An amazing sight....

On my way back from a trip into Kentucky, I stopped off for some gas in good ole Pound and when I went in to pay for my gas and nice Diet Coke, what do I see on the counter!?
A petition for the immediate removal of the Pound High School football caoching staff by the tax payers of Pound. I was in awe of this. Anyone from Pound want to explain whats the deal? Im shocked with the balls to do this, with the graduation and the injuries Pound went through, to win the games they actually won was pretty impressive. beating a league champion and a team thats in the playoffs in 2 weeks. I guess thats loyalty for you, good luck finding somone who would want that job.

This disgust's me! Anyone who signs off on this loses all my respect.

Well this is history repeating in pound. The did this to Wayjne Leftwitch, Rich Wilson (who deserved it" the list goes on and on. But in this situation, I think its justified, in the last 3 years, Pound had some great talent, and most of the faily close games they lost, they were out-coached. I think you can go back in history and not find a pound team near that talented, with a losing record. Some of the dumb plays I have seen pound coaches call the last 3 years were jokes. I for one would gladly sign the petition, if I lived in the 16 ounce city!

I think this is what needs to be done.We had a team with talent this year and the coaches didn't know what to do with it.Some of our guys were playing out of position and the coaches do not teach the fact that you have to practice to play.

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I think this is what needs to be done.

[/ QUOTE ] you have absolutely got to be kidding.

who do you think is going to take the job?.....absolutely no one. who are going to be the assistant coaches? nobody, they had to literally beg the guys that are coaching now to do it, and you have to get somebody off the streets to coach your jv teams.

you should be thankful that you have a young man of coach mullin's character leading your kids.

They will probably have a shot at getting Greg from Coeburn and he will bring a couple of assistants with him that are from pound as well. Then we will be the ones wondering where a new coach will come from. [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wall.gif[/img]

If I were involved with the high schools in some way, I myself would apply for the head coaching position at Pound. Also, I would gladly be an assistant coach at Pound.
But I'm going to agree with above post that Pound has had some really great talent on the past couple teams, and they have just been out-coached. Offensive coordinator is a joke. Jason Mullins, the head-coach, is a good guy. Great morals, etc, but he's not tough enough as a coach.
So hopefully this off-season, they get everything worked out.

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and the coaches do not teach the fact that you have to practice to play.

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that should be understood, a coach should not have to beg to get a kid to practice. you can have all the talent in the world, and if the kids dont want to make a team out of it it wont matter. (ie. New York Yankees)

As unjustified as it may seem to some people, if a team, parents, and the community as a whole does not have confidence in a coaching staff to support them, then it should not even come down the point of needing a petition. The coaching staff should resign. After all, what can be gained for the team, the school, the community, or the coaches personally if they remain in positions where they aren't wanted? Are the coaches going to take a stand, saying "we're not going anywhere, and you want a team then you just have to deal with it?" What kind of response do you think that would bring?

We have all seen situations where groups of people have forced coaches out of schools in our area. Regardless of who is right or wrong, when you reach that point, something has to change. In the same respect that a "house divided cannot stand," a team cannot succeed when there is division and conflict.

So who would take their places? When Saunders was ousted at Wise, I thought the same thing. Who in their right mind would take on that coaching position. Yet, someone stepped up. Obviously, the problems aren't all resolved, but getting better. Last year, I saw a JJ Kelly player walk off the field and quit in the middle of a game. This year, the team played more like a team than they have in a long time.

I don't like seeing any coach removed from a team unless what he is doing is detrimental to the players and placing their health and safety at risk. But, ultimately this issue has to be decided by the school and community in Pound. Those of us from other towns and schools can sit back and say, "what a shame," but it's not our school, our team, or our fight.

I'll throw my 2 cents in.

While I agree that some changes might not hurt (the OC has came up repeatedly in the past), I also think there is some people blowing a bit too much smoke up in Pound.

An honest comment I heard late in the year.

