SPIRIT OF JEFFERSON Farmer's ADVOCATE - Thursday, December 17, 1998 1 1
e
Bob Madison
in West
be a controver6ial is-
the obvious.
now a reported 27
of 55) that have only
trend toward phas-
high schools in fa-
centralized facilities
in the state?
boards and academi-
forth various reasons,
g that more
be offered at
with a larger fac-
offerings in math-
languages, and
the arguments for do-
schools of smaller
and not enough fac-
to teach advanced
trig, calculus, and a
of French are impor-
argue against
schools
~aore extracurricular ac-
~Well. More offerings in
forensics, vocational-
etc. are arguments
to justify a consoli-
Cases in this state two
are closed to high
in favor of one
any valid arguments
solidation?
the schools that are
85-90% of what the
Will the result-
enable 85-90% of
able to participate
activities, and other
to also partiti-
ve new, consolidated
is the question that
considered in a con-
of schools, those
classes of 10-40
Paw, Hundred, and
have bands, cheer-
chorus, boys and
in the fall, winter and
vocational-agricul-
as FHA, FFA,
ational Honor Society.
shes to belong
) or activity of his choice,
that club or be a team
that sport.
not the case in the
schools. Only
make the sports
Y the best musicians
!bands.
no room for the late-
r the student who really
~w what he or She is
like to find out
activities.
tided
where their tal-
lie will not likely
a consolidated school.
Y 15-year old sopho-
lot in life?
are growing in every
should be shown
to follow If only
established, already
can take advan-
expanded offerings at
school, is that ad-
to the county or its
even villages and
used to have high
those facilities.
a town or village object
their children to a re-
school?
loses its sense of one-
control. There is no
~eling they know the
new school. They no
they can help the
its goals through
the smaller school,
said, "If the school
(money, ira-
ties, uniforms), we
get it or we can get
have the school's
because we know
its past history, and
of West Virginia has
:SUccesses, especially in
La its consolidation ef-
noteworthy athletic
successes have been Brooke High,
Wheeling Park, Tucker County,
North Marion, Frankfort, Cabell
Midland, Spring Valley and Rob-
ert C. Byrd.
Just this past year, however,
there has been stern resistance to
an attempted consolidation or ac-
tual consolidations. In Pendleton
County, students from Circleville
High and Franklin High were
groups to form Pendleton County
High. Some of Circleville's ath-
letes went, instead, to Petersburg,
while others traveled to Union
High in Grant County to avoid go-
ing to the new Pendleton High.
In nearby Mineral County,
Keyser High was consolidated
with Elk Garden, a small Class A
school. Instead of going by bus to
Keyser where the new school was
built, some of the Elk Garden stu-
dents chose to attend Union High
in Grant County. So, Union
picked up students from both
Circleville and Elk Garden
In Mason County, a school
board decision was made to con-
solidate Point Pleasant, Wahama,
and Hannan Highs into one
county high school. Before the
plans could be finalized and work
begun, there was an election in
which two school board seats were
up for vote.
Two school board candidates
had one plank in their platforms
They stated that if elected they
would vote not to consolidate.
Those two candidates won. And in
Mason County there are still
Wahama, Hannan, and Point
Pleasant Highs --- and will be into
the foreseeable future.
Some consolidations do not re-
sult in huge schools that auto-
matically become Class AAA gi-
ants.
East Hardy, Tolsia, Wirt Co
Pocahontas Co Calhoun Co
Gilmer Co Doddridge Co South
Harrison, Tyler Consolidated, and
Independence are still Class A or
AA schools even after consolida-
tion.
There have been noteworthy
occasions where Class A schools of
some athletic repute were merged
into a consolidated school and the
new school didn't reach the promi-
nence of the Class A schools that
were closed to make it.
In some of the more far-flung
counties of the state, students
must ride buses more than a hour
one-way to reach a consolidated
school.
The bus trip is onerous enough,
but the students cannot partici-
pate in any after-school activities
because they have no way to get
home following an activity or prac-
tice.
In the local school, the students
could even walk home after taking
part in after-school activities.
They were no more than 10 min-
utes from the school and could be
picked up by parents or other rela-
tives after games, plays, choral
singing, club meetings, or any get
together the community-oriented,
smaller school had.
The consolidated schools rarely
provide activities buses for the
students. Such buses leave the
school after all activities are com-
pleted and take those who want to
participate in sports, clubs, cheer-
leading, drama, band, or the
myriad of activities back to their
homes.
Activities buses make consoli-
dated schools' more defensible ---
much more defensible. Without
such buses, the arguments for con-
solidation are mostly devoid of
feeling, devoid of what is best for
the human spirit and heavy on
what the shrinking education dol-
lar, both the state dollar and the
local dollar, can maximize in the
way of concrete, mortar, steel, ma-
sonry, and architectural design.
