CoachMo45

Boosted06Rio,I have no problem with your reply to my post.I felt like making some comments and I did so. I do want you to understand that I am a retired, financially secure guy, who is not concerned with losing his job because of comments he makes.I just don't want you to continue to get over your head on this post. I think DB has a wonderful tradition of excellence in both football and basketball. The community has always demanded good results. This certainly stands in contrast to the ingrained 'good old boy' system in Sullivan County.If you could point out where any of my comments are particularly mean spirited or directed at any particular coach I would welcome that. My son,Jeff, played for Coach Morgan and he respected him very much. That's certainly good enough for me. Jeff's junior and senior year his teams qualified for the state tournament and played White Station each time. Yes, I did recognize that White Station each of those years had a much more talented team than DB. I also think Coach Morgan does a good job with his teams each year. I appreciate your loyalty to Coach Morgan. He is a fine person and coach. I can understand your strategy. I am sure you would be better off as one of his assistants than where you are coaching. I think you are a little thin skinned. That may not serve you well in a coaching career. If it was my intention to attack a particular coach I am capable of expressing myself. That is not my intention. Let's see what I've learned about you. You told us you coach high school basketball in this area but you didn't tell us where you coach.I would like to follow your career and learn more about the credentials that enabled you to get your job.If you happen to coach in Sullivan County please don't reply because I don't care who you are related to. Is it possible you coach at Sullivan South? They won three games last year in boys' basketball and I understand everyone got pay raises because the performance exceeded expectations. Yes, I think Pierson, Carnes, Mills, Wolfe, Lyons etc. could have won a couple basketball state championships at DB. I coached them and I know they weren't intimidated by anyone. They definitely were talented enough, mentally tough enough, intelligent enough and could have been motivated enough by the right coach to have won at the state level. All of those fine young men were very coachable and very unselfish. Coach, whoever you are, what do you now not understand about what I am saying. I have also learned several things about you. You obviously cannot spell very well and your reading comprehension is poor. If that is the way you spell "rediculous" I do hope that you are not teaching high school English. I am positive that you didn't play Division 1 basketball because you are intimidated by big and athletic guys. Since you want to run your mouth about what I said why don't you emerge from the shadows. Tell us where you coach and what your credentials are. I think you are trying to become Coach Morgan's assistant or the athletic director at DB.

You can do all kind of things with bologna-slice it, dice it, puree it, etc.Here I come on this message board with my bologna.I was hired in 1977 by KPT. City Schools to coach and teach at Sevier. That was a very fortunate thing for me at that time because I have felt lucky and privileged to have taught and coached at Sevier for fifteen years.There were terrific administrators and fellow teachers to work with.The students and athletes I worked with during those years were outstanding. I received $250 a year to coach basketball. I realize I was overpaid.When I first came to KPT. I was in a parade downtown. I fell off the back of a turnip truck and hit my head.However, I have never felt disadvantaged in this area. You don't have to call me stupid because my wife does that at least once a week when I piss her off. I have no problem with DB fans wanting to win championships.Most fans want their team to win and some fans vicariously think because my team beat your team therefore I am superior to you.I do think it is important to instill in high school student athletes that they do their very best in everything they do.Your coaches do a great job of this. You do have good coaches in football and basketball who work very hard. It is obvious to me that DB doesn't know how to win state championships in football and basketball.If you did you would have done so.You are good locally.I would like to see the basketball team win one game at the state level and the football team to get past the third round. I think this is achieveable at some point. Truly talented teams that are well coached win championships.When I coached at Sevier we won 91% of our games in basketball for fifteen years.There were three undefeated teams. It was my fault that we lost any games. We lost twice to Johnson City in fifteen. That was also my fault because I never thought we should lose to those potlickers.We should have been undefeated for fifteen years but a few times I got a little complacent. Some of you would have liked to have been a fan because you could have talked smack. There is a lot of politics in high school coaching.I always enjoyed playing. I worked very hard to be the best player I could be in high school. I also realized that to be nationally recognized I had to play on a great team. I made sure my team won. It resulted in my being voted the high school national player of the year. To my knowledge this has never been done in the state of TN. It was fun being on the Ed Sullivan Show. I enjoyed playing on two state championship teams in Fla. I hope you get to experience that in football and basketball. I also ocassionly enjoy talking smack. In your eye,sucker. When I coached at Volunteer and we beat DB in basketball I know I wasn't a good sport. I didn't want to be. I rolled around on the court with Ronnie and repeatly said 'Whose Your Daddy Now'.Good memories for me. No wonder DB dropped us in basketball.If I was at DB I wouldn't want to experience that again, either. Payback can be distasteful.My wife doesn't approve this message but I really don't care.Good luck to all of you.

