Photo by Cris Jenkins The Magnolia Blue Eagles captured top honors at the second annual Jim Turner Memorial Volleyball Tournament, held July 21 at River High School.

The Magnolia Lady Blue Eagles took top honors in the second annual Jim Turner Memorial Volleyball Tournament, held July 21 inside the River High School campus.

The Shadyside Tigers fell to the mighty Blue Eagles in the high school division, but their junior high squad beat the River junior high in the middle school bracket. The River Pilots and the Paden City Wildcats each came in third place.

Turner coached the Lady Pilot volleyball team from 2011-13 and died May 1, 2016 at age 55. He guided the Pilots to a district tournament appearance in 2013 en route to earning OVAC Class 2A Coach of the Year honors. He also served as vice president of the District 12 Coaches Association that same season.

In the time since his death, members of the school community, along with his family – and many of his church family, have been working on a way to honor his memory through the volleyball program, and school community in general.

The tournament began with pool play with the top four teams advancing to single-elimination bracket play. Matches took place at at all three gyms at the River High School campus. Eight high school teams participated, and only four took part in the junior high division.

The Eagles went through the pool play undefeated – beating Valley, Paden City and Frontier. The Lady Eagles went on to defeat River in the closest match of the day for Magnolia, 25-20. They were down 17-12 in the second set and went on to defeat the Lady Pilots 25-21, to move on to the championship match against Shadyside in straight sets, 25-14 and 25-16.

Shadyside won their pool play against Bellaire St. John, Martins Ferry and River. All the matches were close, but in the end it was the Lady Blue Eagles getting the win. The Jim Turner Memorial Volleyball tournament ran smoothly with 12 teams and hundreds of spectators in attendance. The family of the late Jim Turner was in attendance and helped in many ways, along with many of his church family and friends – including many River teachers.

They had many donations and had a concession stand and hospitality room for the many helpers.