The New Martinsville Rotary Basketball Challenge is in the books for another year. After a year’s absence due to the Coronavirus this year’s event went off without a hitch despite a smaller field and the loss of a couple girls games on Friday night due to school closings. A lot of work goes into putting on this type of event and the Rotary club should be commended for bringing the caliber of athletes into town for the community to enjoy.

Teams like Morgantown high school, the number one ranked big school in the state, are fun to watch and local players can learn a lot from them. Also whoever makes the food knows how to cook, the pulled pork and chili were great. It was a fun day and one I look forward to each year.

I want to send a shout out to the Paden City girls basketball team, they have yet to win a game this season, but they never give up and play hard at each outing. Head coach Josh Fulks stays positive and keeps working with the team to try and make them better. A lot of coaches would have given up, but coach Fulks shows a real interest in the kids and does his best to keep the program alive. He is the first one to send in his stats.

Same goes for Hundred boys basketball, they play hard every night out. Even without a win so far this season the boys are putting out good effort night in and night out. Coach Nathan Huggins and his staff work hard in practice and continue to work on improving. Huggins is another one who despite having a tough season gets his stats and comments out to us after each game.

With all the school closings it’s tough to keep up with games that have been rescheduled and cancelled. This past week we had nine games that didn’t take place due to weather conditions. I know of four that were rescheduled and played, but if we don’t know about them we can’t be there and report on them.

It’s always nice to have people like R.J. Goode and Teran Malone who help keep us informed. They also provide us with stats and pictures for games we can’t make. Ron Heasley also takes a lot of pictures and graciously allows us to use them. We appreciated it and thank them for the help.

Another shout out goes to the voice of Magnolia, Dr. Neil Marshall who indicates he will be giving it up after this year following 40 years of announcing Blue Eagle basketball. R.J. Goode had the mic. during a game at the Rotary tournament and did an excellent job. He’s an avid follower of Blue Eagle sports and works hard to get all the kids recognition.

I want to also thank “Mr. Danny Westfall” for his work down at the New Martinsville Marina. With help from a few others Danny has turned the area into a winter wonderland, where young and old can enjoy the ice skating and sled riding. There have been days and nights where upward of 100 people have filled the old fashion skating rink, with skates provided, a hot fire built to stay warm, and hot dogs roasted on the open fire. What a nice thing for the younger generation to experience and what great memories for many of the older folks to recall.

Thinking back on the cold winter days of the sixties and seventies, skating and sledding was what many of us lived for. It was the greatest of times and Danny has captured those memories and brought them to life once again.

We are fast approaching the end of winter sports. Hopefully we can perform well during playoffs. The spring season is right around the corner and with that comes better weather. Instead of setting inside a gymnasium we’ll be standing at the ball fields and out on the track. Make sure to get a physical if you plan on playing spring sports and don’t yet have one.