SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON Farmers ADVOCATE I I
Loses One-Run Games
Town's Jackson
71 found the
be one run bet-
it was when it lost
at the West Vir-
state base-
in Parkers-
first game
Charleston defeat
on Wednesday
South Charles-
in the winner's
lad faced Charles
a bye.
stopped
4-3, limiting
Just five hits in the
which had beaten
Keyser (twice)
title and a
tournament,
Pitchers in an effort
ome South
Charleston's nine-hit attack.
Keith Holton (Martinsburg
High), Brett Twigg (Martins-
burg High), Ian Edwards
(Hedgesville High), and Wes
Kees (Musselman High) all
pitched for Charles Town.
Holton was the starting
pitcher and was given a 1-0
lead after two innings.
South Charleston evened
the game at 1-1 in the third in-
ning and chased Holton in fa-
vor of Twigg with a two-run
rally in the fourth.
South Charleston would
never give up the lead.
Edwards replaced Twigg in
the fifth and held South
Charleston scoreless as
Charles Town rallied behind
his pitching for another run in
the seventh.
Trailing just 3-2, Charles
Town brought Kees in to pitch
ih the seventh.
South Char|eston took a 4-2
lead in the eighth with another
run.
In the last of the ninth,
Charles Town scored once but
couldn't get the game tied.
Of Charles Town's five hits,
Steve Kozak had a double.
The one-run loss to one of
the tournament favorites,
shoved Charles Town into the
loser's bracket in the double
elimination tournament.
When host Parkersburg de-
feated Beckley, Jackson Perks
Post 71 faced Beckley in an
elimination game.
Beckley topped Jackson
Perks, 6-5, in 10 innings to
eliminate Charles Town in two
games.
Beckley remained alive in
the tournament and extended
its record to 2-1, while Charles
Town left Parkersburg with a
pair of one-run losses and an
0-2 record.
County Senior League
Three Times in Georgia
champion Jeffer-
League All-
their first game in
the Southern Re-
Urname~lt being
ia when
tripped the lo-
10-4•
Virginia state
Were in the same
state winners
Carolina, South
and Virginia. The
with the best
the four-state pool
to the Southern
where
play will en-
!Cn~flith was the Jef-
ng pitcher,
but he was unable to silence
the South Carolina bats and
the locals made several fielding
errors behind him.
In its second game in the
four-team pool, Jefferson
County saw its record dip to 0-2
when it was beaten by Virginia,
11-7.
The locals had a winless
record that would not allow
them to have one of the pool's
two-best records and advance
to the regional semifinals.
Virginia outhit Jefferson
County and the locals again
were guilty of errors afield that
led to unearned runs by the
"virginia state champions.
Jefferson County's final
game in pool play was against
North Carolina.
In its third and final game
in its four-team pool, Jefferson
County was beaten by North
Carolina, 10-3.
The loss left the Senior
Leaguers with an 0-3 record at
the Southern Regional.
Jefferson County had lost
its two previous games to Vir-
ginia and South Carolina.
'['he Senior leaguers began
their tournament march with a
District 6-Area I championship
and they followed that title
with a District 6 championship
that led to the state tourna-
ment.
At the West Virginia state
tournament, Jefferson County
stopped South Charleston in
the title game, 13-9.
Has the Name
in their first year in
program usu-
much notice
are named as
laave a sing~
Kay-
running back ex-
an important part
and he
weighs in at 240.
He played two seasons at
Garden City Community Col-
lege in Kansas before enrolling
at WVU this past January.
Being in school for what
amounts to an extra seven
months as compared with other
junior college tran, pfers or
freshmen should have helped
Harris become acclima~th
the Rich Rodriguez way of do-
ing things.
Harris begins the fall round
of practices behind Quincy Wil-
~son at running back, but ~s
1,200 rushing yards at Garden
City are his ~enfials to date.
As soon as he graduated
from high school in Florida,
Harris signed a professional
baseball contract and didn't
play football until going off to
Kansas.
Schedule
Miami
Maryland
leave of the Big East Confer-
Wisconsin. ence.
with Temple -- In between, WVU has foot-
to find an- ball dates with the likes of Mi-
both Miami ami, Virginia Tech, Maryland,
Tech took their Boston College, and Pitt.
#
:3
linebaeker Grant WHey could earn All.
should he stay healthy this season.
WVU's schedule has it pit-
ted against five teams ranked
in the presoason Top 25.
Wisconsin returns the game
West Virginia lost at Camp
Randall Stadium in Madison
last September.
The Badgers won only two
Big I0 games and lost six, but
had an overall 8-6 record and
are projected at No. 20.
A new starter at quarter-
back should make the Badgers
more conservative than they
would be later in t~he year.
