http://www.timeswv.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:25:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_188232224.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_188232224.html Austin Stewart’s done the whole teenage thing. He played baseball, basketball and ran cross country in junior high, and got his driver’s license a few months back.But nothing, not even the freedom of the open road, can match the thrill of rodeo.“Driving is just another thing. I’d rather ride a horse than drive a truck,” Stewart, who took part in the calf roping, team roping and steer wrestling events at this weekend’s 4-T Arena Rodeo, said. Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:08:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_178000952.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_178000952.html Sports would be nothing more than a form of art in motion were it not for the one thing that differentiates it from ballet or theater.They keep score.Be it runs or points, goals or strokes; be it objective or subjective scoring, there is a winner and a loser. Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:06:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_171000752.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_171000752.html Nate Sowers, a two-time converted quarterback, now is projected to be a starting strong safety for West Virginia University ’s football team this fall. The 6-2, 220-pound junior from Martinsburg has learned to like playing defense since switching to that side of the ball in the middle of the 2007 season. While recruited as a highly rated quarterback in 2005, Sowers eventually moved to wide receiver, where he saw little action. Then it was to the defensive secondary. “I’m settled in now at strong safety,” he said. “Hopefully, there will be no more position-changing for me. I’m concentrating solely on playing safety and I don’t want to move. Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:03:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_171000415.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_171000415.html West Virginia University’s Patrick White was named Wednesday among 26 of the nation’s top senior quarterbacks who are candidates for the 2008 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award. The prestigious honor is bestowed annually on the signal-caller considered the nation’s best signal-caller by the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation, for which Transamerica Insurance and Investment Group is the major corporate and presenting sponsor. Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:31:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_160192359.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_160192359.html Doug Davis didn’t look the way Arizona pitchers Brandon Webb and Dan Haren did the two previous days. Not surprisingly, the Diamondbacks didn’t resemble the first-place team that finally appeared to be breaking out of a slide.Jason Bay’s two-run double finished off Pittsburgh’s five-run fourth inning and the Pirates shook off Mark Reynolds’ two home runs to beat the Diamondbacks for the first time in their weekend series 6-4 on Sunday. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:55:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_154235558.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_154235558.html Bad weather never deterred Andrew Gunnoe from working on his game. “I remember being a little kid and bundling up so I could go out in the snow and play basketball,” he said. “It’s always been a love of mine and I’ve always prided myself on working hard to get better.” Perhaps more than anything it was Gunnoe’s drive and relentless work ethic, coupled with a wealth of basketball potential, which prompted Fairmont State head men’s basketball coach Tim Murphy to offer the 6-6, 195-pound Summers County standout forward a chance to play for the Falcons next season at the college level. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:53:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_154002604.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_154002604.html Cardinals pitcher Braden Looper was on the field more than he expected Sunday — the price of getting two hits on a hot day.Looper continued his torrid hitting to help earn himself a win in the Cardinals’ 7-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. He had two singles, scored twice, and drove in a run to raise his batting average to .429 — tops among pitchers in the majors. On the mound, Looper (7-4) allowed eights hits and three runs in 5 2-3 innings. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:28:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_153003014.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_153003014.html It is unlikely that as new coach Bill Stewart assembled his first football staff at West Virginia University he did so with the new recruiting rules in mind. During the evaluation period, which ran from April 15 through May 23, the Mountaineers’ coach was prohibited from involving himself in recruiting, a new wrinkle he does not like.He instead leaned on his stable of assistants, led by Doc Holliday, whom Stewart labeled the “best recruiter in the country” when Hurricane native and WVU alumnus Holliday was hired. The staff followed through with the permissible phone calls and even visited practices when possible — high school practices. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 00:26:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_153002815.