This coming Saturday evening, a familiar face will be located in an unfamiliar place for the second time this year. When Bridgeport’s boys’ basketball team squares off against Robert C. Byrd in Clarksburg, there sitting on the Eagles’ bench will be none other than Dave Marshall.

 

For those of you who thought you saw Marshall sitting there during the two teams’ earlier matchup at BHS, you weren’t mistaken. And for those of you who aren’t aware, that’s not somebody that looks like Marshall, but the real deal.

 

Marshall is a volunteer assistant with the RCB squad. It comes just a year after the former BHS state championship girls coach stepped down from that post after two decades of leading the team on the sidelines. In fact, this past summer was the first time Marshall was away from the game in roughly a quarter of a century of being involved with various WVSSAC-related basketball programs.

 

“When I left the girls job I knew I had done everything I could do and, honestly, was frustrated as I was coming to the end that I felt that way. I knew that wasn’t good and when I felt that way I knew it was time to step away,” said Marshall. “I didn’t know if it was the end, but I took this summer and didn't do anything. I knew I just needed to recuperate.”

 

While the summer may have been different, the itch was still there. In fact, two weeks before practice started this winter he noticed a job come open and he nearly bid on it.

 

“Yea, the itch was there. I knew it was going to be hard to stay away,” said Marshall. “The thing I had to ask myself was ‘do I really want to go back or am I just too close to this having gotten rid of it?’ It was a problem for me.”

 

The answer came, oddly enough, at a concert he was asked to attend by his friend and RCB Coach Billy Bennett. Bennett asked him to join him for the “Big Daddy Weave” show out of the area, which is a Christian Contemporary group.

 

“I don’t think we were thinking about anything other than looking forward to the concert and enjoying each other’s company, but I asked him if I could come to watch a practice,” said Marshall. “That’s when he told me he needed a volunteer assistant and I just laughed it off and really didn’t think twice about it – for a while.”

 

That’s because Bennett brought it up again on the way home. Marshall and Bennett began talking basketball and, in particular, defense. Marshall said he felt like he did when he first started coaching, but still didn’t give it too much thought on Bennett’s offer.

 

“When I got home, (Billy) sent me a text and I asked me again and I asked him if I could have a couple of days to pray about it,” said Marshall. “I gave him my answer and everyone knows what that was and, honestly, I don’t regret it.”

 

Technically, the coaching that began at the old Gore Junior High School in the early 1990s, then with Russ Nutt at Liberty High School, a stint with Bennett as an assistant Washington Irving girls basketball coach, and then finally to an assistant with Bob Cline with the Tribe’s girls basketball program, hasn’t really had a break – not counting his summer off. And now he’s coaching against students that he’s teaching.

 

“It’s fun because the kids here at Bridgeport are cordial about it. I had Chase (Robey) last semester and John (Wilfong) and several others and it’s just fun. I know it’s a rivalry, but the kids today know one another. Most of them are friends,” said Marshall. “After (RCB) got beat earlier this year by Bridgeport, I had some jayvee players give me some grief in my fourth block class, but it was in good fun. After 25 years as a coach, you realize that kids are kids no matter where you’re at.”

 

While the kids at both schools have been great, Marshall said the break in having the responsibilities that come with being a head coach is also nice. He said that’s something else that he needed to step away from and this allows him to do that.

 

“You’re just as committed as the head coach, but you know you don’t have the same responsibilities. Honestly, I initially didn’t feel the same investment when practice started, but I do now,” he said. “It’s ironic that I’m fully invested, but not the least bit overwhelmed. I would have missed the game had I stayed away.”

 

So does he miss it enough to consider being the head coach again somewhere?

 

“I think that’s a possibility. I still want to make sure whether I’m totally sold on being back into it and a season like this is what I need,” said Marshall. “What better way to figure out if you want to be involved then to be on both ends of the Bridgeport and Robert C. Byrd rivalry. Maybe it will point me back into being a head coach again somewhere. I just don’t know that right now, but I do know that I’m having a lot of fun.”

 

Editor's Note: Top photo, courtesy of Connect-Clarksburg, is of Marshall in his new gig with Robert C. Byrd, while bottom photos are of Marshall in his past duties as the BHS girls basketball coach. All photos by www.benqueenphotography.com.