Class of 2022: Six individuals were inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame Saturday at Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center in Vienna. The new inductees are, from left, Joe Safety (St. Marys), Donald Lowe (Fort Frye), Jesse Wells (Shenandoah), Kim Creel (Ravenswood), Alannah Sheets (Ripley) and Mitch Smith (Ripley). (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

VIENNA — The Jackson County representation was overwhelming at Saturday’s Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame.

Two classes consisting of six members each were inducted, including four individuals with ties from Jackson County. The recognition of Ravenswood’s Bernie Rees into the Class of 2021, along with Ravenswood’s Kim Creel and the Ripley pair Alannah Sheets and Mitch Smith into the Class of 2022 boosted the number Jackson County inductees to 12 overall.

“This is such an honor,” said Sheets, a 2010 Ripley High School graduate who earned numerous basketball honors as a member of the Shawnee State women’s basketball program. “To see how young I was compared to everyone else who was recognized was kind of strange – but there are some amazing people here today and throughout the years.

“Immediately, it makes you feel overwhelmed.”

Both Rees and Creel, who were only one year apart at both Ravenswood High School and Glenville State College, both shed a tear or two or several during their speeches.

Class of 2021: Six individuals were inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame Saturday at Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center in Vienna. The new inductees are, from left, Carl Alloway (Belpre), Phillip Parsons (Parkersurg), Bernie Rees (Ravenswood), Ben Howlett (Marietta), John Schaly (Marietta) and Erica Dye Cross (Wirt County). (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

Creel moved back to Jackson County eight years ago to take care of her father and resides in Ripley. Her mother dies last September.

“My parents instilled so many great things in us,” said Creel, who is employed as a drug tester in the middle school and high school. She is proud to have her three children, who she adopted.

Creel was only 17 years old when she started as a freshman for the first GSC women’s basketball team to advance to the NAIA National Tournament. In addition to spending four season with he GSC basketball team, Creel played volleyball and “threw” track.

“I kept busy,” Creel added. “I just loved sports and it was something I loved to do.”

Creel kept tabs on this past season when Glenville State University won the NCAA Division II National Championship.

Four individuals from Jackson County were inducted as part of the Class of 2021 and Class of 2022 for the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame during Saturday's banquet at Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center in Vienna. Pictured from left, Bernie Rees (Ravenswood), Kim Creel (Ravenswood), Alannah Sheets (Ripley) and Mitch Smith (Ripley). (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

“They were such a great team – I loved watching them play,” Creel said. “It brought back lots of memories when we played. Hopefully, we built something when we were there.”

During Rees’ speech, he tried not to make direct eye contact with the people most dear to him because anytime he did he had to take few seconds to collect himself and get back on task. One of those said individuals was his former high school basketball coach, Mick Price.

Coach Price took Rees under his wing when Rees moved to Ravenswood for his eight grade year. After graduating from Ravenswood in 1988, Rees continued his career at GSC and set the school record for 3-point percentage and most 3-pointers in a season. He closed out his career with 964 points.

“I came to Ravenswood as an unknown kid,” Rees said. “He instilled in me a work ethic – he instilled that in me from an early age and made it easy to do because we did it together. He still has the same passion.

“I owe him a lot for what I am today. All he did for me in the gym, it wasn’t making me a better basketball player. It was making me a leader, and I needed that. What he has meant to me and so many young men in Ravenswood, you can’t compare it. He is the epitome of a servant leader.”

After closing out her senior year at for the Ripley High School girls basketball team averaging 22 points per game, Sheets arrived at Shawnee State feeling like a small fish in a big pond. Yet, when her career ended in her senior year she had ranked first or second in nine career categories.

“My freshman year, there were a lot of tears and a lot of calls to home,” Sheets recalls. “I had a female coach who was like a second mom to me and made it feel like home. The players went to her house for meals. My teammates and coaches just made you feel like you were part of the family.

“We had 15 others alongside you going through the same thing.”

Sheets, who works for the FBI in Winchester, Va., and lives with her 1-year-old son in Martinsburg, scored 1,967 points at the collegiate level. She is engaged to be married in October.

“About halfway through my freshman year I finally got my confidence,” Sheets said. “I made a game-winning shot against one of our rivals. We made it to the National Tournament and went to the Final Four.

“I remember thinking the whole time, I will get to experience this again. We will be back here, but we never did. That memory stick out major for me.”

Basketball won’t escape Sheets. She joined her brother, TW, as a coach for her nephew’s seventh-grade basketball team.

“Staying with the game means so much,” Sheets said. “I didn’t really know if I wanted to coach when I left. It didn’t speak to me until I was away from it for so long. Then I go to my nephew’s games. I’m in the stands and I couldn’t take it.

“So I asked my brother if I could help him. He said, ‘I’ve been waiting for you to say something.”

