As the high school football season starts in the Kanawha Valley, here are some random thoughts floating around in my brain while standing on the sidelines on Thursday night in South Charleston.
n While watching the South Charleston-George Washington football game in South Charleston on Friday night, I continue to be impressed by the spirit and enthusiasm for high school athletics in the South Charleston and Dunbar communities. I have to admit I was skeptical when South Charleston left the tradition and history of Oakes Field to play games up on the hill behind the school. But they now have an incredible playing surface, a nice on-campus stadium and a fun atmosphere for high school football.
n It is always good to see South Charleston principal Mike Arbogast and curriculum administrator Kim Williams at South Charleston. Arbogast is a former assistant basketball coach for the Black Eagles. Kim is the daughter of long-time area coach and state sports historian Tex Williams. She was an outstanding girls high school basketball player at St. Albans and at Marshall.
n GW has an outstanding quarterback prospect in junior signal caller Grant Wells. It reminds me of the 1970's when the Patriots were the cradle of quarterbacks under head coach Steve Edwards, Sr. Starting in the early 70's, the Patriots had a run of quarterbacks that included Trippi Adams, Billy Williams, Scott Long, Mike Estes and others. Williams went on to Kentucky and Long went to Wake Forest.
n When GW first opened in the mid-1960's, the Patriots had an outstanding wide receiver named Greg Edmonds. Edmonds went on to be a starting wide receiver on two of the best teams in the history of eastern college football. He played on the 1968 and1969 Penn State teams with Franco Harris and Jack Ham that had back-to-back undefeated seasons, won back-to-back Orange Bowls and won 31 straight games.
n While watching South Charleston on Thursday night, I thought of former Black Eagles wide receiver Aaron Dobson who has been bothered by injuries as he tries to make an NFL roster in 2017. Dobson does have 50 career NFL catches. and The Black Eagles have some NFL tradition. Former South Charleston star Carl Lee had several Pro Bowl years in his career in Minnesota. Lee was at the game on Thursday and, at the age of 56, he looks like he can still play.
Often forgotten about in our area is former South Charleston star Alex Hawkins. Hawkins was born in Welch in McDowell County and graduated from South Charleston in the mid-50's. He went on to play collegiately at South Carolina and was the ACC Player of the Year in 1958. Hawkins played in the NFL with the Colts and Falcons from 1959-68.
n Finally, while the high school football season was starting on Thursday in our state, the major league baseball season produced an intense late August game between the Yankees and Tigers. Before the day was over, there were several bench clearing skirmishes and a total of eight ejections. The ejections had some local flavor as one of those ejected was former Hurricane pitcher Alex Wilson, now with Detroit.
You can e-mail Frank Giardina at: flg16@hotmail.com.