From the Bench: Connecting 3 BHS Losses in 1993's Title Run to Getting a Crown for Coach Causing Them
By Jeff Toquinto on March 30, 2025 from Sports Blog
Back when Bridgeport High School’s Dave Marshall was cutting his coaching teeth in the early 1990s, he served as a volunteer assistant to former Liberty Coach Russ Nutt. At the time, the Mountaineers were a Class AAA program and having one of the best multi-year runs in school history.
Liberty would make it to the state tournament that season. The club would beat Capital in the first round and lose to top-ranked George Washington in the semifinals to end a spectacular season.
So, what does 1993 Liberty have to do with 2025 Bridgeport High School? Well, there is a pretty cool tie involving the current Bridgeport coach and the father of one of Bridgeport’s best players going back three-plus decades.
Any long-time Bridgeport basketball fan knows the date 1993 as a special one. It would be the year the Indians would win the first of what are now three state boys basketball championships.
The team was solid in the starting five and the bench. They were “coached up” by the late Bill Kerns and assistant Billy Bennett. In fact, they were just about unbeatable and, I’m fairly certain they were – at least against Class AA competition that year. By season’s end, BHS was a robust champion with a 21-4 record.
There was one thing that happened that year that despite winning the state championship, that anyone on the team in any capacity remembers. Bridgeport played Liberty three times that season – twice as part of the regular Big 10 Conference schedule and once in a holiday tournament.
About those four losses listed above? Three of them came at the hands of the Mountaineers. Even more amazing, the combined total of 
defeat in those three contests was five points.
defeat in those three contests was five points.
Something else I remember. To this day, 30-plus years later, they were three of the best basketball games I have ever witnessed. Now, understand, I am not equating close ball games with good ball games because that happens a lot even today and the games are terrible other than being close.
These games were not just close. They were templates in defensive and offensive strategy. Ironically, years ago when covering those games Liberty Coach Russ Nutt talked to me after their 1993 season about the motion offense that was run and he – proving good coaches are not afraid to pass along credit - talked about a then wet-behind-the-ears Dave Marshall putting in the offense.
The defensive-minded Marshall helped a team that had players like Scott Davis, Chad Weekley, Chad Moore and a host of others run an offense that even the best defenses – like Bridgeport’s – had trouble stopping.
One of those players that was out there trying to stop it was Russ Sickles. A lot of you know him as the father of state champion MVP
Phoenix Sickles.
Phoenix Sickles.
“I didn’t remember Coach Marshall at the time, but I remember Liberty was super talented. My main memory was of the holiday tournament, and it’s a bad one. Scott Davis hit a buzzer beater, and I remember at the moment when he went up for the shot thinking I might be able to block it,” said Sickles. “The other thing going through my head was I better not chance getting a foul, and he drained it. That was a lesson not to think too much and just react.
“That Liberty team was really good, and those games were wars,” Sickles, who said he believed the other loss in 1993 was to then Class AAA East Fairmont, continued. “To know this defensive-minded coach put in that offense that was so hard to defend is really interesting, but also not surprising because he's a true student of the game. All these years later, it’s still a bummer knowing we didn’t beat them.”
Marshall, who has coached hundreds of games, recalls all three of those battles against the team he now coaches. And there is a reason for that.
“I still tell the stories about those games 30-plus years later. I will also tell you 30-plus years later those are three of the best basketball games I’ve ever been a part of,” said Marshall. “That was back in an era where most games, particularly a big game, were packed and the environment was different. Every game, every possession mattered and those three games weren’t for the faint of heart.
“Those three will always stick out because they were competitive and played at a high level,” he continued. “You had two really good basketball teams and the difference in all three games was, I believe five points, maybe seven, but they were all one possession games.”
On the Bridgeport bench that year was Bennett who, to this day, is beloved by his former players and who the late Bill Kerns eagerly sang 
the praises of. And what does he remember?
the praises of. And what does he remember?
“They had talent, but what made it work was the offense that was hard to scout and hard to figure out,” said Bennett. “Turns out it was the motion offense run by Bob Knight at Indiana that fit their players perfectly. They ran that at a game in the state tournament one year that I watched, and their opponent had more talent, more athletes, and they just sliced them up with backdoor cuts and layups. As a coach, it was a joy to watch and not so much of a joy to coach against.”
