1999-2018 --- 38 top-four state finishes (only four sports with three or more) and nine state championships. The bulk of that damage was done before the last head coach from the glory years, Dennis Licklider, retired after accounting for 15 of those top-four finishes and seven of the state championships in track and field in the early 2000s.

Enter Earleywine, who transformed the University of Missouri softball program into a national power the last 11 years. But after being fired from MU in late January, Earleywine, a 1989 graduate of JCHS, is now returning home to be the athletic director of his alma mater.

He's a product of that greatest generation.

"At the time," Earleywine said, "we didn't know any different. We just thought that was the way it was supposed to be, we didn't think we were doing anything special. As a matter of fact, it was a major disappointment when we didn't win a championship in something. It was expected, it was just the way we thought and the way we lived. Anything short of first just wasn't acceptable.

"One of the common themes of all my friends and all the competitive people I went to school with is that we were really hard on each other. For lack of a better phrase, we talked a lot of trash to each other and that just elevated your game."

Earleywine, an All-State player on the 1989 Jays state championship baseball team, continued.

"There was a brutal sense of honesty about any shortcoming you had, athletically," he said. "You didn't try to caress their feelings, everybody was going for the jugular. I think that made all of us better and stronger and tougher. It was a trash-talking era and highly, highly competitive.

"I grew up in a highly competitive community, my neighborhood was competitive, my dad was competitive, and nobody apologized for that. You didn't have to. It was the way everyone was and if you weren't that way, you were abnormal, you were weak.

"That's kind of who I am today as a result of that and it's why I so often feel out of place. Other people, other eras, other communities just didn't behave like that. But that's all I know, that's how I was raised.

"It's made me the man I am today and I'm not ashamed of it."

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EARLEYWINE STILL HASN'T BEEN GIVEN the exact reason he was fired from Mizzou. It's certainly a glaring point of contention and it's something AD Jim Sterk should be ashamed of, because at the very least, Earleywine deserved that.

Nonetheless, he still knows.

"I'm 99 percent sure it was because of my toughness, my competitiveness, my intolerance for kids not being accountable, and not putting in the work and not having the right attitude," Earleywine said.

He was fired despite being the winningest coach in MU history --- in any sport. He compiled a sparkling record of 482-182, leading the Tigers to eight NCAA Super Regionals and three Women's College World Series.

This year's team has already lost 17 games, and it's still March. Only three of Earleywine's 11 Tiger teams lost more games --- in a full season.

If you didn't know what Earleywine was all about, you know now. He almost felt like a cave man trying to do a waltz during his time at Mizzou, because times have certainly changed.

"I think that as you mature," Earleywine said, "you realize there are other ways that are also effective and successful. I remained who I was and who I am, but intellectually, you can't reach every athlete and every team now days. So, I had to curb my instincts at Mizzou, I had to try and trim off some of the competitiveness.

"Because of that, I felt like I was a fake or a phony, and I battled that inner demon ... it was a constant back-and-forth tug of war of who I was and who I knew that 2017, 2018 kids needed. I tempered myself to a degree, but ultimately, I remained true to who I am. I can wake up in the morning and look at myself in the mirror when I'm that way.

"Unfortunately, it was the very thing that was my undoing at Mizzou."

Earleywine hasn't changed, society has.

“Political correctness, allowing kids more power than people in positions of authority, and their love affair with soft-coaching has gotten the University where it is today,” Earleywine, 47, said at the time of his firing. “I used to care deeply, now it’s someone else’s problem.”

Does he miss it? We'll stick with the one-word answer.

No.

"I can tell you right now," he said "that as I'm watching college softball from afar, I'm so glad I'm out of it."

With his proven record of success, it would have been easy for Earleywine to get another Division I job. But because of his family situation, he was not going to move away from his children.

"I literally got fired two weeks before this job opened up," said Earleywine, who will officially become AD on July 1. "This is going to allow me to stay at home and be with my kids ... it's God's way of working.

"Sometimes, things make no sense at all and you wonder where He's at. But then there are other times like this ... you look at the timing of it and it was just perfect, it was just impeccable.

"I would have never thought about doing anything administratively, much less in high school. But when I found out about it, it kind of made sense to me --- coming back home and doing something new in my life. So I had initial interest and it kind of took off from there.

"I have some learning to do in this job, let's face it. I've never been an administrator. For the first six to nine months, I'm going to do a lot of listening, a lot of learning, and asking a lot of questions.