"There is no way Pound should be struggling so much, they have 5 kids who are division 1 prospects"

Guys, girls...they have a few kids on there who are talented but ...no absolutely freaking way do they have 5 D1 prospects. Me thinks we're going back to seeing Pound be very good in youth sports, and people thinking that has to translate over. Me thinks that you have some of those great youth players who hear how good they are and become uncoachable or don't improve.

Make some changes in the coaching staff, that's fine. The OC should realize how much criticism they are getting and resign or go to coach receivers or something, but you have a good coach, a fine person as a head coach and that should be something, and should mean something. Honestly until you stop making bragging so much about winning the embryo league, it's never going to get better. Be proud in their youth accomlishments, but don't sell their souls to do it.

Good post, Rock. I agree with you. If everyone remembers back in the beginning of the season, folks critized Phil, Jimbo, and Roger Austin.

and Rick Mullins too...all the coaches that made the playoffs were questioned, so you know others will as well

Pound is just what it is, its one of the smaller schools. Sometimes they'll have good skill people, sometimes good big guys, sometimes neither, sometimes all.

I really and truthfully believe that one thing that kills Pound is the over emphasis on their youth programs. Over the past few years, almost regularly, Pound and one of their youth programs has been at the center of a controversy. This carries over. Kids become uncoachable. Parents are convinced that their child is all world at a position because they used to be great, etc.

Pound needs to see the leak in the boat and fix the leak, not constantly think they need a new boat.

5 D1 prospects, get real this whole region may have 3-5 a year actuall D1 players. Having a kid that hit their growth spurt early and is able to run all over the other kids in p-nut and jv a D1 does not make. By the time they get to be juniors and seniors evryone else has caught up to them and they are just another good player, but like Rock said by this time they and their parents are so blowed up over it they can't see reality.
This happens everywhere not just Pound.

Regardless of the reasons why the Pound folks want new coaching staff, it doesn't change the fact that they have aired their grievances with the current coaches in a very public way.

At this point, it doesn't matter who is right or wrong. If you are coaching a team and the players don't to play on your team, the parents don't want you there, and even the community wants you gone so bad that they are circulating a petition to get rid of you, what possible reason would you have to stay?

We can say the problem is with the attitude of the parents, but I'm reminded of a former co-worker once said, "you can change peoples actions, you can even censor what they say, but you will never, ever, ever change people's attitudes."

Pound has had these kinds of problems for a long time. They can't establish a program if they keep changing coaches every time they are displeased.

Instead of dragging him out in public with a stupid petition that folks who have never went to a game will sign, why not have had a meeting with him instead to air these grievences? Heck, he may have resigned there.

Pound is not the only school that has had problems with coaching staff, but I don't remember other petitions being circulated recently.

As far as being "established," Pound has had an established football team for a long team, they just haven't had the success of some other teams. I don't know that a change in coaching staff would make the program more successful, though some seem to think there have been some incompetencies.

What I do know for certain is that no coach no matter how well he may do his job can have a good program, if the team, parents, and community doesn't want him there.

This is ridiculous, I remember when Jimbo first started in 98 of course he went to state his first year and then after that had two or three (3-7) seasons in a row and everybody was calling for his head. They stuck it out and look what kind of program he has built. There will be lean years again, but you can't just go get rid of coach after one or two bad seasons, he has to have time to establish himself and get the right coaches in to fit his system, etc.

What has been Pound's records in the last few years, I don't recall them being all that bad.

B.I. has had to deal with this too to a lesser degree. The schools around here don't have 10,000 students, so there are cycles. Talent comes and goes. When B.I. took the reins at Kelly, the cupboard was bare. We are starting to see some talent and hence the win total is increasing. Sometimes you have to play the cards you are dealt. There have been times I have scratched my head at play calls from our high school coaches, but it is easy to be an armchair coach.

Powell Valley also had some problems early in the basketball season last year. There were some who called for Jon Crockett to resign, and he did even though PV did well in the district overall.

Fans get very brutal when it comes to losing.

