The Pat on Sports: The game that will break my heart
BY PATRICK PEBLEY

Well now that the holidays are over and things are returning to normal it is time to talk high school basketball once again. The Cougars played in a holiday tournament that I missed because frankly the holiday season is pretty crazy for me and they played before I am out of bed.
Friday I will go see them in action against the one team that is more near and dear to my heart than they are, the Cumberland Gap Panthers.
I am sure some of you are wondering how a team that is a 40-minute drive from my house can be more important to me than my alma mater and hometown team. I do admit it is close and I will not be as happy as I normally would at the end of this game. But the Panthers are a team that I coached in the off-season.
I am sure at this point some of you are thinking I am still drinking eggnog. Most of you are thinking, “but Pat you don’t know anything about basketball.” You are right I don’t. What I do know a little about is strength and conditioning programs.
For two months prior to the start of actual basketball practice I took the boys from Cumberland Gap and put them through the ringer in the weight room. I watched them get bigger and stronger, more so than I dreamed was possible in the short time I had them.
In this time I learned what a great bunch of kids these were that played for the Gap. They worked hard and never questioned me. The dividend of that was pretty obvious by the time I was finished with them and Coach King and Coach Wolfenbarger took back over. I also really learned to love the company of those two, I may have even learned a little about coaching basketball from them.
My work with this website has kept me from making it to the Gap to see them play this year, a fact I will remedy Friday. I also hope to catch a few more of their games as the season gets going again.
Cumberland Gap is the only school I have ever really coached with outside of Campbell County. It was a lot like my time at Jacksboro Middle rather than my time at the high school. I was given a top-notch weight room to work with. It was as nice as a lot of football weight facilities that I have seen. They also had a great training room next to the weight room, which thankfully I never had to use. I have seen a lot of school’s facilities for sports and Cumberland Gap is right up there with the bigger schools.
Working there also gave me the chance to reunite with my old partner in crime from my last coaching tenure at Jacksboro Middle School, Sean Jessie. This made it even more worth it and I want to thank Sean for recommending me for the job there. I will always cherish my time at the Gap.
In fact I look forward to having an entire off-season with these guys. I really think I can do wonders with them.
I guess I won’t be overtly cheering for either team Friday night. I will be cheering for all of the players to have a great game. May the best team win.

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