TDHelmick said:

If you are approaching your senior year of high school athletics and you feel that getting a college scholarship is not meeting your expectations, then it would be wise to consider (or at least research) an opportunity to play JUCO sports. The US Courts have forced new NCAA rules that have cleared the way for junior college athletes to not have those seasons counted against their NCAA eligibility. You can play 2-3 years at JUCO, transfer to a NCAA institution and begin your eligibility as a true freshman.

On the flip side, if you chose to enroll at a four year school such as Division II or Division III - your eligibility clock begins immediately. You now have five years to play four seasons.

JUCO is a much easier (and cheaper) academic process, especially for the adapting first year college students. With the help of guidance counselors, all classes will transfer towards whatever college degree you chose when making the transfer. In essence, an athlete can have six to seven years of college paid for. Feel free to get your masters degree at no cost to you.

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4inarowtopthat said:

I was actually waiting to see if anybody posted anything about this. I am not too proud to admit after a decade I did not see this coming. Sure athletes come and go but FH was mediocre at best even when it seemed like they had the athletes. Some coaches actually do change their philosophies and learn new tricks and maybe he's just a late bloomer. Whatever the reason sticking with it has paid off, congrats to him and the Sentinels for another excellent season.

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TDHelmick said:

People should be giving FH varsity basketball coach Thad Burner some love. FH struggled for nearly a decade to be near the top of area standings and now they have won the Area, WestMAC and Regions for a third year in a row. Area basketball has always been what it is, never going to knock out top teams east or in the metro areas or bigger WV schools. Most every Area team this year battled through .500 seasons. Was difficult to find a team heads above the rest from week to week.

The Southern girls however, hope they can bring a state title home this year.

Nice Job Thad. We see you.

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Bleedred4life said:

I think that over the years, there's been a ton of factors that have made a negative impact on game attendance. The County schools need to take some steps to bring out some positives, what that would be, I really don't know, but I do have some ideas. I get the chance to talk to Todd, I'm sure that he could send me to the right person or at least tell me that the idea is no good. (He knows that I'm so old, you can't hurt my feelings by telling me the truth!) LOL

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Bleedred4life said:

Understood. The days of the mass crowds are gone. Personally, I'd like to see more student interest at the games. The big question is, how do you increase the population at games and not have the bad behavior. I think that Ridge has a pretty good thing going, from what I remember, they have always had good crowds. (I have memories of watching a game, as a young kid, from the sidelines because there was no room in the bleachers.) Alco has a few other issues that they need to address. Hopefully, brighter days are in the not-too-distant future. Fort Hill has something special going on. Alkire, Shook, and company have a once in a lifetime thing going on and kids should really be doing everything that they can to be part of this experience. OK, I got off topic a little. The older I get, the more this happens! Sorry.

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