I'm glad you brought up the youth teams that Pound has had over the last 4-5 years Rock. Here's why, the people at Pound seen all these winning Superbowl teams and scratch their heads and wonder why they are losing now. It's simple in P-nut all you need is a few good players to win a game because alot of young kids don't know how to tackle or angles to take to cut the field off and these players run wild on teams. Now that they are in highschool and other teams have developed it's not so easy to get the ball and just run.

Another thing that has hurt Pound with having all these Superbowl teams is that each of these teams has had some talented boys on their teams. But the question is have they been able to have them on the same team for more than one season? How many kids that were on these Superbowl teams held back? I was told that most of the boys that graduated last year had just turned 17. Pound had a good team last year and would have been better this year if they were still together. This question is for Trio, B5M, Steer, Johnson, and who ever else posts on here that has played football at Pound over the last 5 years, or anyone else that might know the answer, when was the last group of kids or kid to holdback at Pound. I was thinking Brandon Cantrell's group (State Team) was one of the last I can't really remember. I think all schools should holdback, we (the LPD) might be able to compete up State better if we did. I know Pound could have used B5M, Adam Ryan, Luke Logan, Moose, and many others this year. And Trio, Justin Vanover, Tucker and many more last year. But none held back that I know of.

Now I believe Pound played Norton in most of the Superbowls and Coeburn one other year on the big P-nut teams Clintwood may be in there as well somewhere the last 4-5 years. I don't know about Coeburn holding back but the group you have seen the last 2 years and this years team from Norton are mostly holdbacks from these Superbowl teams they have had that lost to Pound. I am not knocking Norton in anyway for having holdbacks just using them as an example of what it can achieve if you have all that talent together one or two more years. I believe LPDFTBL was trying to get everybody to understand this over 2 years ago about this Norton group. The coaching situation at Pound would not even be a issue if this were the case. Coach Jason Mullins is a great guy and would like to see him stay. Pound was hit hard last year with graduation and injuries this year as pointed out by another poster, that is a fact. The talent level at Pound is spread thin and you can only do so much with what you have. Especially when the other teams can key on these players and shut them down. The only problem I have with any of the coaching decisions is the play calls are suspect at times. But everybody questions somethings.

As far trying to get rid of the coaches, I DON'T WANT ANY PART OF IT. This is highschool football people not the NFL were you have skilled people all over the field. I can see getting rid of the coach if this were the case but it's not. If you want to do anything you can try to talk to some of these kids walking the hallways at Pound that would be a big help to the Pound Highschool Football team. I know with 260 plus kids walking the halls they have more than 25-30 kids to choose from.

But ROcketer you are right they are looking at the youth programs, they just can't figure out that highschool football is different and they don't have enough of these good ballplayers together on the field in highschool for more than one season at a time in starting positions.
My advice to Pound is you will never be successful until you holdback and keep these boys together, no matter who your coach is. But most importantly you need to help the coaches get players on the field. You have had an army of young P-nut players every year that I can remember and can only come up with 25-30 kids in highschool, think about that for a minute.

And before someone tries to twist what I'm saying let me make it clear. I am not saying Pound would have went to State. All I'm trying to say is they would have been alot better Pound teams with these kids playing an extra year than what they have now.

I'll try to sum it up very easy. Pound has found success in their youth programs over the years. But when it gets to varsity level,, the parents have their heads swelled so big,, it is hard to find helmets to fit them... I think any Head Coach will have the same problem. The work ethic of the kids have vanished,, they are so good,, er wait were so good,, they don't have to do anything in high school.. But someone forgets that while those kids with swelled heads are sitting back on their 'laurels' there are those same kids at other schools that are working hard to BEAT POUND,, because they beat them when they were in youth football. It isn't hard for me to see,, but evidently it is for a lot of people. And yes i have kids,, but i never thought they were better than everyone else. I knew their limits and if their team mates were better,, then they sat on the bench... Always told them, they need to work harder....

