This year, 2023, marks the 100th anniversary of the first points scored by the Bridgeport Track & Field team at the West Virginia

State Track & Field Championships.

 

Likely, the team started earlier. However, I haven’t found any evidence of earlier seasons. So I have chosen to celebrate this milestone as the beginning of Bridgeport Track & Field. Things have changed substantially over the past 100 years. Let us take a few minutes on this anniversary to reflect on the program’s past highlights and accomplishments. As well as look at how far the program has advanced over the past century.

 

I began my coaching career at BHS in 1989. Almost as soon as I started with the team, I searched for school records and worked on investigating the track & field program’s history. A glance through the trophy case revealed only three items awarded to track & field; one individual state championship, one Harrison County team championship, and a first-place girl's team trophy from a small three-team meet. Not overly impressive. Next, I searched through the collection of yearbooks belonging to then BHS journalism teacher and advisor for the yearbook, Alice Rowe. More helpful and provided me with some information, but far from enough.

 

A decade later, I received a book written by WV Wesleyan coaching legend and my friend, Jesse Skiles. Coach Skiles’ book was a compilation of the WV High School Track & Field State Meet History 1914-1999. It contained a state meet recap and complete results for each season. The book must have been a laborious task to produce. This was what I had been waiting to find. Using his book, I could map the state-level accomplishments of the BHS track & field program as far back as 1914.

 

Today we are blessed to have Josh Weekley’s RunWV.com at our disposal. Started around 1997, the site contains a wealth of information and results for track & field and cross country in West Virginia. Combining all of these resources has allowed me to create a reasonable history of track & field in Bridgeport. I will share a small portion of this history with you to honor this milestone for the program and celebrate how far the team has come.

 

The first state meet points, in 1923, came from a young man named Dreppard. He finished third in the 220-yard dash. Following Dreppard's 1923 state meet success, the team suffered a long dry spell. It was, in fact, a 47-year drought. Bridgeport would not score at the state meet again until Steve Frome’s 1970 pole vault of 12’ 3” captured the school’s first individual state championship in track & field.

 

It would take another 15 years to score points at the state championships again. Mike Sabatino managed a 2nd place finish in the 1600m run with a time of 4:28.8 in 1985. That race was also a school record. One that lasted 29 years until the 2014 season, when it was broken by Abe Merinar (4:17.89). Two years later, in 1987, Lonny Sprouse qualified for states and went 20’ 1” in the long jump to claim 6th place. The following year, the Shuttle Hurdle Relay team, consisting of Chris Marteney, Eddie Springer, Mike Teter, and one unidentified athlete, finished 6th with a time of 1:02.03.

 

As stated earlier, Frome’s state championship plaque was one of only three track & field items in the trophy case upon my arrival at BHS. The second was for the 1971 Harrison County Boys T&F Championship, claimed by coach Tom Brown’s team. Team success had proven elusive for Bridgeport’s track & field program from the 1920s through the 1980s. Individual success had faired only slightly better through that same period. The cause for the program’s limited accomplishments is anyone’s guess; the size of the school, lack of facilities, low motivation, low student participation, or many other possible factors.

 

These 66 years, from 1923 through 1988, I refer to as the “Early Days” for Bridgeport track & field. The “Modern Era” of Bridgeport track & field began with the 1989 season and continues today. At the risk of appearing egotistical, the “Early Days” to the “Modern Era” transition coincides with my arrival at BHS. However, I know the “Modern Era” was not ushered in solely by me but rather by the group effort of many coaches, athletes, parents, administrators, and community members. The teams of this era have seen a relatively small number of head coaches. Jim Dawson, Ryan Nicewarner, Emilee Yurish, and now Ali Burton have served as the head coach of the BHS girl's team. For the boy’s team, you only have me and now Grant Burton. Emilee, Ryan, and Grant are also former athletes of the program, as are most of the team’s assistant coaches.

 

In many ways, these two eras could not be more different. The “Modern Era” is one of growth and success. The team size grew from eight or ten boys and perhaps 15 girls to between 40 and 60 of each just a few years later. The facility grew as well. The cinder track facility was expanded in 1990. The expansion allowed BHS to host the Harrison County Championships for the first time in 1991. Since 2001, hosting meets has become standard fare for the program. Revenue generated from home meets has provided the opportunity for the team to purchase state-of-the-art equipment, travel to larger meets, and for the coaches to receive additional coaching education.

 

BHS’s first modern rubberized track was installed in 2001 with all the necessary field event areas as part of the “Track to the Future” project. The new concession stand and finish line timing building were added a short time later. In 2016, the track was replaced with a high-end professional polyurethane surface. Upgraded field event areas and a new two-story finish line building were also added.

