Is it time for West Virginia high school basketball to have a shot clock?

Wheeling Park boys basketball coach Micheal Jebbia said the topic surfaces every year when the high school advisory board (eight boys and eight girls coaches) meets.
The topic, that is, of a shot clock in West Virginia high school ball.
As was pointed out Tuesday by Yahoo! Sports AM, the shot clock transformed the NBA in 1954 and the college game in 1985, but roughly half the United States “is still stuck in the stone age,” according to writer Jeff Tracy.
Tracy pointed to a game in Illinois last week in which a team held the ball the entire first quarter. Two years ago, an Oklahoma game ended 4-2.
Twenty-three states (plus D.C.) instituted 35-second shot clocks after the National Federation of State High School Associations gave the go-ahead in 2021. It’s a state-by-state choice, though, and West Virginia (as well as most around the Mountain State) have chosen not to go that route.
“We’ve played with it a couple times in the (former) Cancer Research Classic,” Jebbia said of the ex-elite national tournament held in Wheeling for years. “Also, I remember we once played a team from New York that came down and asked where the shot clock was set up.”
Not here. Kansas, Nevada and South Carolina, though, are now running trials and Alaska, Wyoming, Colorado and Illinois are installing clocks for the 2026-27 school year.
You just don’t see shot clocks in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia – or West Virginia.
“Once the surrounding states get it, I think we could,” Jebbia said. “You need money, though, and someone with a pretty good basketball IQ to run the clocks.”
The cost has to be the main obstacle in West Virginia with installation running from $3,000 to $10,000, according to Tracy. Also, you couldn’t just grab a kid to handle the clock’s controls. Unless someone knowledgeable would volunteer and commit to the whole season, you’d have to pay, a la a referee.
“It’s just not easy,” Jebbia said. “It would be tougher to ask the smaller schools.”
One day, certainly, West Virginia will have a shot clock as more and more states join the fray. But Jebbia and others aren’t in a big hurry.
“I don’t think we need it now,” said the coach. “I haven’t seen teams holding the ball lately. And high school ball here is still kind of pure.”
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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.