So, you’re a West Virginian, huh?
Born and bred and everything.
Or, say you moved here for WVU and never left, thus claiming Wild and Wonderful as your own.
Either way, you might also profess an intellectual grasp of Mountain State history.
You know: Your pepperoni rolls, your Mothman, your Mary Lou Retton — personalities and icons such as that.
That’s OK, but all of the above isn’t going to get you past the first hill and hollow as far as Lorraine Teter, Sadie Welsh and Logan Ross are concerned.
Same for Max Phillips, Andrew Sheets and Nathan Cook, also.
The above eighth-graders at South Middle School aren’t bragging, but they know way more West Virginia history than you do. Way more.
Last month, they took home the top trophy in the 2021 state History Bowl championship, in keeping with the winning tradition in that event for the school on Mississippi Street.
Teams from South also won it all in 2016 and 2019.
Mountaineer Middle’s team also placed third in this most recent competition, making it Almost Heaven for West Virginia history in these climes.
In the meantime, just how much do South Middle’s champions know about the 35th state in the Union with the funky, squiggly borders?
Well, they can tell you, without stealing peeks at notes, textbooks or a smartphone screen, that Jared Arter, a former slave, went on to serve as principal of Hill Top School in Fayette County from 1908-15.
And that the Elm Grove Stone Arch Bridge (built in 1817) is the oldest bridge still in use in the West Virginia.
How about some particulars on our poll tax? Gotcha, they’ll cry. We don’t have one.
Now that we’re back to the nation’s pastime (even with the pandemic), any serious fan call tell you that Lew Burdette of the Milwaukee Brewers pitched three winning games against the New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series.
But quick: How many know the guy on the mound was from Nitro?
Angel Conley, who teaches West Virginia History at South Middle and advises the History Bowl teams, loves it when her students sing out factoids and asides about the place where they live.
She loves it when her students knock the labels to just plain love said place.
Their teacher is even more impressed with this group of champions, she said, because the bulk of the studying for the 2021 competition was self-directed, by contagion-necessity.
This year’s team started prepping last spring when the district was on total remote learning, due to the coronavirus.
“They’re already good students,” she said.
“They’re going to be even better students in high school and college because they basically did all this on their own.”
Conley hails from the Eastern Panhandle, which is also the home of John and Samuel Pringle, who, as it turns out, didn’t have anything to do with potato crisps in canisters.
They deserted during the French and Indian War in 1761. They hacked and tromped their way across the rugged, heavily forested terrain, eventually putting down roots in the north-central region.
Or, among the roots, as it were.
The Pringle brothers resided in a hollowed-out sycamore tree for several years in the area that is now Upshur County and Buckhannon.
“This isn’t ‘boring’ history,” Conley said. “It’s the cool stuff that stays with them and makes them proud to be from here.”
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