Running back Anthony
Davis already has all-star cre-
dentiais and wide receiver Lee
Evans is a player everybody
will be watching to see Lfhe can
return to his 2001 form. Evans
missed all oflast season with a
knee injury.
Wisconsin's defense has
seven ~ back from 2002.
It's no wonder this game has
been selected by ESPN to be
televised on August 30 at noon.
Miami will miss the five
starting defensive linemen
from the team that lost a con-
troversial national champion-
ship game to Ohio State.
But the Hurricanes seem-
ingly always have talent that
surfaces in wholesale numbers.
The names are unimportant
in Miami. They all can run.
• They all have an attitude. They
all have natural ability run-
ning out their ears.
Coach Larry Coker has lest
one game in two years. He has
experienced starters at both'
linebacker and in the second-
ary.
Miami is picked to finish
third in the nation behind only
Oklahoma and Ohio State.
Virginia Tech lost four
games in 2003, including a rare
defeat to the Mountaineers.
Expecting a team with inex-
perienced quarterbacks
Marcus Vick and Bryan
Randall to finish 10th in the
country might be a tad optimis-
tic, but if Vick is as gifted as his
brother, inexperience won't be
much of a deterrent.
Tailback Kevin Jones shoul-
ders much more of the running
load than he did last year.
The defense has DeAngelo
Come On Out Boys...
B m You Might Have To Run
By Bob Madison
Football is a sport where en-
durance, stamina, and a physi-
cal presence are needed to be
successful.
Human nature rebels
against the practice and train-
ing necessary to attain that
needed level of stamina and en-
durance to play well.
Human nature tends to seek
out the easiest route to most
goals.
Weight training, running
sprints, running distances, and
agility drills are not the rea-
sons why teenagers join foot-
ball teams.
Sweating, it seems, is not
held in the same regard as
hearing the cheering following
a touchdown.
Wheezing and calling on
wobbly legs after sprints are
not held in the same regard as
the band playing and the crowd
yelling as the team rushes on
the field.
It's touchdowns. It's acclaim
from fellow students. It's being
known in a school that might
have 1,500 students.
It's a little prestige, a little
nod of the head from that girl
in English class, a recognition
of one's contributions when at
the barber shop.
Football is generally
thought of by the paying public
as the most grueling of sports...
the toughest on the body.., the
one where injury and physical
punishment and pain might be
close at hand.
When high schools play foot-
ball, the crowd is near the field.
And nearly everybody is an ex-
port because they can usually
see the ball and they believe
the rules are fairly easy to un-
derstand.
It's just blocking and tack-
ling. Isn't it?
Experts are everywhere.
Football breeds them as fast as
they see their first game.
Strange as it might seem,
football is more than just block-
hag and tackling.
The blockers must know
who to block and how to get
there to engage them.
The tacklers don't just find
the ball carrier, run to where
he is, and smash him.
While the most physical
team has an advantage, it
doesn't always win.
But being a player with the
most endurance and stamina,
coupled with some raw ability
and some raw intelligence and
drive will generally mean that..
• It's the first week of practice
for the high school players.
Those players who did little
to physically prepare for the
season won't enjoy these humid
and hot days of August.
They show up with little on
their mind except how to es-
cape the effects running, doing
drills, and conditioning will
have on their unprepared body.
Ar~ the coaches know some
of their prospective players
won't be ready for the physical
nature of football awaiting
them.
Reasoning and logic don't
faze the player who doesn't
want to find within himself
the effort to gain stamina or
endurance.
The coach knows he will
have some bodies that didn't
stay away from the ice cream
and pizza.
The coach hopes he can have
on his roster enough prepared
players that he can all but dis-
regard the unconditioned, un-
prepared to work, the undisci-
plined.
The player doesn't really
consider his plight.
He is on the field. He will
shun as much hard work as
possible.
And, somehow, he thinks
the coach will need him and he
will play
Suppose the coach gathered
his players around him just be-
fore the first practice and
started asking some questions
that had obvious answers.
"Do football players need to
be conditioned to be success-
ful?"
"Do the players have to be
able run without stopping to
bend over or hold their sides
because they are out of
breath?"
"If you agree that football
players should have enough en-
durance to go a few plays with-
out being helped off the field,
what are the best methods for
those players to get a little
stamina?"
"Is football just about the
quarterback and the players
who score points?"
"If-football is also about
blocking for ball carriers, keep-
ing pass-rushers off the quar-
terback, beating the lineman in
front of you and making a
tackle for lost yardage, and
physically whipping the guy
trying to block you, then how
do you ever excel at those parts
of the game?"
"Boys, this field and these
practices aren't going to be de-
mocracy in action, but I'm go-
ing to get your ideas on how we
best get ourselves in shape to
play this sport."