Yankees, I pretty much expected the post I got from you. You took exception with the way I handled the critics in my life and that is your right because this is a public post. It was also my right to handle things the way I saw fit. You are not the first person who I have heard talk the way you do, and that is one reason I don’t take you seriously. I would think you are making a mistake about being critical and condescending to the good people of eastern Tn. They are as fine a group of people as one could ever hope to meet. I do trust that “you are the real deal and a true legend”. However, your opinions are only slightly interesting to me, and I have read what you have to say. I have been in many locker rooms and served in the Navy for four years, so I understand your orientation. I just hope that you don’t tell your 8 year old YMCA team that you are such a bad *#!+* They are a little young for that...don’t you think? The best I could achieve was to make “national player of the year” coming out of high school and be able to choose any D-I university to play for. I notice you said you went to a small school in Indiana, and that if I was ever around you, that I would “at last be around the best of the best”. Well I am positive I would never want to be around you. I’m sure that in your mind you are the “best of the best”. Branch McCracken recruited me very hard, and I liked him very much. He won a National Championship at Indiana University. IU was my second choice of where I wanted to play, but I decided to go to UNC and I got to play against IU in 1965. At the time IU was rated #1 in the country. Tom and Dick Van Arsdale and Jon McGlothlin played for them and all later played in the NBA. I was able to go 12 for 16 against them and enjoyed being high scorer in that game. That was my sophomore year. Since you are the “best of the best” and went to a small school in Indiana, I’m sure there are those who would enjoy learning more about your career. Did you even play for that small school in Indiana? I think my initial instincts were right about you – you are just a blowhard. I’m glad that you noticed in an earlier post that I made reference to being fortunate to be around many great players and coaches. I did have the opportunity to play for Larry Brown, Dean Smith and Hugh Durham. I am very good friends with Roy Williams. At UNC’s 100th basketball anniversary celebration this year MJ, James Worthy, Vince Carter, Lennie Rosenbluth, Billy Cunningham, Phil Ford, Tyler Hansbrough, Kenny Smith, etc., etc., etc. were in attendance. I was a teammate with Billy Cunningham and later with Dave Cowens. The Smith Center was packed, but can you imagine what it would have been like if you had been in attendance...”the self-proclaimed “best of the best”. I’m sure Michael Jordan would have been humbled by you. Coach Williams told everyone he is scheduling another reunion five years from now. Give him a call and let him know you are “the best of the best” and maybe he’ll invite you, too. I did get to visit with Leslie McDonald again. I first met him at the Arby’s Classic in Bristol. As you might know, he is from Memphis. He is off to a very good start playing basketball at UNC. He is a well spoken and a tremendous person. He doesn’t talk at all the way you do. I’m glad you didn’t coach him as an 8 year old.

Yankees8589 - I hope that you had a great day at work. I have a few moments now to visit with you. We might become friends. I didn't wake up until 10 AM, but I still had a very stressful day. These high pressure jobs, such as coaching, can be very hard on you. I'm contacting you again because I married a Yankee. She's a wonderful girl and will always be my sweetheart. I'm sure you are happy for me. Some of the Yankees are tolerable, but I'm a southern boy. I bet you took the name Yankees because you like to associate yourself with a winner. Don't we just tingle all over and experience a renewed sense of self-importance when our team wins. You made many suggestions to me, so I would like to reciprocate. The next time the Yankees win, go to work and tell everybody "Who's Your Daddy Now?" and that will put those non-believers in their place. I sure hope those Vols put it on the Gators this year. It will be about time. I can't imagine growing up in Florida. They must be a bunch of potlickers down there. Are we friends yet? I was sorry to disappoint you the other day when I informed you my name has't been on the list for Duke, the Lakers, Wake Forest, Nike School Oregon (boy, that would be a good job), or any other school you mentioned. Since we might become friends, I would like to share some information with you. I hope I can trust you. At this time I have by far the best job I've ever had...nothing has been even close. The pay is fantastic (much much more than I deserve) and the working conditions are fabulous. So, the last thing on my mind is looking for another job. Actually, there is not very much on my mind. Since we might become friends, I want to share a secret with you. I'm not worth a hoot anymore, probably never was, but I don't want you to inform my boss. I'm going to try and fake it for a few more years. Isn't that what most of us do anyway? I bet that's what you do. I'm counting on you because I believe in your understanding and compassionate nature. Yankees, you take care of the western part of this state, and I'll look out for my area. You are right, I seldom venture over a mile from my trailer up the holler. I'm getting tired of typing, and I need to get some sleep in order to face another stressful day. See ya, good buddy!!

