Earlier this year, our state lost a former all-state basketball player with the passing of former Parkersburg High star Chuck Eddy.
Eddy was an all-state player in 1958 when he led the Big Reds to a state championship with a 61-48 win over Stonewall Jackson. Other members of the all-state team that year included Rod Thorn of Princeton, Dickie Dubois from Stonewall Jackson and Paul Popovich of Flemington.
Thorn went on to be one of the all-time great players at WVU and had a long career in the NBA as a player and executive. Dubois and Popovich also went on to play at WVU, and Popovich played baseball as a utility infielder for the Cubs, Dodgers and Pirates from 1964-75.
Eddy is not the only member of his family to win a state title. His son Brian was on the 1978 Parkersburg football team that won a AAA state title. His grandson, Luke, was on the 2012 George Washington basketball team that won a AAA state title.
Luke Eddy just finished his senior season at Elon in Burlington, North Carolina. He played a lot of minutes in his career at Elon, but injuries hampered his senior season. He still was able to average over 25 minutes a game and average over 7 points as a senior.
One of the members of the Elon coaching staff is former GW player Chris Long, who was an outstanding player at Elon in the Southern Conference and played for GW from 2003-06. The Patriots lost to Patrick Patterson and Huntington in the 2006 AAA state title game.
n Another Kanawha Valley product involved in college hoops is former St. Albans standout Adam Fletcher, who is now the strength and conditioning coach for men's basketball at Illinois.
After playing for the Red Dragons, Fletcher earned a Division I scholarship and went on to be a four-year letterman at Miami of Ohio. As a senior, he was a team captain and named the team's defensive MVP.
After graduating from Miami, he worked at Michigan and Towson before landing at Illinois. The Fighting Illini recently named Brad Underwood of Oklahoma State as their new head coach.
n One of our state's most over-achieving athletes in the 1970s was former Williamstown star Jeff Burkhamer, who has been coaching for so long that we sometimes forget his playing days.
After graduating from Williamstown in the late 1970s, he went on to Alderson Broaddus, where he played both basketball and baseball. He is in the Battlers Hall of Fame.
Burkhamer is another state native making his mark in coaching college basketball. He is now the head coach at the University of West Florida in Pensacola.
Burkhamer has been coaching for 33 years, including 15 as a head coach. He has an overall record of 400-222. including stints at Armstrong State and Lander in addition to West Florida.
Reach Frank Giardina at flg16@hotmail.com.