Shades of the '99 Big Reds
Saturday, December 3, 2005
By DAVE POE - The Parkersburg News & The Parkersburg Sentinel

Is Mid-Ohio Valley sports history about to repeat itself?

You decide.

In 1994, Parkersburg High School's football program began one of the most incredible runs in the school's glorious athletic history. For the next eight years, the Big Reds would qualify for the Class AAA playoffs.

Parkersburg had earned the status of perennial power. But there was one thing the Big Reds lacked -a state title. And the only way any program can validate its greatness is to win a state championship.

PHS came close in 1997, advancing to the state championship game, but suffered a disappointing defeat to North Marion. The following year, it was eliminated in the semifinals, by none other than J.R. House and the Nitro Wildcats, who will play for the Class AAA title again today (Nitro, not House).

Then came 1999. The Big Reds blitzed through the regular season unbeaten. They made the most incredible comeback in school history in the state quarterfinals, erasing an 18-point Huntington lead in the final four minutes of the game.

From that moment forward, they were a team of destiny. PHS completed a perfect 14-0 season and captured the state title with a 31-28 win over Riverside, thanks to a last-minute TD drive engineered by sophomore quarterback Marc Kimes.

Flash forward to the present.

For the fifth straight year, Williamstown High School's football team has made it to at least the semifinal round.

The Yellowjackets have achieved perennial power status.

But they're still looking for a state title to validate their greatness.

That title nearly happened in 2003, when Williamstown lost a two-point heartbreaker in the mud at Wheeling Island Stadium.

But last year, in its attempt to go back to Wheeling, it was derailed in the semifinals.

Now Williamstown is back in Wheeling playing for the championship. A championship if it wins not only will be the first in school history, but will allow the Yellowjackets to complete a perfect 14-0 season.

The similarities between Parkersburg High's title run in 1999 and what Williamstown is experiencing this season are downright eerie.

One wonders if the Yellowjackets -like the Big Reds before them -aren't a team of destiny.

They certainly had something on their side early in the season when they made three last-minute comebacks en route to setting the state's all-time regular season winning streak.

Today, they'll have an entire community backing them. A community that has seen its football program accomplish virtually everything a football program can accomplish. Everything that is except win a state championship.

This certainly would be one for the ages. For every player who ever has worn a Williamstown uniform. For community members who sacrificed to get the home field up to playoff standards.

There's no feeling like winning a state title. Especially when you do so by going undefeated. I've seen two teams do that -Jim Hamric's 1991 Spencer team that was the first in state history to go 14-0 and the 1999 Big Reds.

Williamstown has come so close so many times, it's time for the Yellowjackets to win a title and become part of Mid-Ohio Valley sports history.

Contact Dave Poe via e-mail at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com