ASHLAND — J.R. VanHoose is on a treasure hunt in his own back yard — and he’s digging like a dog after a freshly buried T-bone steak.

VanHoose, who led Paintsville High School to a state basketball championship in 1996 and was named Mr. Basketball in 1998, also happens to be a local historian and middle school social studies teacher at Phelps High School. He has peeled back layer upon layer upon layer of Paintsville basketball history, going back to the very beginning and then going forward.

He has visited school libraries, public libraries, former coaches, former players, looked at countless newspaper accounts, listened to recorded radio reports, watched old films, new films and copied films.

If it had a value to Paintsville basketball, he’s probably seen it. But like any good treasure hunter, he keeps digging because it’s never enough.

So far, his findings have been pure gold.

Make that pure (Paintsville) Blue.

For instance:

‰He learned about the origin of Paintsville’s nickname. How did they come to be known as Tigers? J.R. can tell you.

‰He has a list of every lettermen who ever played basketball for the Tigers. Every. Single. One. Of. Them. VanHoose has also assembled the 1,000-point club, which is 31 strong with Guess Who at the top of the list? J.R. scored an astounding 3,095 points and grabbed 2,069 rebounds for the Tigers in a five-year varsity career.

‰He learned of a former Paintsville player named Charles Hall, who nobody else seemed to remember, that was on the roster in 1959 when the University Louisville reached the Final Four.

‰He has a copy of a scorebook when “King Kelly” Coleman lit up the Tigers for 50 points in 1956 during the semifinals of the 15th Region Tournament. That finished the Tigers’ season at 28-2. They were ranked No. 8 in the state at one time. Coleman’s 50 points paved the way for a 96-72 victory. He scored 44 in the championship against Pikeville, a 96-90 victory.

The best part for me? The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Hall of Famer is letting me in on the fun. We are collaborating on a book that will be an extensive and exhaustive history of Paintsville High School basketball. “The Tigers Tale: A dream, A Championship and A Town” is still very much in the infant stages (so much so that the title of the book could change before it’s published).

We plan to make sure it’s ready by 2016 — the 20th anniversary of Paintsville’s only state championship. But J.R. is going after this book with the same ferocity he did rebounds at Paintsville and Marshall University, where the 6-foot-10 big man carved out a fantastic Hall of Fame career with the Herd. If J.R. had his way, we’d had this book out yesterday. But it will take some time to develop and he’s willing to be patient. Meanwhile, he updates me nearly every day with another unbelievable finding.

The chase has been fun.

VanHoose, who became a Paintsville icon as an seventh-grader when he was part of an undefeated team that once scored 102 points in a middle school game at East Carter, is a Kentucky schoolboy legend. He played in the State Tournament from 1995-98 and his last three years he was part of a state champion, a semifinalist and a state runner-up. He jokes about having all three medals — gold, silver and bronze. How many players can say that?

His 29-point, 27-rebound game against Lexington Catholic in the 1996 semifinals rates as one of the best individual games in Sweet Sixteen history. He was the MVP that same year when the Tigers downed Ashland in the state finals in an all-northeastern Kentucky championship game. That is arguably one of the greatest moments in area basketball history.

“Tigers Tale” will take readers back to the beginning and also through the important 1985-87 span when John Pelphrey’s teams started the Paintsville tradition with three consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances, including that gut-wrenching loss to Ballard in the ’87 semifinals that fueled the fire in the program’s belly for nearly a decade.

It’s a storybook tale of how this small eastern Kentucky town became a powerhouse in a state where everybody competed at the same level in basketball. Little Milan High School, the small school that the movie “Hoosiers” is based upon, has nothing on Paintsville High School.

Last weekend, we spent nearly three hours with longtime coach Bill Mike Runyon, whose uncanny memories brought out moments that any Paintsville fan will want to hear. We also spent two hours apiece with the seniors from 1996 — Matt Ratliff and Craig Ratliff — and what they were thinking and feeling during an incredible state championship run. There are more interviews to come, more details to uncover, more facts to divulge.

At the end of the day, we hope this volume  will be something that is handed down from generation to generation not just in Paintsville but throughout the state and beyond. This is the best Cinderella story never told.

It will truly be a Paintsville treasure and a part of what makes Kentucky high school basketball the greatest show on earth.

If you have any insight into Paintsville’s basketball tradition, past or present, we’d love to hear it. Reach J.R. at jonathan.vanhoose@pikecounty.ky.schools.us or follow him on Twitter @JRVanhoose for updates on the book. You can reach me at the email address below.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.