From the Bench: From Crutches to Crowns, Friendship of Love and Spatafore Sees Prep Storybook Ending
By Jeff Toquinto on December 22, 2024 from Sports Blog
Josh Love and Jack Spatafore have been friends for as long as both can remember. They both trace it back, they believe, to either age 5 or 6 and are more certain the friendship was forged on the football field.
Since then, the two have done just about everything together. And when you read this, you will learn that the statement is not hyperbole.
Along with taking classes together, playing sports together, spending nights at one another’s houses, going on trips together, and more, it was 2020 that showed the two were tied together at the hip – or in this case the leg.
It was in that year Love and Spatafore were both sporting crutches courtesy of the game of football that forged their friendship. It was in 2024, last weekend to be exact, both were sporting a crown courtesy of that same game of football.
Love and Spatafore both played critical roles in leading the Indians to the 2024 Class AAA state championship. It was the 11th state title win for the school in 12 tries.
The ending was much better than their ending the last time they were wrapping up their football career at a school. That, again, would be back in 2020.
As it turned out, the 2020 season was wrong for more than just a year shortened by COVID. Not only did Bridgeport Middle School fail to win a conference championship that season through no fault of its own, but Love and Spatafore would be knocked out of what proved to be the final game of the season earlier than they would have liked.
It would be in the fifth game of what turned out to be a 5-0 season where the pair got hurt. Not only did they both get hurt in the same game, but they both had the same injury to the same leg.
As it turned out, Spatafore led the way on the injury front before Love followed suit. And it all happened on a very sloppy field at South Harrison.
“I was coming down from the corner and (South Harrison) was running a jet sweep. I came up to hit the kid about the same time three of my teammates were doing the same. My leg stuck in the ground and just bent,” said Spatafore. “I didn’t know that I broke my leg, but I could see my ankle was really messed up.”
As it turned out, Spatafore had dislocated his ankle. By the time his father, Jack Spatafore of Bridgeport Physical Therapy arrived on the field, the ankle had popped itself back into place. However, his father’s medical background let him know it was more than just the ankle.
“My adrenaline was too high that it wasn’t hurting too much even as my dad carried me off the field,” said Spatafore. “He got me to the car
and the pain really started.”
and the pain really started.”
Spatafore said about that time he began to “freak out.” However, it was not because of the pain. But rather, because he was not sure how serious his injury was and was afraid it would impact him for trying out for basketball.
As it turned out, basketball would be the least of his concern. The x-rays confirmed what his father suspected – he had broken his left leg.
“Mine took place on one of the last plays of the game. I didn’t have many carries, and I asked the coach for a carry to try and get a score,” said Love. “I got into running it, but the conditions on the field weren’t good. Someone dove into me to tackle and smacked my ankle, and my front leg slipped out from under me, and I knew it wasn’t good.”
Love said when it happened, it sounded like “a tree branch breaking.” Like his buddy Jack, he too would have a left leg cleanly broken. And like his friend, he would be carried off the field – this time however it would be Wes Brown (father of all-stater Wes Brown) who did the honors.
Unlike his friend worrying about basketball practice, Love had another worry.
“I was hoping that I would still be able to go skiing, but that didn’t turn out too well,” he said with a laugh.
Both youngsters were out of action. They would spend time getting better with rehabilitation and joining up together for plenty of video game action.
The bright side?
“We both joked about not having to go through the injury alone,” said Spatafore.
The injury only tightened the bond. They have been friends for more than a dozen years now. From Flag Football, Pee Wee White, Midget White, Bridgeport Middle School, Bridgeport High School freshman and junior varsity on the football front and everything social, academic, and extracurricular in between.
Ironically, the pair were both injured in the Class AAA semifinal game against Fairmont Senior. Unlike their eighth-grade year at BMS, both 
were cleared to play and start against Herbert Hoover in what turned into a 49-7 win for the Indians and officially buried the crutches from the past and replaced them with crowns in the present.
were cleared to play and start against Herbert Hoover in what turned into a 49-7 win for the Indians and officially buried the crutches from the past and replaced them with crowns in the present.
“That was incredible. It was one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had and definitely trumps anything sports related from the past,” said Love. “Losing is always harsh when you put a lot of work into it, but getting a state title is only possible if you put hard work into it.”
His friend Jack echoed a lot of that.
“I can’t describe how good it felt to go undefeated and win the title. What’s funny, is you look back at middle school and think it would have been nice to have won a title in some capacity, but this tops everything,” said Spatafore. “The team was confident, and Josh and I were confident. I think the confidence came from the fact we all worked so hard, and we knew this senior class was loaded and carried a lot of expectations with us that we were able to meet.”
The pair did something else this past week. Both were named to the West Virginia Sports Writers Association Class AAA all-state team.
There is a chance the “doing everything together” period of their lives may end. And there is a chance it may continue.
Spatafore will be attending West Virginia University this coming fall. He will be getting into exercise physiology with the goal of going into the medical field, perhaps with an eye on dental school.
Love may attend WVU with a look toward engineering. If not in Morgantown, then he will be attending the University of Tennessee. The decision has not yet been made, but one decision has.
“If I end up at WVU we’ll be roommates,” said Love.
The good news is that there should be no surprises. The better news is that if one of them ends up doing well in college, chances are good that the other will do the same.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Josh Love, left, and Jack Spatafore showing the result of the end of the 2020 BMS football season. The second photo, by Tom Mellott, shows the pair showing the result of the end of the 2024 BHS football season. Third photo shows Love (14) leading the way on a carry by his friend Spatafore (9). First photo courtesy of Jack Spatafore's father Jack. Bottom photo shows many of today's seniors as eighth grade students on the BMS football team. Coach Robbie Buffington, far right, is joined by assistant Scott Lively.
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