The fourth Jackson County inductee is Smith, who was Ripley High School’s first three-time state wrestling champion. Smith, who also finished runner-up in a fourth trip to state, later became a two-time All-American at West Liberty.

His record at West Liberty was 58-9.

“I always had a goal of being a national champion in college, but I fell fort of that,” Smith said. “At the time, you feel down because you didn’t accomplish the goal you set for yourself. But looking back, it’s like we shot for the moon but landed on the stars.

“At the end of the day, being an All-American is always nice.”

After college, Smith launched the wrestling program at Alderson-Broaddus and later coached West Liberty. Smith was one of the youngest NCAA coaches at the age of 24.

“Coaching college for a decade will always be near and dear to my heart,” Smith said. “Being the youngest NCAA coach, there were a lot of learning curves, but I learned along the way. I had a lot of mentors along the way.”

A total of 12 individuals were inducted into the Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday – 6 from the Class of 2021 and another class representing the Class of 2022.

Rounding out the Class of 2021 were Belpre’s Carl Alloway, Marietta’s Ben Howlett, Parkersburg’s Phil Rogers, Marietta’s John Schaly and Wirt County’s Erica Dye Cross.

Howlett, who just completed his sixth season as men’s basketball coach at West Liberty, currently holds the career scoring record at Marietta High School with 1,362 points. In his senior year at West Liberty, he ranked fourth in the Division II with 23 points per game.

“My junior high coach (Gene Mullen) didn’t want me to shoot – he expected me to shoot,” Howlett said.

Alloway excelled in both football and track. As a member of the Glenville State College football team, he led the West Virginia Conference in rushing during his junior year.

Cross, who is married to former state champion wrestler Josh Cross, advanced to the WVSSAC High School High School State Wrestling Tournament, finishing fourth as a junior and second as a senior.

She also competed internationally, winning a gold medal and being named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the 2001 Klippan Open in Sweden.

Schaly just completed his 25th season as head baseball coach at Ashland University and 35th season overall at the collegiate level. During his senior year at Marietta College, he was named a First-Team All-American at second base and Player of the Year in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

“My two biggest mentors were my dad (former Marietta College baseball coach Don Schaly) and Paul Page (former Marietta College hitting instructor and assistant coach) , who are both members of the Mid-Ohio Sports Hall of Fame,” Schaly said. “Probably 90 percent of what I learned is because of my dad.

“Paul Page is the best hitting instructor I’ve ever been around.”

Parsons played three years of football as a Big Red, but his claim to fame occurred on the track. The 1966 PHS graduate was a member of the state champion shuttle hurdle relay team that set a school and state record. The record still stands as the PHS track and field standard.

Coaching has been Parsons’ passion, especially with youth sports.

“It’s been 52 years since I competed at my last meet – it seems like yesterday,” Parsons said. “Coaching youth sports is great. My father unfortunately died at the age of 95 – he instilled in me to never quit and not give up. He had great faith in me and I try to do that for others. I miss him.”

The remaining three inductees for the Class of 2022 are Fort Frye’s Donald Lowe, St. Marys’ Joe Safety and Shenandoah’s Jesse Wells.

Safety has gone full circle since graduating from St. Marys in 1970. His career in public relation started by being in the right place at the right time.

Safety was an usher at a friend’s wedding when he met someone who was the neighbor of an executive with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

By the age of 23, Safety was an executive in P.R. with the Pirates. After the Pirates won the World Series in 1979, he spent three years working for George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees.

Safety then moved out West working for the Los Angeles Clippers. He retired from the NBA in 2013. Today, he lives in St. Marys and works alongside the Chamber of Commerce.

“St. Marys is where I am from – it is what I am,” Safety said. “I am perfectly satisfied with this lifestyle and I am glad to be back.”

Lowe became an expert in the field of athletic training. While attending Kent State, the 1960 Fort Frye grad treated the likes of Thurman Munson, Jack Lambert and Nick Saban. He transitioned to Syracuse and worked with Donovan McNabb and Art Monk.

The athletic training area in the Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center is named the Donald and Mary Lowe Sports Medicine Facility.

Lowe also made a stop at Georgia Tech and his United States Olympic Committee experience took him to the 1983 Pan American Games. He also was a member of the 1992 Olympic training staff in Barcelona.

“There was a gentleman working on an article on me several years ago In Marietta, and he said small town boy made good,” Lowe said. “I’ve received numerous awards. To be recognized for this Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame is very special.”

Wells was a member of the Shenandoah wrestling program which advanced to state – and marked the first time that had happened for any SHS sport. As a member of the Mount Union football team, he finished his career as the school’s all-timer leading tackler for a defensive lineman.

Wells, who played three seasons in the Arena Football League, accepted the head coaching position for the Shenandoah football team which had won just two games in its three previous seasons. Over the next six seasons under Wells, the Zeps qualified for the playoffs three times.

Contact Kerry Patrick at kpatrick@newsandsentinel.com