Doug Smock: Walk-on Mathews just hoping for a shot
HUNTINGTON - If you're a football walk-on, you have to love the game. You can't just tell sportswriters you love the game, you have to genuinely love it. You have to outwork the rest of your position...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: WVU's Tyler, Grier, Holmes and Talley
By Mitch Vingle The views from here:Many times coaches won't tip their hands to the media, but most starting jobs have been won by this time in spring drills for next football season. At WVU, however,...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: MU's Kelly, WVU's Williams and the broken NBA process
By Mitch Vingle In case you're unaware, the wheels are starting to turn in regard to the upcoming June 23 NBA draft. The Portsmouth Invitational begins Wednesday in Virginia, and Marshall standout...
View ArticleMike Casazza: Benton has the look to be WVU linebacker
By Mike Casazza MORGANTOWN - Al-Rasheed Benton is, if nothing else, honest. "I'm an easy-going guy," West Virginia's junior linebacker said from the team room inside the Puskar Center last week. "I'm...
View ArticleChuck McGill: Names to know in the South Atlantic League
By Chuck McGill The list is long. Bryce Harper, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts. Trevor Story, Mookie Betts and Jose Fernandez. They are established or blossoming stars in Major League Baseball, and...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: Levi Cook set for his second life
By Mitch Vingle Levi Cook is known for his big body. He's 6-foot-10 and at one time he weighed 305 pounds. As a freshman, that is, in high school.Yet he's also known as a homebody. He's currently back...
View ArticleChuck McGill: Piersons put love into Ona Speedway
By Chuck McGill ONA - Scott Pierson is the president of his own business and, in his spare time, he operates Ona Speedway. Occasionally he'll hop in his car and compete on what is billed as West...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: A tale of Orlosky, WVU notes and D.J. Dollar
By Mitch Vingle MORGANTOWN - WVU center Tyler Orlosky has that twinkle in his eyes. You know the one. The ornery one that suggests there are some really, really good stories in the guy's past. "We...
View ArticleNorman Chad: Taking a closer look at the Golden State Warriors
So can these 73-9 Golden State Warriors be vanquished this postseason? Of course they can. Heck, Oscar Robertson would tell you that a starting five of Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber, Queen Latifah, Salami...
View ArticleDoug Smock: D'Antoni building Herd hoops program the right way
Pardon me for celebrating the state of the Marshall basketball program. I'm not talking about the recent surge from its three-season abyss. The overall mark of 17-16 was but a steppingstone to where...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: Is WVU's Askew-Henry next to turn early to NFL?
By Mitch Vingle The date was Dec. 9, 2013.Aliquippa High football standout Dravon Henry sat in the Pennsylvania town's city hall. To his left was his adopted father Roland Henry. To the right was his...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: MU, WVU and the big money in college athletics
By Mitch Vingle If you're sitting down to check out the USA Today database of Division I public schools athletics spending and revenues, you'd better make sure you have some Lotemax or Restasis...
View ArticleMike Casazza: Meadows finds way to WVU's long snapper job
By Mike Casazza MORGANTOWN - Early on in his journey to Division I college football, Nick Meadows identified the obstacles. He knew he wasn't going to overcome them, so he found a way around them. "I...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: An early-entry player contract I'd like to see
By Mitch Vingle I'd imagine it'd be difficult to be a truly fine sports agent. If you're unaware, the best agents and agencies not only procure and negotiate employment for athletes, they handle...
View ArticleChuck McGill: Charleston kickball league welcomes young people
By Chuck McGill Kick or Treat, Kickin' Aces and Kickball Wizards aren't necessarily the best team names in the Charleston Kickball Association, but they're among the most family friendly for print....
View ArticleFrank Giardina: I wish I was there . . . or could see them again
By By Frank Giardina For the Gazette-Mail There are many things in sports, I wish I could have seen, or could see again. Here are a few of them. n I would like to have seen Jerry West play in high...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: Different day, not same ol' position
By Mitch Vingle WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS - West Virginia University's spring football game is a little different. It is not like that of Ohio State, which set a national record with over 100,000 in...
View ArticleNorman Chad: Time to check out on increased hotel taxes
America's unending quest to empty public coffers to build new stadiums has taken an insidious turn over the last 20 years: The hotel tax.(As if we need more taxes at the bottom of our hotel bill:...
View ArticleDoug Smock: Spring's end can't come too soon for Herd
HUNTINGTON - Marshall football players can't let up in their final days before the true offseason arrives, and they deserve the experience of playing before a paying audience. But boy, this spring...
View ArticleMitch Vingle: WVU's spring game, Big 12 and measurables
By Mitch Vingle Ye olde notebook:At the conclusion of Saturday's WVU Gold-Blue spring game, Dana Holgorsen thanked The Greenbrier resort owner Jim Justice and his staff for hosting the event. "I hope...
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