CLARKSBURG, W.Va — Like every high school basketball coach around the state, Notre Dame’s Jarrod West sees a state championship as the ultimate goal for his program. And with the five seniors returning from a team that made it to Charleston last year, West’s squad seemed fit for a bigger run this year.
Notre Dame is off to an 11-2 start this year behind that veteran talent, but it’s been a spark off of the bench from a freshman who has turned some heads as well in the younger Jarrod West.
Watching his son make noise on the court is something Coach West has been waiting for quite a while.
“In the fourth or fifth grade I could tell he was going to be a pretty good ball player, he worked his butt off,” West said. We’ve had some pretty good point guards (at Notre Dame), but Jarrod is the first pure point guard since I’ve been here.”
The transition between coaching his son and being a father didn’t get off to the start that either of them had envisioned as the Irish dropped their first game of the year against Clay-Battelle.
“To be honest the first game of the year was probably my worst coaching job I’ve ever had,” West said. “I found myself watching (Jarrod) as a father instead of a coach.”
Young Jarrod has made the process a little easier on his father as he’s let his play do the talking. The freshman is shooting above 50 percent from 3, and over 60 percent from the floor – he has proven to be a key contributor in big games for the Irish.
“He’s doing a great job defensively and he was a great spark for us with 18 points in the fourth quarter and overtime against Parkersburg Catholic,” West said. “That was the first time I saw my son playing all year.”
But how does the younger West compare to his father on the floor?
“He is better than I was as a freshman, he’s more skilled than I was. Jarrod is very coachable and sometimes to a fault he’s very unselfish,” West said.
West also put in 13 points just a game later in a win over Charleston Catholic.
“Jarrod has done a great job gelling with the other guys and they have done a great job receiving him,” West said. “He’s very humble and he looks up to and respects the seniors on the team.”
Notre Dame is off to a hot start this year as they try build off of last years run to Charleston where they got knocked out in the opening round.
“Last year I felt we finished where we were supposed to, but the battles we had have got us prepared for what we’re trying to do this year,” West said.
NOTRE DAME Boys Basketball Schedule |
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1 | 12/10/13 07:30PM | A | CLAY-BATTELLE | 54 | – | 66 | L | |
2 | 12/16/13 07:30PM | H | TUCKER COUNTY | 62 | – | 53 | W | |
3 | 12/19/13 09:00PM | A | PHILIP BARBOUR AT GRAFTON TRNY | 79 | – | 57 | W | |
4 | 12/20/13 07:30PM | A | GRAFTON AT GRAFTON TRNY | 82 | – | 77 | W | |
5 | 12/23/13 07:30PM | H | PARKERSBURG CATHOLIC | 58 | – | 61 | L | |
6 | 12/26/13 07:00PM | H | LIBERTY AT BB & T TRNY | 95 | – | 44 | W | |
7 | 12/27/13 07:00PM | H | GRAFTON AT BB & T TRNY | 73 | – | 63 | W | |
8 | 01/08/14 07:30PM | H | TRINITY | 63 | – | 40 | W | |
9 | 01/10/14 07:30PM | H | HUNDRED | 87 | – | 48 | W | |
10 | 01/15/14 07:30PM | A | PARKERSBURG CATHOLIC | 61 | – | 60 | W | |
11 | 01/17/14 07:30PM | H | CHARLESTON CATHOLIC | 65 | – | 60 | W | |
12 | 01/20/14 07:30PM | A | TRINITY | 70 | – | 59 | W | |
13 | 01/31/14 07:30PM | H | GILMER COUNTY | 58 | – | 45 | W | |
14 | 02/03/14 07:30PM | A | SOUTH HARRISON (Canceled) |
– | ||||
15 | 02/07/14 07:30PM | H | BISHOP DONAHUE | – | ||||
16 | 02/11/14 07:30PM | A | RICHWOOD | – | ||||
17 | 02/15/14 07:30PM | H | MOOREFIELD (MAKE-UP) | – | ||||
18 | 02/19/14 07:30PM | H | GRAFTON | – | ||||
19 | 02/21/14 07:30PM | A | TYGARTS VALLEY | – | ||||
20 | 02/24/14 06:30PM | A | TUCKER CO (MAKE-UP) | – | ||||
21 | 02/25/14 07:30PM | A | GILMER COUNTY | – | ||||
22 | 02/27/14 07:30PM | H | CLAY-BATTELLE | – | ||||
wins: 11 lost: 2 ties: 0 |