “insider” and understand the operations and nuances of the field of education and state government. The following is my “insiders” assessment along with comments. *There were a few possibly no more than four-sets of parents, who were fueled by selfish motives of wanting preferential treatment for their children, along with determining the style of play and control of the booster club. *Realizing the coach would not yield to their power moves, the disgruntled parents started a campaign to have Coach Graham removed. *Unsubstantiated charges were made along with insinuations that Coach Graham’s actions were contrary to the Christian values he espouses. *The critics found a willing ear with the administrators who yielded to the disgruntled parents and turned against Coach Graham. This was after Coach Graham had been told that the administration was 100% supportive of him. *Coach Graham was told that he would no longer be allowed on school property and he couldn’t have any contact or communication with the football team, students or school personnel. Failure to adhere to the decree would result in insubordination charges. *The high school administrators complied in enforcing the directive. *Convinced the critics would not cease their attacks, and desiring the issue to go away, a new coach was hired. *The disgruntled parents are joyful and feel empowered that they accomplished their mission. *Strong, effective leadership was lacking throughout the debacle. *Coach Graham’s teaching assignment included a class titled, VIKING SUCCESS, which was for at-risk youths. It was structured to improve study skills, improve attitudes, inspiring students to believe in themselves and to become successful. The lives and words of people such as Zig Ziglar, Lou Holtz, John Maxwell, Winston Churchill, Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy and biblical characters Job and Daniel, along with others were used as positive examples. Surprisingly, Coach Graham was informed that he was forbidden to use inspirational examples of any biblical characters in his interaction with the football team. It has always been my understanding as a coach and state representative, who served on the education committee that the justification for spending public funds on athletic programs is for the educational benefits athletics provide. For a coach, the locker room and football field are the coach’s classrooms where life’s lessons are taught. It’s reasonable to assume that school administrators would understand this. The Bible is a history book and as such, the Christian content and personalities listed therein can be freely discussed in a classroom. It calls into question the motive for wanting to suppress biblical examples. As a father who admires his son for the quality person he is, I want to thank the hundreds of students, parents and community members who, early on, recognized the situation for what it was and rallied in support of Coach Graham. I am especially grateful for the leadership of Kim Thomas, Charlotte Combess, and Miranda Kissick Deem, football parents, who never waivered in their belief in the coach and to David Morris, who played for Coach Graham during his first tenure at Rowan County, for leading a community-wide effort in rebutting the false charges. Additionally I want to extend my appreciation to the football coaching staff for their loyalty to Coach Graham. I am also appreciative to the team who, with the exception of two players, signed a petition supporting Coach Graham. I’m also appreciative and proud of the football players who demonstrated great character and maturity for refusing to submit to pressure to validate false charges intended to besmirch Coach Graham. I wish the Rowan County community well. Gippy Graham

Wow, wasn't the score last year something like a 40 point win by Rowan?