Former Ashland and Montgomery County coach Jason Mays went on No Filter Sports Talk with Alan Cutler on Monday afternoon.
You can listen to the interview on podcast on ESPN Radio in the last segment at the 92-minute mark.
Two weeks ago, Jason Mays resigned from his teaching and coaching job at Montgomery County High School. That night, he went on the From Corner2Corner Podcast to discuss the Indians’ roster and high school recruiting/transferring. The Lexington Herald-Leader summarized that interview in an article.
Mays started the interview with Alan Cutler by talking about the recorded phone call by a Boyd County parent that ultimately led to his firing at Ashland.
“He recorded the phone conversation… Over the next six months after that phone conversation it leaked out purposefully to social media outlets and the KHSAA, and anybody he thought could have a gotcha moment, with not only myself but our program. Fast forward to November of ’22, so almost six months later… I got fired.”
Mays then talks about his recent resignation from Montgomery County.
“About 19 months ago I was trying to help a woman who had unenrolled her kid at his previous institution, and she said that she was going to enroll him at Montgomery County, and he wanted to play basketball for Montgomery County, and she was trying to find housing.”
Mays says he was trying to help the mother find housing in Mt. Sterling, which is what the text messages showed that were leaked two weeks ago.
“He (the student) wasn’t enrolled yet, so it’s a violation to have communication with her. This was all addressed in August of ’24 with the school he’s at now. He didn’t even come here. The mother wanted to make nothing of it. The KHSAA contacted her about it.”
Mays then points out the timing of those old messages being leaked just days after Austin Sears, the best player in the 8th Region, transferred from North Oldham to Montgomery County. He stated that the family recently purchased a chiropractic business in Mt. Sterling, which motivated the move.
“Those 19-month-old text messages were just released randomly again, and my superintendent just didn’t like the look of it and so he was going to suspend me for 10 days with pay pending a KHSAA investigation… I knew how that was gonna go, so I resigned.”
“It was 100% gotcha,” Mays said. Saying that the recent transfer of Sears is what caused those old text messages to be released.
“Let me tell you this, Alan. If I ever coach high school basketball again, I’ll go straight to the superintendent of whatever district I’m talking to, and I’m gonna ask a simple question… I’m gonna to ask the superintendent, ‘What have you ever won personally athletically?’
Mays said that back when he was in school, “there’s a good chance that your principal, your superintendent, your assistant principals were former coaches. That is becoming less and less the case.”
“These people that are running districts, they’re struggling to realize that athletics… are the front porch to your school. They’re not gonna come in and see a biology lab. They’re not gonna come in and see the choir room. They’re not gonna come in and see the social studies classroom. They’re not gonna see the cafeteria even. But, they’re gonna see a football stadium or basketball arena, and they’re gonna see teams play and compete, and that’s gonna be their perception of the school and the district in general. So it’s a pretty important deal and when it’s done right, it can set a community on fire. But, coaches that create that momentum for a school and a community, they’re a hot ticket. Well, whenever that hot ticket draws some smoke, sometimes they need to be protected. And in 2025, high school coaches are not protected anymore. We’re not. Because more and more administration is not in tune with athletics, ’cause they’ve never really come up in athletics themselves.”
Alan Cutler responded that administrators do not want to get involved in a controversy, and that several administrators are just “covering their own ‘blanks'”.
Mays reiterated a point he made two weeks ago, emphasizing that everyone—including the KHSAA—needs to better understand what he calls “player mobility,” a term he uses to describe student transfers. He argued that the KHSAA must “loosen the leash” on transfer restrictions.
Mays also noted that parents will send their children to schools that offer the most resources and the best opportunities for success. In 2021, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 563, which expanded school choice by requiring local school boards to adopt policies allowing nonresident student enrollment. Prior to this legislation, it was much more difficult for students to attend schools outside the districts in which they lived.
It did not change KHSAA’s Bylaw 16, which still states:
“A pupil at any grade level shall not be recruited to a member school of the KHSAA to participate in athletics. Recruiting is defined as an act, on behalf of, or for the benefit of, a school, including impermissible contact, which attempts to influence a student to transfer to a member school to participate in athletics, including the offer of improper benefits not available to all members of the student body.”
The KHSAA goes on to say in the Case Situation why Bylaw 16 exists:
The major reason for Bylaw 16 and its interpretations is to attempt to maintain as level a playing field as possible. The major enforcement theme is not only “initial contact”, but rather is “exceeding what is normal and appropriate.”
Initial contact as it applies to student-athletes can be a violation, but is only one of many things that can exceed what is normal and appropriate. One of the primary keys is not treating “athletes” or “prospective student-athletes” differently than students who are not athletes. Students are not to be singled out based on their potential athletic ability.
High school athletics is not the same as colleges recruiting high school athletes for college athletics. High school athletics exist for an entirely different reason. High school coaches should not view high school students in the same manner as college coaches view high school seniors. All administrators and coaches shall realize that they have more responsibilities than the general public to understand the purpose of high school athletics, the principles behind KHSAA rules etc., and to maintain a level of understanding and purpose when dealing with the general public and students.
Mays ended by saying, “If you’re a coach out there, you need to understand who can fire you when drama is stirred, and make sure that person has won in the athletic arena and understands what winning looks like, or you’re headed down a path that you’re gonna regret eventually… Sadly, I just don’t think there’s a lot of administrators that are positioning themselves to support and protect coaches anymore.”
