MORGANTOWN — The WVU wrestling program added two all-Americans to its coaching staff April 17, as head coach Tim Flynn announced the hiring of assistant head coach Cliff Moore and assistant coach Mitchell Port.
Moore, an NCAA champion at 141 pounds for Iowa, joins the Mountaineers staff after spending 12 seasons with Flynn at Edinboro. Port, a three-time all-American at Edinboro, comes to Morgantown following a three-year stint with the Fighting Scots.
“I’m thrilled that both Cliff and Mitchell decided to join me here in Morgantown,” Flynn said. “It’s nice when you start a big project that you have people that you can trust as well as people that you believe in. That means a lot to me, and I think it is going to help our program tremendously.”
Moore’s specialty is with the lighter weight classes. His responsibilities also included managing the day-to-day operations of the program, assisting with the organization of the team’s travel and coordinating community outreach work and fundraising opportunities.
Moore recruited Port out of high school. At Edinboro, Port helped produce 12 Eastern Wrestling League champions, 14 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference champs, 19 NCAA qualifiers and one NCAA all-American.
Port also helped the team to back-to-back PSAC championships as well as a first-place finish at the EWL.
BASEBALL
WVU will host Canisius at 4 p.m. today, in place of Tuesday’s game with Pitt, which was canceled due to wintry weather.
GOLF
Five Mountaineers were honored as part of the Academic all-Big 12 teams. Drew Dewald, Etienne Papineau, Avery Schneider and Max Sear were named to the first team. Junior Tristan Nicholls earned second team honors.
Dewald is a senior management major. Schneider is a senior biology major. Sear is a junior management major. Papineau is a sophomore majoring in sport and exercise psychology. Nicholls is a junior economics major.
MEN’S SOCCER
The team held its annual team banquet Sunday, looking on the 2017 season, honoring its senior class and presenting two awards.
The 2017 senior class of Jad Arslan, Stephen Banick, Steven James, Joey Piatczyc, Jose Santos and Louis Thomas was recognized for its outstanding contributions to the program.
Thomas was named the Abel “Shadow” Sebele Players’ Player of the Year, while Sebastian Garcia-Herreros was named the Coaches Award recipient.
Thomas started all 19 matches as a senior and notched two assists. The defender helped lead WVU to nine shutouts in 2017 and was named to the Mid-American Conference all-tournament team.
Garcia-Herreros also played in all 19 contests with 18 starts as a sophomore. The midfielder was named a MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete and to the Academic all-MAC Team in 2017.
Voted on annually by members of the team, the Players’ Player of the Year award was renamed in Sebele’s honor in 2016.
Sebele, who passed away in January 2016, was a midfielder for the Mountaineers from 2009-’12.
The Coaches’ Award honors the player who best exemplifies what it means to be a Mountaineers men’s soccer player: Honor, respect, philanthropy, leadership, academic success, selflessness, character and integrity.