"What I think my value is --- and I need to keep my focus on the big picture --- is hiring and developing great coaches. That's the most important thing an AD can do, because everything else will fall into place if you have great coaches."

Winning is an attitude, it's a process, and it's something Earleywine is ready to instill throughout the school system..

"I'm not going to back off of my values and the way I approach life," Earleywine said. "As a matter of fact, I think the people of Jefferson City embrace that.

"I'm not OK with kids being disrespectful and not putting forth their best effort. They need to be good listeners, they need to work hard, they need to be accountable ... all those things. That's the expectation I'm going to have for my coaches, and I expect for that to trickle down from the coaches to the athletes.

"There needs to be more discipline, there needs to be more structure, there needs to be more respect for authority, and I'm going to try and implement those things at as high of a level as I possibly can in the school system.

"Not only does that win games, but that makes good adults some day, positive citizens who are good people to have in the work place and who make America a better place to live."

Mizzou's loss is our gain.

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WHEN YOU WON AS MUCH AS THIS SCHOOL DID, it was obviously a team effort. But it was a team effort that started with one man, one man you know by one name.

Pete.

Adkins set the standard of excellence with what his football teams did in the 1960s, winning 71 straight, and into the 1990s until his retirement. It was the Jays' string of three straight state championships from 1976-78 that lit the fire for that incredible two-decade run.

As successful as Earleywine was at Mizzou, he reverts back to 30 years ago when he's in Pete's presence today.

"No question," Earleywine said. "I still feel like a 15-year-old kid when I'm talking to him --- humble, respectful, and in awe. That's basically the way I feel when I'm around Pete. I plan on leaning on him as much as he'll allow me to, on things that will make a difference for our high school.

"He set a standard not just by the wins and losses, but his temperament and attitude. His philosophy was that we wanted to be No. 1 in the state in everything. You felt that expectation and you embraced it. That's what you wanted as a competitor.

Earleywine believes ---as do many others --- that it's football that still sets the pace for the overall health of an athletic program.

"I think it sets for the tone for every other athlete in the school," he said. "It's the most visible, it's the most watched, it's the most followed sport, so they definitely have to set the pace. I think hiring coach (Terry) Walker was a major move on the chessboard in making that happen.

"At the same time, if the football team doesn't win, that's certainly not going to be an excuse for the other sports to not win."

Earleywine wants to restore the pride in the entire school, with the sports teams playing a leading role. And he wants all involved doing it together.

"A big part of what I want to do is to try to unite us as a school," he said. "I think sometimes that all of us go in our own direction and we forget to come back to our roots."

There's a great example of that right down the street, Earleywine said.

"I think that's something Helias has always done a good job of, they've been very supportive of each other, they have a good sense of who they are and they have a tight-knit family --- from alumni to boosters to current athletes to coaches to teachers," he said. "They're all very united.

"I would like to see JC more banded together than we have been for the last 15 or 20 years."

While Earleywine believes Walker and the football Jays will do their part, don't ever expect it to be like it was.

"What happened with Pete Adkins will never happen again, we need to be honest with ourselves," Earleywine said. "Pete can't be the standard, because nobody's every going to reach that. We need to be realistic and try to get back to being one of the most competitive football programs in the state, as part of an athletic department that's competing for championships in every sport.

"I think that's realistic. The expectations have just gotten higher, and the bar just got raised a little higher for everyone ... coaches, athletes and everybody involved. The kids we have and the genetics of our athletes, it's all there. It just needs to be nurtured and coached and developed, and we're going to put some systems and other things in place that are going to have a powerful impact in a short amount of time."

When Earleywine says "short amount of time," he means a few years, not a few weeks or a few months.

"Absolutely," he said. "I don't know how many years it will take, but we're going to make decisions one at a time that put us back that direction. That's all you can do --- one hire at a time, one rock-star coach at a time, and you piece it all together.

"Hopefully in the next three to five to seven years, we'll have made a lot of ground in bringing success, competitiveness, pride, discipline, all those things back to the Jeff City school system. Because that's who we are. We're not what we once were and we have to get back there.

"You start celebrating mediocrity and that's what everybody shoots for. We need to change the standards and say that it's not OK here, that's not what we do. Everybody needs to get better and we need to take more pride in winning, that's why I was hired and that's what I'm going to deliver.

"I can't wait."