The death of an eighth-grade Boone County student, who suffered a head injury during football practice last month, prompted Gov. Jim Justice Wednesday to say he wants to keep young athletes safe.
One lawmaker is proposing a plan he wants the state to fund.
It was prompted, said state Sen. Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, by the tragic death of 13-year-old Cohen Craddock, who was wearing a helmet when he collapsed during August drills.
Stuart – whose district includes Boone County – plans to introduce the Cohen Craddock Student Athlete Safety Act in the next legislative session. It would mandate the use of guardian caps he says would help buffer the impact of rigorous play by as much as 20 percent.
“I want the NFL to partner with me and to partner with the Craddock family in making West Virginia the first state to mandate the use of guardian caps for youth,” Stuart said.
Stuart wants the state to pay for the bubble-wrap like paddings. Justice says he fully supports safety measures but doesn’t know enough about the caps to weigh in on the plan.
Now in its fifty-first year, the Charleston Distance Run brings estimates of more than 750 racers from across the country to Kanawha County for a route alongside the state capitol and downtown Charleston along with a diversion across the river on what is commonly known as Capital Punishment Hill.
An annual sporting tradition returns to Kanawha County this Saturday.
Now in its fifty-first year, the Charleston Distance Run brings estimates of more than 750 racers from across the country to Kanawha County for a route alongside the state capitol and downtown Charleston along with a diversion across the river on what is commonly known as Capital Punishment Hill.
The event will feature three separate races: a 15-mile run, a 15-mile relay split between three runners and a 5-kilometer run or walk. The races end with a finish line in the University of Charleston Stadium at Laidley Field.
Registration for this year’s events remains open until Friday at 8 p.m. For more information on this year’s race, visit the event website.
On this West Virginia Morning, a new school year is in full swing in West Virginia. But Chris Schulz reports that one group of students in Morgantown has a unique concern this year: needing a place in school to pray together.
On this West Virginia Morning, a new school year is in full swing in West Virginia. But Chris Schulz reports that one group of students in Morgantown has a unique concern this year: needing a place in school to pray together.
Meanwhile, another interim session of the West Virginia Legislature is underway at the state capitol. Teachers, child care providers, legislators and advocates gathered in Charleston Sunday to call on Gov. Jim Justice and lawmakers to address a child care crisis in the state. Briana Heaney attended the rally and has the story.
Plus, recreation league basketball can bring joy to small communities. Evan Ellison and Abram Whitt, students at the Fayette Institute of Technology, tell us about the Mount Hope Basketball League in Raleigh County.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.
Maria Young produced this episode.
Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning
The ACLU and Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ rights law firm, brought the case on behalf of a 13-year-old middle school student in Harrison County who wanted to run on her track team.
A federal appeals court struck down West Virginia’s ban on transgender student participation in school sports Tuesday.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said the 2021 law violated Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that enshrined gender equality in school sports.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ rights law firm, brought the case on behalf of a 13-year-old middle school student in Harrison County who wanted to run on her track team.
“The ruling makes clear that the law is discriminatory,” said Billy Wolfe, an ACLU-WV spokesman, in an email. The student, Becky Pepper-Jackson, is the only one affected by the ruling, Wolfe said, but encouraged others who might be affected to contact the ACLU.
The 2-1 decision, for now, invalidates House Bill 3293, which the legislature enacted and Gov. Jim Justice signed.
Last year, a U.S. district judge upheld the enforcement of the law, but the Fourth Circuit overruled that decision.
In an emergency appeal last year, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce the law while the Fourth Circuit considered the case. The justices declined.
In a statement Tuesday, Morrisey said he would continue to defend the law.
West Virginia is one of 21 states that have enacted some type of restriction on transgender student participation in school sports.
In 2020, the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of a Virginia transgender boy who challenged his school’s refusal to let him use the bathroom that matched his gender identity.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in that case as well.
In Tuesday’s ruling, one of the three judges, G. Steven Agee, dissented. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the court in 2008.
Gov. Jim Justice called for state lawmakers to reverse a law that allows students to transfer high schools to play on another sports team without changing addresses or completing a waiting period.
In 2023, state lawmakers passed a bill that, in part, allowed for high school students to immediately transfer high school sports teams, regardless of whether they changed addresses.
In his Wednesday briefing, Gov. Jim Justice called on state lawmakers to that law, calling the bill’s initial passage a “real, real mistake.”
Previously, state policies for high school sports required students to physically move to join a new school’s sports team, or wait a year after transferring to become eligible to compete.
Passage of the bill was contentious. It followed failed attempts from Sen Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, to push such a bill into law both in 2022 and earlier in 2023.
The bill was ultimately passed when it was coupled with sports transfer policies for recipients of the state’s Hope Scholarship.