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_153002815.html Here, all along, I thought Adam Sandler was “The Waterboy.”But what did I know?Turns out “Waterboy” was a nom de plume used by Rich Rodriguez’s agent, Mike Brown (aka “Ice Cream”), according to surprising testimony that came out of his May 5 deposition taken at Marriott Courtyard in Holland, Ohio, on May 5.Turns out that WVU lawyer Bob Fitzsimmons was able to uncover a tie Brown had to a fringe gambling enterprise between Rodriguez’s attorney’s Marv Robon’s many requests to “run to the potty,” as he so delicately put it once, and 258 objections — many of them on the subject of Brown’s involvement in this endeavor. Tue, 27 May 2008 23:41:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_148234228.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_148234228.html Olayinka Sanni, erstwhile leader of the West Virginia University women’s basketball team, cracked the Detroit Shock’s starting lineup late last week in the WNBA.The 6-foot-2 rookie center from Chicago Heights, Ill., earned the nod by proving to head coach Bill Laimbeer that she’s a quick learner, according to a feature story on the Shock’s Web site.“We’re very impressed with Sanni, unexpectedly so,” Laimbeer said. “Her best trait is she finishes the shot with two hands, from around the basket, from six-to-eight feet out.” Tue, 27 May 2008 23:39:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_148234055.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_148234055.html While West Virginia University basketball coach Bob Huggins was trying to order up an NCAA basketball championship on rye at Kansas State, it became something of a shock when he decided to hold the Mayo.Most people had assumed Huggins’ long courtship with O.J. Mayo, one of the biggest recruiting prizes to come along in years, would pay off with Mayo, Bill James and Michael Beasley forming the greatest freshman class since Michigan’s Fab Five.But Mayo wound up with Tim Floyd at USC in a move that was far more shocking than the charges levied by one-time Mayo confidant Louis Johnson, through an ESPN investigative piece, that Mayo had been on the take from a representative of the BDA Agency. Mon, 19 May 2008 23:40:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_140234147.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_140234147.html Coach Greg Van Zant is not counting West Virginia out of having a shot at capturing the Big East baseball championship in play that gets under way on Tuesday at Clearwater, Fla.“I believe all eight teams are capable of winning the tournament,” he said on Monday after the seventh-seeded Mountaineers worked out at Bright House Field where the double-elimination event is being played.West Virginia (34-19) meets second-seeded Cincinnati (36-19) in the third game of the opening round at 5 p.m. The winner will play the winner of an 8 p.m. contest between No. 3 Notre Dame (33-19-1) and No. 4 seed USF (29-25) at 8 p.m. Wednesday.Those games’ losers will meet at 1 p.m. that day.Van Zant thinks it was more a matter of Cincinnati playing some of its best baseball than West Virginia playing poorly in the Bearcats’ impressive three-game sweep in the final regular-season series on their field last weekend.Those three losses gave the Mountaineers a 2-8 record for their last 10 games.“The last 10 games you like to be playing well going into the tournament,” Van Zant admitted. “We’re kind of limping into the tournament a little bit. Mon, 19 May 2008 23:39:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_140234015.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_140234015.html Veteran Fairmont State volleyball coach Larry Hill felt last year’s recruiting class may have been one of his strongest in years. The Falcons brought nine new players to fall camp in 2007 and eight of those individuals are still with the team and many of them played key roles as true freshmen in FSU’s 11-21 campaign. This coming August when Fairmont begins fall camp Hill will welcome eight newcomers whom he feels has the potential, as a group, to possibly be even stronger than last season’s stellar class. “We wanted to try to find the best athletes we possibly could,” said Hill. “We felt we needed to address a couple of areas in our recruiting and those were at middle hitter, setter and liberio. We needed some depth at those positions and we feel like we have that now. “I thought last year’s class was an excellent group for us and of course time will tell about this class. Athletically I feel that this class is stronger than last year and that’s pretty exciting. We’re a young team, but our potential for the future appears to be very bright.” Mon, 12 May 2008 23:21:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_133232156.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_133232156.html Just what we need in West Virginia, another scandal.Rich Rodriguez, Calvin Magee, Heather Bresch aren’t enough to keep us busy.Now we have O.J. Mayo on our hands.It seems that a one-time reporter Louis Johnson has told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles-based event promoter, gave Mayo about $30,000 and other benefits while he attended high school and during his only season at USC. Mon, 12 May 2008 23:19:00 +0000 http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_133232036.html http://www.timeswv.com/sports/local_story_133232036.html On paper it appears like a match made in heaven. On the court Fairmont State Lady Falcon coach Steve McDonald hopes that’s exactly what it turns out to be. FSU’s women’s basketball team was in desperate need of a veteran point guard. Cara Waybright, a three-year starter at Davis and Elkins College, was looking for a new home for her final season. Now the two have found each other. Waybright, a 5-4 senior-to-be point guard, will transfer to FSU this summer and will be eligible immediately for the Lady Falcons.