Looking Back

The Redhounds kicked off the basketball season last Friday evening with an impressive 87-42 win over Whitley County. Coach Tony Pietrowski commented that the boys felt they had something to prove, that perhaps expectations were not very high with the loss of last year’s three outstanding players to graduation.
Coach Pietrowski and his staff have worked very hard over the summer, and throughout the fall in developing their team and preparing them for a very formidable schedule. Pietrowski seems to have the forethought to prepare in all areas. Physically, Josh Crawford has put on a few pounds of muscle in preparation for what could be a demanding season for the youngster. Although Crawford is only a freshman, he will be a marked man by opposing defenses and must be able to physically withstand some diverse defenses that will test the young man. Trust me when I tell you, Josh is up to the challenge.
Kyle French is a very good addition to this year’s team. French has a lot of basketball savvy and he too is a tough young man. Kyle has a nice shooting touch and can help on the boards.
Ryan Swimm is a bog body in the middle and serves well as a space eater who should be very valuable against opposing teams with big front lines. As a senior Ryan must step up and help lead this young team.
Ryan Tate, another senior leader on this team is a very tough young man. Tate is a winner and as the season rolls on will become even more of a factor to the success of the team.
Josh Hamlin is a quick hard nosed back court player with a good shooting touch. Hamlin is probably the best free throw shooter on the team.
The first two young men off the bench are Deke Barley and Josh Smith and they are both very good young players who are only going to get better each game.
At a time when South Laurel has entered the 50th District and 13th Region and everyone has all but conceded the 13th region championship, if not the state championship ofr 2006, I say hold on there a minute! We are going to play the games with South Laurel, and I feel very comfortable that coach Pietrowski and his group of young men will give South Laurel all they want.
The state of the basketball program at Corbin High School, is as good as I have ever seen it. The middle school programs including a sixth grade team, a seventh grade team and an eighth grade team are all very well organized and coached. The talent level in the eighth grade and ninth grade levels are very strong. Another factor is that for the most part these young men are very good students and are of good character.
The fan attendance at the Edwards Gymnasium is unbelievable for the middle school games. The sixth grade, seventh grade and eight grade teams play a very good schedule and they are exciting to watch. They were scheduled to take on Clay County Monday night.
Jerry Bird has been in attendance at several of the middle school gyms and if anyone is capable of knowing what it takes to play basketball in a competitve mode at any level it would be Jerry, who played high school, college and pro basketball. If he cares enough to make a second or third trip to wach these youngsters play, then he must see something he likes.
I quite often refer to growing up in Corbin in the 50’s and how much I enjoyed those days of the past and how fortunate I was to grow then and there, but hey, it;s not too bad to live here now and watch these kids go from grade school to high school and so on the the next level.
When i was a youngster, it was men like Clarence “Baldy” McNeil, John Bill Black, Terry Wyrick, Carl Jones, Bobby Goins and Frank Dillon that we looked up to and gained guidance from. People like S.T. “Bitsy” Holman, Edd White, Dave Huff and Jim Lee Crawford spent much of their time trying to make good men out of good boys. We should never forget men like Eddie Poynter and Dick Vermillion and try to pass on their many lessons to the youth of today.