How impressed was Bennett with the offense?
“I was almost sold on it and found out Dave put that offense in with Coach Nutt. I wanted to learn about it and Dave sold me on it,” said Bennett.
Here is the thing. Marshall, Nutt, and the entire Liberty team would have gladly lost all three games to Bridgeport had it meant beating George Washington in the state semifinals (after a first-round win against Capital) and then winning a state championship. And despite it still being recalled years later by those wearing red and white, there is not a single BHS player on that team that would have taken one win or even a three-game sweep if it meant not coming home without the Class AA state championship that year.
Outside of Sickles, I did not talk to Matt Kerns, Adam Fowler, Eric Stoneking, Chris Taylor, Rick Johnson, Chad Montgomery, John Anderson, or anyone else to know such was the case. There was no need to. No one trades in a postseason title for a regular season win.
This, of course, leads to the tie mentioned at the start of the blog. Young Coach Dave Marshall helped Liberty gather the wins against Bridgeport. Bridgeport, however, gathered a state championship.
The irony? It would be 32 years later before Marshall would get his first boys state championship as a coach – this time the head coach, although he did earn one with the BHS girls in 2013. And when he earned it, the son of Russ Sickles – Phoenix – would be as big a catalyst as any.
The 6’5 senior could score, rebound, defense, pass, and, well, just about anything. Most important is that he could hit you for 25 points a game and dominate or put up eight points and, yes, still dominate.
Phoenix was one of many cogs in one of the most unselfish title runs you will see by any team in any sport. And, that cog helped put Marshall, who said he never really thought about the tie between the 1993 season and this one until yours truly broached the subject with him, into the championship coach’s circle.
“I don’t know what God was up to with this, but I won’t dismiss anything,” said Marshall with a laugh. “I guess I’ll ponder that, because when you look at it there is a connection, and it’s a bit weird in what turned out to be a good way. What’s really amazing, I’ve been around 
basketball all of these years and I knew who Russ was as a player back then who was just a pain in the butt to figure out how to guard but never knew him ever beyond that until Phoenix got here. I immediately saw why he played the game like he did after getting to know his father.”
basketball all of these years and I knew who Russ was as a player back then who was just a pain in the butt to figure out how to guard but never knew him ever beyond that until Phoenix got here. I immediately saw why he played the game like he did after getting to know his father.”
When Phoenix got there, the fortunes of BHS basketball were about to change. For those who remember Russ, they know the basketball apple did not fall too far from the hoop.
Phoenix is listed as 6’5. Russ was listed at 6’6. Both were multi-faceted high school players. Both were unselfish. Both were matchup nightmares, and both could defend. Russ was an all-state selection. Phoenix, based on how he showed out in Charleston, could very well join his father in that elite company.
“Phoenix reminds me so much of Russ. Russ was 6’2 as a sophomore and we played him on the wing away from the basket and by the time he was a senior he had grown and had those guard skills,” said Bennett. “I could describe Phoenix the exact same way with all the same physical skills and a high-level basketball IQ. But what stands out the most is that Phoenix was part of a team exactly like ours, unselfish across the board.
“I’m not sure I liked losing those three games,” Bennett continued. “I do like the fact Coach Marshall ended up getting to coach Phoenix. You saw the results, and it’s a pretty good ending.”
Pretty good indeed. One might say it was a championship level ending.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Russ Sickles, middle, and teammate Matt Kerns, right, getting interviewed following the 1993 Class AA title win by Fred Persinger of MetroNews, who is still calling games today. Second photo is of the entire 1993 team. In the third photo, Sickles is shown hugging his father Doyle Sickles after the win. In the fourth photo, from left, Coach Dave Marshall addresses the team this season during a timeout. In the fifth photo, is Russ Sickles, Marshall, and Phoenix Sickles with the state title. In the bottom photo, from left, is Doyle Sickles, Russ Sickles, Billy Bennett, Marshall, and Phoenix Sickles.
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