Since you must think that list is the ends all to the issue let's take it one point at a time.

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Powell Valley had just won their first state championship the year before his arrival.


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Yep, and they had 43 players on that team, nearly half were seniors. Phil took over a team that had won 1 district title in 25 years and that returned 3 total starters on both sides of the ball and won the schools 2nd district title in his first year.

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A strong feeder (little league) program had already been put into place by those who came before him.


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Some truth here, but I played the first two years that the peanut program existed in BSG. Two other coaches had plenty of player come out of that feeder system. Between those two coaches they won 1, that's one (1) district title between them.

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Powell Valley was by far the largest school in Region D

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Actually I think Kelly usually had about the same or slightly more students most years.

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Big Stone Gap was pretty much a hub for business/job opportunities, so the place to live in or near abouts was Big Stone. For the most part as far as Wise County goes, this still holds true to this day. Bottom line - more families in the area = more talent to choose from.


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This is really just the previous arguement restated in a different manner. I will point out that prior to Phil taking over the average PV team sported about 35 players, since Phile it's about 55 players. There's a reason for this and that reason is Phil.

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1971 - 1976 John Battle (15-42-3), 25% winning percentage

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Yep, a rookie coach in a down-trodden program paying his dues.

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1977 - 1982 Christiansburg (32-28-1), 52.4% winning percentage

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I'm no expert on Christiansburg football, but seems I remember reading that Phil led them to their first winning season since sometime in the iceage.