Pound had a little bit of talent this year...

but hell what can a coach do when the line wont block??

wow, loads of misinformation here on this topic. Pounds biggest problem lies within the stands. How many linemen did Pound graduate from the 05 team? How many did Burton graduate? Holding back is not really the issue either, Pound has never really held many people back. Their sucess in the past was due to their line (when they have had one) the 99 team had a pretty good line, as did the 00. The 05 team as well, they had successful seasons in each of those campaigns. If you wanna go way back in the mid 80's Pound was pretty good, probably the best teams they ever had were 84-87. They had pretty good lines then as well, the difference between then and now, between Pound and Burton, Pound and PV or anyone is the line. I dont think that they're many D1 prospects in SWVA period. But unless you have someone to block for you, your not going to do much. How many injuries did Pound's line suffer this past year? 3 starters from the get go?
Pretty wild stuff here, there just seems to be an illusion over in Pound with what winning takes and what winning is.

I pose this question, if not the staff they have now, who? Who would be best suited to take over the reigns at Pound and trun the program around so to speak.

What a lot of people do not know about Coach Jason Mullins is the reason he took the job as PHS' head coach. The last game of the season, he told us something to the matter of, "Guys, I didn't take this coaching job to have all kinds of winning records or state titles, I took this job in hope that I could teach you a little something about life and maybe guid some of you guys in the right direction."...What a lot of these anti-PHS coach people need to realize is that sports aren't everything. Let kids have fun in all P-Nut sports and hopefully that will carry over to the Varsity level. I hate losing at anything, but what a lot of people need to realize is that win or lose, have fun and high-school sports will teach you many great lessons of life.

A message from NOLA through me:

Hey, ole NOLA here, I just want to toss this out there, Brandon Cantrell and myself are the only 2 holdbacks I can remember in the past 7 years, before that you have to go to Tim Sturgill, Anthony Sturgill and Bart Reynolds to find holdbacks, I just thought Id toss that out there, I think Justin "V" Vanover may have held back, but Im almost 100% sure thats all. Anyway, take care folks.

I myself don't think that it has anything to do with our past youth programs and the kids thinking they are all that.And the parents making thier heads swell to big in youth to come up to Varsity and not be as good as they were in youth.This pention has a coach with it.We can sit and talk about how good a guy is all day and it makes him no better at coaching.I dont think our coaches made the right decisions in a lot of our games.We have a coach tryin to teach collage plays,why not just keep it simlpe as all other schools do?And if your not there at practice to know all that goes on then you'll never know how bad it can really get.And it has to be pretty bad to hear that one of the coaches father in law signed the petition.And then had to remove his name.Yes our line was young but believe me that was not one of the biggest problems we had this year.Who knows how this is gonna turn out ...may come back to bite us on the A$$ I sure hope it is for the best.

Simple? Have you ever seen Powell Valley play? Its easy to keep it simple like Burton does, but they players just arent the same, Im not saying the OC at Pound is the right man, but you have to do something. What cases was there that coaching actually affected the outcome of the game? The closest losss was what the Kelly game? Beyond that it was a min 2 TD loss, or am I wrong? I didint keep up with them so much beyond the board talk and the papers.

The line wasnt the biggest problem? Then what was? Im confused.

I have posted on here several times before and said the biggest problem at Pound is dedication,and I think it starts at the top. When you only have 4 or 5 players who are lifting thru the summer (with no coaches present to supervise)how do you think you are going to stack up againest other schools who have MANDATORY summer lifting? Pound has offensive cordinator who couldn't teach his system to college kids and has many of them out of position, namely the tightend. Jason is a very good person,he's the type that you want to cheer for, but that does not make him a football coach. I would like to see some kind of change at Pound and yes even if it means a new head coach. Pound has some very good athletes coming up in 7,8,and 9 grades and I would hate to see this talent miss used as has been the problem in the past.

Do you honestly think we would have the petition if we didn't have a coach in mind?

since when did the local boys of the community start hiring teachers and coaches?

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Do you honestly think we would have the petition if we didn't have a coach in mind?

