WC Manager

Before my career in marketing with Wheelhouse Creative, I was a sports journalist.

Throughout that long career, it hurt to hear folks badmouthing the fine journalists with which I worked. They were trained professionals who cared deeply. They strived to get the facts correct. And they had honor. I once watched a news editor type his own DUI report in and literally place it on a page for the next day’s newspaper.

There are likewise fine folks that are lawyers, politicians and salesmen that have to put up with scorn.

Today, though, I’d like to shine my spotlight on West Virginia’s teachers, who also at times get a bad rap.

Because after interviewing teacher after teacher for West Virginia Education Association videos, I’m moved.

Actually, I’m in awe.

West Virginia’s teachers – which don’t get the deserved respect within our state’s craggy lines – aren’t simply babysitters with insurance plans.

They are incredibly concerned and caring folks that truly put our children before themselves.

I’ve been bowled over. Same with Wheelhouse video magicians Joe and Pat Monahan (yes, they are brothers), who have been with me through around 30 interviews of teachers for the WVEA. (Some of our work has been released and posted on the WVEA’s website: https://www.wvea.org/content/raise-your-hand)

There’s more content to come though. And it’s been our honor to provide that content because of the incredible education professionals we’ve met along the way.

We’ve been amazed at their hard work and long hours. We’ve been blown away by their dedication.

We’ve seen the love the teachers have for our state’s kids. We’ve heard how they lie awake at night concerned.

We’ve felt their pain as they’ve recounted encounters with issues like opioids, abuse, abandonment, etc.

We’ve heard the tales of teachers coming to the rescue.

And, yes, we’ve felt their frustration. They are frustrated because many in our state don’t see them in the same light as those outside West Virginia. In other states they are hailed as heroes for taking a stand in 2018. They are hailed for their work in our bad economic conditions.

Also, they feel frustration because they are not consulted in regard to funding.

“It’s not reading, writing and arithmetic anymore,” Yaunetta Dunn said in one of the posted videos.

In the above link you can also see Suha Beck speaking about teachers moving past scorn, issues and frustrations.

“If the teachers in West Virginia had a spirit animal,” she said, “it would be the phoenix.”

Indeed, because they continue to rise to the challenge time and time again.

I simply wish more people would be able to sit and listen to our teachers.

Sit. Listen. Watch. Empathize.

I think they’d come to the same conclusion as our Wheelhouse Creative group.

The word “teacher” just doesn’t seem big enough to describe or cover the dedication, the love and the professionalism of these fine folks.

God bless them all.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

West Virginia native J.R. House has had quite a 40-year ride.

At one time, he set national high school passing records (14,457 career yards; 10 TDs in a championship) for Nitro.

During those high school years, he controversially moved south for spring semesters and played baseball in Ormond Beach, Fla.

He was a fifth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1999 and made it to the bigs with the Bucs, Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles.

Of course, he also played quarterback for WVU one season, 2005, completing 2-of-4 passes for 38 yards with then-coach Rich Rodriguez.

Oh, and if that’s not enough, House has worked his way up to a position as the third-base coach for the Cincinnati Reds.

Which is attempting to play a shortened 60-game season amidst a pandemic.

“We start practice on July 3,” House said from Cincy on Tuesday. “So we have to get the players in. They have to go through a bunch of protocol with testing and all that good stuff. Then hopefully everyone is cleared and we can get rolling.”

I called House knowing he’s in the middle of Major League Baseball’s grand experiment.

“I don’t think anyone ever thought this would ever happen,” he said. “It’s been a crazy time, that’s for sure.”

It’s certain to be different. Fans won’t initially be in the stands, although the league’s Operations Manuel left the door open. (“Clubs may permit fan attendance at games with the approval of MLB and relevant local authorities,” says the manual.)

Not the old days of, well, last season though.

“Opening day last year was phenomenal,” House said. “Cincinnati always gets the first game – normally anyway – and to experience that for the first time was really, really special. It was cool.”

This season?

“It’s just kind of scary with everything going on,” House said. “You’re kind of watching, seeing where everyone stands, what they feel as a team. Everyone has different opinions on different things. We just have to find the heartbeat of our team and service it through this time.”