 

Along with this growth came success. The 33 seasons of the “Modern Era” saw the trophy cases at BHS fill to overflowing with trophies and plaques. Combined over the “Modern Era,” the boys and girls teams have won 54 Harrison County Championships, 33 Big 10 Conference Championships, 21 Regional Championships, 6 WV State Runner-ups, and 5 WV State Championships. Individual success grew as well. During this same period, BHS has claimed 46 individual state championships and 16 relay team state championships.

 

Several BHS athletes have set state records. Hundreds of our athletes have qualified for and scored points at the state meet. The list of outstanding athletes is way too long to list. However, I will mention two that stand out.

 

For the boy's team, Abe Merinar broke one of the longest-standing records at BHS, as I said earlier. He was also named the high point athlete for the 2014 WV State Championships. He won the 800m, 1600m, and 3200m runs and was part of the winning 4x800m relay team that year. In light of that four-event state title effort, he was honored with the 2014 Ray McCoy Award, which goes to the state’s most outstanding male and female track and field athlete of the year.

 

That same year saw the arrival of the most accomplished track & field athlete in school history, McKenna Smith. She is also one of the most successful high school track & field athletes in the history of WV. Her freshmen season was outstanding, and she was headed toward a blazing sophomore year at the state meet, but unfortunately, she was sidelined by injury and unable to compete. That did not stop her. In her junior year at the 2016 State Meet, McKenna won 4 events; 100m, 200m, 400m, and 300m Hurdles. She set a AA class state record in each of them. In three of them, she set All-Class All-Time state records. She just missed the All-Class All-Time state record in the 300 Hurdles. That performance earned her the 2016 Ray McCoy Award and the 2016 USA Today Gatorade WV Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

 

How could anyone top that? Well, hold on. The following year, McKenna managed to do just that. She broke all of her previous records setting new All-Time All-Class state records in each, including the 300m Hurdles, this time around. Once again, her dominating performance garnered more awards. She received the 2017 Ray McCoy Award and the 2017 USA Today Gatorade WV Track & Field Athlete of the Year.

 

A century has come and gone.

 

I can imagine Mr. Dreppard running around the 1923 Bridgeport High School (now the home of Heritage Christian School) up on the top of the hill, preparing himself for the WV State Meet. A rural West Virginia version of Chariots of Fire with an orchestral soundtrack playing in the background as he sprints back and forth across a dusty path.

 

I can remember my first day of coaching at BHS. I was greeted by eight young men on a one-and-a-half lane cider/dirt oval that circled a partially grassed, muddy football field. A rusted chain link fence separated the track from the football field. Nonetheless, my eager young athletes poured their hearts into training. Diligently, they began recruiting new kids from the school to join the team. They also were thrilled to bring me stray, wayward gifts from track meets we attended to add items to our nonexistent equipment inventory.

 

Today, I watch BHS athletes train on a quality Beynon polyurethane track surface with first-class field event areas. Up to eight coaches oversee the team each season, each specializing in a particular group or event, many of whom are graduates of the program. State-of-the-art equipment is plentiful and housed in our storage garage. Training methods have become scientific and methodical. The opportunity to attend coaching education clinics is encouraged and has become routine. The program now hosts major state-wide invitationals. Storing the trophies and plaques has become an issue as we have outgrown the school's trophy cases and now even the two massive shelving units in the BHS Track & Field office.

 

The stark contrasts between the “Early Days” and the “Modern Era” of Bridgeport Track & Field are unmistakable. Mr. Dreppard with no facility, no equipment, and minimal coaching, compared to McKenna Smith having one of the finest facilities in the state, the equipment inventory of a sizable college team, and well-educated, motivated, successful coaches. They are worlds apart.

 

Though things have come a long way over the last 100 years for Bridgeport Track & Field, one thing hasn’t changed. The heart, mind, and soul of the young athletes that train and compete. Not just the McKennas and Abes of the program but everyone who has shown up and worked to achieve their unique and full potential. I admire the desire, motivation, and dedication that propels them to work toward their goals, often accomplishing more than they believed possible. I salute all athletes, families, coaches, administrators, and community members who have been team members, volunteers, and involved with or supported the BHS T&F program since its inception.

 

Congratulations on being a part of a century’s worth of hard work, dedication, and success.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows the track that saw its origins in 2001 after decades of being a cinder track facility, whileSteve Frome clears the pole vault in the second photo. The third photo shows some of the success of the modern era with Coach Jon Griffith and Coach Emilee Stout Yurish displaying a sweep of Class AA state championships. The next photo is of Abe Merinar, who is arguably the most dominant male track athelte in BHS history, while the bottom photo is of McKenna Smith, arguably the most dominant athlete in West Virginia state track history.