With the chaos surrounding the Class A Volleyball and Cheer post season this year, I thought I would take a swing at sorting out some facts and explaining just what happened, or in TCHS’s case, what didn’t happen. For those of you that do not know Tyler Consolidated was prohibited from participating due to ligation from different schools regarding classification that resulted in the Class A State tournament being postponed until December 2 and 3, 2024. The tournament will be played on the campus of West Virginia State University.

I will do my best to explain how things occurred that prevented the TCHS Lady Knight volleyball and cheer teams from participating in the 2024 state tournament. It is very confusing but, in the end, Tyler Consolidated teams were denied the chance, for some, of a lifetime.

On October 1, 2024, Tyler Consolidated filed an injunction against being classified as a 2A school for volleyball and cheer since the TCHS football team was deemed as single A school. It took the courts until October 30 to make a decision which coincided with the Lady Knights scheduled to play Oak Glen in a regional 2A match. In the end the WVSSAC was granted the right by the courts to determine the final eight teams for the Class A title. To set the stage for what happened, TCHS was classified as a 2A team for the entire season and entered the sectional against Wheeling Central, which they defeated easily in straight sets. That put them in a regional game with Oak Glen. As they boarded the bus for the trip to Oak Glen, they were notified that they had been moved from 2A to Class A and told that they now would play St. Marys in a Class A sectional game. Again, with the same result, they defeated St. Marys in straight sets. Next up they were scheduled to play Trinity in Morgantown, but an injunction filed by Trinity to exclude TCHS from the tournament, because they were originally in the 2A class, was granted. Instead, St Marys would travel to Trinity for the regional championship. Keep in mind St. Marys now stood at 0-2 after losing to both Magnolia and Tyler Consolidated in Single A games. After St. Marys finally won their first game of the tournament defeating Trinity, they were declared the regional champions.

Next, the WVSSAC said that TCHS and St. Marys would play e for the 8th seed in the state tournament. The number one seed East Hardy, who was scheduled to play the 8th seed in the opening game in Charleston, filed an injunction to have TCHS removed from the Tournament. This injunction resulted in a court ruling that no court had the authority to override the SSAC when it came to seedings and rankings. Therefore, the SSAC ruled that since TCHS had not played a regional game in Class A, at no fault of their own, they did not meet the requirements for entrance to the state tournament.

The result of all of this is that both volleyball and cheer at TCHS were eliminated from Class A competition in Charleston. The TCHS Cheer team also qualified for the state tournament in Class A but were also denied the opportunity to participate.

Seems to me that every team TCHS was scheduled to play in volleyball filed some sort of injunction, without merit, to avoid playing the 24-5 Lady Knights or competing against the TCHS cheer team. I’m not sure what message this sends to our kids other than if you feel you can’t beat someone you protest through the courts to avoid them. TCHS Girls deserve better than this, and the courts and the SSAC should be held accountable for allowing this to happen.

As I stated earlier, 3 senior TCHS volleyball girls and 4 senior cheer team members will never have the opportunity to participate in tournament action. This disaster lands squarely in the lap of the SSAC. Like everyone in Tyler County, the staff of both the Tyler Star News and the Wetzel Chronicle grieve for the lost opportunity for our girls.

On the bright side, the 4A, 3A and 2A state volleyball tournaments went on as scheduled with one exciting result for a Sistersville native. Allison Wable Whitford, head coach at Hedgesville High School and daughter of Scott and Tonya Wable of Sistersville, led her team to a 43-5-1 record and the class 4A state championship. It was the first volleyball championship for Hedgesville in school history. For those that do not remember, Allsion, a TCHS graduate, played her high school volleyball career under head coach Richard Summers and was on the state runner up team in 2012. While playing at TCHS Allison and her team won the LKC Championship, OVAC championship, sectional and regional championship. She also garnered honors as first team All LKC, first team OVAC, first team All-State both junior and senior years. She is only one of three to ever acquire this distinction. Allison was also selected to play in the WV All Star game.

I reached out to my friend Richard Summers for some background on Allison. Richard is the well-known retired State Champion TCHS volleyball coach and had the pleasure of coaching Allison during her high school career. Coach Summers summed up Allison’s attributes like this. “She was a great leader and one of the best to ever play in the Knights program.”

Allsion and her husband Aaron have one child, Hudson, who is two and half years old. Allison was an assistant coach at Hedgesville for four years and has been the head coach for the last three seasons. The Wable family along with all of Tyler County are proud of Allison’s accomplishments!

I want to close the Press Box by extending a big thank you to Ron Heasley for supplying pictures when I could not be there for both TCHS football and volleyball. Also, to Eric Mason who provided me with TCHS football stats every Friday night. Also, to all the coaches from Paden City and Tyler Consolidated for their insight and quotes sent to me for game coverage. I look forward to moving on to an exciting season of winter sports in the area. Most of all, let’s hope we never repeat the chaos we experienced with TCHS Volleyball and Cheer.