The latest examples: Barry Reed is the assistant boys basketball coach at Logan County High School, Kevin Radford is the new head girls basketball coach at Todd Central and Larry Brown the assistant girls coach at Franklin-Simpson.
Those filling these positions include Jim Austin, Maydeen Bailey, Greg Howard (twice), Greg Shelton, David Clark, Bob Matthews, Tim Schlosser and Joe Light.
Barry Reed coached at Auburn and LCHS for 13 years. His 1982 team at his alma mater, Auburn, won the last district boys basketball championship before consolidation in 1982 and advanced to the regional finals.
He was the top assistant coach during the first four years of LCHS' existence and played a major role in helping the Cougars win the state championship in 1984.
After two more seasons, he became head coach the next three years, directing his first team in 1987 to the regional finals.
One of the first things Greg Howard did after being named head coach a couple of weeks ago was to get Reed to be his assistant.
"I was flattered when Greg asked me to help him. I coached for 13 years and I've been out of coaching for 13," Reed said. "Every reason I gave him for not doing it, he would say that we'd work it out. He brings that same attitude to coaching. He thinks he can win regardless of the talent level, and he's willing to work hard to do it. I'm looking forward to being a part of it."
Reed will be the top assistant. A freshman coach has not yet been named.
Some of us think the biggest mistake that's been made in LCHS athletics over the years was removing Reed as head coach after one bad season in 1989. He would have returned to his winning ways, we believe, and given the program the stability it has been without the past 13 years.
Howard's the seventh head coach of the Cougars. Two have served four years (Gerald Sinclair and Dick Webb) and four three years (Reed, Chris Souder, Ray Maggard and Mike Haynes.). Webb and Haynes left to be administrators. The other four didn't.
Meanwhile Kevin Radford has the head coaching job he's been looking for. He had a successful tenure as Auburn Middle School coach, winning a pair of boys championships in his two seasons there. He's spent the past two seasons as an assistant to Haynes and to baseball coach Ethan Meguiar.
The selection of Howard as Logan basketball coach, and then Howard's choosing Reed to be his top assistant was clear evidence that Radford was not on the fast track for promotions at LCHS. Now he gets to direct his own program with a team which is the defending district girls champion.
Larry Brown, who raises cattle on his Franklin Road farm, has been an assistant girls basketball coach at both Russellville and Logan County. At RHS he worked under Bob Matthews. At Logan, Haynes was the head man.
Brown, who has taught at both high schools and at the Russellville Area Technology Center, is now teaching courses such as advanced placement physics at Franklin, so it was a natural that Matthews would call on him when Matthews was recycled as F-S girls head caoch.
The unbroken circle syndrome began when Greg Shelton, a Lewisburg native, retired from teaching. He was baseball and boys basketball coach at Franklin-Simpson.
David Clark, the son of former Auburn coach Ronnie Clark, was chosen as boys basketball coach, vacating his position as the F-S girls coach. Howard, who had been the Todd girls coach for a season after five years at LCHS, was F-S Principal Walt Heath's choice to coach the Lady Kats. So the Todd position was open, making room for Radford.
Then in the last few weeks, Haynes moved to assistant principal at LCHS. Declaring an emergency, the Logan system immediately summoned Howard home.
Heath, who had been switched to dean of students in the elementary school, granted Howard his release.
David Almand, the interim Franklin principal who is well-known here as a football official, chose football coach Schlosser to be athletic director while keeping his grid duties. Almand and Schlosser then picked former F-S and Russellville High school girls basketball coach Bob Matthews to direct the Lady Cats, at least for a year.
Matthews had a great run while at RHS, taking the Lady Panthers to the Class A state semifinals and the overall regional finals in 1993.
Meanwhile Shelton-- arguably the most successful coach in any sport ever in this area-- will coach baseball on the field which bears his name at least one more season as a paraprofessional. He's working for a financial institution in Bowling Green and says he wants to see if coaching without teaching is for him. Heath had appeared reluctant to try that arrangement, but now it's all been worked out.
Although there's not been an official announcement of their appointments, Austin and Bailey are set to replace Jeff Stamps in two head coaching jobs at RHS.
Sgt. Jim Austin is a former assistant basketball coach at LCHS and RHS. He was the interim Lady Panther basketball coach after Jeff Stamps was injured in practice this year and now will be the head coach.
Maydeen Bailey is a fixture in local education, having taught briefly at LCHS, between long stints at RHS. The native of Hawaii is a former college volleyball player and is a physical education major. She's going to get to put it all together as volleyball coach after several years of leading the Pep Club and planning homecoming activities. Her daughter, Joanna, is a member of the Lady Panther team.
The lone new guy in all of this is Joe Light, who is serving as athletic director at RHS among his part-time responsibilities in the city system. He's a neighbor, though, having coached at Bowling Green High earlier in his career before retiring as principal at Bowling Green Junior High.
He just made the circle a little wider.
The softball coaching jobs at F-S are open after a guy who had won five straight district championships was ousted, along with his staff. The successors could come from within, but probably not from Logan County.
The circle could have been broken or adapted had Phil Todd retired from coaching Russellville basketball, as he seriously considered, or if Todd boys coach Dennis Pardue or Russellville assistant Kim Swift gotten one of the jobs they were highly considered for, but that didn't happen.
A lot did happen, though, making for an interesting off season.
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