COLUMN: Grant Hussey’s summer to remember

September 4, 2018

Baseball gifting big, shiny packages to Parkersburg South’s Grant Hussey shouldn’t be surprising by now. The Patriot dedicates sizable quantities of time, sweat and energy to the sport he has loved since childhood. This fall giving up basketball to focus on baseball fulltime. Effort not ignored by the baseball gods. Already a recipient of prodigious diamond talents, Hussey unwrapped the summer of a lifetime shortly after Hurricane eliminated the Patriots from the Class AAA high school regional tournament, 4-3, on May 24. Three months spent playing ball in front of college ...

WVU solid in opener

September 3, 2018

If you enjoy group sings, there wasn’t much better than listening to about 40,000 West Virginia football fans doing their version of “Country Roads” Saturday in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte at the end of the Belk Kickoff Classic. Meanwhile, while “Rocky Top” was a popular hit tune early on those lyrics had long since faded by the end of a long afternoon. It was clear early the approach by Tennessee was to engage in ball control and limit the number of possession opportunities for a prolific WVU offense. And for most of the first half the strategy kept the game close, ...

Column: Are we sure big time college sports betting is a good thing? 

August 28, 2018

While West Virginia won’t be ready in time to accept college sports bets, three other states make history this weekend as the first outside of Nevada to allow mass legalized collegiate gambling in the United States. New Jersey, Delaware and Mississippi become first states flaunting victory after a battle N.J. governor Chris Christie started in 2012. The federal Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) was ruled unconstitutional on May 14, 2018. An outcome opening the flood gates for individual state’s self-governance of a particularly favorite American ...

Monday Morning Quarterback: WVU to take opener

August 27, 2018

The West Virginia Mountaineers enter the 2018 season with a Top 25 ranking and projected by many to be a contender for one of the spots in the Big 12 Championship game. Indeed, WVU will have the best quarterback in the conference and plenty of talent at the wide receiver and running back positions. But as we all know, preseason predictions are virtually meaningless. For virtually all but the elite teams in college football question marks remain to be answered as a season plays out, and West Virginia is no exception. The major concern is on the defensive side of the ball, where only ...

Pigskin Preview coming soon!

August 21, 2018

Golf and cross country are well underway around the Mountain State; however, the official start of the high school fall sports season comes Thursday evening. Friday night lights spark on a day early as the gridiron season opens for business around West Virginia. Wood County fans won’t have to wait for any action either. A pair of local football powers spotlight in Williamstown and Parkersburg High. Both, participants in the playoffs one season ago, face a postseason qualifier (definitely an understatement for one team) in early tests. Mike Byus’ Big Reds head to Monongalia ...

Jared Haught did things his way

August 9, 2018

From his humble beginnings in Calhoun County to Parkersburg High School and then being a three-time All-American wrestler at Virginia Tech, Jared Haught was without question the epitome of what a student-athlete is all about. Relegated to third string once upon a time as a freshman for the Hokies, Haught never thought about giving up, just what he needed to do on a daily basis to get better. An unquestionable work ethic not only led to him being the first native West Virginian to ever wrestle for an NCAA Division I championship, but it also more than helped in his pursuit of a ...