TheFontanaReport

Mountaineers Doing Fine Without Truck March 27, 2010

Ever since WVU starting point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant got injured the national media has been saying the Mountaineers will lose in the Sweet 16. Well that didn’t happen and now the Mountaineers are on their way to the Elite 8 and are one win away from heading to Indianapolis for the Final Four. I think its ironic that many experts think WVU will be hindered by losing a player who averages about ten point per game, but in this interview Bryant talks becoming more of a true point guard and not a scoring point guard. This interview was also conducted the practice before Bryant was injured.

After hearing that interview, I was thinking Huggins wants Bryant to be more like Joe Mazzulla. Many people forget that Mazzulla was the starting point guard when Bryant was a freshman, but since Mazzulla had surgery on his should he was been unable to play a full 40 minutes of basketball and that is why he has been coming off the bench. Now we just have to wait and see if the Mountaineers will knock off the Kentucky Wildcats and advance to the Final Four.

You Noah Who It Is March 21, 2010

West Virginia commit Noah Cottrill has done something few people every do in their lives, win a State Championship. Cottrill just accomplished this on Saturday night. I think this is a rarity now in West Virginia. It’s not often WVU gets the top basketball player in the state because most players aren’t good enough to play in the Big East Conference or for Bob Huggins, let alone that player wins a State Championship. This thought hit me when I was waiting for Cottrill and the Class AAA Logan Wildcats to come to podium for their post game press conference, when was the last time a player from West Virginia won a state championship and was heading to WVU the next year.

I found out my answer was Ted Talkington, who played for Magnolia and won a state championship in 2005, he played three years for WVU and is now in medical school. The main difference between Cottrill and Talkington is Cottrill committed to WVU during his sophomore year of high school and in the past three years has been in three different high schools.

It must have be a surreal moment for Cottrill on Saturday night, not just because won a state championship, but because there were a combination of media members who have covered him in high school and people who will be covering him at WVU. Hopefully Cottrill will have a great career at WVU and hopefully I will witness some more great moments in his career as he moves onto West Virginia University.

Here are is bonus clip, Cottrill’s press conference after he won the state championship.

The Mohigans Are At States Once Again March 17, 2010

The Morgantown high school basketball team is heading down to Charleston today to take part in the West Virginia Boy’s High School State Basketball Championships to try and take home their first state title in school history. The Mohigans were at the state tournament two years ago and lost to South Charleston in the quarterfinals. This year they have a team that has a chance to win it all. Morgantown high ended their season winning 18 of their last twenty games including a victory over WVU commit Elijah Macon and Marion Franklin high (OH). The streak to end the season was one of the best they have had in recent time, to see their entire schedule click here.

The last time the Mohigans were at state they had a senior led team, the same can be said this year. Center Sam Runner has been on the varsity squad since his sophomore season and made the crucial block against Fairmont Senior to send the Mohigans to the state tournament, here is the article from the game for more information. Outside of the paint there are guards Ryan Parsons and Jordan Barnett who can hit the occasional three. Those players will be key to Morgantown’s run through the state tournament.

Another story for the Mohigans as they head down to Charleston for the tournament is head coach Tom Yester. He has been to the state tournament more than ten times in his coaching career and is still searching for his first state championship. Yester has over five hundred wins in his career and he would certainly like on of those wins to be a state title.

Why I Like Twitter March 17, 2010

My experiencing Tweeting has been great. I started using a twitter account back in June and got a lot of followers when I initially started because I was doing afternoon sports for MetroNews and tweeted any interesting or good stories that I was using in my cast. After a few people retweeted my tweets I got to 100 followers within a week, but for some reason it took me longer to get to 200, don’t ask me why?

For me as a journalist I think this tool is crucial. When I had to cover Mountaineer practices over the summer I would tweet what players were doing an I had a lot of fans who tweeted me questions and I would answer them. That was really neat and I get about two or three questions from WVU fans every week.

Other than that stuff I think this is a great news source. Not just because people can instantly tweet anything and people will know about it, but because a lot of news networks have twitter accounts and tweet news updates. Overall, I am a huge twitter fan and think this is something will be used more in the future as technology advances.

Week 1 of the Group Blog March 14, 2010

In this week’s group blog I focused on some certain sporting events in the area. The first was places to watch the Big East Tournament that just took place. I talked to some DJs at the radio station I work at. They know almost all of the club and bar owners in the area because they do business with them. They each of them told me the best places to watch the games at. I put the top places in my blog along with links to their menus and all the types of food they have and some positives and negatives of each place.

