WVSSAC Super Six Football Championships

For 'the Kids,' Wheeling a Winner
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
By THE NEWS-REGISTER- The Intelligencer & Wheeling News-Register

Wheeling is not the only city in West Virginia capable of hosting the annual “Super Six” high school football championship games. Other communities have excellent playing fields. Other areas have plenty of resources to handle the games. Yet, for 14 years, Wheeling has been home to the “Super Six.”

Representatives of other communities have attempted to convince the state Secondary Schools Activities Commission that they should have a shot at the games. Time after time, however, when SSAC officials met to decide where the games should be held, the winner was Wheeling.

SSAC Executive Director Gary Ray, during a visit to Wheeling this week, said the reason for our community’s dominance is obvious. Of the local residents who, down through the years, have handled the event, Ray had this observation: “They focus on the kids.”

Howard Corcoran, an Ohio County Board of Education member who also serves on the local “Super Six” Committee, recalled the time many years ago when a group of local residents decided to make a bid to hold the championship games in Wheeling. The late Sam Mumley was a key member of that group, and his advice, according to Corcoran, was to focus on “the kids, the kids, the kids.”

It is a formula that has worked well for Wheeling — and for high school athletes, scholars honored during the event, their parents and fans.

A new system of handling the championship games is being adopted by the SSAC. Instead of awarding the games to communities for two-year stretches, the commission will approve contracts for three years, with one-year extensions possible.

That is a good change, in our opinion — and not just because it will make life easier for the local “Super Six” committee. The change will provide for more continuity in planning the event.

Undoubtedly, Wheeling’s committee will be challenged by representatives of other cities in January, when the SSAC again will consider proposals to host the “Super Six.”

We commend members of the local committee — along with the many volunteers and sponsors who help them — for their efforts in the past. We have little doubt that, in January, the SSAC once again will award the championship games to Wheeling — simply because “the kids, the kids, the kids” is an unbeatable formula for success.