By the way, yes, you read correctly in the lead paragraph. House, the Mountain State golden boy of the late 1990s and early 2000s, is heading toward his 41^st birthday. He and wife Valerie have a daughter, Rilynn, 11, and a son, Camden, 8.

“A plus through this whole thing was being able to be home and experience so many holidays I’m usually not a part of,” House said.

House joined the Reds after getting a call from manager David Bell in the 2018 offseason. House had earned a name coaching in the minor leagues, including California League Manager of the Year in 2015, before serving as field coordinator of instruction for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the ongoing pandemic and working around it.

“Only certain personnel can see the team, be around the team,” House said. “Obviously, though, the team [members] can do their own thing and step outside the stadium. You can’t put shackles on anyone. You just have to be responsible and don’t put your teammates in jeopardy.

“That said, it won’t be perfect. Some people will probably end up getting sick. That’s life. That’s the way it goes. You’re going to have to adjust and handle it.

“We’re just going to try and keep everybody as healthy as possible.”

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

If you’ve been watching the (limited) sports news, you know the NBA is moving toward a restart of the 2019-2020 season.

The plan is to restart at Disney World in Orlando, Fla. But the Corona-19 pandemic continues. Also, a group of NBA players, led by Kyrie Irving, is concerned returning to hoops will distract from the growing social justice movement. Other players, like Davis Bertans of the Washington Wizards and Trevor Ariza of the Portland Trail Blazers, are opting to sit out.

One not sitting out of the restart, however, is former WVU Mountaineer and ex-Fairmont State coach Joe Mazzulla, now an assistant with the Boston Celtics.

As is his makeup, Joe is all in.

“They haven’t told us much yet,” Mazzulla said Tuesday of the NBA restart. “Everything is getting finalized. But I trust the NBA and everyone to put us in the safest environment to do what needs to be done. As long as it’s safe, I think it will be fun.”

Mazzulla has been playing it safe, remaining mostly at home, he said, except for a week of isolation at Cape Cod. (“I’ve enjoyed the time with the family,” he said. “It was a time for growth. Grateful we were able to do that.”)

Yet soon he’ll be going to the “bubble” in Orlando.

Wary?

“I trust the people at the head of the Celtics organization,” Mazzulla said. “I trust the NBA. I think as long as we’re in a safe environment and we do the best we can, there’s not much we can worry about.”

Like everything around him, Mazzulla’s coaching career has been a whirlwind – yet in a good way. He was an assistant coach for the Maine Red Claws of the NBA G League during the 2016-17 season after going 43-17 over two seasons at Fairmont. He was also at Glenville.

Now he’s working for head coach Brad Stevens and the tradition-rich Celtics.

“The first year was about getting acclimated to Boston,” Mazzulla said. “My wife and kids had lived and grown up in West Virginia and moving to Boston was definitely an adjustment. But it’s been fun. Boston is a great city. There’s a lot to do. We had a good time getting acclimated as a family.”

Mazzulla said he’s all about player development with Boston.

“Helping with the workouts,” Mazzulla said. “Working with some of the younger players within our player development program. That’s the main component of the job – help facilitate workouts and player development.”

I asked how he managed the rough waters during the pandemic.

“Rely on relationships,” Mazzulla said. “It’s the same as if things were normal. Coaching is all about relationships and the more strong relationships you can build, where there’s great communication, there’s great opportunity to get better. You just have to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Oh, and yes, I asked about his coolest moment yet as an NBA assistant coach. Hanging with Stevens? Chilling with Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum?

“I think just being from this area,” Mazzulla, a Rhode Island native, said. “My home is 40 minutes away and I can see my family anytime. Just living in the Boston area. Reconnecting with a lot of the people I lost touch with being away for so long.

“Of course, every day being able to work for the Celtics. Just driving to the facility, seeing the banners and the history. The whole process has been one neat moment.”

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

It’s a hell of a story.

It’s more than local boy done good. It’s more than local boy done outstanding.

Chad Lavender is a Chesapeake native and Riverside High graduate, former WVU long snapper and current Marshall Health Orthopaedics doctor gone groundbreaking.

You’ve heard of Dr. James Andrews, the “athlete-centric” orthopedic surgeon? Dr. Lavender could one day gain similar recognition.

