By: Doug Huff, West Virginia Sports Writers Association
WHEELING, W.Va. — Two record-setting coaches share the first Van Meter Award given to the state High School Coach of the Year by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
Dave Tallman, the second-year boys basketball coach at Morgantown High School, and John Lowery, the veteran Jefferson High baseball coach, tied in balloting and both will be honored at the 70th annual Victory Awards Dinner on May 15 at the Charleston Civic Center.
It’s only the second tie in the history of the Coach of the Year award originated in 1942 but given a name for the first time. The award honors the late Woodrow Wilson multi-sport coach Jerome Van Meter, an inductee into the National High School Sports Hall of Fame. The other tie was in 1946 when Homer Fizer of University High and Forest Underwood of Huntington East shared the honor.
For Lowery, in his 46th season as a prep coach, the Victory Awards Dinner should be extra special. The nation’s oldest statewide fete also will be the scene of the first Lowery Award given to the Baseball Player of the Year since 1987. The award was named in his honor.
Last spring, Lowery not only guided his state-record 11th state Class AAA title but the 37-2 record Cougars posted the program’s best mark for the state’s all-sport winningest coach. Lowery entered this spring with a 1,222-319-3 record, the third most wins in U.S. history.
“Last spring,” Lowery recalled, “We had a veteran team back from a squad which lost two sectional tournament games the previous spring. So, they were motivated to go much farther in the post-season after going 30-2 in regular season.”
Lowery, the first all-sport Coach of the Year cited for baseball, said his title-winning squad was an “unselfish group” who won their final 19 games and defeated Nitro, 2-1 in the finals.
“Our senior leadership was good,” Lowery noted. “And those kids wanted to go out on top.”
While Jefferson, and Lowery, are used to winning baseball titles, Morgantown High has played boys basketball for 103 years without a state championship – until this year. In fact, Morgantown’s lone appearance in a final was in 1956 when it lost to a Jerry West-led East Bank.
This year, Tallman not only led the Mohigans to their first-ever title, but recorded the state’s first unbeaten Class AAA record since 1985.
“This was a once-in-a-lifetime group who played with class and character,” Tallman said. “The kids stayed focused from the start and were on a mission.”
The Mohigans survived a minefield schedule in a 27-0 record campaign, the eighth perfect record in state tournament history and first in Class AAA since Stonewall Jackson in 1985. In the finals, Morgantown had to go overtime to dethrone two-time champion Huntington. In the tourney and regular season, the Mohigans left no doubt by defeating six of the other top seven tourney seeds.
Besides Huntington, other season victims included Capital, Woodrow Wilson, Martinsburg, Parkersburg South and Hurricane.
“We had good team chemistry and balance with four double figure scorers,” Tallman said.
They included senior all-staters Steven Solomon and Kenzie Melko, plus junior Nicky Solomon. Other starters were 6-foot-7 senior Evan McNally and 5-10 senior “stopper” Antonio Morgano.
This is the second straight year that a state championship boys basketball team was coached by Dave Tallman. The Morgantown coach is the son of Magnolia coach Dave Tallman, who guided his third state title team in 2015 with a Class A crown for Magnolia.
Tied for third place in balloting were Gilmer County girls basketball pilot Amy Chapman, whose team ended the Class A title run at seven years by Huntington St. Joseph, and Bridgeport football coach Josh Nicewarner, who won a third straight Class AA crown.
Next in the voting was Morgantown girls basketball coach Jason White, who won a third straight Class AAA title; Magnolia football coach Josh Sims, who guided a 14-0 record Class AA championship team; Berkeley Springs girls track and boys and girls cross country coach David Aberegg, who won three crowns in spring/fall seasons; and David Retton, who led Fairmont Senior to the Class AA boys basketball title.