When several smaller schools
are closed and a new one built to
accommodate their student popu-
lations, what is done about class
rankings and who will be the salu-
tatorian and valedictorian of the
first class at the consolidated
school? Especially if the new
school graduates a class in its first
year in existence.
What if three schools are
merged and two of them have
weighted classes and the other,
doesn't? If one of the closed
schools had 1,000 students in the
upper three grades, another had
350, and the third had but 85, do
you think the student with the
highest grade point average from
the smallest school has any
chance of being the valedictorian?
Since many colleges --- and the
main academic reason for having
the consolidated school is to add
advanced courses to the curricu-
lum --- only consider students in
the top one-tenth, top one-fourth,
top one-half of their class, how are
the class rankings going to be
made where three different cur-
ricula have to considered? This
would seem to be an unsolvable
dilemma if all three of the merged
schools had different standards or
weighted classes. Suppose one of
the school weighted the third year
of a foreign language and the oth-
ers didn't? One had a third year of
college preparatory math
weighted and the others didn't?
In many cases, the jury is still
out on whether the consolidated
school will achieve the excellence
in winning athletics that its
"parts" did before being closed.
Regardless of the climate of
thinking in different parts of the
state, more consolidations are
planned.
This school year saw the open-
ing of Spring Valley, Pendleton
Co and Wyoming East High
Schools --- the three newest con-
solidations.
Riverside High (the bringing
together of DuPont and East Bank
students) will become a reality
next school year.
It seems there can never be
complete agreement as to whether
consolidation is more helpful to
the students, the communities in-
volved, or the faculties than if the
schools were smaller in student
population and had the founda-
tion of a town or village to stand
upon.
And athletics is only one of the
components for making judg-
ments as to whether a new school
is a success.
Pressure defenses took their
tolls from the Jefferson girls bas-
ketball team in the two losses ab-
sorbed to open the season.
Playing on the road in both
games, the Cougars first lost to
unbeaten St. Maria Goretti, 57-44,
in Hagerstown. The game was
tied at the end of three quarters,
but the Gaels reinstituted a press
they had used successfully in the
first half. The Gaels outscored the
Cougars by 13 points, mainly with
a half court trap, in the fourth pe-
riod to register the win.
Brianne Hamilton, who played
at Martinsburg and Prospect Hall
the past two seasons, scored 22
points and had numerous steals
Continued on next page
By Bob Madison
Shepherd rose to West Virginia
Conference fame with its first 20-
win men's basketball season in
1973-74, some 25 years ago.
When the Rams scored over
120 points in beating Lynchburg
College and concluding the regu-
lar season, it left coach Bob
Starkey's team with a 20-4 mark.
Included in those 20 wins was a
13-4 West Virginia Conference
record, good for second place in
the state-wide league behind only
Joe Retton and Fairmont.
Fairmont had beaten the Rams
in Fairmont in the conference
opener for both teams. But Shep-
herd could have won that game,
losing only in the last minute, and
thus signaling that this could be
an exceptional, record-setting sea-
son for the school that had never
really done anything of merit in
the league.
It turns out there were three
future Shepherd Sports Hall of
Fame players on the school's first
20-win edition.
Dave Russell, a 6-foot-7 1/2
consummate competitor, was the
most prominent scorer and recog-
nized team leader. Russell was
later to have his chance to make
the Milwaukee Bucks roster, but
didn't, and went to France to play
his professional basketball. He
was killed in an automobile acci-
dent while in France.
Rodney Sewell was about 6-
foot-2 and could score inside as
well as on the perimeter. He was
especially adept at scoring in tran-
sition, and transition was how
Shepherd made its living. Sewell
finished his career just behind
Russell in career points.
Larry Boomer was a 6-foot-3
rebounder, defender, and scorer.
He started as an unheard of fresh-
RAMS
II
man from Arapahoe, North Caro-
lina. And was eventually en-
shrined in the Hall of Fame along
with Russell and Sewell.
The starting guards were Mike
Philippi, a player with no fear who
willed the Rams to more than one
close victory and Vic Holmes.
Philippi had played against qual-
ity competition in high school, on
summer play grounds, and with
Russell in pick-up games that
lasted from the end of February
until the beginning of school in
mid-August. Philippi was the
team's point guard. He was about
5-foot-10, wasn't quick, but could
pass, and most importantly, was
never intimidated on any foreign
court in the raucous WVIAC.
Holmes was best in pressure
defenses, at guarding the
opponent's best scoring guard or
small forward, and scored about
10 points per game.
The Shepherd starting five fea-
tured players who could not be
out-competed. They may not have
been totally fearless, but even the
ugliest of crowds at West Virginia
State, Alderson-Broaddus, or Mor-
ris Harvey (now Charleston)
couldn't shake this Shepherd
team.
Mark Swick was the sixth man.
He wasn't a pretty player, but on a
given night he could score 15
points or collar eight rebounds
and he was disconcerting to every-
body he played against.
