The Indians Radio Network was searching for a sideline reporter. Brent Kimble was looking for a door to open back into something that has become passionate about.

 

Sometimes a perfect fit happens that quickly as Kimble is now two games into being a sideline reporter for the Indians Radio Network for football games.

 

“It was kind of a last-minute thing as far as seasons go,” said Travis Jones, the Voice of the Indians. “We try to plan these things out a little further in advance. We haven’t had a sideline component to our broadcast in many, many years and that was from not having someone available to do it to not having someone who had the radio experience.

 

“Being a sideline reporter is kind of a unique job responsibility and Brent has that experience with it."

 

Although the decision came quickly, the journey for Kimble being on the BHS sidelines is one that took a little longer and it’s one that could be classified as a full-circle move.

 

Well-known for his role with the Buccaneer Sports Network that focuses on Buckhannon-Upshur High School athletics as well as being a dedicated social studies teacher at B-U for the past 14 years, Kimble’s connection with Bridgeport started before then.

 

“It’s been about 15 years since I’ve been on the sidelines at Wayne Jamison Field,” Kimble said. “I student taught in Bridgeport from 2003 to 2005.

 

“In 2005, I was in full student teaching placement and I really wanted to get involved with the community and so Tom Fogg introduced me to Bruce Carey. Bruce let me be a volunteer with the team that year. Without that, I wouldn’t be the educator or the sports guy that I am today.”

 

Kimble did his middle school placement at Bridgeport Middle School and his high school placement at BHS. He knew Bridgeport was a place he wanted to teach in and a community he wanted to be a part of.

 

He said once he was getting ready to finish up his student teaching he asked Fogg what a person had to do to get a teaching job in a place like Bridgeport.

 

“Tom told me first of all, ‘You have to be the best,’” Kimble said. “Bridgeport has a certain level of expectations. He also then kind of jokingly that then you have to go teach somewhere else for 15 years.

 

“It was going to take some place special to pull me away from Buckhannon-Upshur. I was there for 14 years. That was home, that’s where I fell in love with the career and so many things from the teaching aspect to Buccaneer Sports Network.

 

“A conversation me and my wife have been having for a year or so with our kids are getting older, getting more involved in community activities. My wife asked, ‘Where do you see yourself leaving Buckhannon for?’ I said there is only two places. One is home, which is Doddridge County. Two is Bridgeport High School.

 

“Low and behold, the first day teachers reported, a job came open and the rest is history.”

 

Kimble said he joked during his interview for becoming a social studies teacher at BHS that he hoped Fogg was wrong since he had only taught 14 years somewhere else.

 

Being a year off turned out to not be a detraction and even with the chaos that comes with changing jobs in the middle of a global pandemic, Kimble, was officially a social studies teacher at BHS by Sept. 14.

 

As excited as he was to be back at the school he student taught at and having a much shorter commute (Kimble, his wife and their two children reside in Clarksburg), it was still tough leaving B-U.

 

“One thing that Buckhannon did when no one else did, they gave me my shot,” Kimble said. “For 14 years, they let me be me. They let me try things and see what work. They let me cut my teeth. Over those 14 years, I did a lot of things. I’m one of only 19 social studies teachers in the state of West Virginia that are master board certified.

 

“Being a social studies teacher in the world we are living in now, we need people that can be a voice of reason. We need people that can explain this is why this is and why it’s happening now and what’s going to happen next. I look at my job like that every day. Teaching is first in my realm. It’s always going to be first.”

 

He said another appealing aspect of the BHS job was the rest of his department.

 

“There are six full-time social studies teachers at Bridgeport High School. Three of them, John Cole, Letitia Yeater and Paul Ayers, were there when I was student teaching. One of those spots is me. The other two spots are Kenny Edwards and J.D. Lister. J.D. was a senior in 2005 when I was there and was around him a lot and I actually had Kenny in class.

 

“They are all great people. Everyone from Matt DeMotto to Mark Jones to Renee Mathews to the faculty as a whole have been nothing but inviting and welcoming.”

 

Kimble’s involvement in sports radio began as a play-by-play voice for B-U sports as part of West Virginia Radio. He also served as a B-U assistant football and basketball coach for 10 years.

 

A few years ago, West Virginia Radio decided to stop airing B-U athletic events. The desire though to hear such events was still present in the community so Kimble and Mike Donato (currently B-U boys soccer coach) had an idea.

 

“Five years ago, Mike Donato and I were sitting there in my classroom at the high school and we together one winter morning concocted and created the Buccaneer Sports Network,” Kimble said.

 

“We worked on it about a month and decided we were going to have a soft opening with a baseball game that spring. We got our equipment. Stan Nolte, a county commissioner and one of the best guys in Buckhannon, was our first sponsor.

 

“If you go back and listen to that first broadcast, that is epic broadcast history. There was a rain delay, we are trying to fill dead air with just talking about random things. We had six listeners the entire time and the exact same one ad we probably played 40 times. But we got off the air and said we can do this.”

 

The Buccaneer Sports Network didn’t take long to improve from there. By the following fall, they covered every football game, most basketball games and a mix of boys soccer, girls soccer, baseball and softball games.

 

Although there were plenty of highlights for Kimble, he said the one that stands out is being there for the B-U girls basketball team’s two-year run where they made it two consecutive state championship games with coach Jeremy Maxwell (currently a teacher at Bridgeport Middle School by the way) and players like Lauren Bennett and Mary Ostrowski Award Winner Hanna McClung.

 

“That second title game is one of the best games I’ve ever watched,” Kimble said. “The entire bottom of the (Charleston) Civic Center was blue with B-U supporters. Metro News had the exclusive rights to the game, but we did a 30-minute pregame show and a 15-minute postgame show. For that 30-minute pregame we had over 1,500 devices tuned in to listen to two teachers who probably knew less about girls basketball than just about anyone.”

 

With the teaching job secured, Kimble soon had a quick conversation with Jones to see if there was a spot for him with the Indians Radio Network.

 

“I said, ‘Hey Travis is there any room for me, I would love to be a part of the team,’” Kimble said. “He said, ‘I need a sideline guy.’”

 

It was that simple.

 

After not being in the booth or on the sidelines for the first time in 14 years the week the Indians played Fairmont Senior, Kimble was back in action the following Friday for the Tribe’s home game against Robert C. Byrd.

 

“To get injury updates and other updates from the field, with a two-man crew it’s virtually impossible to do,” Jones said. “One thing on the list of things people want during a broadcast is to hear the coach’s thoughts after the game. And another great thing is we now have the ability to talk to the kids after the game and put the spotlight on them. Brent gives us that and he does a great job with it. It’s worked out really well for us.”

 

Kimble added, “Just to be back on a field is an absolute thrill. I’m just glad to be here. I’m looking forward to getting to know all the players and talking to them after the game. Whatever the team needs, I will do it.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo of Brent Kimble interviewing BHS football coach John Cole and bottom photo of Kimble interviewing Cam Cole are both by www.benqueenphotography.com, Photos two through four are of Kimble on the sidelines prior to the start of the BHS-RCB game. Fifth photo iof Kimble interviewing former state player of the year Hanna McClung during his time with Buccaneer Sports Network courtesy of his Facebook Page.