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She was adopted is what we hear.

Legally by a family member of hers in Martinsburgs district.Not a coach. This is what we hear in the southern part of the county.If thats the case you cannot defeat a legal court document that gives her residency in Martinsburg. Sounds to me like the family knows what is legal and what is not and knew what they were doing.
There were so many other rumors we heard it was crazy,but one with have to imagine that the principal has all the documentation she needs after the football fiasco.The family did their homework to make sure she was legal it seems.No way they were gonna risk their daughters eligibility and scholarship for anyone,you can bet.At least I wouldn't.

The last 2 weeks has proven that!

There are so many crazy rumors. Our parents were told 3 different things by the same person at different times.This person has no credibilty based on how she treated us in the past and was out to get Martinsburg it seems.Last year it centered around Mo Newby,this year its her,next year it'll be someone else. Unless I knew for sure,I would not comment. Musselman has a player on the boys team that lives in Martinsburg.It is crazy.

Somebody is really putting themselves out there on this issue.

Either way,after reading Happy Cats post,It is safe to say that somebody is wrong and could be in big trouble with information on a post like that. Let me elaborate.

1st the COACH
If this coach is harboring a player,it would be easy to find out because the addresses on his checks and her school info would be the same. I may be underestimating this coaches intelligence ,but I don't know how he would be so dumb to do this. It would mean automatic forfeits and he would lose his job right now. The only way he could do this ,and it has happened in other parts of the country ,is if he legally adopted her.If this happened then its perfectly legal. There is nothing the school board can do or anyone else. So if this kids family saw it fit and trusted this coach or are friends with this coach,maybe they let him adopt her. Its only a matter of paperwork and takes about 4 weeks to do.If this kid registered way back in the summer,it may have been done.If this happened, we are wasting our time worrying about it.You cannot challenge the legality of it. Don't know if thats the case,but if it is,you can't defeat it. Is it fair??Perhaps not,but it happens alot of places as I alluded to in another post. Courtni Williams transferred to us her senior year and she was the main reason we beat Hedgesville. She transferred on the basis that Jefferson did not offer a class she wanted to take.Some off the wall class.She allegedly and I say allegedly never moved into Berk County. But a lawyer can and will win these cases all day long. Hedgesville allegedly and I say allegedly to protect myself,has a really good player living in the basement of another teammate and says his parents live in that basement with him,but allegedly they dont. When the WVSSAC tried to find out,the family denied entrance into the home and the WVSSAC has no jurisdiction to get a search warrant.So the only proof is on paper and thats all that was needed and what the board had to go by.The state school board would face a massive lawsuit if they refuse a kid,particularly in this case, a minority kid admission to a school if he provides the same documentation that all other kids have to provide.The Marshall girl a Jefferson ended our hopes of going to states for the first time ever in girls basketball last year.Our staff knew she allegedly lived or spent alot of time in Martinsburg,so did everyone else allegedly.Yet the court papers said she lived with a family member in Jefferson county. Some of the girls on our team knew where she stayed in Martinsburg,ALLEGEDLY,yet on paper,she lived in Jefferson County. Not that it would have mattered anyway,because if she wasnt at Jefferson last year,Martinsburg would have gone to states with her.My nephew is a lawyer in the Charleston area where I coached for years and he sees these cases alot down there. It happened alot when I was there with coach Barksdale at Beckley.They would get parents jobs in coalmines,you name it to get good basketball players.Beckley has more titles than anyone.Bottom line is they had to win on the court,but yes,it was unfair to other teams. All the rivals can say that a coach recruited a player,but in the end,all the players parents have to do is say that they were NOT recruited ,even if they were and it would be dropped.In short,maybe he adopted her and is legit.If he didn't I can't imagine him being so dumb to try to get by with that.Not if he wanted to remain a coach.

