From My View For Nov. 15
I will be having a busy couple weeks trying to get as many basketball, wrestling, and archery previews done before heading out to visit my youngest son in California. He was rewarded another role as Little John, once again, in the Heart of Robin Hood. He has played the same role in Boston, Winnipeg and Toronto, and it is being played in the month of December in Hollywood Calif. The the wife and I are going out to catch it.
This is a bummer, because one item on my bucket list is to watch a show in New York, first on Broadway, but it’ll be just as nice.
And better yet, Lynne and I, along with Jeremy and his wonderful wife Janine, got tickets to watch the Price is Right, so watch the show and maybe you will see one of us win some outstanding prizes, I hope.
With all the upcoming previews, I just can’t cover as much, and will give up Paden City boys and girls basketball, as well as wrestling, to Ed Parsons to cover. He was already covering Paden City, and will continue to cover them for both papers unless they are playing another Wetzel County school and River.
That will leave me the opportunity to cover more games and matches, but not covering Paden City. I have been doing all Paden City sports since I have been the sports writer, but if I want to continue to cover what I have done these past 17-18 years, I just had to do something.
Just to give you an example, I was covering 16 varsity basketball games, two wrestling, and now one archery. That’s 19 games if I didn’t add some freshmen games, and sometimes a few junior high games and matches. And that’s not throwing in other sporting events that arises here and their throughout the season.
It was nice to find out that Magnolia Head Coach Dave Tallman got his hips replaced, and is feeling great. And to see that former Magnolia standout Mark Winters has stepped to help Meredith Pilant in the high school girls basketball program. He was a great player for the Blue and Gold and I wish him all the luck this season.
On a sad note, there was the loss of a dear co-umpire of mine, Merle Davis, who passed away recently. He will be missed. Not only as a former softball official, but as a dedicated fan of all St. Marys, sports. He also ran the clock for years and coached many student athletes.
Besides heading to California to see my son in a play, I will also be heading to Elkins for a couple of days to take my grandson to ride the Polar Express, and will inform everyone all about it.
It was sad that one of my neighbors on Fifth Street had a house fire. It was a good thing that he and his dog escaped the wrath of the fire, along with his wife that was away for the weekend, but it was sad that his cat didn’t make it.
However our first responders – police, fire department, e-squad and the Paden City e-squad – was on the scene very quickly to put the fire out and made sure the fire didn’t spread to others houses that are very close to another. Thank you guys and gals, you all did a top-notch job.
Also, I had the pleasure of going out to Low Gap to take some pictures of a Veterans Day ceremony at the Low Gap Church. It was wonderful watching and listening to the many patriotic songs they sang. The Low Gap people at the church normally give every person a flag, that comes, but this time they were giving the Hundred American Legion all the flags so they could put them on the grave plots of the men and women that passed away. They also gave out awards to all the veterans that were in attendance.
They gave out many other awards, to numerous to mention. It was a nice gesture by the Low Gap community. They also had one of the biggest attendances, as the parking lot was full. There were many dignitaries that was to come, but sadly couldn’t make it.
The folks also told me a little about the church building; they told me that the building has been up two years before West Virginia was a state, that was awesome to know. I know there are other great facts about our little county of Wetzel County and would hope if you know of something truly amazing, please give us a ring at the Wetzel Chronicle or even give me nudge at a ball game I’m covering, that’s good stuff to tell, and it’s also nice to see it in our county paper.
I would like to end my column about the fire that just happened on Fifth Street. Though our first responders were on the scene very fast, we all need to give them a big thank-you for what they do for us on a daily basis. Also, please remember that it is the holiday season now, and we all must be aware of fire hazards around us.
Also, we as a community are very lucky to what we have in New Martinsville, and we need to watch out for predators that maybe try to take things that don’t belong to them. Lock up your house and don’t give these predators an easy way to steal what does not belongs to them. Even though we have a awesome place to live, there are still a few that want the easy way out, and takes things that are not theirs.
We also need to give thanks to what we have, our lives and our family. It will be Thanksgiving Day soon and the Black Friday shoppers will be everywhere. Be sure to lock your house and not give these people a chance to go to jail, because they will be caught, they always do, because we have a great police force with an outstanding police chief, and they do their job very well.
Forgive me as I don’t have a lot of area sporting events to cover, but now that the boys basketball teams can now practice we will try to get as many previews done as possible.
However, we still have one area team still out their trying to win a championship and that is River High School. I know you guys understand that I graduated from River, and I’m just so happy for them as I would for any local team.
It was only a year ago that the Pilots went 10-0 and lost not only a playoff game, but a dozen players lost to graduation, and talk was they were going to have to rebuild, and I told many, no, no, no if you have a couple of players like Lukas Isaly and Drew Dietz to build around that will be just fine with my classmate Mike Flannery in charge and it was true, look at them now.
Good Luck to them Friday when they go to Zanesville at Maysville 7:30 p.m to play Danville in the Division III Ohio Region VII 27 playoff game.