Plywood_King

I said he would be the best fit last year even though he said he was retiring.  He keeps familiarity and trust there.  Don't know how long he stays until he does retire but it makes perfect sense for him to be there and steady the waters.

Patterson is a great dude. You would have a hard time finding a better man to lead your kids. Holston struggled he first few year but the talent was.. well there wasnt much talent at all. You also got to remember he was 24 maybe when he got that job there had to be a lot of growing pains being a young head coach. I think he would be a damn good hire for VA high personally. He will finally have a few more athletes to work with and if he can get kids at Holston to come out he should be able to get the VA highs numbers way up. 

I like Patterson, and I think he's a better coach than most folks used to give him credit for, but let's not go overboard here. Holston went to back-to-back state tournaments in '08 and '09; the "decades" part is an exageration. Again, I think he's a better coach than it would indicate, but let's not forget that he has gone 5-35 when he doesn't have a once in a generation run of talent and possibly the best athlete in 1A in the offensive backfield. I do think he's a quality coach, but the jury is out for me as to whether he's a great coach.
Does anyone know if Jason Matlock is still working for the Bristol school system? I don't know if he would be interested, but as long as we're throwing out names with a connection to Holston...

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

Those Williams boys they still mean a lot to me, Hank and Tennessee... and Hank Jr. and Don and Robin and Billy Dee and Doug and Pharrell... 

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

I don't believe in superstars
Organic food and foreign cars
I don't believe the price of gold
The certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong
That north and south can't get along
That east is east and west is west
And being first is always best
But I believe in Lee
I believe in Coach Carroll too
I believe in "five years and see"
And I believe in you

Home run and a half. This is a bigger hire than Lee should have ever been able to pull in on paper. He had the most consistent success at Marion that any coach had since the mid-70s, and you can see how well they've done without him. In two years, he appeared to have turned around Person despite being a high enrollment school playing one of the toughest schedules in NC. I don't know how many district titles they'll be pulling in, but I would be very surprised if Lee stayed a bottom dweller in the M7 under Carroll's watch.

He was. He was head coach at Marion from 2011-2018. Finished as (at least) district runner-up 6 out of 8 seasons. Was an assistant under Steve Wright and DC under Mike Briscoe prior to that. 

Home run and a half. This is a bigger hire than Lee should have ever been able to pull in on paper. He had the most consistent success at Marion that any coach had since the mid-70s, and you can see how well they've done without him. In two years, he appeared to have turned around Person despite being a high enrollment school playing one of the toughest schedules in NC. I don't know how many district titles they'll be pulling in, but I would be very surprised if Lee stayed a bottom dweller in the M7 under Carroll's watch.

Home run hire for sure

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

The prominent Lee County businessman:

Galax folks had to drive through Chilhowie to get to Saltville on the day of the Chilhowie Christmas parade. Chilhowie has restaurants and gas stations; Saltville's were rendered useless by being so close to the stadium that their parking lots were closed.
Marion has a bigger stadium with more convenient infrastructure in and out, but a game in Marion meant no one was going to have to go to the Town of Chilhowie.
At the point in which the Marion Director of Economic Development writes an open public letter to a Congressman on Facebook on behalf of Chilhowie, you realize that economics were the driving factor and not what was best for the kids. Which, it's true, the Town of Chilhowie planned for the crowd and it was a big deal for them, but the football team couldn't have cared less.

Galax folks had to drive through Chilhowie to get to Saltville on the day of the Chilhowie Christmas parade. Chilhowie has restaurants and gas stations; Saltville's were rendered useless by being so close to the stadium that their parking lots were closed.
Marion has a bigger stadium with more convenient infrastructure in and out, but a game in Marion meant no one was going to have to go to the Town of Chilhowie.
At the point in which the Marion Director of Economic Development writes an open public letter to a Congressman on Facebook on behalf of Chilhowie, you realize that economics were the driving factor and not what was best for the kids. Which, it's true, the Town of Chilhowie planned for the crowd and it was a big deal for them, but the football team couldn't have cared less.

Galax folks had to drive through Chilhowie to get to Saltville on the day of the Chilhowie Christmas parade. Chilhowie has restaurants and gas stations; Saltville's were rendered useless by being so close to the stadium that their parking lots were closed.
Marion has a bigger stadium with more convenient infrastructure in and out, but a game in Marion meant no one was going to have to go to the Town of Chilhowie.
At the point in which the Marion Director of Economic Development writes an open public letter to a Congressman on Facebook on behalf of Chilhowie, you realize that economics were the driving factor and not what was best for the kids. Which, it's true, the Town of Chilhowie planned for the crowd and it was a big deal for them, but the football team couldn't have cared less.

I think you are correct, although I have no proof.  I was more pointing to revenue generated from such a large crowd coming to a community.  Smyth would prefer those "tourism" dollars be spent in Smyth as apposed to Washington.
At least that's what I was told by someone who would likely know more than any of us.