For more than three and a half decades, Mike Robey has been a fixture on the bench of schools throughout Harrison County coaching basketball. Next year, for the first time in 36 seasons, he’ll no longer be there.

 

Robey confirmed that he’ll be stepping down as the coach of Bridgeport basketball. He’s been on the sidelines for the last seven seasons after serving a stint as the assistant for late Coach Gene Randolph.

 

“The last few years I’ve always told myself and others I’ll see if I want to keep doing this one year at a time,” said Robey. “When it’s time to start over I figured that’s when I would make the decision.

 

“Honestly, I never thought about how I would know, but my friend (and former BHS Principal) Mark DeFazio said that you’ll just know,” Robey continued. “He was right.”

 

Robey said he usually has an itch to get back into the gym a few months after each season is complete. This year, with summer break at hand and getting a few rounds in on the golf course, that wasn’t the case.

 

“I just didn’t feel like I wanted to be there. I started thinking about the hours on the bus, the trips where I had to take Dramamine before each game to Preston, or Elkins or Charleston,” said Robey. “I thought about the hours you spend during the season coaching games, going home and breaking down that game on film and breaking down your next opponent and getting to bed at 3 a.m. and up at 5:30 a.m. and doing it again.”

 

That’s when Robey realized he wasn’t 100 percent into it. That, he said, was a problem.

 

“If you’re doing to do this job right you have to put 100 percent into it and I’ve always put 100 percent into it,” said Robey. “The kids on this team deserve someone fully committed. That’s what made it tough because I love those kids, you get close to them, and leaving them is a very hard thing to do.”

 

As for retiring from teaching, Robey said right now he’ll continue as an educator at Washington Irving Middle School. A decision there, however, doesn’t need to be made immediately. With the three-week practice period coming up, he said it had to be done now.

 

“I don’t know what the rest of the summer will bring, but I’m not going to retire from that just yet. I had to determine my decision to be fair to Bridgeport High School and the kids,” Robey continued.  “The good news is that during the three-week period the kids will be with Coach (Zak) Bart, so I know they’ll be in good hands with him running things.”

 

Robey said the timing felt even better considering his youngest son, Chase, is accepting a graduate coaching assistant job. He said this will free him up where he won’t have to worry about watching him.

 

“Now I don’t have to pick where I can be and where I can’t. I can go watch Chase and, heck, I’ll probably do what he’s done to me and criticize him from the stands,” Robey said with a laugh.

 

Robey’s coaching career is no laughing matter. He began at the now defunct Central Junior High School where he became a coaching legend. Robey also had stints as a head coach at Notre Dame High School and has assisted at Roosevelt-Wilson Junior High and High School (his alma mater) and coached with long-time friend Billy Bennett as an assistant on Robert C. Byrd’s staff.

 

“We’ll see if I miss it. That I don’t know yet,” said Robey. “What I do know is the time felt right.”

 

Editor's Note: Top three photos by www.benqueenphotography.com.Bottom photo is of the 1989 Central Junior High team with a young Mike Robey shown standing top row to the far left. Photo courtesy of Chris Williams (44). Also pictured in NCWV Airport Director Rick Rock (32) in the front row.