Hey...Floor-General22, you are another good example of the local critics I never took seriously in my coaching career. Since you go by ...Floor-General, you must have been the starting point guard for your team and led them to victory...in the Final Four? What a guy!! It must have been your brains that enabled you to be such a great player. I am in awe. Please share with us your illustrious playing and coaching background so we can better appreciate your credentials. If you're not able to do this, put some money in the pay phone and call someone who gives a @*#+^*. If you could think clearly and had a sensitive bone in your body, you might understand that Coach Whittemore is probably at a difficult point in his career and won't benefit from the crap you're throwing out. I don't think for a moment you're offering your advise constructively. Actually, I think you're infatuated with your own thoughts. I have no idea what Coach Whittemore's situation is because it's not my business. If he happened to make some mistakes that cost him, I hope he learns from that. I certainly have made many mistakes in my life. You sound like a young guy who hasn't made any mistakes and who likes to be judgemental toward others. I'm sure the world can continue to function without your arrogant criticism. FG22, are you a social worker? Coach Whittemore has done a terrific job as a player and a coach. I wish him the very best in his future endeavors. It is easy to be a critic when you're not "fighting the bull" yourself. FG22, if you are out of work, I'll be glad to write a reference letter for you if you send me money. From your posting, I would discourage you from pursuing a counseling career. If you choose to respond to me, I would appreciate you're addressing me as "the great Coach Mo". My wife loves to hear that.

Yankees, I appreciate your response to my remarks about VHS. This could promise to be more fun than I thought. I couldn't agree more with your statement that "you may win at the local level but to advance deep into post season it's a must to have good players". In my first paragraph I made reference to the wonderful players I had at VHS and how hard they worked to win many games. Maybe if they had been better coached they would have gone farther in "post season". I think it's possible you have difficulty reading and comprehending what's written. Woiuld you please share some of your educational background with me. I do hope that you are a high school graduate. I would love to answer your quick question, "am I on the short list for the Wake Forest job or am I the next coach of Nike School Oregon?" I hate to disappoint you, but the last time I checked, which hasn't been recently, I don't think my name was on either list or any other list for that matter. I've been enjoying the day working with my bird dogs and didn't answer the telephone. So, we'll never know if someone tried to call. It sounds like you might be qualified to get either one of those jobs yourself, and I would be glad to write a good reference letter for you if you would be kind enough to send me some money along with your coaching resume. I do encourage you to continue referring to me as "the great Coach Mo". That has a good ring to it, and who am I to inhibit your good instincts. I would like to thank you again because I can't even get my wife to call me "the great Coach Mo". Maybe if someone like you continues to call me that, she'll eventually come around....but I'm not going to hold my breath. I remarked about how I handled local critics in my coaching career. I had the good fortune of being around many players and coaches far more talented than myself, and I seldom, if ever, heard them criticize others. They were too busy being good at what they were doing. You sound like the perfect example of someone whose criticism I would never have taken seriously. Please tell us about your playing and coaching background so we can better appreciate your credentials. I would love to hear about how good you were in Division I college ball. Good luck champ, and I hope you have a good week at work. If the Celtics call me this week, I'll be sure to let you know.

It is my wish that VHS is successful in finding a boys basketball coach who will once again produce exciting, winning and championship caliber teams. I know that it can be done because my teams achieved just that. I would like to thank all the wonderful players who worked so hard for me when I coached at Volunteer. They enabled us to enjoy many, many victories and let me say so many times, "the pudding's in the pie". That means we kicked butt and passed out bubblegum. Mr. Tommy Dykes was a fantastic superintendent who always appreciated someone working hard to produce results in the classroom and on the athletic field. That is the way he did things. I loved teaching and coaching under him. I was an outsider who came in and turned around a program that had never won. There were numerous people who were jealous of my team's success, but they were the wannabes. That is always the case. As a player I always felt many people wanted to be an All American, but they were unwilling to wake up every morning at 5 AM and work eight hours a day to achieve it. When I coached, no parent, administrator, or anyone else ever influenced who I played. That was never going to happen. I had my share of critics from Surgoinsville and Church Hill, but always the best answer to criticism is simply to win. When I first started coaching I promised myself that the only critic I would ever take seriously would be a person who I thought had a better basketball background than I had...so that eliminated 100% of my critics. I always enjoyed having critics, because without critics how could you possibly say the following - "When my time on earth is done, and all my activities have come to pass, I want they bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my _____" I always thought we had great fans af Volunteer, and I appreciated them. Ronnie Housewright was always my favorite because his heart was the purest. He loved to watch our teams win. Ronnie - I love you, man. In closing, Coach Mo wants to know "Whose Your Daddy Now?" The weather's getting warmer, so I will simply reach for another cold one. Good Luck Volunteer!!