WVSSAC Super Six Football Championships

Wheeling receives Super Six
Thursday, January 26, 2006
By RICH STEVENS - Charleston Daily Mail

PARKERSBURG -- Neither Mike Reed of the Charleston Super Six committee nor Bernie Dolan of the Wheeling committee appeared surprised at the result of Wednesday's vote to determine the host of the next two West Virginia State Football Championships.

The 6-2 vote in favor of Wheeling did, however, disappoint Reed.

The two new members of the Secondary School Activities Commission's Board of Directors, former Ravenswood and Ripley high principal Jack Wiseman and current John Adams Middle School Principal Tom Kidd, were the only members of the board to vote for Charleston at the SSAC offices.

Former Buffalo High athletic director Harold Erwin, a member of the Athletic Directors Association, who arrived in time for the Board to meet in executive session but missed both presentations, abstained.

Board members Ron Spencer (State Board of Education), Sandra Chapman (State Board of Education), Frank Aliveto ( County Superintendents) -- who participated through a conference call -- Ray Londeree (Principal, Eastern Greenbrier Junior High), Warren Grace (Principal, Paden City High) and Tom Eschbacher (Principal, Parkersburg South High) voted in favor of Wheeling.

Board President David Rogers, principal at Martinsburg South Middle School, could only vote to break a tie.

" Wheeling came in and offered the scholarships to the students and I thought they did a nice job with that," said Reed, speaking of the newest addition to Wheeling's proposal -- $1,000 to the general scholarship fund of each Super Six-participating school.

"The reason the Board voted for Wheeling was they wanted that money to go back to the students and they thought our bid included money going to the schools.

"We're here, we gave 100 percent, Wheeling did a great job and I congratulate them."

Reed, a retired Kanawha County teacher and coach who was a defensive assistant for Nitro when the Wildcats won the Class AAA title in Wheeling in 1998, said he expects Charleston to bid again when the contract comes back up in two years, but isn't sure if he'll be involved.

Wheeling's seventh consecutive successful bid to host the championships was helped by the addition of the $1,000 scholarships to member schools and $1,000 each to the five Academic Achievement Award winners for a total of $11,000 in scholarships.

Reed said sometimes it feels like the Charleston committee is chasing its tail.

"That's a credit to Wheeling," Reed said. "We make no bones about that.

"Maybe our best shot is if they ever decide to rotate it."

Wheeling also used every second of its 30 minutes of presentation time, utilizing an extensive PowerPoint presentation with pictures of past games and award presentations.

Wheeling committee members participating in the presentation were Bernie Dolan (Activities Director, Wheeling Park High), Greg Stewart ( Ohio County administrator), Howard Corcoran (broker for Legg-Mason), Christine Carder (Principal, Wheeling Park High), Dick Cameron (assistant activities director, Wheeling Park High) and Al Cerullo.

"I think our record speaks for itself," Dolan said.

"I think focusing a little more on the academics and the scholarships puts us over. If we can get everybody to jump on board, we can provide huge scholarships for every sporting event."

Each city's committee had a cornerstone of its presentation. For Wheeling, it was "about the kids."

Charleston cited "location, location, location."

The capital city's bid included transportation money to the schools -- $2,000 to each Class AAA school, $1,600 to each Class AA school and $1,400 for each Class A school for a total of $10,000 to participating schools to help transport students and fans to the games, although "it would be up to the discretion of the principal about how the money would be used."

Reed and Eddie Canaday of the Charleston Convention and Visitors Bureau were the only members of the Charleston committee present Wednesday.

Many other committee members, which include Dave Hardy, Mayor Danny Jones, Drew Payne, John Robertson, Bryce Casto, Lou Ann Lanham and Roger Jefferson -- were busy with preparations for Wednesday's Capital City Classic basketball game between WVU and Marshall and could not attend.

Reed, the Charleston committee's point man, mentioned the improvements to the University of Charleston Stadium (formerly Laidley Field), the three-tiered press box and new "professional grade 51-ounce turf."

In fact, Reed and Canaday brought with them samples of the 51-ounce turf installed at UC Stadium and the 40-ounce turf installed at Wheeling Island Stadium.

"Since last year's state track meet, UC has spent $1.7 million on the Laidley Field complex, bar none the best high school facility in the state," Reed said. "The turf alone cost more than $750,000 and provides the safest surface in West Virginia outside of WVU."

None of that seemed to matter much to the Board of Directors, who spent far less than the expected 45 minutes in executive session before emerging to vote.

Questions were directed to SSAC Executive Director Mike Hayden.

"Experience pays off," Hayden said. "Over the years, they've tried to outdo themselves and every year they put in a bid package that has something a little bit different. They try to refine what they do every year."

Dolan said that won't change.

"We never will get tired of this," Dolan said. "It's a great event for Wheeling, everybody loves doing it.

"As soon as we're done, we're thinking about what's next. What can we do ... we take a look at this year's game and think about what we can do to make it better. We felt like the scholarships were the thing to do."