MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — On two occasions in 2024, Spring Mills High School teams left Charleston with Class AAAA state runner-up trophies. Many of the same players had a hand in both runs to the basketball and football championship games.
While the football team will have to wait until the fall for another run at a title after falling to rival Martinsburg in a thrilling championship, the Spring Mills basketball team has an experienced roster and a track record of recent results to be considered a favorite to play on the final day of the season.
“The state was able to see, playing in the state championship in basketball last year, I think really helped our football team. We have a bunch of guys that play football and basketball as dual-sport athletes. Just having that edge and that competition to be able to compete in a state championship in football and basketball in the same year, I think it gives us an edge no matter what sport we are playing. It is not new to us. It is something we’re familiar with and we want to build on that,” said Spring Mills boys basketball head coach Luke Samples on MetroNews High School Sportsline.
“Our guys work really hard and they were able to do a little bit of both throughout the summer, fall and even throughout the winter. They always stay busy. So I think that is a testament to our guys.”
Max Anderson, Xavier Anderson and Loakkhae Uth-Smith were key contributors to Spring Mills’ 12-2 season on the gridiron, the best season in the 12-year history of the school. Those athletes have made a quick transitions to the hardcourt, where the Cardinals are off to a 7-0 start following Friday’s 74-33 win over Musselman.
“We just want to peak by March. We’ve proven that we can win games. We’ve proven that we can get to Charleston. But we want to be ready when the regional tournament comes up and we want to be hungry.”
A first team All-State selection as a junior, Caleb Thomas is off to a strong start leading the Cardinals. He became Spring Mills’ first thousand-point scorer in December.
“42 points the other night [against Washington], he’s a triple-double machine and he has almost quadruple-doubled twice this year already. With Caleb, it is a lot of him being comfortable with his teammates on the floor. He never wants to shoot bad shots or put his teammates in a bad position. The one thing that has improved a lot is his three-point shooting. He is able to shoot off movement now. For him to be able to stretch the floor, heck he ran point guard two games for us almost the whole game because they were denying Akwasi [Opoku-Achampong].
“It is just his versatility. I think he went from being a forward to a wing. I think he is more of a shooting wing now.”
Samples believes he has a deeper roster to work with this winter.
“We have seven guys playing 17 minutes or more. That’s very beneficial. We had five guys last year, sometimes six. The depth helps. Our eighth guy is getting about six or seven minutes a game. With the delayed start, we are still in install mode. I think we are going to be able to do some different things this year based off our depth.”
Spring Mills will visit Morgantown (5-0) Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first of two possible meetings in the regular season. Both teams are featured in the Battle for the Springhouse Tournament at the end of January. The Cardinals defeated the Mohigans, 53-49 in December of 2023 before MHS avenged that defeat in overtime, 35-32 in the state title game.
“We have wanted to be Morgantown’s rival. This is my sixth year and our sixth year as a team. We are proud to say that it is not just another game. Morgantown is really, really, really good. The program is exactly where we want to put ourselves. We’re close. We beat them last year once. They beat us in the state championship.
“For us to take the next step, it is not to beat Morgantown on Tuesday, however that would feel really good. The next step is to do what they have done and win a state championship. Playing at Morgantown, they have won 50 [consecutive] games at home. We like to make history at Spring Mills. We have made a lot in the last couple years. It is going to be hard to do. They’re so good and Coach [Dave] Tallman does a fantastic job there. If we could be the team that maybe breaks that streak, it would be awesome.”