Mohigan Journal- 2-17-02
by Coach Hoffman
Congratulations go out to the Freshman team as they claimed the NCAC championship these past couple of weeks. There was some definite team work going on with this group as different people stepped up every night to lead them to victory. We sure are proud of what this group has accomplished and it appears that they will be a nice compliment to the Sophomore class which is loaded with good size. Having a good program means being able to put groups together and have success.
Speaking of being together. As many of you know Ronnie Shaver's step mom, Sherran has been in and now out of the hospital over the past couple of weeks, and the response of support from the Mohigan basketball family couldn't be any stronger. Swifty wanted everyone to know that the food, cards and most importantly the prayers were really appreciated. Basketball takes a back seat when a family member is ill, and supporting one another becomes more important. We have a lot to be proud of as our basketball family seems to get stronger each year. Sherran is doing fine and and will be back with us soon. Keep the prayers coming, as you can never have enough.
The JV team had a terrific week this past week as they finally started playing a better brand of basketball. They played a great final 12 minutes against Elkins and played Brook very well for the road win in Wellsburg. Once again let me say, we have players playing out of position, learning new positions and have had our share of growing pains. Certainly this group will be solid with a lot of hard work in the off- season.
The varsity keeps rolling along as they defeated Elkins(11-6) and Brooke (#9 in the state) last week. Once again it seems someone different leads this team in scoring each night. Seth Fogarty had the big game against Elkins and Bobby Prim and Nick Hedges exploded against Brooke. Justin Vidovich had a subpar game against Brooke, if you can call 13 points and 10 rebounds sub par. Ronnie continues to be Mr. Dependable as he rarely has a bad game. This week MHS will go against Buckhannon and host West Fairmont and Princeton on Friday and Saturday. The Bears and Tigers are favored to represent their regions in the state tournament this season. Princeton beat Beckley last week and West Fairmont already has beaten us this year. Remember the 20 point loss about 5 weeks ago. The MAC should be rockin on Friday night as the #1 Polar Bears come to town.
For those of you making plans for senior night it will be this Friday night. This has been one of the most remarkable senior classes to go through our program in some time. These young men have worked hard and are good role models for what Mohigan basketball stands for. In case you haven't noticed we haven't had transfers over the past several years as nobody in the area has tranferred to us because Coach Yester is committed to our players and our players are commited to us.Commitment is a very valuable lesson and we try to teach it everyday in the Mohigan basketball program. If someone moves in thats one thing, but our motto is "We don't recruit them, we grow them. At 16-3 and ranked number five, its looks like we grew them pretty well.
These seniors have had many colleges contact us about their services. Right now the following schools are recruiting our seniors (minus the ones I forget to put on this list): Bethany, WV Wesleyan, AB, Shepherd, Waynesburg, Washington and Jefferson, Washington St. Louis, Ithaca, Maryville, Cumberland Tennessee. It is looking like all four will have the opportunity to play college basketball if they have the desire to. Not many schools can say that they have four guys from the same class signing scholarships. That would be a great day for Mohigan basketball if that happens. One coach stopped in after a game and asked to talk to all four players. He said, " I have never talked to four people from the same team before. This is unique." And these seniors are unique!
Go Mohigans!