Tag: Arts & Culture

West Virginian Cites Video Game Experience in Application for Coaching Job

Marshall University graduate and systems integration analyst Chris McComas wants to become the next head coach of the North Dakota Fighting Sioux football…

  Marshall University graduate and systems integration analyst Chris McComas wants to become the next head coach of the North Dakota Fighting Sioux football team. The way he went about applying for the job is genius.

He began his pursuit for the position by emailing Brian Faison, the athletic director of the university. In that email McComas attached a hilarious Powerpoint presentation detailing his coaching philosophy that wasn’t short of brazen confidence.

Sports websites like Deadspin began picking up the story.

McComas even landed an endorsement to become the coach at North Dakota from another popularsports website, SB Nation.

Local media personalities around West Virginia began to rally him on, using the hashtag #chuckthepigskin.

And then media in North Dakota began showing their support.

As did other locals and football enthusiasts.

And then national mainstream media, like ABC World News and CBS Sports, got in on the story.

Thursday morning, McComas was keeping the dream alive, mapping out his go-to Hail Mary.

Even EA Sports, the maker of the Madden and NCAA Football video games, has been getting in on the fun:

Book Lovers of Charleston Celebrate 90 years

In December, 1923, 13 African American women in Charleston met to discuss their love of books.  The club these women formed would continue to thrive for the next 90 years.  The Book Lovers of Charleston is celebrating this weekend with a party.  Membership to the book lovers club is by invitation, but this party is open to the public as the group’s gift to the community.

Yvonne Moore was asked to join the Book Lovers of Charleston 16 years ago.

“Mrs. Ruth Stevenson Norman, who died not too long ago, was the last was the last remaining founder. I met her. She met me not long after I came to Charleston in 1972 so I can honestly say that I knew and visited in her home and had tea with her.  She was an unbelievable educator in this valley.” Yvonne Moore, member of the Book Lovers of Charleston The Book Lovers of Charleston will celebrate its 90th  anniversary with a party at the Women's Club on Virginia Street in Charleston on Sunday afternoon at three o'clock.  The public is welcomed to attend.

Parents of Children with Special Needs Lean on Each Other

Often referred to as, ‘the greatest job in the world’, taking care of a child with special needs can be challenging for parent. Parents of children in Mercer County have formed their own support group. 

Living in rural areas often means living significant distances from medical specialists, and sometimes treatment. For example the best form of treatment for Autism is applied behavioral analysis. While there are limited specialists across the state, there is not a single specialist south of Charleston in West Virginia.

Support groups are no different. There are very few in the region. 

“Unfortunately where we are in a very rural area there’s not a lot of access to support groups like you would see in bigger cities,” Carla Poseno said.

Carla Poseno is the Vice President of the K.I.D.S Project.

“So what we decided to do is make an all-inclusive special needs support group to work in the community,” she said.

While the support group is meant to help parents and caregivers of children with special needs, the group is also to help remind the children that they are kind, important, determined, and strong … which is what the “KIDS” in “K.I.D.S Project” stands for.

“It’s really helped me because my daughter is kind of my full time job,” she said. “Best job on earth but at the same time it can be stressful.”

Poseno knows that raising a child with special needs isn’t always easy.  

“Sometimes it can be hard it can be stressful,” Poseno said. “You have sleepless nights there are days that sometimes you are lucky to get a shower because your child needs so much from you.”

“It’s worth the fight to fight for your kids when they have special needs.”

Children with various diagnoses and disabilities are all welcome and so far parents of children with special needs that range from autism, to spina bifida, to bipolar have attended meetings.

Kristal Jones, coincidentally a McDowell native, is the president of the group.  

“The very first meeting it struck me that this is something that we really need in our area,” Jones said.

The group is also a place for parents and caregivers to share resources and advice. Jones’s daughter has A.D.H.D.

“If you don’t request certain things they may not know that your child needs that additional help on testing per say,” she said.

The group meets every fourth Monday of the month at Princeton Public Library. The next meeting on December 30, however, will be at the Glenwood Green Valley Fire Department. The K.I.D.S project is hosting a holiday party for families with members with special needs.

Historic Win: Martinsburg Football is Four-Time Champion

The Martinsburg High football team made West Virginia high school sports history Saturday by beating Huntington High 9-7 to win the state AAA championship in Wheeling, W.Va.

