Wheeling Gears Up For Super Six Weekend
Thursday, December 1, 2005
By LINDA HARRIS - The State Journal
The city of Wheeling is rolling out the welcome mat for the Super Six high school football title contenders and the nearly 20,000 fans who will be on hand to watch them play.
The championships kick off Dec. 2 with the Class AA matchup between Weir High and Bluefield. On Dec. 3, the AAA crown will be decided between Morgantown and Nitro, while the Class A title game pits Williamstown against Wheeling Central.
“Our founder, (the late) Sam Mumley, always said, ‘It’s the kids, the kids, the kids, take care of the kids because they are the foundation for our future,’” said Howard Corcoran, one of the Super Six directors. “We’ve always used that as our mission statement; we’ve tried to take it to a different level every year. We try to keep it special for the kids.”
So Corcoran said they stress details, like making sure the players’ names are on the lockers assigned to them.
“We have a professional football team manager who lives in Wheeling, he does football on a national level for a professional team in Nashville,” Corcoran said. “He comes back for Super Six every year and puts the kids’ names on their locker, polishes their shoes and helmets, makes the locker room first class.”
The Super Six committee also celebrates achievements in the classroom as well, with an academic awards presentation to more than 350 high school seniors who’ve made their mark scholastically as well as athletically.
“It’s really a destination weekend,” Corcoran said. “We bring them here and along come their fans. We’ve been doing it for 12 years. It goes hand-in-hand with all the other things going on — the Festival of Lights at Oglebay, Jamboree USA, Wheeling (Island Racetrack & Gaming Center), Cabela’s ... when you add it all together, it’s a great, great destination weekend for West Virginia, for the kids and their fans.”
Wheeling Island Stadium seats a little more than 10,000 fans with standing room for a couple thousand more, and Corcoran said they typically draw in excess of 20,000 football fans during the course of the championships. If you figure those visitors spend between $60 and $80 a person, Corcoran said it’s obvious “there’s a pretty hefty benefit for the restaurants, the gas stations, the stores.”
“But we never look at it as economic development,” he said. “We knew if we took care of the kids the rest would happen. but we’re in it for the kids. The economic benefits to the community are just a by-product of taking care of the kids.”
Kids aside, the merchant community knows a good thing when they see it. Nearly 39 of them have signed on as major sponsors. As many as 75 more help sponsor the souvenir game program.
“It’s a marquee event for the city,” Mayor Nick Sparachane explained.
His family’s restaurant chain, Undo’s, is one of the major sponsors and every year hosts a free spaghetti dinner for each team at one of their area locations.
Sparachane said hotels within a 10-mile radius sell out for Super Six weekend.
“And it’s a great time for the restaurant business,” he said. “I think it’s just got to be good for retail business in general. It’s been a positive — it keeps our name on the map. The business community works very hard to keep Super Six here. We try to make it really a Super Bowl weekend for visitors.”
Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce President Terry Sterling said Super Six weekend is “always an exciting time.”
“I’ve been on several of the Super Six committees that have gone to Parkersburg to bid for the rights to host this event in past years, and I can honestly say the committee here does an outstanding job and puts the kids first,” he said. “It’s an event for the teams, they‚re treated great by everybody on the committee. Super Six has really become an event here in Ohio County.”
Wheeling has been host city for the Super Six Football Championships since 1994. The contract, awarded in two-year increments, is up for bid again after this season.