One day soon.

See, Lavender is making waves medically — not only nationally, but around the world. He’s developed the Lavender Fertilized ACL technique. He’s developed a variety of minimally invasive nanoscopic techniques. And Wheelhouse Creative LLC was proud to produce videos explaining the techniques. (Please see ACL video below.)

It all started, Lavender said, after joining WVU’s football team as a long snapper.

“Being part of that team taught me discipline,” Lavender said. “Getting up at 6 a.m. and working out and doing those things really helped prepare me for medical school. It helped prepare me mentally with my work ethic.

“When you played football back in those days you could be there from 6 a.m. through 9-10 p.m. because of study hall. That carried through medical school for me and today with my research. Research is endless. Plus, there’s a team approach. I’m a member of a research team.”

To say the research team’s results have been impressive is an understatement. Twenty percent through the ACL clinical trial, they’ve seen improved motion at two weeks and improved functional results at 12 weeks. There’s also been evidence of improved MRI results at 12 weeks.

“When you combine the ACL and nanoscopic techniques, I’ve had calls from surgeons in Florida,” Lavender said. “I’ve had people on Twitter reach out from Ireland, Australia, all over the world. All over the world these techniques have been published, submitted and made their rounds. It’s not just a regional thing.

“Now, we have other surgeons in other regions of the country doing this technique because of what they’ve seen us produce.”

And, again, the genesis was Lavender’s days as a Mountaineer football player.

“From my time at WVU I saw the effect knee injuries had on players’ careers,” said the surgeon. “That’s what has driven my passion – still to this day. It’s my passion to try and improve that.”

Lavender played for WVU from 2000-03 before starting his medical training that took him from Morgantown to Huntington to Virginia. Then he moved back to the Kanawha Valley. He works both in Teays Valley and Huntington.

“This chapter of my life has complemented those days as a football player,” Lavender said. “Yet now I’m trying to help all of our state. I have great connections at WVU still and go to the football games, but also here at Marshall our research team is doing great things.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a football field or our research, we need to bring positive things to our state. Our clinical trial has been a huge plus for our state.”

Lavender points to ex-Mountaineers in the Kanawha Valley like John Pennington, Quincy Wilson and George Shehl, all West Virginia State coaches. He keeps in touch with Rasheed Marshall, now in Pittsburgh.

“A lot of the relationships you take with you for life,” Lavender said.

Also, a lot of memories, like those of ACL injuries. As the good doctor said, that’s what fuels his passion, not the fame Dr. Andrews earned.

“That’s not what this is about,” Lavender said. “It’s about making athletes better and having better results. We’re already talking about the next phase comparing our technique to the gold standard of the patella tendon [surgery]. That would include several large institutions in a multi-center trial. For us in West Virginia to take the lead on that is unheard of.”

Again, it’s a hell of a West Virginia story.

Oh, and if you’re wondering Lavender’s fondest memory as a football player, here it is:

“I’ll never forget the Syracuse game, when Coach [Don] Nehlen was retiring,” Lavender said. “I had no idea that was happening. I’d always looked up to him – my entire life. I’d watched and gone to the games before playing. It was a shock to us.

“I’ll never forget that week and the weeks right after, including the bowl. Nehlen brought me there. Winning that Music City Bowl was one of my fondest memories.”

Now, Lavender is helping make athletes’ memories better. And he’s making the Mountain State proud along the way.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

Marshall Orthopaedics “The Fertilized ACL” from Wheelhouse Creative on Vimeo.

There are times when I want to simplify things, to quiet the mind.

In regard to sports, for instance, I see and hear the news regarding Major League baseball. The owners have proposed a 76-game season that would give players 75 percent of their prorated salary for the 2020 season. They’d only receive 75 percent of those prorated salaries, however, under playoff bonuses.

To which Philadelphia Philly – and longtime Pittsburgh Pirate – Andrew McCutchen responded: Lol.

The NFL, meanwhile, has floated the idea of opening training camps in mid-July, about two weeks ahead of the traditional report date.

That’s along the same lines as college football. In the NFL, coaches and employees have started returing to their offices. Protocols have been spelled out to each team about welcoming the players back for official football activities.