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Who are they?? and Are they even qualified to coach?? or is it just some peewee coach who has never coached the varsity level?

Didn't say we hired one.....just got one in mind*!*!

Well, who is it?

well i seen one of the petitions tonight and they may have been 11 names and i bet that none of them have even been to a Pound football game..
heck somebody from Garden signed it..

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wow, loads of misinformation here on this topic. Pounds biggest problem lies within the stands. How many linemen did Pound graduate from the 05 team? How many did Burton graduate? Holding back is not really the issue either, Pound has never really held many people back.

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How many on Pound's line held back that graduated? None that I know of, most of these guys were 17 when they graduated. My point was if they had held back they would be playing this year and they would have had a better line. How many did Burton graduate that were holdbacks that wouldn't have been on the team last year if they never heldback? It helps teams out or nobody would be doing it.

How many years does it take to make a few changes?How long should you give a coach to make those changes?The same problems were comin from parents last year and nothing changed this year.

the biggest problem at Pound is the parents. So many think their child is Gods gift to the football team. Which isn't true.
Simple solution to that. When it's time for practice, your coaching staff, your players, and the waterboys should be the ONLY people on or around the practice field. Get the parents away from the practice field.
Secondly, the offensive coordinator. He's a jerk, and obviously has no idea what he's doing. I think he coached out at UvaWise, during their losing seasons.
Summer lifting and conditioning programs at Pound? you must be kidding. I think they have a captains practice in July for a week, which isn't anything and only a few show up.
To me, football starts 2 weeks after your last game of the season. Give that some kids will be involved with other sports. That's fine. But the people who do one sport, should be busting their butt for their starting position next year.
another thing, whoever the people in Pound has in mind for a coach will do no good. One man, can't change a team. It takes effort from the whole staff and players.
Also, I hvae a good idea who they are trying to get to coach jv at Pound and that will also be no success there.
The parents and community of Pound need to shut up, and let the kids who play for these coaches decide what they want. If the players aren't happy, then yeah, the coaching staff should be gone. But if they are, get over it, and let your kids play, it's not your life.

I, myself, know Coach Mullins and I think the best post to describe the type of person that he is was put on here. It was the one that described the reason why Coach Mullins took the job. This should be the type of person that we have coaching the athletes in this area.
As for the Pound parents who think they have kids that are all stars or have kids that are number one in their position? Lets count the number of LPD Championships that the school has in any sport at all much less football. Add to that, lets count how many times that the school has finished in the top half of the district itself in anything. As much as it may seem like it, this is not a knock on the student-athletes at Pound. This is mean't to be a reality check for Pound parents of their student athletes. If you want success in your programs, let the coaches do their job and stay the heck out of the way.

Wow nothing changed in a year? I mean obviously so much has changed. Let's see, was Pound predicted to be great? Nope. So obviously the other coaches in the district didn't think they had much coming back. Did the press? Nope. So obviously they didn't think they were loaded.

Oh wait, lets see, the parents. We have parents who provide built in excuses. What's that? Built in excuses, no way! I mean all the parents say is we should be winning if it wasn't for such and such coach. Oh wait, maybe that is an excuse. Its all the coaches fault, the coaches don't know what they are doing, so shoot as a player, why practice, why show up, why work, because the coaches aren't doing right. Of course then the coaches don't play the players, they aren't trying to win (get rid of them!) or they do play the players and they are playing players who don't show up over the ones who do everyday.

But wait, this is just parents complaining, surely to goodness no players ever hear of this, or read this forum, or anything, I mean obviously there is no reason for players to just give up giving any effort for a coach...

Calling a spade a spade, Pound is a small school. There are going to be times when they are good, but they will be in cycles. Sometimes they may have good skill people, sometimes they have good line, sometimes neither, and rarely, both. Pound has had some skill people the last few years, but last year, there line was full of some big boys who didn't move particularly well. They were out-quicked. This year, they're fairly small and mostly out-sized. Hey it happens.