Beamerball, I'm not saying that Palko is a bad choice for Lee, nor am I saying he is a bad coach. All I'm saying is that too many people see "experience" as being a panacea for all things bad, when the reality of it is that "experience" is sometimes used to describe a situation where "longevity" would have been the better word.

Correct me if I am wrong because this is based SOLELY on what I have read on this and other boards, but last year's coach didn't leave willingly. He aparently failed to complete some type of educational requirement and was let go. If that IS the case, then the decision to hire him in the first place was a poor one. Why take that kind of chance when you have qualified applicants?

Palko may come to Lee, and in a couple of years be cleaning the clocks of everyone in the CMD. Or, if he lives up to the history of his past twenty years, he will be a mediocre coach who lives right on the line of the .500 season.

I think EVERYONE would agree that the schools all across the CMD have relatively equal talent for the most part. The differences in winning and losing at sports may, during some years, be an issue of talent alone, but for the most part, over the long haul, it is coaching ability. Look at GC with football and volleyball. Does GC just happen to be the only school in the CMD that can produce good volleyball athletes?

As someone just said on another board, "Good coaches win ballgames regardless of talent." School systems and state leagues do their best to insure equality of play by classifying schools according to enrollments.

In looking at any coach's record I realize you have to take things other than won-loss records into account. Here we aren't talking about three or four years, where "builidng" a program might be an excuse, or even ten years where there were some lean years at first and then the program began winning. Instead, we are talking about TWENTY years of .500 seasons. So, there is a possibility that Lee has hired a coach with a winning heart, mind and program that just didn't have resources at his previous school. There is also the probability that they have hired a coach that wasn't very successful at his last school, and probably won't be at this one either.

Ultimately it matters not to me. I was just throwing some things out there for discussion. I wish Coach Palko and the Generals the best of luck. I like seeing close football games, and want all the CMD schools to develop topnotch programs. It is fun to win, but it is even more fun to show up on a Friday night not knowing who is going to win, and when you do win come away with a sense of accomplishment.