Then, today, Monday, the West Virginia SSAC cut loose of a message via Twitter. It had guidelines for its “Phase 1, Weeks 1 and 2: Conditioning, Strength Training and Agility” for student-athletes with recommended dates of June 8-19.

It spelled out that outdoors facilities only be used. That there would be the use of “pods” of 10 or less with names recorded and reported. That no sport specific activities or equipment be allowed. That there would be no sharing of water bottles. That disinfectants and hand sanitizers would be on site. And, of course, that students with Covid-19 symptoms must stay home.

With all that swirling, however, I had two quiet, nice moments in regard to sports over the last few days.

One was just this morning, as I let our dog out, and looked over behind John Marshall High’s school.

There, I saw some of the aforementioned high school athletes, indeed training. They were at the essence of it all, exercising, feeling sunshine, getting their shoes wet with newly cut grass, preparing for competition. And I smiled.

Then, I attended a weekend celebration for my parents’ 61^st anniversary and my mother’s 82^nd birthday. (We are blessed, yes.)

Among those gathered was my nephew Weston. I’d seen on Facebook before the party that he was able to participate in a baseball scrimmage over the weekend.

I asked him about being able to do so.

The grin on his face was priceless. He beamed because of his love of sports.

For that moment, the world stopped swirling. My mind quieted. I revisited what sports are all about.

It’s about that joy of the sport itself.

I pray no other generation has to deal with a pandemic. I pray no other generation has to deal with social injustice. I may not be able to help with the former, but I can try to help with the latter.

My wish is for those in the very near future to look back and simply remember throwing that two-hitter in baseball or softball.

I want them to fondly remember finishing off a tennis match with an ace. Or coming off the bench in a basketball game and scoring 10 points. Or, heck, only scoring two in the entire season, but being part of the team and, hey, wasn’t that jumper from the elbow something special?

That’s my wish for the nearly 30 million children and adolescents that participate across the United States in youth sports from here on.

Stay safe. Yet stay active. You’ll feel better. Your bodies will be better.

And hopefully, if enough people work on the other issues, if we all come together, you can simply remember hitting that jumper from the elbow.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

Last week, I spoke to WVU football assistant coach Travis Trickett.

Toward the end of the interview, I tossed a bit of a softball question, yet it was one I truly wanted to ask. It centered on Mountaineer head football coach Neal Brown.

Brown is a different cat, right? Not only is he welcoming to the media, but respectful. Polite. He also seems to sincerely care about the academic aspect of college. You can tell by the programs he put in place in Morgantown.

So, I asked Trickett about Brown. Trickett has been a graduate assistant for Nick Saban at Alabama and Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher at Florida State. He was once a student assistant at WVU under Rich Rodriguez.

This was Trickett’s response:

“I’ve worked for some really good head coaches,” Trickett said. “And I couldn’t be more excited to work for this man than I am. Like when I worked for Coach [Nick] Saban, he can have that fourth-and-one mentality. But what sets Coach Brown apart is he’s relationship driven. He genuinely respects everybody’s role from the players, coaches, staff, everybody. He appreciates everybody’s role. He’s someone you can go and talk to, but he’ll also hold you to the fire to be accountable. He does a great job of stretching us – coaches and players – so we’re always advancing. It’s how he holds himself accountable. He’s very smart. He’s very disciplined.

“He could go to the local bar and shoot the crap or he could go to the lake and hang out. He could probably walk into a company right now and run it.”

Then the nation’s events of last week hit. Footage of an arrest of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The white officer kneeling on black Floyd’s neck for several minutes as Floyd said, “I can’t breathe.” The subsequent death of Floyd. The widespread protests and violence that swept our country.

And I wondered how or if Brown would respond.

On Sunday, we all got the answer. The WVU head coach did indeed address the situation and shared his thoughts and feelings to his 75,000 Twitter followers.

He began by saying he first felt “totally overwhelmed and incompetent” to express his thoughts on the “murder of George Floyd and the topic of social injustice.” Yet he did what many of us must: listen. He listened to the words of Tony Dungy and Killer Mike.

And then he echoed to us on Twitter what he told his team in a Thursday Zoom meeting.

“My heart hurts,” he wrote. “I’m sick. I can’t relate. I don’t understand. But I do care. I want to help. We ALL must be better. Hate can’t win.

