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From the Bench: WVU Coach Mike Carey Recalls His Battles vs. Indians and Rare Win on Football Field

By Jeff Toquinto on January 15, 2017 from Sports Blog via Connect-Bridgeport.com

Most of you know Mike Carey as the fiery coach of the West Virginia University nationally ranked women’s basketball team. Many of you know him as a former, short-time resident of Bridgeport and a long-time resident of Harrison County.
 
Some also remember Carey as the equally fiery coach of what was at the time Salem College and eventually Salem-Teikyo University. And perhaps before that a brief time serving at a few various stops as head coach and assistant coach at the high school level here in North Central West Virginia.
 
There’s probably more than just a handful who remember his high school playing days. Back in the early to mid-1970s Mike Carey was a three-sport terror for then Class AAA Liberty High School. While his most notable sport was basketball – where he later earned a scholarship to play at nearby Salem College – Carey still remembers his time playing for the Mountaineers.
 
He also remembers playing against the Indians. While Carey was a full-time starter in football his junior and senior years, he didn’t start from day one as a sophomore. His first game as a starter in the earlier portions of the 1970s was against – yep – Bridgeport.
 
“Bridgeport was always good, especially in football,” said Carey. “My sophomore year, our quarterback Gary Nutter who also played safety, got hurt the game before the Bridgeport game. They decided he could play, but he couldn’t go both ways so that was first official game starting.”
 
Game one as a starter saw Carey playing defense in the secondary. While he didn’t have to worry too much about defending the pass, he did have to worry about the Indians’ ground game getting into the secondary, which frequently happened.
 
“They had some runners that’s for sure and they were really, really good,” said Carey. “Steve Stout was on that team and everyone remembers how good he was.”
 
At that time, Liberty started at 10th grade so his sophomore start was his first varsity start in any sport. And it was against a team that the year before had won the Class AAA state championship.
 
“I don’t know why I remember it, but I’ve never forgotten it, I got an interception and a fumble recovery at Bridgeport,” said Carey. “We ended up beating them at Bridgeport and that was a big deal.”
 
Big on a number of fronts. The 8-6 win during the 1973 season was the first time the Indians and the Mountaineers had ever met on the football field. And it would be 10 more years before Liberty would get a win in 1983 by a 22-18 score – also at what is now Wayne Jamison Field.
 
The Indians haven’t lost to the Mountaineers since.
 
“We fared a lot better against them in baseball and basketball, but football was just tough. They were always good in football,” said Carey. “In basketball and baseball they had a lot of good athletes. In basketball Greg Ross was really tough for them. You knew no matter what sport you were playing that they were going to be ready to play because they were disciplined. That works at every level.”
 
Ironically, Mike Carey became an Indians’ fan for a number of years in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. And it had nothing to do with eventually living there for a while. Rather, Mike’s brother Bruce had a successful multi-year run with the Indians that saw him win a state title in 2000 and finish as runner-up in 2001 – both in Class AA.
 
It was there where Carey was able to take in the simple system that has allowed for the Indians to not only win championships in football, but in multiple other sports as well.
 
“It starts when the kids are small because they want to wear the uniform and win. It’s a great community and every single youngster in that community knows exactly what the teams at the high school level are doing,” said Carey. “They want to grow up and be part of the varsity team whether it’s baseball, basketball and football.
 
“It sounds simple, but not everyone is doing it,” he continued. “Take football. You watch their Pop Warner teams, their junior high teams and they’re running pretty much the same thing the high school is running. That’s the biggest reason they’re almost never rebuilding. They’re just replacing.”
 
Carey’s knowledge of Bridgeport isn’t just as a distant observer. All four of his kids – two boys and two girls – spent some time in the school system in the city and all of them competed in sports.
 
“You really have to not be paying attention if you are unable see why it works out here. I’m glad I got one of those wins on the football field though,” said Carey, who laughed when he was told fellow Liberty alum and Division I football Coach Jimbo Fisher was 0-for-3 against the Tribe’s football squad. “I guess that gives me some bragging rights against some other alums.”
 
As for basketball during Carey's senior season, the Indians split with the Mountaineers winning 86-66 and then falling to Liberty in the regular season rematch 79-73. LHS ended up getting the tiebreaker in the sectional tournament where the Mountaineers claimed an 81-73 win. The Tribe, however, took a 5-3 regular season win against LHS and a 12-2 sectional victory over the Mountaineers in sectional play in baseball in 1976.
 
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Bridgeport's Rick Cooper driving against a young Mike Carey, while Carey is shown coaching for WVU in the bottom photos. Top picture is courtesy of Mrs. Alice Rowe of the BHS Journalism Department and comes from the 1976 Ki-Cu-Wa Yearbook. WVU photos are courtesy of Sports Communications and were taken by Dale Sparks.


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