When they consolidate Matewan, Williamson, Burch and I think Gilbert who will be the baseball coach?

Burch seems to have a coahc of the year mentality.

Gilbert has a good one in Walt Cline but he is not in the school system and he has some health problems I think (I hope not and if I am wrong please correct me I don't want to start spreading a rumor here - Walt is a great baseball coach and even better man)

Williamson has Pedro Ledger but he has been in it a long time. I am guessing he is getting close to retiring.

Matewan has Danny "BeBe" Perkins who has won a state championship but with enrollment declining will he always have a roster.

Do you think they will go out of area to hire anyone? How about Mike Hagy at Belfry since he is a Williamson alum. There is a guy from Matewan who is coach in the western part of Kentucky named Brandon Ball. Do you think eihter of these would want the job?

There are some excellent questions here? I don't know the answer but if there is a local parper I believe the school booard is required by law to publish all new hires and resignations and you should certainly wathc the newspaper for that. It also should be available at the local Board office and the state School Board Office.

I have a question for you? What level [A, AA, AAA] will this new school be, most likely?

TW344

I would be willing to bet it would be a solid AA with the possibility to be a small AAA.

I think this new school could dominate sports in West Virginia.

Football - you have to start with Matewan and then Gilbert a close second. You combine those schools and use the athletes Williamson has and fill any remaining holes with kids from Burch how freaking awesome would that team be????\

Basketball - you have to start with Burch and Williamson here. Both have dominated at their levels for years. Those two by themselves would be enough but Matewan has a few athletes play basketball (David Starr).

Baseball - I think this is where you will have kids from all the schools representated pretty evenly. Matewan won the championship a few years ago but Burch always has pretty good pitching. Williamson has always been pretty tough at all aspects of the game. Gilbert has always been pretty solid as well. I don't think a single school would dominate this team.

Other sports I have no idea but I think they woudl be competitive.

Also, I have been mentioning all of these as individual schools but it means nothing if they can't come together and form ONE school.

Good point on the "they have to come together" idea. I was a senior the year Clendenin and Elkview [2 good double AA schools at the time] were merged into Herbert Hoover High School [which then became Triple AAA]. Take basketball for example. Both schools had started a slew of lower classmen the year before and they all expected to play. The Coach, being from one of the schools, always got accussed [wrongly, i felt] of playing "his Players" rather that those from the other school. Result: when predominately Clendenin players were on the court, they passed to each other exclusively: when Elkview was on the court, they passed to each other exclusively. No teamwork whatsoever. Consequently, they did not have the record that was expected from a team that sent 2 guys to DII colleges on scholarship.

TW344