“The following are two quotes I’ve shared with our players over the last couple of days. I hope they can benefit you as well.

“1. ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garmet of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from his ‘Letter from the Birmingham Jail.’

“2. ‘Hate – It has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it hasn’t solved one yet.’ Maya Angelou.

“This morning,” Brown continued. “[wife] Brooke and I sat down with our youngest two children, Dax (5) and Anslee (9), to talk through and explain the protests, riots and events over the last couple of days. As we talked through racism and injustice, their young minds couldn’t comprehend. Children, not just my kids, don’t see the world through that lens. These are learned thoughts and behaviors, which gives me hope we can and will do better. Change begins at home.”

Brown finished with words from the Thomas Rhett song “Be A Light.”

“In a world full of hate, be a light. When you do something wrong, make it right. Don’t hide in the dark. You were born to shine. In a world full of hate, be a light.”

After reading that, I paused for a minute. Then I remembered what Trickett told me at the end of the aforementioned “softball” question.

“I love working for Coach Brown,” Trickett said, “because he makes me better.”

Let’s hope such words, along with much dialogue ahead, makes us all better.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

WVU football assistant coach Travis Trickett spends most of his weekdays sequestered in his basement, beside his kids’ playroom.

His computer sits on a folding TV dinner stand beside a desk. The images project onto the TV. There is where he works through the (hopefully lessening) pandemic.

“From 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Trickett said, “the playroom is closed.”

Indeed, Trickett and the rest of Neal Brown’s staff have been hard at work. Trickett’s father, Rick, a former Mountaineer assistant, asked if his son has had time off.

“Nooo,” Trickett replied. “Not at all. But it’s been good. We’ve attacked this thing and without a doubt Coach Brown had a great plan. It’s getting us better in a lot of areas we need to get better.

“We’re having full days, that’s for sure.”

Of course, it sounds more and more like college football will be played in some fashion. That seems to be fueling Trickett.

“I hope we get all our guys here soon,” he said. “I don’t know when or how that’s going to look like. The good thing is we see them every day on our video meetings. We’re attacking this thing as best as we can from an X and O football standpoint. We’re making sure they’re growing up and understanding the responsibility of working on their own. I think it’s going to pay off for them. Hopefully when they look back at this Covid-19 pandemic – as horrible as it’s been for everybody – maybe they’ll gain something they can take with them: responsibility, time management and doing things on their own. They haven’t been relying on other people.”

That said, I have a question for WVU fans: Are you ready for a little college football talk?

Well, I asked Trickett about the Mountaineer tight ends and inside receivers he oversees. And he was kind enough to give a rundown.

First, he spoke about the tight end position.

“We’re low on numbers,” he said. “Right now, we only have two bodies returning. We’ll really only have four bodies on the roster.

“We have Mike O’Laughlin, though, who played a lot for us last year. Unfortunately, he missed last spring because he was coming back from injury. This was going to be his first true offseason and it got taken away from him. I think, though, a year of having weight on and understanding his body better and understanding his role in the offense is going to help him.”

O’Laughlin played in all 12 games and made six catches for 24 yards. Leading us to…

“T.J. Banks is a guy who is maturing,” Trickett said. “He’s got ability. Looking forward to seeing what he can bring to the table.”

Banks was rated as the nation’s No. 19 tight end coming out of East Allegheny High in Pennsylvania. He redshirted in 2018 and played in the final four games of last season.

Other than that, Trickett has New Jersey product Charles Finley, 6-4, 215 pounds, who helped DePaul Catholic to a Non-Public Group 3 state championship.

“[WVU strength coach] Mike Joseph will work his [conditioning] magic on him,” Trickett said. “We feel like he’ll put some weight on and grow into a good player. Right now, though, he’s that traditional come-in-and-develop mode West Virginia has always had. He has the frame and  tools, but has to put the weight and strength on. That doesn’t happen overnight.”

Trickett also has walk-on Jackson Knipper, who transferred to Morgantown after playing as a redshirt freshman for Western Michigan. Knipper, a Beavercreek, Ohio, native, played fullback and special teams for the Mountaineers last year.

“A fullback that will play some in-the-box stuff for us,” Trickett said.

