By CODY TOMER GLEN DALE—In his second year as head coach at John Marshall, Chad Clutter felt that last season was a stepping stone for the boys’ basketball program. The Monarchs won nine more games last season than they did before, finishing with a 13-12 record. They also fell one game ...
By CODY TOMER GLEN DALE—John Marshall girls coach Brock Melko saw last season as a building block for the upcoming campaign. The Monarchs started out 1-10 last year but caught fire as the season progressed and finished with 10 wins and a spot in a regional co-final. Now, Melko’s group ...
By ED LOOMAN STEUBENVILLE — Jeff Lombardo is dealing with a good problem as he prepares his Steubenville girls team for the season. “We have a lot of girls who can play and deserve varsity minutes,” said Lombardo, who is entering his fourth season on the Big Red bench. “They all ...
By TRACY WATSON NEW MARTINSVILLE — Veteran Magnolia coach Dave Tallman has been to the top of the mountain with his Blue Eagles and he has gone through struggles over the years as well. However, this season will bring a new challenge as Tallman welcomes his youngest team “by far” with ...
By CODY TOMER WELLSBURG — The Brooke girls’ basketball program had a breakout 2017-18 season, but didn’t finish the way it had planned. A loss in the Class AAA Region One, Section One Tournament was its fate but Coach Ryan Scherich was happy with the turnaround campaign. “We ...
By CODY TOMER WELLSBURG—Coaching is in Mel Coleman’s blood. So, when Brooke came calling, he decided to come out of retirement and give it another go. “I just enjoy the challenge of coaching,” Coleman said. “I love encouraging and motivating athletes to do their best with the ...
By ED LOOMAN STEUBENVILLE — Mike Haney welcomed back plenty of familiar faces when Steubenville’s boys basketball team hit the floor for preseason practices. Haney, who’s entering his 11th campaign as Big Red’s court boss, has nine seniors on his varsity roster. Five of them earned ...
By BUBBA KAPRAL HUNDRED — Optimism abounds the Hundred boys’ basketball program. Head coach Virgil Wilkins has a nice mixture of size up front to go with some talented guards that should help the Hornets improve on last year’s 5-17 finish. Hundred’s 20-member squad features three ...
By BUBBA KAPRAL HUNDRED — Things are looking up for the Hundred girls’ team. Hornets coach Steve Dakan is in charge of a roster balanced nicely between seniors and freshmen. Four battle-tested seniors are joined by a handful of freshmen, some of whom are ready to contribute on the ...
By BUBBA KAPRAL PINE GROVE — Kasey Sapp takes over the reins of the Valley girls’ hoop program this winter and will be directing a squad with solid numbers and much experience. The Lumberjills roster features 14 players, five of those hoopsters are seniors and three more are juniors. ...
By BUBBA KAPRAL PINE GROVE — Graduation proved painful to the Valley boys’ basketball team. The Lumberjacks saw five players pick up their diplomas last spring, taking with them much production. One of the biggest losses was Levi Streets. He averaged 19 points a game last winter. ...
By RICK DeLUCA CONNORVILLE — Chris Heaton graduated from Buckeye Local in 2005 and sports kept him pretty busy during his years with the Panthers. Since then, he has been a mainstay on the coaching staffs of three different sports. As the 2018-19 season gets under way, Heaton will assume ...
By RICK DeLUCA CONNORVILLE — Tom Figurski’s time with the Buckeye Local girls’ basketball helm has seen a steady improvement. Of course, with his two aces back for a fourth year, there is no reason that Panthers basketball can’t continue to improve and continue reaching for the ...
By SETH STASKEY ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Ryan Clifford knows exactly what it takes to build, maintain and run a highly successful basketball program. After all, he grew up — literally as a man and figuratively as a coach — under Kim Clifford, who retired in April after 27 seasons and 371 ...
By KIM NORTH ST. CLAIRSVILLE — As Stacey Agnew enters his fourth season as head coach of the St. Clairsville girls’ basketball team, he came up with a unique way in describing last season. “We’re like a donut. We have four or five good perimeter shooters, but right now we have a ...
By RALPH COX WEIRTON — When fourth-year Weir girls basketball coach Rick Stead opened practice, he was greeted with some good news and some bad news. The good news is that four of last year’s starters returned along with the sixth girl and several other letterwinners. The bad news is ...
By RALPH COX WEIRTON — The Weir boys basketball team can be good if certain things work out for veteran coach Mike Granato, who is entering his 20th season as the head man of the program. The Red Riders finished 10-14 last year, but Granato’s analysis of the scoring found that if his ...
WHEELING — Wheeling Central coach Mike Young always has an ace in the hole — a backup plan ready at a moment’s notice. He has needed those fallback strategies all season long in order to reach the Class A state championship. Whether it was his starting quarterback going down for three ...
BARNESVILLE—St. Clairsville busted out of the gates on a 26-0 run and never looked back in taking down host Barnesville 64-28. Mary Malin paced the offensive attack with three 3-pointers, finishing with 18 points. Teammate Maria Vincenzo added 11 points in the victory. Annie Carpenter ...
WHEELING — Wheeling Central do-it-all athlete Bray Price walked into the coach’s room the week of a rivalry game against Linsly and offered to take less touches in order to get another teammate more involved in the game plan. The result? A breakthrough game for wide receiver Anthony ...