This one was one post I thought would be fitting because there are a lot of people who won’t be able to go to New York to watch the games in person. With this being a college town there are a lot of people who want to watch the game and would like to know where the best places to watch the games are.

The next post I did this week was about the Mountaineer baseball team. This blog is not just for college students, but for everyone in the area and people with families. Baseball games are a great form of entertainment and I’ve talked to a lot of people and families around the area that are excited for the baseball season to begin. At most Mountaineer baseball games cost five dollars, by far much cheaper than traveling north to watch a Pirates game. Since baseball is a form of entertainment than it fits perfectly into the blog. I talk to a lot of people in the area that are excited about the baseball season starting because there is a lot of talent on this team. Going to these games are a way people can save money during this tough economy and see something that is entertaining. Those are my blogs for this week.

Next week I plan on blogging about the best hotels to stay at because with part of being an entertainment blog, people will come into town to do things and may need to know what places are the best to stay at and there are a lot of hotels that are prepared to handle the big crowds many sporting events bring to Morgantown. That is what this week’s blog will be about. The other topic I am blogging about will be sports people can play and where they can play them. Those are my upcoming blogs for this week. To see my group and I have blogged about this week here is a link: http://motownentertainment.wordpress.com/

History In The High School Tournament March 12, 2010

With the Mountaineers on the verge of making history as they try and become a number one seed for the first time in NCAA Tournament history, another Morgantown basketball team has already written their history. The Trinity high school girls basketball team has made the WVSSAC state championships for the first time in school history. The Lady Warriors faced Tucker County in the first round of the Class A tournament and fell to the Lady Mountain Lions 46-33. It was a tough loss for Trinity, but it was a great experience for the team. The high school took a bus full of kids down to the state tournament to watch the game and this game was played at 9:30 this morning.

I was surprised how many people I saw at the game from Trinity high school. There were not only high schoolers there, but some middle schoolers as well. That’s one thing that Lady Warriors head coach Cary Woods talked about during his post game press conference and was excited for this team to experience this. See schools experience things like this for the first time is one of the reasons I love to cover sports and this was a really neat thing to experience.

Wrestling With A Championship March 7, 2010

Today is the EWL Championships (Eastern Wrestling League) and it is being held in Morgantown for the third time in the tournament’s history. Last season the Mountaineer wrestling team finished second in the tournament. This season they aren’t having as much success and have finished the season with a record of 3-10. They do have a few wrestlers who may make a significant impact at today’s championships in Colin Johnston who is 21-4 on the season and Brandon Williamson who is undefeated league record and could be one of the top seeds heading into the tournament.

Another key to the Mountaineers’ success today could be assistant coach Greg Jones. He was a three-time NCAA Champion and is always mentioned as one of the greatest college wrestlers of all-time. Here is a story about Greg Jones that was done on the latest edition of WVU News. The story starts at the 11 minute mark of the program. If the Mountaineers do well in this round the next step is the NCAA Championships in Omaha, Nebraska.

Another interesting topic that is brought up when wrestling is talked about is if some wrestlers will transfer their skills well to the football field. Here is an interesting article that includes Greg Jones in a discussion about wrestlers who may do well on the football field.

Hopefully the EWLC will get a good turnout from wrestling fans and people in the Morgantown area and you never know, there may be an NFL scout or two at this event. I guess we will just have to see, good luck to the mountaineers.

Football Is Back In Motown March 5, 2010

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of covering the Mountaineer football team’s media luncheon and got to hear what the coaches said about the upcoming season. The big news that came out was that Chris Beatty was named the new Recruiting Coordinator. I think tha is a very good move because he has gotten some great recruits for West Virginia during the the past two season. This was a position previously held by Doc Holliday who left for the head coaching job at Marshall. Here is an interview Chris Beatty did after WVU head football coach Bill Stewart announced him as the new Recruiting Coordinator.

Beatty’s move was one of a few that the team announced during the luncheon. Another major announcement was the splitting up of the special teams among three different coaches. Stewart, safeties coach Steve Dunlap and new tight ends coach Dave McMichael will all have a role in that area. To hear about some of the other moves the team announced check out this piece I did with Greg Hunter from BlueandGoldNews.