Overall at the position?

“In a perfect world you’d like to have four or five scholarship guys,” Trickett said. “Right now we have two sophomores and a freshman. That’s it. I feel really good about the guys we have. I’m really excited about them. We just need more numbers. After this season we’ll get there.”

Trickett then switched to the inside receiver position.

“I feel real good about those guys,” Trickett said. “T.J. Simmons is an experienced guy. Isaiah Esdale showed some flashes last year. He caught the game-winner against TCU.”

Redshirt senior Simmons, who transferred from Alabama, played 10 games at inside receiver and started nine last season. He was the team’s No. 3 pass catcher in receiving yards behind Sam James and George Campbell. Esdale, a former junior college transfer who played with lineman Michael Brown, caught 15 passes for 171 yards. WVU also has Winston Wright, who caught 19 passes for 97 yards.

“I think [Wright has] done really well training during this pandemic,” Trickett said. “I think he’s ready to take a step up. He showed flashes as a freshman. He has some speed.”

Other inside receivers competing include Keion Wakefield, a graduate transfer from Louisville, and freshman Reese Smith, an early enrollee who “showed in two days of practice some good, natural receiving instincts.” Also, redshirt sophomore Graeson Malashevich is “getting better.”

Now, Trickett is awaiting the players’ arrival. As he said, though, the time away from Morgantown hasn’t been all bad.

“We’ve become closer in some aspects,” Trickett said. “Guys are having to deliver in talking to each other during these meetings. It’s not the traditional educational setting, where you stand up and talk to a room for an hour. We’ve had to change our teaching up. It’s more interactive. My videos have been 50-50 in which I talk and they talk.”

You could hear the pride in Trickett’s voice.

“It’s kind of bonded us together even though we’re far apart,” he said. “I think it’s pretty cool. I’m looking forward to seeing how that translates onto the field.”

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, I’ll turn 60 years of age.

I’ve seen a lot. As Johnny Cash said, I’ve been everywhere, man.

So after watching ESPN’s “The Last Dance,” a series on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, I took a moment to reflect.

Yes, I shook my head, trying to grasp that 1998, when the Bulls won their sixth NBA title with Jordan, is now 22 years in the rearview mirror.

Yet my hope for those younger isn’t to take away from the series the greatness of Jordan or those Bulls. It’s to consider the larger picture that was so poignantly painted at the end of the series’ finale.

It’s the bigger picture that even dynasties come to an end. It’s the bigger picture that you must grind. You must take it all in. You must enjoy and celebrate. And not waste a minute.

And it all comes from one place, as told by Jordan himself.

“It started with hope,” Jordan said, before reiterating. “It started with hope.”

That’s where it must start, correct? That’s what’s been carrying us through these days of pandemic, right? That’s the seed of every successful venture, every personal goal.

Of course, more is necessary.

In the case of the Bulls dynasty, that “more” was Jordan.

“All it needed was one match to start that whole fire,” he reflected near the series’ conclusion.

In the case of mere mortals, replace “match” with “passion.”

Anyway, the end of the series was a beautiful way to bring everything full circle.

After 1998, the Bulls could have been brought back for a run at a seventh title. There was a flicker of hope when team owner Jerry Reinsdorf offered coach Phil Jackson another contract year. But it was not to be.

“Time to go,” said Jackson.

The beauty was the way the team dismantled. It could have done so unceremoniously. Instead, it was done so in an unforgettable way. At least it was done in a way I hope our younger generation will remember. For it tied the big picture together perfectly.

“I remember there was this team meeting with Phil,” said former Bulls guard and current Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “It was like, ‘This is it.’”

“My wife had gotten her master’s in social work,” Jackson said. “And she was part of a group that went in to help people who were grieving. One of the things they did was an old ritual to put things to rest.”

“He asked everybody to bring in anything [they] wanted to write about what the team means to them,” Kerr said.

“I said, ‘Write what being on this team has meant to you,” Jackson said. “Read it and then we’ll burn it in a coffee can.”

A terrific image.

“Every guy had emotional words to say,” Kerr said. “I remember Michael actually wrote a poem.”

