Never Graduate

The West Liberty Hilltoppers are making their presence known at the Charleston Civic Center this week in the WVIAC tournament. Tonight the championships for both men and women’s basketball will be played. The men may have lost in the semifinals to Alderson-Broaddus, but the women are in the championship today at 6 p.m. They’ll play the University of Charleston.

So why do I mention this specifically? Well, I’m an alumni of West Liberty along with many other people up and down the valley. Additionally, their games are just fun to watch. Coach Lynn Ullom always brings the best out of his players and staff. Watching them play is very entertaining, especially when they are shooting the 3-pointer well. Think of watching Paden City’s boys basketball team this year with Ricky Wright, Ryan Thoburn and Malakai Anderson lighting it up from outside. Screens galore!

Anyway, you can listen to this upcoming championship game live with the link provided. It’ll direct you to the Web site and hopefully you can go from there. If I’m not mistaken, the game will also be shown on tape delay online sometime tomorrow. If you’re by chance in the Wheeling area and receive Comcast cable, it can be seen on Channel 14.

Yes, there’s a reason why I mention this as well. Tyler Consolidated’s own Meghan Wiseman is a freshman on the hilltop and has provided quite the inside presence for Coach Ullom this year. As of March 2, she leads the team in blocks with 23 and is third on the team in rebounds at 118. There are other statistics available but I figured that would suffice for now.

Now back to the tournament. The atmosphere is unlike any other. It may not be attended as much as the high school girls’ and boys’ tournaments the following weeks, but that’s okay. The games are just as much competitive and exciting to watch. The champion gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II tournament field of 64 teams. That means to joy and heartbreak of winning and losing is still there because making the NCAA tournament is so tough.

Just look at the West Liberty men’s team. They’ve lead the nation in scoring for the past four years I think, complete with 20-win seasons and the like, and still seem to always be a bubble team. Hopefully they'll make it this year. They were even on national television last week!

I was first introduced to this atmosphere in 2006 doing radio broadcasts for the Hilltoppers. In 2007 I got involved in the video broadcasting portion. Both of these years saw either the men or women make the NCAA tournament of which I’ve participated in broadcasts doing play-by-play. There’s nothing like being down there on the floor taking in all the action.

So I wish good luck to not only to the women’s basketball team, but also to the media crew down in Charleston as well. They do an amazing job making the games available to those unable to make the trip. It is to be hoped that the women will win the conference championship and move on to the big dance.

Never graduate, Logan