It’s the first time in West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission history an AAA ranked school has won four state football championships in a row.

Martinsburg (13-1) was ranked number two during the season and Huntington (13-1) was ranked number one.

“Anytime you have number one versus number two it should be a tight ballgame and it was today,” Martinsburg Coach  Davis Walker said.

“It was just a knock-down, drag-out brawl,” he said. “And fortunately our kids played enough to come out on top.”

Hundreds of supporters gathered at Martinsburg High School about 7:30 p.m. Saturday to welcome the team home. Player Troy Walker scored the only Martinsburg touch down.

“I’m just glad we won,” Walker said. “We made history, something not too many people get to do.”

“The game was kind of nerve wracking, but it was great,” Martinsburg Principal Trent Sherman said. “Our kids really played hard and their kids really played hard and we got the win, which was important.”

Sherman credited the Martinsburg football program’s success to the coaching staff.

These Two Mountain Stage Performances Encapsulate Nelson Mandela's Rise to Prominence

With the passing of the anti-Aparthied revolutionary and former South African President Nelson Mandela, we wanted to connect you to how West Virginia played a small part in another famous South African’s fight for Mandela’s rise to international prominence.  

Legendary South African musician Hugh Masekela  performed for the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta crowd gathered for Mountain Stage on September 3, 1989. Masekela performed his song “Bring Him Back Home,” an anthem of the movement to free Mandela from prison.

When Masekela returned to play Mountain Stage on May 8, 1994, the battle cry had turned into a celebratory hymn. Two days after that appearance, Masekela performed the song at Mandela’s inauguration as the President of South Africa.
 

Mandela.mp3
Masekela performs the same song on May 8, 1994 on Mountain Stage.

Wayne Makes Return Trip to Wheeling, While Huntington Makes First

For the second straight year two Huntington area teams are headed to Wheeling this weekend to battle for football State Championships in this year’s Super Six. Both Huntington High and Wayne High have taken different routes. 

For Huntington High the game marks the first trip to the state title game since 1966, and a possible first state championship in football. For Wayne High, it’s the third straight appearance and a chance at three straight titles in Class AA and a state record 37 wins in a row.

Wayne’s game will kick-off Friday evening at 7:30 at Wheeling Island Stadium against Bridgeport. It’s a battle of the top seed Wayne against the second seed Bridgeport and it isn’t the first time the two schools have met for a state title. In 2000 Bridgeport was victorious. That game marked the first of 5 trips since the year 2000 for Wayne. Wayne Head Coach Tom Harmon said they deal with the target on their back by working hard.

“Well you try not to deal with it on game night, if you’re waiting till game night to play your best game, which can be a problem, you need to take care of those issues in preparation,” Harmon said.

Wayne’s opponent the Bridgeport Indians have 22 consecutive playoff appearances and trips to the semifinals in four of the last five years, with two of those years as a Class AAA team. Their game plan isn’t much different from what Wayne does. Wayne features a wing-T offense they call the Wayne-T, while Bridgeport runs the ball out of a stick-I. Harmon said Bridgeport is unique compared to many teams around the state, they block with the best of them.

Wayne enters the contest at 13-0 and Bridgeport sits at 12-1. Wayne’s hope is that a solid running game mixed with good defense will mean a third straight championship win.

In just his fifth season Billy Seals has taken a program from 0-10 his first season at Huntington to 13-0 and a number one ranking heading to Wheeling for a noon kick-off Saturday against Martinsburg.

Seals said Saturdays challenge is the biggest they’ve faced yet. Martinsburg is the winner of the last three state championships at the AAA level in the state. Led by talented quarterback Malique Watkins the second ranked Bulldogs only loss this season was by a score of 35-34 to Tuscarora from Virginia. Seals said the biggest key for them against Martinsburg is to not get overwhelmed by the scene and the Bulldogs.

"First thing we have to weather the storm early, hopefully the stage does not get us big-eyed," Seals said.

“First thing we have to weather the storm early, hopefully the stage does not get us big-eyed to where we don’t handle it well early in the game. And if you look at last week in the Martinsburg game, they jump up 14-0 with 9 minutes and 30 seconds to go in the first quarter on Capital and then you’re kind of playing catchup the rest of the night and you just can’t do that against a great team like Martinsburg,” Seals said.

The Single A game at the Super Six takes place Saturday night at 7 between Greenbrier West and Madonna. 

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