“Phil had this knack – no matter how big you were or how big you thought you were – to always draw you in to be a part of the process,” Jordan added. “I’m not a poet; I just spoke what I felt at the time. We’d always bonded. I said, ‘Thanks for the past. Let’s make sure we end it right.’”

One can imagine the scene. Large, talented NBA players pouring out their hearts – after doing so on the court. One by one reading and placing their words in the coffee can.

“At the end of the session,” Kerr said, “Phil turned out the lights and lit the papers. It was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen.”

It had to be powerful. It was certainly symbolic.

Hope can turn to greatness.

The match can blaze yet someday turn to ash.

So be the match now, young ones. Work hard. Live, love.

To make sure you always go out the right way.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

While I write these blogs during the pandemic, ESPN always provides background noise while I tap away from my kitchen table/makeshift office. (And when I say “noise” I mean “deafening noise” when Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman are on.)

It’s just the way I’m wired. I love sports. I’ll always love sports.

I’m not like columnist Norman Chad, who wrote a Sunday piece headlined: We don’t need sports as much as we think. Within (and keep in mind he’s a humor writer), Chad wrote, “Believe it or not – and saying this might get me fired by the end of this sentence – we don’t need more sports in our lives, we need less.”

I wasn’t abhorred as some said they were via social media. Maybe it’s because I consider Chad an acquaintance from my past life as a sports journalist. I’ve talked to him. In fact, I brought his column on to the Charleston Gazette-Mail sports pages back in the day.

But, Norm, we definitely need more sports. As soon as possible. Our kids need the exercise, the camaraderie, the discipline. Hell, they need something to do. And us adults need the entertainment, the soap opera, the… oh, let’s face it, we too need something to do.

Yet I’m starting to get concerned about that world of sports I love so much.

I understand health comes first. I’m all about working from home, social distancing and flattening the heck out of the Covid-19 curve. I listen to, and take direction from, health experts.

But, as I tell my Joni all the time, I can multitask. I can watch pandemic developments and directives and follow sports as well.

And I am concerned about the sports world. I think we were all good with hitting the stop button when the outbreak hit. Sure it hurt when we lost March Madness and spring sports.

But how exactly will the sports world move forward? What I’m sensing is no one knows. Heck, what I’m sensing is no one knows who will make the calls. The leagues? The president? Governors and local leaders?

How about parents of college athletes? Are you going to let your son, a 5-star offensive tackle, line up within sneezing distance of others in a football game? What about the athletes themselves? As a 6-10 basketball center, are you prepared to sweat and mix it up in the paint against opponents?

Let’s set that aside though. Let’s assume participants are satisfied with vigilant testing.

That leaves the attendance obstacle — and the money angle. The latter one is getting more serious as we move along.

In case you missed it, WVU athletic director Shane Lyons has announced staff salary reductions and furloughs for the new fiscal year.

What caught the headlines there were voluntary 10 percent salary reductions for Lyons, football coach Neal Brown, basketball coaches Bob Huggins and Mike Carey and baseball coach Randy Mazey. In the case of Huggins, that’s a loss of around $400,000. Lyons’ target is to cover a projected $5 million shortfall because the Big 12 and NCAA hoops tournaments were wiped out. But within there are also projected losses of ticket revenue and Mountaineer Athletic Club donations.

Also, nearly one-third of the athletic department’s workforce (65 employees) will be furloughed and, according to a WVU press release, “some employees will not return.”

Within professional sports, the NBA season remains a hanging chad. And money issues, of course, are of concern to those within. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA and NBPA reached an agreement to extend through September the 60-day window that preserves the league’s right to terminate the Collective Bargaining Agreement in the wake of the pandemic. The original 60-day window was closing early this week. (Personally, I agree with Shaquille O’Neal there. He told USA Today’s For the Win, “I think we should scrap the season. Everybody go home, get healthy, come back next year.”)

But there’s baseball, golf, tennis… There’s college football.

Who will decide on those? And college basketball going forward, etc.

It will be interesting. USA Today’s Christine Brennan offered this today:

“You know who’s going to make [sports] so? Not league commissioners or conference officials. Not billionaire owners or millionaire players… Governors and mayors run our sports world right now. Our elected local leaders are the most powerful people in sports today, as they should be.”