Chip Reklis and Don Stinnette
were the next players offStarkey's
bench and both were major con-
tributors.
The rest of the team was made
up of Anthony Roman, Suds Hart,
Alphonso Willett, Dave Thomp-
son, Paul Liverman, Kirk
Sullivan, and Nelson Parker.
In addition to the early confer-
ence loss to Fairmont, the other
three league losses were to Salem,
Concord, and Glenville.
Going into the Charleston-
based WVIAC post-season tourna-
ment, Shepherd was seeded sec-
ond behind the regular-season-
winning Falcons of Fairmont.
Shepherd easily won its first
two games and then faced the vo-
cal Paul Baker and his Wheeling
team in the semifinals. Shepherd
beat the Cardinals, 100-80, to
earn its way into the finals
against Fairmont.
It was the closest Starkey ever
came to winning the tournament.
Shepherd fought from behind
against the Fairmont famed
matchup zone. Russell would
come from the baseline and take
jumpers from beyond the foul line
all the way to the top of the key.
He made enough to draw the
Rams to within one point as time
faded off the Civic Center clock.
But Russell missed a couple
and the Rams didn't unseat Fair-
mont in the end, losing by four
points, thus ending a 23-5 season.
That season was the beginning
of a long line of 20-win seasons for
Starkey and the Rams. It was 25
years ago, but seems like last sea-
son to those who witnessed most
of it.
Jefferson held its 14th annual
football banquet on Monday night,
saluting its players with numer-
ous awards and enough food for
three NFL training camps. Cheer-
leading awards were also made.
Also revealed was the 1999
football schedule which includes
10 games. The past season had
the Cougars playing only nine
games.
After opening remarks by coach
Jay Kirby and an invocation by
Suzanne Swartz, the crowd of
about 175 enjoyed a meal provided
by most in attendance who
brought a covered dish.
Following the meal, Kirby and
his staff handed out various
awards.
First, the 1998 varsity letter
winners were recognized. Then
came the senior awards and men-
tion of the three all-CVAL players
--- Wee Nelson, Eric Smoot, and
B.J. Mercer --- the Cougars had.
The Sportsmanship Award
went to Lawrence Vickers. Scho-
lastic Awards for at least a 3.0
Jefferson football coach Jay Kirby (left) has just recog-
nized eight of his senior players at the Cougars football ban-
quet held on Monday night.
academic average the previous se-
mester went to 11 players.
The Offensive Award was given
to B.J. Mercer and the Defensive
Award to Wee Nelson.
The Special Teams Award was
Swimmers Have Success
Jefferson's boys swim team
captured first place in the seven-
school Mercersburg Academy Invi-
tational Meet. Jefferson's girls
team finished fourth in the same
vidual medley. Finishing second
was the Jefferson 200 medley re-
lay team. Finishing third were
Tim Gray in the 100 backstroke
and Ryan Whitesell in both the 50
freestyle and 100 breaststroke.
None of the Jefferson girls fin-
ished as high as third in any
event.
The Cougars also posted a 99-
54 boys win over Randolph-Macon
Academy and a 137-35 girls win
over R-MA.
Sara Strube and Debbie Hill
had a hand in four wins and Missy
Lancaster and Patricia Willauer
three wins.
Tim Gray, Joey Keyes, and Ja-
son Miller had a hand in three
wins and Ryan Whitesell two.
meet.
The boy's team results were:
Jefferson 117, James Buchanan
112, St. Maria Goretti 91, Hedges-
ville 65, Martinsburg 60, James
Wood 49, and Prospect Hall 8.
The girl's team results were:
James Buchanan 153, James
Wood 97 1/2, Hedgesville 74 1/2,
Jefferson 50, Prospect Hall 47,
Goretti 42, and Martinsburg 36.
Jason Miller was Jefferson's
only winner of an individual or re-
lay event as he won the 200 indi-
taken by Scott Mercer and the
Most Improved Award by Damon
McDowell.
The Charlotte Gageby Memo-
rial (Unsung Hero Award) went to
Lawrence Vickers and the Most
Valuable Player was a tie between
Eric Smoot and B.J. Mercer.
Football Booster President Don
Engle spoke and recognized that
organization's board of directors
and efforts put forth by the play-
ers themselves to raise money.
The 12th Man Award was given to
Jim Breeden for his filming of all
the team's scrimmages and games
at his own expense. He also
filmed the banquet.
Jefferson's 1999 football sched-
ule:
August 27 Keyser Away
Sept. 3 Allegany, Md. Home
Sept. 10Potomac Falls Home
Sept. 17Loudoun Valley Away
Sept. 24Loudoun County Away
Oct. 1 Greenbrier East Home
Oct. 8 Musselman Away
Oct. 16 Fort Hill, Md. Away
Oct. 22 Martinsburg Away
Oct. 29 Hedgesville Home
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