MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown boys’ basketball team completed an amazing feat this winter, winning its third-straight state championship and appearing in its fourth-straight state title game in a row.
In recognition of this achievement, head coach Dave Tallman has been named the winner of the 2024 Van Meter Award as the top high school coach in West Virginia, selected by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
The award, named for former Woodrow Wilson head coach Jerome Van Meter, who won nine championships combined in basketball and football during a 30-year coaching career, is sponsored by Par Mar Stores. Tallman previously won the award in 2016.
“I’m very humbled by it; it’s quite the honor,” Tallman said. “But I don’t win this award without my assistants and what they do. And I don’t win it without the players.
“The players are the ones that put the work in. We set them up for success, but ultimately they’re the ones who have to put the work in, make the commitment and execute. It’s hard to win state championships and they’ve found a way to win three really tough games the last three years.”
What makes this three-peat even more impressive for the Mohigans is the amount of talent they had to replace along the way. Beginning in 2021, when the team lost the championship by one point to George Washington, MHS graduated multiple all-state players each of the next three years, going on to win a state title each time.
“Our staff has a lot of chemistry and I think the program, obviously, is set up for success,” Tallman said. “It’s a hard program for kids to get through because we demand so much from them but the ones that make it all the way through by the time they’re a junior or a senior, they’re ready to play at the highest level.”
Morgantown graduated all-staters Luke Bechtel and Carson Poffenberger after 2021; Alec Poland, Brooks Gage and Jalen Goins after 2022; and Brody Davis, Cam Danser and Garrison Kisner after 2023.
Tallman, who likes to say he has the best basketball job in the state, credits the team’s ability to reload and compete year after year to junior varsity coach Matt Lemine and freshman coach Nate Tallman, his brother.
“I just think that Nate and Matt do a great job,” Tallman said. “I don’t even really get involved with them, I have complete trust in them with the freshman and JV programs. I let them coach, let them do their jobs and they do a great job getting these guys ready for us.”
Tallman credited his entire staff with the recent run of success for the Mohigans. In addition to Nate Tallmand and Lemine, Tallman also has varsity assistants Stevie Sutherland, Dennis Kerns and John Fowkes.
“(Sutherland has) been kind of my right-hand man since I’ve been here,” Tallman said. “He does the opponent scouts. I usually go back and watch our previous game and make the corrections and he’s always a game ahead scouting our opponents. Our success doesn’t happen without Stevie.”
Success seems to follow Fowkes wherever he goes. As a head coach, he led the Trinity Christian boys to back-to-back state semifinals in 2018 and 2019. He was also an assistant coach on the Morgantown girls’ teams that three-peated in 2014, ’15 and ’16.
“He’s just a great guy who brings all kinds of energy and positivity to our program,” Tallman said. “Our guys love being around him and he’s just a good guy. If we have a bad day and I get on the guys, he’s the one that’s picking them up.”
Kerns is the elder statesman on Morgantown’s staff.
“He just has a really great understanding of the game and brings a lot of terrific suggestions to me and the staff on things that we could do better,” Tallman said. “He’s retired so he sits around and thinks basketball all the time. He brings a lot of good things to the table — he brings the wisdom to our staff.”
The Mohigans are facing another rebuild heading into next season with four of their five starters graduating, including Evans Award winner Sharron Young and All-State first-teamer Izzy Everett.
If the last four years have been any indication, however, there’s little cause for concern that a down season is on the horizon.
“We like to say the standard is the standard,” Tallman said. “When Nate gets them as a freshman coach, he lets them know right away that we’re not going to tolerate loafing or guys that aren’t giving maximum effort.
“Then when Matt gets them as sophomores … he gets them to the point where by the time they come to us, they can plug right in and execute our game plan.”
Tallman won the 2024 Van Meter Award by a close margin over Cameron girls’ basketball Holly Pettit. The Dragons completed a state championship three-peat of their own this season in Class A. Martinsburg football coach Dave Walker was also a finalist
Tallman will be recognized at the 77th-annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 5 at River City in Wheeling.
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