This season has been strange. Mon County missed nearly a month of playtime for all sports, yet we’re seeing local teams dominate their way into the postseason. So far, we’ve seen six teams from Mon County find success in the postseason with more potential accomplishments on the horizon.
Thus far: The MHS girls’ cross country team won the team and individual titles, while the UHS boys’ did the same in their race at Ona; The MHS boys and UHS girls were able to secure the team runner-up spots; The UHS boys’ soccer team powered its way through sectionals and regionals to secure a spot in the state tournament; On Wednesday night, the MHS volleyball team shutout both John Marshall and perennial power Wheeling Park in sectionals to move onto regionals; Clay-Battelle is ranked No. 13 in Class A; and Morgantown is ranked No. 12 in Class AAA.
While this speaks to the athleticism and ability to overcome adversity of athletes around Mon County, something does feel different about the football playoffs. While Morgantown and Clay-Battelle have certainly proven they deserve to be in the running for their respective titles, so haven’t teams around the state like Musselman, Spring Mills and Martinsburg in Berkeley County, as have John Marshall in Marshall County and Parkersburg and Williamstown in Wood County.
There are many other schools, I’m sure, that I’ve missed that are in the top-16 and may not be eligible to play come Saturday night. Additionally, there might be some counties in the yellow now that may go orange or gold that same night, dashing the hopes of teams who have done everything right to have a shot at a state title.
We knew coming into this season that things weren’t going to be even. Some teams would play 10 games, some five, some maybe less. Knowing this the WVSSAC waived the minimum-game rule, but then coaches received memos saying there was a four-game minimum. Then last week it was changed again to a three-game minimum. Will it change again?
And while a lot of us thought it would all even out, I can’t help but notice some teams who are 5-4 out of the cutoff, while many 3-2 teams are in. These teams all indeed inhabit the bottom half – many of the top-8 are there for because they’re 6-1 or undefeated – but as UHS coach John Kelley said to me after his win against Preston, “I don’t know if we should have the playoffs this year, it doesn’t feel right.”
I don’t know if that’s the answer. I don’t know if the answer is to tell teams like Martinsburg, “Sorry! See you next year,” and move on when the Bulldogs are 4-1 and the third-ranked team in Class AAA, giving them a chance to repeat once more. I don’t know if the answer is to cut teams who are in the orange and fill in the bracket with teams like Jefferson (3-5), UHS (2-3), Lincoln County (3-4), St. Albans (2-3), Capital (1-2) or Preston and Hampshire (2-7) if they’re below the gold threshold. I do know that changing the rules every week has been a mistake, and now it’s catching up with those in charge while hurting the kids who did everything right. It’s a slippery slope that just got more slippery.
Berkeley Couty Judge R. Steven Redding just ruled in favor of Martinsburg girls’ soccer player Emily Beck’s temporary restraining order against the WVSSAC, effectively postponing the Class AAA soccer tournaments for, at the very least, a week. When you break down the games that need to be played, it might be two weeks. A follow-up hearing has been scheduled for next Thursday and WVSSAC lawyer William Wooten told the Martinsburg Journal’s Rick Kozlowski he was appealing the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Truthfully, I don’t blame Beck for filing the lawsuit against the WVSSAC. Does it possibly mean the whole thing could be scrapped? I don’t know. I’d imagine it’s a possibility, especially when Kanawha, Mon, Cabell or Jefferson counties could go gold, orange or red, or a player could contract COVID-19 during the waiting period.
Beck’s premise was based on, in short, the fact that testing hasn’t been fair across the state. Is that wrong? I don’t know, I don’t have numbers for every county’s testing capabilities. I would imagine, though, that there was a better way to go about all of this months ago. There could have been a better way to test student-athletes knowing that there was a strong possibility some counties could see a rise in cases at the last minute. I refuse to point fingers, first and foremost because I’m not an expert or authority on this matter, but I do have to ask the questions. It’s my job to do that. It disheartens me that we don’t have the answers.
This whole thing, from the state basketball tournaments to now, has been a non-stop cluster. At first, I understood things were going to be hectic. I understood that was likely to be the case in August and September, too. But now we’re in November, and it seems like every week the rules will change again. I hope for the athletes’ sakes that this restraining order is the linchpin our leaders need to re-evaluate everything and find ways to move forward with better plans. I don’t think I can sit through winter and spring sports and try to keep up with everything changing with hardly any explanation why.
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