WILL PORTSMOUTH REBOUND ?

[FANOSPORTS]

Can the Trojans ever regain their status as what I feel is the best overall basketball town ever in the Southeastern Ohio quadrant ? They have the history, titles etc. and with me not being from that far south I'm sort of lost as to why they haven't produced any type of championship in the last few years even though they've dropped a division (III) from previous decades ? Just a question because I've always had a lot of respect for what they had done in the past.

[battlecats]

If they hire Jeff Lisath.

[FANOSPORTS]

I know he played on the 1978 championship team and was an assistant coach on the 1988 state team but are they trying to lure him away from Piketon ?

[Burg_Grad_77]

Only on missed shots. lol

[BUCKEYE NUT]

I went to Portsmouth when I was a Freshman and we had 419 in the freshman class. alone and those were the hay days of PHS. At the present, i am not sure if they have that many in the upper 4 grades. I had a grandson playing at Northwest 5 years ago and in come the Portsmouth team and they were dressed sloppy and so were the coaches and they showed no class at all. I know maybe I am getting away from the subject a little bit but Portsmouth use to be a class act and I think if your going to have a top notch team you need to present your self well. In my opinion there are 3 or 4 school in the area that has better programs than PHS, so therefore, NO THEY WILL NEVER RETURN TO THE POWER THEY ONCE WERE. They will be just like the other school, they will have good years and bad ones.

[sportsfan43]

grandson played at Northwest,and you talk about someone else being sloppy



seems like everytime I see Portsmouth teams play,they ALWAYS have brand new uniforms.

5 years ago, the coaching staff would have been Rick Hopkins.

is that when a kid from North west team, jumped into the student section from the playing floor , is that the kind of class you are talking about

[trojandave]

Portsmouth can certainly do much better than they have the last 7 years......all losing seasons.........52-100 during that time.........no district titles and only 1 appearance in the district (2004)..........just prior to that historic collapse, the Trojans had a 66-26 record from 1999-2002.......with 2 district titles and 4 straight appearances in the district championship game.

I have said previously many times that PHS will never duplicate the period from 1978-1991........283-60 with 4 state appearances, 2 state titles, 2 state runnerups, 5 trips to the Elite 8, 9 district titles, and numerous wins over D1 schools, including Columbus and Dayton.

The level of winning from that era will never return to Portsmouth........averaging 20 wins a season for 14 years had never been done at PHS prior to that time and will never happen again........our enrollment is much smaller and we are the smallest school in the SEOAL......this has hindered Portsmouth's efforts to re-develop a winning program..........

Portsmouth can, however, return to a more consistently competitive level.......that is, competing for district championships and beyond.........and the goal at Portsmouth should ALWAYS be to win another state championship........and it can be accomplished!!!

Look at Oak Hill or South Webster........programs that were struggling for a long time and then won a state championship..........there's no one that can tell me that it can't happen at Portsmouth again.........

But to be consistently competitive, it has to start at the front end........the varsity level is the back end of a basketball program........the front end is junior high and pee wee basketball.........if Portsmouth can become strong again at this level, then it will have a trickle up effect to the varsity...........look at Portsmouth's great varsity teams and I guarantee you that those kids were all proficient at the junior high level.

One other thing that has hurt Portsmouth is the number of kids who drop out of the program after their sophomore or freshman year........we must have a higher retention rate of these kids........PHS's smaller enrollment does not allow for a high attrition rate.........we have a smaller margin for error than most of the larger SEOAL schools.........

GO TROJANS!!!

[Ptown Playmaker]

dave,

I couldn't agree more.....I think one of the biggest problems we have faced this decade is number of players.........several of our best athletes do not play once they get to freshman or sophmore level..........it's a concentrate on one or two sport(s) mentality anymore........I've heard the saying "play all sports" stated, but what's being told to the kids behind the scenes is totally different.......I wish they would all play.........I think we also do not play all the kids or develope them at the Jr. High level or earlier.....too much emphasis on winning or losing at those levels instead of teaching fundamentals and developing talent......we play the best players only to find out they drop out once they reach high school for the single or two sport mentality..........who knows how they will be when they become Juniors or Seniors in high school when they are not given the chance to play or learn in the feeder systems.....once they get to that magical age of 14 thru 16, they quit.........we definitely do not have the numbers to pick and choose like we used to.......

Go Trojans!