Cannoy out as head basketball coach at PCHS

Cannoy cougars
Tyler Cannoy coached four seasons at Pulaski County. (Brian Bishop/The Patriot)

By RODNEY YOUNG

For The Patriot

Pulaski County Cougar boys basketball will be looking for a new head coach. Tyler Cannoy has been told that the administration has decided to go in a different direction.

Coach Cannoy just finished his fourth season as the Cougar head coach. He finishes with a 38-53 overall record. In his four years the Cougars advanced to the River Ridge District Tournament. They made the region in one of his four years.

The Cougars had a really bad season this past year going 6-17. It was a trying and disappointing season for sure. A closer look at this past season saw their top two players getting hurt and missing their first eight games resulting in eight losses. The team was young and had many junior varsity players for the first time on the varsity level.

They had a couple of players quit during the season, and a couple that wouldn’t show up for practice. As noted, it was a very trying and disappointing season.

The team’s schedule was very difficult, including Class 1 George Wythe, Class 2 Radford, Class 5 Patrick Henry, all of which ended up playing for state titles. Cave Spring, Carroll County, Graham, Hidden Valley, Princeton (WVa) and James River all made the playoffs in their classifications.

So, the Cougars were playing with a young, inexperienced squad against that kind of schedule. Then the two best players miss the first eight games? The record then speaks for itself.

In this sports writer’s opinion, whoever the county gets as the team’s next head coach will have lots of work to do.

The coach needs to be able to coach the players and his team!

The school drops from Class 4 to Class 3 next school year. They will still be playing in the same River Ridge District, however. Patrick Henry, Cave Spring, Blacksburg, Salem, Christiansburg and Hidden Valley are still on the schedule. The big difference will come at playoff time. Then the Cougars will be looking at Cave Spring, a state champion,  Northside, Lord Botetourt, William Byrd and Abingdon, etc.

The talent needs to get better for the new coach, because the schedule is still very tough.

On a personal note: Here’s wishing Coach Tyler Cannoy the very best!