Two Fridays ago, Bridgeport High School wrapped up another impressive prep sports year by winning its fourth state title in school history. On June 6, the Indians baseball team won their second straight baseball championship with an impressive win over Chapmanville.

 

Of course, that’s one short of last year’s total of five state championships, which was the most ever in one year by a public high school in West Virginia History. State sports historian and prep journalism legend Doug Huff confirmed that Charleston Catholic and Wheeling Central were the only schools to have years of five state titles and CCHS actually had a season – 2009-10 – where they won six state championships.

 

Based on that, it would see that coming up just short of five titles would mean that Bridgeport didn’t do as well in 2014-15 as the school did in 2013-2014. If you’re basing it solely on state titles, then there is no argument. If you’re looking at the overall body of work, well, it’s a tough call.

 

The Tribe won state titles this season in football, cross country, boys’ tennis and baseball. The Indians repeated in football, cross country and baseball, while the tennis championship was the first in school history. The Indians were runners-up in girls track, golf, girls soccer and cheerleading.

 

“I don’t think we’ve ever had programs across the board – as many – as we’ve had recently do well as deep into a season. You look at tennis and see a first-ever state title and see the other sports that have done well continue to do well,” said BHS Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Matt DeMotto. “I don’t know if we’re performing that much better this year as compared to last or others, but it’s hard to argue this wasn’t a pretty solid year.”

 

Here’s the thing if you go past the titles and runner-up finishes this year: Bridgeport did as good as or better in multiple other sports in 2014-15. So if you’re looking at the overall body of work then maybe it was better. I’ll let you decide with a little bit of information that was provided when Bridgeport was named the winner of the Charleston Gazette’s Excellence in Sports Award (GEISA) for Class AA.

 

The awards program has been going in for 19 years and the man who heads up the program – veteran writer Dave Hickman – called what BHS did this year “the most dominating performances in any class in the award’s history.”

 

Hickman didn’t just say it and not back it up. He had some figures to go along with his statement.

 

Bridgeport captured 84.5 points in the GEISA competition (8 points for a state title, 7 for runner-up and so on with ties resulting in divided points). Fairmont Senior was second with 40.5 points. That means BHS was more than twice as dominant as the next most dominant program – and the Polar Bears are no slouches when it comes to the athletic field.

 

Here’s why – There are 19 sports (those recognized by the WVSSAC) that are considered in the GEISA program. Bridgeport had a top-eight finish in 15 of the 19 sports. According to Hickman, that’s a record in any class and topped the old mark of 13 set twice by private school Charleston Catholic.

 

The numbers may have even been higher if the WVSSAC recognized lacrosse. Bridgeport made it to the semifinals in that program despite fielding a 13-player roster.

 

But what really makes these numbers sweet on the sports front is that the Indians continue to excel not only in the classroom, but in other extracurricular activities that involve the arts and academics. Not only is Bridgeport still among the highest performing academic schools in the state, but the academic competition teams, the Thespian group, the band and I’m sure others I’ve missed and someone will complain about also dominated on the local and state stage.

 

So is it the best year in school history? As always, that’s up for debate. However, the numbers here present a pretty compelling argument.

 

And as always, I’d love for those reading this blog to add some comments on their own thoughts below. It’s time for you to take control as the ball is in your court.

 

Editor's Note: Photos from the teams that won Bridgeport's four state championships this past school year. Photos by www.benqueenphotography.com.