Friday, January 18, 2008

Coach French and Boyle County

Let's hear it folks, our local radio station 102.9 WPBK had a call in show about it so now let's hear your thoughts and comments on Coach French leaving Lincoln to be the Boyle County head football coach. I have stated my comments before and I will state them again...This is the LINCOLN County program not the FRENCH program. If his heart is not here then he needs to go. I don't think we should beg anyone to stay here. I don't care if Joe Paterno was talking about leaving, I'd wish him the best and we'd move on. We should worry about who is going to lead us to a state championship. If that's French, then let's back him and move on. But if it's not, we will get someone else and back that person. That being said, I do support French and what he's done for the Lincoln County program and I hope he stays, but I will not beg him. We played football here before French and we were pretty successful at it.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would like to see French stay, but I agree totally, if he wants to go, he needs to go. We had football way before he came here and we'll have it way after he leaves. He's had two good seasons. It's not like he's won a state championship or even been there. He also has never beat Lincoln at any of his other stops.

Anonymous said...

I 100% believe in what your saying. But you have to feel what the up coming seniors are feeling. They have been coached by him since there freshman year. Its not all easy getting a different head coach their last year there. I would like to have the same coach lead me far into the playoffs agian

Anonymous said...

Larry French pulled LC football from the near dead. I can not blame him for thinking about leaving. He gets no support from the adminstration at LC. Booster club, folks in the community has worked hard for the football program, but the school adminstration could care less. I can name a long list,both big and small, of the adminstration failing to support the football program. The scary part is who replaces French. Does anyone really think the Principal,the AD, Super,really give a rats behind about football? Will they put forth the effort and money to hire a quality Coach? If they had been willing to put forth that kind of effort, French would not be thinking about leaving.

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree. I personally know some admin. that totally support Coach French, and know that they have worked hard to satisfy him since he got here.

Bottom line is this, it is HIS choice. Not the admin. or the school. If he don't want to be a Patriot then it's time for him to ride out. He did a good job of reviving the program, but the program was good before he got here too.

Anonymous said...

French has got more support than any other coach ever has at Lincoln, financially and from fans. None of the admn. wants him to leave. If he doesn't want to be here he needs to go, but blaming it on lack of support is bogus. What does he need that he hasn't got??

Anonymous said...

Why do we want to bash the "administration" when Coach French is thinking about leaving, but we don't want to give the "administration" any support for landing him here in the first place?

And if the "administration" sucks that bad, then why do we have the best girls' and boys' basketball teams (and coaches) in the region as well?

Why is everybody so scared to think maybe Boyle County is more appealing to Coach French b/c they have had a much more successful, well-known program in the past 10 years than we have? Why must we blame everything on the "administration?"

Anonymous said...

I think that newspaper article in the Ad. Mess. was the most classless thing I have ever seen. I thought highly of Coach French until I read it.

It's one thing to be intrigued by a higher profile, higher paying coaching job. But it's another thing to have that interest published on the front page of the local newspaper.

Have a little class! Ask around about the job, go talk to Boyle County, feel it out, but don't let the whole world know.

I think the coach's ego got in his way and he's wanting to throw his weight around a little.

I say adios Coach French.

Anonymous said...

I agree, why did all of this have to be in the newspaper?? He could of just said "no comment" and this would be a non-story. We would'nt have had all the drama on the radio at the ballgame, etc. I hope he stays, but the way he has handled "being pursued" really bothers me.

Anonymous said...

All the people saying it's the administrations fault, you need to let them know.
I just want to know this, how come this issues were not discussed before the Boyle County job was available.
It is French's decesion, if he wants to join the evil empire, than go ahead and do it. Just remember, when you enter the dark side, there is no return.

Anonymous said...

Darth you make a good point about these issues not coming up before hand.

Anonymous said...

You can dream on if you think the adminstration care anything at all about football or keeping Coach French. When he first arrived at LC they could not seem to find his wife a teaching job in the county.I know for a fact that there were several openings for teachers in the system. When Coach French retired and Coach Clevenger moved on these teaching postions were promised to be filled by new Coaches for the football team. French found quality Coaches to fill these postions and the administration back out on the promise. Do you folks think this would happen at Boyle Co? The field house is in awful shape. No improvements since it was build. The admin.has been asked for improvements,can not be done, but they can sure work on the gym. French asked for a Coach in the Middle School, feeder system is the life of your program, Admin. says can't do that. Hell they can't get the flag up on game day, and I guess to get the end zone painted for a regional championship be way too much work. I have a lot more in my list of things that the Admin. has failed at. I would like you that think the Admin.has supported Coach French and the football team to list some of the deeds that the Admin.has done other than just paying lip service to supporting the football program.

Anonymous said...

Why don't you anonymous folks get some guts and stop posting anonymously. I think there are good arguments both ways, and I would like to see Coach French stay. But if you think for one second that the A.D. has anything to do with creating jobs for the Coach's wife, you need to think again. Excuses, Excuses, Excuses... This is why we can't maintain a solid basketball & football program. Because we fight for the limited resources that are available. There is only so much money to go around. This is the most giving community that I can think of. We raised over a million dollars on the hospital. If the football program needs money for the field house, lets raise it. Lets solve some problems together instead of creating more by complaining.

BS said...

