Very well said!bbjunky81 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 02, 2022 1:10 pm I'll word this as honestly as I can and I'm sure it'll ruffle a few feathers. That's ok. Honesty is never a bad thing.
I root for Ironton. I think it's great they heavily promote their kids. I think it's great they put kids in D1 uniforms. I hope they win the State Championship primarily to represent out area.
With that said, it's not a surprise that local schools want Ironton out. Many of the schools best players are transferring to Ironton, only to turn around and beat the crap out of their original school. Now, I know many Ironton fans will say "well kids want to play for the best!" I get that. But if you think Pendleton and staff aren't at least bending a few rules then I don't know what to tell you. Case in point -- Perkins was a sophomore at Valley and you heard some rumblings throughout the year that he was going to Ironton the next year. Pendleton is at the D4 district final basketball game between Valley and New Boston and waits in the gym to talk to Perkins before he left. You think he just really wanted to watch a D4 basketball district championship and just so happened to want to tell Perkins good game? Perkins, interestingly enough, enrolls as soon as school is out.
Now, imagine these scenarios for someone in your actual conference -- doing it right underneath your nose. Would you like it? It goes above and beyond promoting kids ------ there's also a comradory amongst the coaching community to respect one another and not cross certain boundaries. There seems to be no boundaries on who Ironton coaches will pursue (even if it simply means talking to a parent of a student in passing somewhere). BREAKING rules? That's up for debate. BENDING or at least tip-toeing the line of certain rules? I don't know how anyone could logically deny that's been occurring.
If you make enough people mad --- eventually they're going to try and retaliate back. And that's exactly what you're seeing from the OVC schools/coaches/administrators.
This even happens in Cincy between the public D1 schools and the GCL South schools. Just take one look at Moeller’s football schedule. They can’t get a local public D1 school to play them. Coaches in the Greater Miami Conference have come out publicly about it.
To your point, enough feathers get ruffled…
That said, if this is true, I hope Portsmouth keeps playing Ironton. Awesome tradition and rivalry. I don’t see anything changing with Burg and Jackson; playing Ironton is a great test and brings in good money.