Brennan pointed to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who said any decisions made would be “based on the latest medical and public health advice, in compliance with government regulations.”

And then Brennan dropped the hammer. She quoted Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot regarding Major League Baseball.

“While it breaks my heart that I can’t watch my White Sox play (and OK, the Cubs too), the health and safety of our residents must come first,” Lightfoot said. “This means placing a hold on activities which attract large crowds until we are confident in our ability to prevent the spread of Covid-19. While I believe the MLB is working on creative ways to address these public health concerns, for now, this means that Chicago isn’t playing.”

Ohio governor Mike DeWine also said any MLB plan would have to be approved before the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds could play.

Yet what if President Trump threw open the doors? What if some cities say OK and others say no?

A lot of questions. A lot of concerns.

The best I can suggest: Flip your multitask switch back to work and hope a chain of command and some answers surface for our beloved world of sports.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.

West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission executive director Bernie Dolan has witnessed much in his career.

He’s been a teacher. He’s been Wheeling Park’s principal. He’s been director of the Super Six committee. He’s been assistant superintendent in Ohio County.

One would think he’s seen it all.

Until this Covid-19 pandemic.

The well-oiled machine that is the SSAC didn’t sputter. Smoke didn’t pour from its engine. It simply stopped dead.

And that’s been tough for Dolan to embrace.

“It’s been difficult – to say the least,” Dolan said. “It’s been sad. There have been kids and coaches – but primarily kids – who have worked hard for what may have been their final year of basketball or spring sports.

“They were geared up and ready to go. Basketball was eight days from being completed. Spring sports practice had begun. And then it all got shut down. For so many seniors, it was the last chance at high school sports.”

Difficult indeed. This isn’t like the NCAA, which has given the green light to inviting spring sports athletes back for another year. The curtain simply dropped on West Virginia’s high school seniors.

“Very few kids are good enough to play college athletics,” Dolan said, “so high school is a special time. Every decision we make is with them in mind. It really weighed on me.”

Dolan said his staff has continued to work logistics behind the scenes.

“Ending it all for all these kids and coaches, without much forewarning, was tough,” Dolan said. “But when the medical people told us we were done, we were done. Still, we were planning, making changes to the spring semester, clear up until late April. We were thinking we could go into June and have a shortened season, try to get tournaments in – or maybe not even have tournaments. Maybe just have a shortened season.

“We were like everybody else across the nation though. All 50 states have now canceled all their spring sports or are in the process.”

As for high school championships, West Virginia lost the 2020 boys and girls basketball tournaments as well as those of baseball and softball and boys and girls tennis and track/field. When the basketball postseasons were suspended, nine of the 21 girls state tournament games had been played. All 21 boys state tournament games and eight Class AA regional matchups were suspended.

Dolan said those running the sites of the championships were understanding.

“We owed the [Charleston] Civic Center because we used that facility for a couple days, but everybody was good about it,” Dolan said. “It wasn’t like they lost opportunity because they couldn’t bring anybody else in anyway.”

Dolan said the SSAC is like most of us, working via our computers.

“There’s always planning going on in the background,” Dolan said. “We had our Board of Control meeting electronically over Zoom. We had 207 school representatives or other people on at one time voting on our proposals.

“I’d imagine our coaches’ and officials’ meetings we do at the beginning of each year – as well as our regional principals meetings – will all be online. We’re preparing for meeting in person, but also for having Zoom meetings for everybody.”

Dolan sighed.

“The nice thing about meeting in person is the ability to ask questions,” he said. “If we can meet in person, I’m all for that. It’s the one time we get in front of all our coaches and officials. It’s the one time they feel they have access to us quickly. They love to talk before and after the meetings. That time is invaluable.”

We’ll see how it unfolds. West Virginia is beginning to reopen. But Dolan understands the uncertainty ahead.

“The unknown has been the difficult part,” Dolan said. “As you’re planning for the next week, the next month, the next season, you’re really not sure what you’re planning for.

“We don’t have a lot of experience dealing with a situation like this. Most of the emergencies we’ve had in the past were snowstorms or floods – which all have a life cycle. You live through them and then open back up. This has been very challenging because it doesn’t seem to have a normal life cycle. It’s hard to prepare.”

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.