But critics of the law, including Justice, have said it created an imbalance in high school sports, as students from schools with fewer resources are transferring to larger, more competitive schools in record numbers.
In November, Mountain State Spotlight found that the number of football games won by at least 70 points hit a record-high 13 in fall 2023 — compared to zero in 2022, and just four in 2021.
They also found that 432 students transferred high schools for sports in the fall, which tripled the number of transfers from the previous year-and-a-half.
In 2023, Justice allowed the bill to become law without signing it himself, voicing support for its Hope Scholarship transfer policy but concern over the broader sports transfer rule.
Now, however, Justice has become more vocal in his calls for lawmakers to change course.
During a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Justice asked legislators to pass a bill reversing the controversial policy before the end of this year’s legislative session.
“If you play on a team and your team loses that game 95 to three in football, how do you feel tomorrow to get up and to go to school? Really and truly, that’s what we’re talking about,” Justice said. “We’re talking about embarrassing kids.”
Justice said if it remains in effect, the law could discourage youth from underprivileged backgrounds to pursue sports.
“We’re talking about kids that then decide, ‘I’m not going to have anything to do with this, even though I’m a pretty good athlete, and I’m a pretty good football player or basketball player,” he said.
The deadline is Feb. 28 for the West Virginia Senate or the House of Delegates to pass any bills that might make the change the governor is asking for. After that the chambers will turn to reviewing bills passed by the other chamber.
Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cook offs, Mountain folks are in it to win it. But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing. In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.
Appalachians love to compete. Whether it’s recreational league softball, a turkey calling contest or workplace chili cook offs, Mountain folks are in it to win it.
But there’s more to competing than just winning or losing.
In this show, we’ll meet competitors who are also keepers of beloved Appalachian traditions.
Musgrave Reports From The Mountain Mushroom Festival
Tina Caroland shows off a morel mushroom at the Mountain Mushroom Festival in Irvine, Kentucky. Caroland has demonstrated how to fry morels at the festival for about 15 years. She purchased morels for a recent year’s cooking demonstration because Caroland and her family were slow to find morels at the start of the season.
Credit: Nicole Musgrave/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Each spring, people take to the woods in search of morels, a seasonal favorite throughout Appalachia, and they inspire all kinds of competition.
Folkways Reporter Nicole Musgrave went to the Mountain Mushroom Festival in Irvine, Kentucky and found people looking for the most mushrooms — the biggest mushrooms — and the tastiest way to eat mushrooms.
An Accident Of Appalachian History Led To A New Style of Pizza
In Wheeling, West Virginia, people are passionate about their pizza. People there say that an accident of history led to a new style of pizza – Appalachia’s contribution to America’s great regional pizza traditions. Folkways Reporter Zack Harold visited DiCarlo’s Famous Pizza to find out more.
Credit: Zack Harold/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Ever live in a place where there’s a competition between two restaurants, and people sort of decide which team they’re on?
Folkways Reporter Zack Harold says people in Wheeling, West Virginia are passionate about their pizza.That’s because an accident of history led to a new style and who’s better/who’s best contest that’s been going on for decades.
Brave Kids Continue Eisteddfod Tradition
Eisteddfod is probably not a word that rolls off the tongue of everyone in Appalachia. But in Wales, it refers to a traditional music competition that goes back nearly 1,000 years. Immigrants brought the tradition to southern Ohio, where it has endured for generations. Thanks in part to some brave kids.
Folkways Reporter Capri Cafaro has this story.
Playing To Eat And Eating To Play
Jared Kaplan holds the game he designed with Chris Kincaid.
Credit: Clara Haizlett/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Another competitive tradition that’s endured for generations is weekly board game night. Whether with family or friends, we play Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and sometimes even Candyland.
Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett reported on a board game that matches West Virginia’s favorite cryptids with some of its favorite places to eat.
A Southern Ohio Town Honors The Appalachian Connection To The NFL
Appalachia’s connection to professional football has always been a little loose. Lots of pro players have come out of Appalachia, but there’s really only one Appalachian NFL team — the Pittsburgh Steelers, or two if you count the Atlanta Falcons, as a listener recently argued we should.
It turns out, at least one other professional team has Appalachian DNA — the Detroit Lions. That franchise began as the Portsmouth Spartans in Portsmouth, Ohio, just across the river from Kentucky.
Sports fan and WVPB Reporter Randy Yohe has this story.
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What about you? What kind of competitions are happening in your neck of the woods? Maybe you know about a sport or contest we’ve never heard about. Or someone there makes pizza like nobody else. Tell us about it. Email us at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Charlie McCoy, The Steel Drivers, Larry Groce, David Mayfield, and Dean Martin.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.
