The Sam Andy Classic took place on Friday, December 9th. The girls will be faced Berlin-Hiland and the boys, Zanesville.

The Sam Andy Basketball Classic is a memorial tournament featuring boys and girls high school teams from the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, OVAC. Sam Andy was a former coach here, he started his coaching career in 1969. Staying here until his retirement in 2006, he racked up 471 wins and three state titles. Andy’s 611 wins between Frazeysburg, Ohio, and WPHS have him ranked second in West Virginia state basketball history. Impressive enough, Coach Andy only had three losing seasons, and he led his 1997 team to the Class AAA state final, and his 1988, 1990, 1998, and 2000 teams to the final four. Andy won 31 sectional titles and six OVAC titles. Sam Andy is now a member of the OVAC and WPHS Halls of Fame.

The girls are coming off a big win from Thursday night’s game vs. North Allegheny, 55-54 was the final score. This week only gets more difficult for our lady patriots, the Berlin-Hiland Hawks were the DIII Ohio state champions their 2020-2021 season. Coach Young did his scouting before the game, and saw plenty of good plays on Friday night, “we knew they were going to be a pretty solid team defensively. I thought that we really moved the ball well. Offensively I thought we shot the ball well, there was really balanced scoring, so I was pretty happy with that part of the game. Defense started out sluggish but got better as the game went on.” Our top scorers were Natalie Daugherty with 23 points, Sophie Abraham and Lala Woods both with 15 points, and Alexis Bordas with 13 points. The final score was 78-55, making our Lady Patriots 3-0. 

The stars align for the boys’ team to begin their season at the Sam Andy Classic. Zanesville is head coach Jebbia’s long-time rival. Our boys made a huge comeback late into the 3rd quarter, after trailing behind most of the game. Coach Jebbia gives credit to his former head coach, Sam Andy, for the comeback in the 4th quarter, “Coach was looking down at us because we played a lot better in the 4th quarter than the first three.” It was a special moment for Coach Jebbia to have started their season in memory of his former coach, ” When he became the coach here, he made basketball very important, we always played good teams and he also was connected with Zanesville, because he coached out in that area for a little bit. So he kind of started this rivalry, him and Scott Aronhalt, the old Zanesville coach.” Coach Jebbia gave his boys a pregame talk before stepping on the court, and he was ready to accept the first game jitters, “for us to go out and take care of the ball, take good shots, and play hard, but you know in basketball being your first game, there’s always going to be some game slippage, kids are nervous, and they’re excited.“ Mykel Davis was all over the place with, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 14 deflections, “he’s just everywhere, I think that’s just the kind of player he can be for us, he’s just a junior,” Coach Jebbia says. The spark couldn’t have been lit in the 4th quarter without Keohn Stephens and K.J. Demko, “came in during the 4th quarter and provided a spark, we started to play a little faster,” said Coach Jebbia. The top scorers were Aiden Davis with 20 points, Mykel Davis with 13 points, and Cole Wilkinson with 11 points. The boys are now 1-0.