Derek Taylor column: School support and fervor in small communities is ignored in decision-making, West says
If you'd ask Tom West, he would tell you that West Virginia has an identity problem.
On one hand, the state has clung to its image as a haven of small towns and hamlets for tourism, fueling its oft-maligned "Open for Business" mantra made infamous by Gov. Joe Manchin.
One the other hand, actions by arms of the state government seem to go out of their way to destroy small-town West Virginia, said the Valley (Wetzel) football coach during a conversation on Wednesday evening.
"I'm furious with the State Board of Education," West said in reference to the board's overwhelming refusal to create a fourth competitive class for football and basketball among Secondary School Activities Commission members.
"I'd like to know how many of them went to small schools. How many of them know how important athletics are to the small communities in West Virginia in terms of community identity," West said.
"I don't think any of them have any sense, and I hope they see that when they come off the golf course to read the paper. Not that it will change anything, but it's a political thing.
"Those people are politicians and they're appointed by politicians. What we need to do is elect people that will appoint someone with some sense to the state board."
West's voice isn't one of a man who's never tasted success on the gridiron. His Lumberjack teams, using a double-wing offense heavily based in running the ball down opponents' throats, reached five Class A championship games in the 1990s.
The names Jason Balwanz, Sean Yoho, Brian Ice, Jason Manear and Carl Tedrow were All-State staples of that run, which gave West's teams the dubious honor of being the only school in Class A history to lose four consecutive state championship games.
Valley did so from 1993 to 1996, then fell again to Moorefield -- the team that handed Valley its loss in '96 -- in 1998. Valley was perhaps the single most dominant small-school team of that decade behind Moorefield, which won the last four titles of the decade.
Wheeling Central, which dropped to Class A in 1996 and has won five of the last six small-school titles, won its first in Class A in 2000. It previously won the 1979 Class AA title at the first Super Six event.
When four Mingo County Class A schools consolidate to form Mingo Central in 2010, only Moorefield will remain of the teams that West faced in state title games. The Lumberjacks lost to Matewan in 1993, Ceredo-Kenova in '94 and Gilbert in '95.
If you'd ask Tom West, he would tell you that West Virginia has an identity problem.
On one hand, the state has clung to its image as a haven of small towns and hamlets for tourism, fueling its oft-maligned "Open for Business" mantra made infamous by Gov. Joe Manchin.
One the other hand, actions by arms of the state government seem to go out of their way to destroy small-town West Virginia, said the Valley (Wetzel) football coach during a conversation on Wednesday evening.
"I'm furious with the State Board of Education," West said in reference to the board's overwhelming refusal to create a fourth competitive class for football and basketball among Secondary School Activities Commission members.
"I'd like to know how many of them went to small schools. How many of them know how important athletics are to the small communities in West Virginia in terms of community identity," West said.
"I don't think any of them have any sense, and I hope they see that when they come off the golf course to read the paper. Not that it will change anything, but it's a political thing.
"Those people are politicians and they're appointed by politicians. What we need to do is elect people that will appoint someone with some sense to the state board."
West's voice isn't one of a man who's never tasted success on the gridiron. His Lumberjack teams, using a double-wing offense heavily based in running the ball down opponents' throats, reached five Class A championship games in the 1990s.
The names Jason Balwanz, Sean Yoho, Brian Ice, Jason Manear and Carl Tedrow were All-State staples of that run, which gave West's teams the dubious honor of being the only school in Class A history to lose four consecutive state championship games.
Valley did so from 1993 to 1996, then fell again to Moorefield -- the team that handed Valley its loss in '96 -- in 1998. Valley was perhaps the single most dominant small-school team of that decade behind Moorefield, which won the last four titles of the decade.
Wheeling Central, which dropped to Class A in 1996 and has won five of the last six small-school titles, won its first in Class A in 2000. It previously won the 1979 Class AA title at the first Super Six event.
When four Mingo County Class A schools consolidate to form Mingo Central in 2010, only Moorefield will remain of the teams that West faced in state title games. The Lumberjacks lost to Matewan in 1993, Ceredo-Kenova in '94 and Gilbert in '95.
The landscape surely has changed while West has been away from the game, working as a substitute teacher after leaving the full-time position he held for more than 30 years.
"We had some good teams there for a while and then some that weren't as good," West said. "It's more difficult now. There's a lot of teams in Class A now that were double-A back then and it's not all because all those schools got so much smaller."
West's explanation of the state's love affair with consolidations would sound like a plot for an odd episode of the 'X-Files' if it didn't hit so close to home.
"They don't want small school teams to have success," he said. "If small school teams have success, then their communities have success and are stronger because so much in small communities revolves around the local sports teams still.
"They don't want that. The stronger a small community is, the less likely that community is to give in to consolidating."
Valley, located in the southeast corner of Wetzel County, has itself seen its enrollment decrease sharply in the last 15 years. The school was among Class A's largest during its mid-1990s heyday. It now ranks as the ninth-smallest public school in the state to field a football team.
After making the playoffs just twice in his six-year absence, the community seems re-energized this summer, West said.
"We've got some good kids, some hard-working kids and I think we'll have a pretty good team," West said. "How good is yet to be determined.
"But the most important thing right now, I think, is that I haven't seen this much community support and excitement about football in this area in a long time."
If West has his way, that excitement won't diminish, or yield to another, larger school anytime soon.
--Contact sportswriter Derek Taylor at derek.tay...@dailymail.com or 348-5170.
Now, before you criticize my grammar, consider that, despite my graduation from Harts High School, which the State School Board shut down two years ago in the name of improving education, I also graduated from Marshall U. and scored high enough on the LSAT to get accepted to WVU Law School and graduated from there, too.
I have been a lawyer for over 32 years. I say school consolidation ain't worth a lick!
It's no good for students, their families, their communities or our future. Going to Harts High School made it possible for me to play basketball, since nobody was ever cut from the small, yet successful team. I might have gotten lost in the shuffle at a large high school, certainly never would have played any sports and possibly wouldn't have been valedictorian. It ain't bad being a small fish in a small pond if it gives you confidence. That is what a small rural high school did for me.
School consolidation ain't worth a lick!