Makenna Winans was always the key. There’s no getting around this in understating her importance on the hardwood for the Parkersburg South girls team this season. If you wanted to call her one of the most crucial players in the state, it wasn’t an outlandish statement, either. With a ...

Makenna Winans was always the key. There’s no getting around this in understating her importance on the hardwood for the Parkersburg South Patriots’ girls team this season. If you wanted to call her one of the most crucial players in the state, it wasn’t an outlandish statement, ...

There are five big reasons one could point to when asked about the most crucial part of the PHS girls’ basketball team. Each one accompanied by a pair of state championship rings on their ring finger. And while the seniors are indeed valuable, once you look down the bench you start counting ...

As a Washington fan who cheers for the Browns as long as they’re not matched up against my Redskins, it’s been a long time since I’ve had much of a rooting interest on Super Bowl Sunday. I came close this year, since my oldest daughter is a Tennessee Titans fan, by virtue of them having ...

These have been good times for Magnolia’s volleyball and girls’ basketball programs. The simultaneous high levels of success have kept the party going even through the cold months. And it might be coincidence or it might not, but Kyndra Pilant has participated on both teams since her ...

Surprise, surprise? Defending Class A state champion Huntington St. Joe’s basketball machine powerfully churns out Ws, once again. The loss of two NCAA Divison I basketball players to graduation? Yeah it hurt, but proved little in the way of a speed bump. Shannon Lewis’ plug in of ...

This column may be a little late, but here are 13 possibile happenings for the Mid-Ohio Valley sports world in 2020. Will they be wrong or will they be right, who knows? This is the joy in making predictions: 1. Lance Binegar assumes command of the Williamstown football machine. ...

They needed an offensive spark, and it could have come from anyone. The list of choices wasn’t long, but most of them were veterans of the hardwood, by now. Based on how Parkersburg Catholic coach Marty Vierheller talked about Paige Stotts in the offseason it could have been her. Or, ...

Upon further review, watching the post-game jubilation proved just as entertaining as the game. The girls in the blue jerseys with red numbers were crying, high-fiving and celebrating at center court. The 6-foot-4 center hugging her generously reported 5-foot-4 friend stood out like an ...

Can Mid-Ohio Valley sports fans please get another decade of high school girls’ basketball just like this one? No one needs a break from the constant barrage of talent. Enthusiasts like me being repeatedly punched in the face has never felt so good. There was no hide-and-seek. One simply ...

The voices are still ringing. First came a local coach sounding so sure all season long. Then, one of the assistant coaches from the best team in the state couldn’t say enough positives about his young man at the Super Six meeting. After this, more and more men spoke passionately and ...

Decisions, decisions … Wow, there were a lot of hard decisions. This past year in sports provided the Mid-Ohio Valley plenty of great moments. Winter, spring, fall you name it and something big happened in every season. There were state champions. There were major award winners. There were ...

I might be grasping at straws here, but officially we’ve got a few days of fall left. Although it sure hasn’t seemed like fall for quite some time, the “winter” sports are in full swing. I already have had the opportunity to take in a few basketball games and suffice it to say ...

Brandon Penn is back home after a successful surgery. It is a development inserting another happy note on the best Parkersburg South football season since 2003. More good times arrive in a few weeks. The release of the Kennedy Award, where Penn is in the running, and the Class AAA all-state ...

When the WVU football team flew to Fort Worth to play TCU Friday everyone knew that this would be the final game in a disappointing 2019 season. A losing record was assured. There would be no bowl game. To the casual observer there wouldn’t be much difference between a 4-8 and 5-7 ...

For the second straight week the West Virginia Mountaineers battled a ranked team to the wire, but this time a final drive to win or tie the game came up short in the final minutes. It was the fourth straight home conference loss. As we all by now recognize, this WVU team is not good enough ...

Fans should take a moment to re-adjust when in attendance of a Parkersburg High girls’ basketball game this season. Some things are going to feel a little weird. Where is Mary Ostrowski Award winner Shay-Lee Kirby one might ask? She’s playing NCAA Divison I basketball at Austin Peay. ...

Change is hard, but in this case it is necessary. Are you listening, WVSSAC? Hopefully, Bernie Dolan and company felt the winds during an opening round playoff game Saturday from Cobourne Field. Precious gates can be locked up. This was just ugly. And it was cruel. I challenge anyone ...

Despite a 35-17 loss to Texas Tech on November 9, head coach Neal Brown reaffirmed that his team would get significantly better and a successful program would be built at WVU. The mood of Mountaineer fans was understandably skeptical, having just witnessed the low point of the 2019 season to ...

This certainly wasn’t the plan. Annie Hunt earned better. Of this, there is no doubt. The Ravenswood point guard completed a freshman season full of promise and potential in 2017. Toe stepping wasn’t on her agenda. But, her genetic gifts and hoops’ IQ still emerged inside the ...