In one of the most perplexing, convoluted, controversial decisions surrounding a state championship football game in memory,
Brooke (Wellsburg, W. Va.) High School is playing in a state Class AAA championship game on Saturday.
South Charleston is not.
On Tuesday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that a Kanawha County judge over-stepped his boundaries to block the state Secondary Schools Activities Commission from suspending four South Charleston players for fighting at the conclusion of a playoff game against
Hurricane on Nov. 19.
Instead of not suiting up, as ordered, the players participated in a 29-28 win over Brooke on Nov. 26.
With the win, South Charleston qualified for a state title-game berth against
Martinsburg last Saturday.
But Brooke appealed the Kanawha County's judge decision and after a week delay, and the Supreme Court's decision, it is Brooke, not South Charleston, which is in the state finals.
Brooke was ruled the winner by forfeit and the 29-28 game was wiped from the books.
"We expected right to prevail and it did," Brooke head coach Tom Bruney told the Wheeling News-Register. "We weren't so much concerned with playing another game. What we were concerned with is standing up for what's right."
Bruney said he filed a written and verbal protest before the game with South Charleston. "They chose to play the kids regardless," said Bruney, who was reportedly not in a celebratory mood even with Tuesday's decision. "This is a black eye for West Virginia football. It's a darn shame it had to come to this."
Reaction from South Charleston, the two-time defending state champions, was predictably one of huge disappointment.
"It hit us all pretty hard," South Charleston coach John Messinger told the Charleston Gazette. "The hard thing is sitting in a room with 42 great young men and telling them they're not going to have that chance, and that's unfortunate. There were a lot of tears in there, a lot of heartbreak in there."
There was also anger.
"Absolutely (the decision) sticks in my craw," Messinger said. "But not just me, but in the way it was handled, the way the kids were labeled by the officials and the SSAC was wrong. They got it wrong."
The reaction from Martinsburg coach Dave Walker was just relief. His team has had eight days to prepare, but it didn't know for which team.
"I'm just glad it's settled, and we actually have an opponent and a game," Walker said. "At the beginning, they were excited about playing South Charleston, a two-time champion who knocked them out the last two years. But after this waiting game, they don't care."
