Personal Narrative: West Virginia University Football Team

With the Christmas tournament aside, we entered the post-season without a loss. We had a plan for each playoff game from districts to regional. We never deviated from the plan, keeping our eye on the target –

My freshman year we entered playoffs with a hopeful optimism that in our first year in 3A, the largest division, we could make a statement that we were here to stay. In the end, the game didn’t go our way. There were some questionable calls made but in the end, it is what it is: we weren’t good enough to win. A tough reality but often times you learn more from a loss than from a win. Sophomore

Football isn’t just about going on the field and playing 4 quarters against another team every week. It’s not just those Friday nights going to watch your high school team play. Football is a brotherhood, it’s your second family. It’s making memories that you will have with you for the rest of your life. It’s the hours of preparation, sweat, tears, blood, bumps and bruises and going back out everyday just to give it your all. Football isn’t just a game that i’ve played it’s something that has shaped me into the person I am today.

The Mountaineers finish the year with a 36-26 record after advancing to their 12th NCAA Tournament in program history and first since 1996.

The second-seeded Sooners (27-7) used a 36-point performance from the senior guard to defeat the 10th-seeded Rams 85-81 on Sunday afternoon to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

The Mountaineers (36-22) overcame an 8-0 deficit in the first two and a half innings to take a 10-9 lead in the bottom of the fifth. That lead stood until the ninth inning until TCU (42-15) tied the game.

3. Holbrook University suffered a devastating loss on Friday in their last game of the season and the last game to be played on La Grove Field.

Jevon Carter tallied 18 points for the Mountaineers (26-8). Esa Ahmad, Elijah Macon and Daxter Miles Jr. each added 10 points. Teyvon Myers had nine.

As was the case in the win against Southwestern on Friday, the Ladies made the Mountaineers

The Mountaineers will face their toughest challenge right off the bat with the enormous Tigers' d-line.

“ This is really a resilient bunch of guys”, said Head coach Butler before the game. “ I love the way these guys have battled all season… now they get the chance to play in an amazing field.”

Not only did the Mastodons have second-half leads, they were within one possession in the closing seconds of five of their eight losses. The worst defeat of the 16 conference games was when Fort Wayne blew a 59-53 second-half lead at home to South Dakota before losing 93-82. No one else can claim that competitiveness…even South Dakota, with a 12-4 record, suffered a 10-point loss to Oral Roberts, and the Golden Eagles finished 9th out of the 9-team league and didn’t qualify for the tournament.

With the loss of Cody Saunders, the Mountaineers are limited at the quarterback position outside of Grier and Chugunov.

Friday night rolled around, it was the game we had all been working so hard for. Knowing we were seniors, we knew it would be the end of the journey.

In the bottom of the eighth, freshman Braden Zarbnisky reached on an error and went to third on Hill's base hit. Once again, Vera came through and his sacrifice fly to center field drove home Zarbnisky and gave WVU a 4-1