I think Coach French has done a great job, obviously. However I also felt that Coach Phillips and Coach Jaggers did great jobs at Lincoln County.
Basically, I am saying that the program was good before Coach French got here. I give him credit for "waking up the dead", but it's not like he started the program.
I don't want him to leave, but I don't think we should beg him to stay, or blame our admin for letting him go. The admin did not tell him to publicly announce his desire to be a Rebel through Larry Vaught and the Advcoate Mess. He chose to do that on his own.
I understand there are limitations at LC. There are limitation everyone, at every school. If the community feels so strongly about it, they need to get creative and come up with ways to raise more funds to do things. I can promise you that other schools, like BC, have boosters and fundraising that are way more active in supporting their programs.
I agree with the comments made earlier, if the admin is so bad why do we have the two best basketball programs in the regiion and the best football team in the region.
Lastly, you have to take LCHS for what it is. It is a school. A place to learn and get an education. Lately, this is the thing that school has been hurting the most in. I feel the admin is putting a majority of the efforts into fixing that problem. At least that is what they need to be doing.
I keep hearing complaints about the new principal that was hired to "improve" test scores. Just remember, the people who hired the new principal were not members of the school's administration, but I guess they will get the blame for that too.
Bottom line, if he wants to be a Rebel.... then he will be a Rebel.
We will still be Patriots.

Anonymous said...

So you're for the administration using favoritism. Hey, you're the football coach's wife, let's create a position for you just to make your husband happy. That salary would really help the kids of Lincoln County. And let's get those "quality coaches" in somewhere, I'm sure they would be just as "quality" in the classroom. Give me a break.

hazmit said...

Never fear, Hazmit is here. I have a RADICAL solution that nobody is thinking about. Let's not even have head coaches at Lincoln and we "the fans" can coach from the bleachers and sidelines. We can take the money we save on our coaching salaries and fix all of the problems with the fieldhouse, field painting, etc. We would be pioneers in the history of high school sports. Then, after we won state titles, all of us arm chair quarterbacks would get rings. Who's with me???

Anonymous said...

I got a buddy who works at Sherwin Williams, I will get us a deal on paint. I think it will make the team run faster. Crap, we could of beat Highlands with the better paint on the field.

whiteskill said...

Forget academics, I just want to beat other area schools at sports. Sports is all that matters, coaches can teach more things about character and leadership than any classroom can.

Anonymous said...

dang that adminisrtation, always sucking the fun out of everything.

Anonymous said...

I do not think the Admin is to blame for Coach French leaving, even though there is room for improvement on the side of the administration. He clearly was wanting to find a easier path to the finals, if it was about a "challenge", as he has said in the newspaper, then a challenge would be to beat Highlands next year. I have not heard of him requesting anyting from the Admin that he did not recieve. It is he wants out and is not being man enough to tell the real reasons. The classless way he has conducted himself the past week I am not sure I want him coaching our players, if he does not leave what is he going to say to them?

Anonymous said...

I never said "create" a job for the football Coaches wife. Ms French is a teacher of 20+ years, teaching positions in the system were open,she was qualified to fill them, same goes for the Coaches.

The paint on the field is a symptom, not the illness. If the Admin. can not do something as small as getting our field in the best shape that it can be, for the most important game at LC in years, this should tell you were their heads are.

Why can we not have academics and great sports programs? Look at Rockcastle. Year in and year out their sports teams are top of the line, and I have not heard that the state wants to take them over because their kids "can't read". Excuses, excuses hit the nail right on the head. We are poor Lincoln Co. can just can not do any better.

I hate to see it, but with this lack of support for LC football by the Admin. we are going back to the days or 2-8.

Anonymous said...

According to the paper, French is gone.
It's a shame powerful BC, who has never won a regional championship without Chuck Smith, has to steal LC's coach to be competitive.
Hopefully BC will continue their tradition of sucking, without Chuck Smith with their new regime.

Anonymous said...

I think lincon should get Jaggers back

Anonymous said...

^ I just puked a little in my mouth

Anonymous said...

On the lighter side, maybe we can finally get rid of that Old English "L"! Hey Hazmit, how about a topic of who we think the next coach should be.

hazmit said...

This is an excerpt from an article online from the advocate messenger:

"Football-wise, Boyle County is one of those deals where you have a chance to win a state championship. Maybe not next year or the year after, but down the road it could happen. The coaching staff is in place. The feeder system is in place. There are a lot of positives at Boyle. I just have to weigh all those things."

I read this and thought I would share my comments.

State championship/program: If French truly believes Boyle has a better chance of winning a state championship than Lincoln, then he needs to follow his heart. I don't want a coach that doesn't have a state championship for Lincoln as his goal. Take Chuck Smith out of the equation and Lincoln has a far better program than Boyle.

Better coaching staff: Why would the CURRENT coach brag about Boyle's assistants and not his own?

Feeder system: French has been getting a stipend from the Lincoln Parks and Rec board for the last two years to coordinate the little league programs? I think the middle school has implemented his system as well.

Positives: Why would our CURRENT coach talk about the positives of another program and not his CURRENT program?

Sounds to me like his mind was made up when he IMPLIED/HEARD??? about the job. Tomorrow I will start a new post discussing our new coach.

Anonymous said...

Peace out French, enjoy rotting away in the shadow of the Danville Admirals in "my town".

Anonymous said...

Well i moved here to play for coach french...and now hes gone...so longgg

hazmit said...

Welcome newlcplayer. Come let the arm chair quarterbacks coach you. We will make you a champion.

Anonymous said...

We have the best boys and girls team in the region because we play in the worst region in the state. Anyone half athletic could win this region.

Anonymous said...

It wasn't classless being in the paper, it was more of a warning to future coaches, come here revive a program and get nothing in return. Is there any non-truth to having people so lazy they couldn't even raise the flag for the national anthem...you tell me what is classless.