"Can we come out here with-
out pads and go through our
plays and have the defenders
read their keys.., and then be
ready to do our best against our
schedule?"
"All right. Lewis, how do you
suggest we best get in shape,
have the endurance and
stamina, and are best-prepared
to play our first game?"
"You say do some running?
You say do some more running?
You say try to execute the fun-
damentals we've been shown in
blocking and tackling drills?
You say do some scrimmaging
to find out where we need the
most work and which players
are our best athletes?"
"Then why are there some
players who dsa~ want to do these
things you suggest, Lewis?"
"Why are there some foot-
ball 'candidates' who don't
want to do the get in shape to
play?"
"Football isn't easy. •. if you
are going to win more than you
lose."
"Football is a sport that re-
lies on conditioning. If any
player is constantly thinking
about how tired he is, he is not
going to absorb the techniques
and fundamental skills to be a
winning player."
"Fatigue doesn't win games.
Reluctant, out-of-shape players
don't win games."
Why then would football
"candidates" come to a sport
knowing they don't want to run
•.. don't want to give the effort
to be in condition.., and don't
want to be physically taxed in
any way?.
Hall, Vincent Fuller, Vegas
Robinson, Brandon Manning,
Cols Colas, and Nathaniel
Adibi.. and the Hokies score
bunches of points from plays
made by their defense.
'And nobody is safe when
punting, trying a field goal or
an extra point against Virginia
Tech's famous kick blockers
that turn games ~n the Hokies'
favor in the blink of an eye.
Virginia Tech has one of the
softest early-season schedules
in the history of college foot-
ball.
Its first four games are at
home against Central Florida,
James Madison, Texas A&M,
and Conneciticut.
Then, it plays Rutgers on
the road.
The West Virginia-Virginia
Tech game is on a Wednesday
night, October 22 in Morgan-
town and will be televised on
either ESPN or ESPN2.
West Virginia defeated
Pittsburgh last year. Those
who voted on this year's best
college teams placed the bewl-
winning Panthers in 11th
place, just in back of Virginia
Tech.
Wide receiver Larry
Fitzgerald might be the
"nation's most dangerous pass-
catcher.
Quarterback Rod Ruther-
ford is steady enough to help
win the close games against
the schedule's best teams.
Pittsburgh has not found.
the ways to beat Miami, but it
has had some success against
Virginia Tech.
The Panthers early sched-
ule should make them Mid-
American Conference champi-
ons since they face Kent State,
Ball State, and Toledo before
trying any Big East opponent
or Notre Dame.
Coach Rich Rodriguez is 0-2
in his efforts against Ralph
Friedgen and Maryland.
Maryland actually humbled
West Virginia last year in one
of only three regular season
losses the Mountaineers had.
The Terps are 21-5 in
Friedgen's two-years in College
Park. That record included a
mastering of Tennessee in the
Peach Bowl.
The preseason poll places
Maryland 13th.~
Scott McBrien, the West Vir-
ginia transfer, is back at quar-
terback and the fragile Bruce
Perry returns at tailback.
There is a corps of returning
starters on both offense andde-
lense.
Friedgen's tea~ have both
matured quickly and neither
one made the mistakes to beat
itself.
Two years ago in College
Park, West Virginia had six
turnovers and lost by 12 points.
Last year, in Morgantown, the
Terrapins had an offensive af-
ternoon to remember for 40
years -- when relating their
salad days to their grandchil-
dren.
This game hasn't yet been
scheduled for television, but
should at least be a regional
game by the time it is played on
September 20.
There are only 25 teams
ranked in the preseason poll,
but West Virginia received
enough votes to be a mythical
33rd on that list and Boston
College would be 39th.
The Eagles were 9-4 overall
last year after an 8-4 season in
2001.
Once it mundanely runs
through a stretch of wins that
include Connecticut, Ball
State, and Temple, the Eagles
• must play West Virginia on No-
vember 8-- after playing
through Syracuse, ~otre
Dame, and Pittsburgh (without
a week offanywhere) in games
on October 18 and 25 and No-
vember I.
West Vi~ plays Central
Florida on November 1, the
week before traveling to Chest-
nut Hill to meet the Eagles.
The harshest Saturdays for
WVU will be in the humidity at
Miami and in College Park,
where "The Fridge", "The
Transfer", and "The Terps" will
make life difficult again.
There are seven games (on
assorted days of the week) in
Morgantown.
And three of those Morgan-
town games are with preseason
TOp 25 teams.
Quarterback Rasheed Marshall probably wtlJ be asked
to pass more often this season. West Virginia is coming
off a bowl game and a 9-4 season. The Mountaineers oven
their 2003 season against Top 20 opponent Wisconsin of
the Big 10 conference.
