BEVINS: Bucs? Chiefs? May as well root for somebody

February 6, 2021

I always look forward to the Super Bowl, even though my favorite squad, the Washington Team Who Must Not Be Named, hasn’t darkened that gridiron in 29 years. I eventually started writing an annual piece to help people in my boat decide who to root for while watching the game. That was back when we could get together with other people for social activities that didn’t require adding the word “distance” and when even if you didn’t want to watch the game, you could look forward to the commercials. Today, most of the ads get previewed in advance and, frankly, aren’t as good as ...

Hard work pays off for Marietta’s Tyler Kytta

February 4, 2021

Sometimes, a player just gets in the zone. This was the case for Tyler Kytta Saturday. The Marietta High junior scored 32 points in a win over Federal Hocking at Sutton Gym. As Kytta said after the game, “I was just in the zone.” However, there’s a bit more to it than that. A player doesn’t just find the zone by chance. A lot of hard work and preparation make that opportunity possible, and Kytta works as hard as any hooper in the area. “Other than Ben Howlett, I would say in the last 15 years, no one has spent as much time in the gym as Tyler,” said Marietta head coach ...

ALBRIGHT: Parkersburg South girls’ opening five-game road trip will tell us a lot

January 28, 2021

By the time the home crowd finally sees the Parkersburg South girls basketball team, we all are going to know a lot about them. Are they the group that once again puts off the dreaded rebuild? Teams before them have skillfully avoided that since the graduation of Anna Hayton and Katelyn Byrd’s group. Is this team fully up to the task of taking on a tough schedule that is almost to the point of being relentless? Or is this group still a work in progress and somewhere in between? Three distinct directions. One road trip to set them on their course. Fresh off a shortened training ...

Hammerin’ Hank Aaron, baseball’s Home Run King, dies

January 22, 2021

ATLANTA (AP) — Hank Aaron, who endured racist threats with stoic dignity during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record and gracefully left his mark as one of baseball’s greatest all-around players, died Friday. He was 86. The Atlanta Braves, Aaron's longtime team, said he died ...

ALBRIGHT: St. Marys girls’ hunger and depth puts them in a good place

January 21, 2021

When we last saw the St. Marys’ girls basketball team, it was an energetic and fulfilling experience. Take your pick of adjectives. Whichever you choose, the Blue Devils’ delightful run to the state tournament in Charleston highlighted an overall strength that helped the program all season: A quite large veteran presence. Even as the stakes raised higher and higher, St. Marys’ older group powered through to heights not seen in Pleasants County for the past four years, fueling its run to the state capital. It led to a date with St. Joe in a state quarterfinal, and a peeking down ...

BENNETT: Braxton Amos back on mat

January 21, 2021

As the old adage goes, nothing worth having comes easy. Former Robert Dutton and Dave Schultz Award winner Braxton Amos certainly could attest to that. Going back to his high school days at Parkersburg South, Amos missed his freshman year due to injury before absolutely dominating the Class AAA 220-pound weight class for the next three years. The University of Wisconsin recruit last competed in early October at the senior nationals/U.S. Open in Iowa. Amos was wrestling at 97 kilograms in Greco Roman and lost in the semifinals by one point to the eventual champion, who registered a ...