COUGARS’ RILEY TAKES AWARD
By Bill Nestor
Last Monday was a big night in North Central West Virginia. West Virginia University’s Women’s basketball team was hosting Kentucky with a berth to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament on the line. That same evening in Bridgeport, Harrison County’s best football players gathered at the Conference Center for the Frank Loria Awards Dinner.
Frank Loria was born in Clarksburg in 1947. Loria played college football at Virginia Tech from 1965 to 1967. He was a first team All American in 1966 and a consensus All American in 1967. Loria was arguably one of the best football players to come out of our county.
After his playing days were complete, he joined the Marshall coaching staff. Loria would pass away in the airplane crash on Nov 14, 1970. The crash took the lives of most of the team and the coaching staff, devastating the school and the Huntington area for years to come.
Loria’s number 10 was retired by Virginia Tech. His memory lives on through the hard work of his family that put on this top notch event recognizing our youth. There are four awards given out during the banquet and this year’s guest speaker was Marshall head coach Tony Gibson.
The top award is the Frank Loria Award. It is given to the most outstanding high school football player in Harrison County. This year’s winner was Bridgeport’s running back Gavin Williams. Williams keeps the streak of Indian running backs that have won the award consecutively going as he is the fourth in a row. His numbers (27 rushing touchdowns and 1,977 yards speak for themselves. Tribe Head Coach Tyler Phares won the coach of the year award for the fifth time, which is how many years he has been at the helm of the program. Bryson Lowther (a Bridgeport behemoth in the trenches) was named Lineman of the Year.
Lincoln’s Cade Riley capped off a tremendous high school career, garnering the Columbian Award for academic excellence. This award is given to the senior with the highest scholastic average.
In Morgantown a second consecutive sellout crowd helped pull West Virginia back from a couple of sizable defeats against Kentucky. In the end, however, a potential game-winning jumper for the Mountaineers was off the mark and a one point loss to the Wildcats ended the fairy tale campaign.
WVU Head Coach Mark Kellogg put together his best season to date as his squad won the hearts of Mountaineer Nation. His team lost just once in February at Texas Christian University. They enacted some revenge on the Horned Frogs in the Big 12 Conference Championship game en route to the conference crown. They ended the campaign on a 28 and seven record and have fans already looking forward to next season.
That will do it for now! Until next week . . . take care and God Bless!