BLUEFIELD — The Herb Sims Youth Center was packed Saturday morning as a community gathered to show its support and appreciation for the Class AA Champion Bluefield High School football team.
The BHS Beavers have experienced incredible success on the gridiron, winning 10 state championships in the past 50 years. The most recent one came at Wheeling Island Stadium on Dec. 4, 2009 when they beat the Wayne High School Pioneers 27-7.
“This one was tough, having to win against three undefeated teams ranked 3, 2 and 1, and all games were on the road,” Head Coach Fred Simon said. “I think that really helped this team. If we would have been ranked higher than those three teams, I don’t know that we would have worked as hard as we did.
“Everyone worked hard and they played great as a team,” Simon said. “In any season, you look for growth. I think this group of players grew as people. It’s neat that we were able to win our 10th state championship in the 50th year of the system. That will make our banquet next week really exciting.”
Donté Huff, a freshman reserve middle linebacker, didn’t get to play at Wheeling, “but I got to play in a few games during the season and in the playoffs,” he said with a smile. “It was nice,” Huff said about the experience of traveling to Wheeling for the state championship. “The season brought us together as a team. It feels like we’re a family.”
Simon never stopped smiling as Mike Vinciguerra of the Bluefield City Board of Directors and Mercer County Circuit Court Judge Omar Aboulhosn presented certificates from Gov. Joe Manchin to every player and each member of the coaching staff.
Simon’s smile persisted as Tom Bone, Bluefield Daily Telegraph sportswriter, presented the press plate that the newspaper ran on Dec. 5, 2009, proclaiming the Beavers as state champs. Bone, who doubles as staff political cartoonist, gave Simon the original print from the cartoon that ran in the newspaper after the team’s victory and Shafali Pendleton, presented a check for one-half of the profits from the sale of the magazine titled “We Believe!” that the newspaper produced in honor of the team’s 10th state championship.
“We say: ‘Go Beavers!’” Pendleton said.
Ron Tote of T&N Trophies presented a special trophy to Simon in recognition of the achievement. “That’s a great trophy,” Dr. Walid Azzo said.
“To be a part of something this special is very exciting to me,” Sandy Siers, president of the BHS Football Boosters said. Sandy and her husband, Jeff Siers became active in the BHS boosters program in 2001 when their twin sons, Jake and Josh Siers were on the team. The twins were on the 2004 state championship team, but their parents continued to work with the boosters, even though both have since graduated from college and both are working in the radiology department of Princeton Community Hospital.
“It’s hard work, but this is like second nature to us now,” Sandy Siers said. “We know the people we need to call when we need help.”
Siers was 7 years old when she saw her first Beaver-Graham football game, and she became hooked on everything about it. As head of the boosters, they travel to every game now. “The players are always so polite to everyone,” she said. “They’re like our own family.”
The team will celebrate again next week at the football banquet.
http://www.bdtonline.com/local/local_story_016204457.htmlLinkback: http://4seasonschat.com/index.php/topic,14375.msg156820.html#msg156820
Topic: Community shows support for its football champs (Read 122 times)