2nd HAPPY CAT
Posters on boards like this have to be careful of defaming another person. When you put something in writing on a public forum like this that is not true,if its not true that is,then you are basically admitting guilt because a court order is all this coaches lawyer would need to get your name for a lawsuit and you would be caught red handed from your computer IP address.While I know players and coaches are hated by rivals and that is natural,it is another thing to attack a persons character and livelihood and could possibly ruin a career.Especially if these claims are false. So unless I knew 1000% what the deal was (and even then I would not put it in public forum)with this coach or players,I would really not put myself out there and be held liable for any damages this coach would suffer if this information is false.He could even bring suit as it stands right now if he is innocent and probably win a nice amount of punitive damages.I know lawyers that would jump on this type of stuff,its an easy case to win. But its up to you what you may want to post on these boards.I would just be sure they were true.

In closing,it happens all the time everywhere. Fair or unfair. And I have shown examples where all schools have benefitted from a great player at some point. I lost a top softball player one year simply not because of me,but because my other girls did not show dedication that she saw at another school.Was I happy,no.Did I understand ,Yes. Kids transfer due to coaches,teammates all kinds of reasons. Maybe this kid came to this school in this case because she likes the color of the uniforms.Who knows?

I also cannot imagine that this kids parents,with the kid already having a scholarship,would risk her college chance or the chance for her not to play and develop this year by not having all of their T's crossed and I's dotted.You can also figure that it was questioned by local rivals and the school board has double and triple checked the legality based on the Martinsburg Football situation last year as BULLDOG FAN alluded to.I know for a fact that the new principal at Martinsburg has moved away from sports first and she has really buttoned down that school.A kid like this ,as good as she is,is gonna be scrutinized more than a kid that is not talented. I'm sure that if she was some bench player averaging 1 point a game,that nobody would care.This is another point a lawyer would bring up.

It is what it is and you can bet it has been checked and double and triple checked. The playoffs are here and good bad or indifferent I think Martinsburg has shown they are the top seed,but can be beat.Hedgesville had them on the ropes,so did Jefferson.If we play our best,we can beat them.First though we have to worry about Hampshire. I think its great that 2 teams from here can go finally. It used to be so loaded with Charleston area teams at state,not that can change.

This has been brought up previously and here are a few comments from other posters:

theville said:
I thought Martinsburg was going to be good this year before the transfer.Not as good of course ,but good. The same could be said about alot of transfers such as when we lost Nate Sowers to Martinsburg.But coach Church has always had Martinsburg kids transfer to him and help him (Tony Powell). Like last year,Martinsburg lost Marshall when she had a family issue,had they had her,they probably win the area. Musselman softball beat us a few years ago for one reason,Courtni Williams transferred from jefferson.She killed us.I don't think its always fair,but one school cannot blame the other for transfres because they have benefitted in the past from a transfer.

Call transferring what you want
Submitted by Big Apple on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 11:16.
Transfer,recruit,family move,change of jobs,whatever. It happens here and it happens everywhere and it will never be stopped.But I agree one school that benefits one time cannot blame another school that benefits later or more.
Heck,one year Hornbuckle(now in WNBA) and Montgomery (now at UCONN)won state for Capital and then transferred to South Charleston and won 3 more.They never moved residences. What gives?

I have been on both ends as a coach. I lost a great softball player once because she wanted to win.It sucked to lose her,but I knew she did not want to be frustrated again by the lack of commitment I had from my other girls. It probably cost me 4 or 5 games without her. But 2 years later we had a really good Basketball player come in to our great program that had won a few state titles for basically the same reason.She helped us win more than we would have.

It happens alot more down south where I came from than it does here.Coach Barksdale at Beckley won 15 titles or so,partly because they used to get jobs in the coal mines for parents and they moved in (or not).Same with Logan years and years ago.

In most cases parents have a good reason(coaching,lack of committment from other teammates) to transfer and if they see fit,so be it.Its a free country.

Also Brewer (you don't need to say a name when there was only one transfer) does not live with the assistant coach. This is her second school. There were no rules violations as Martinsburg made sure of that due to the problem that occured on the football team last year and having to forfeit games. Martinsburg lost players from last years team that were NOT team players and destroyed the chemistry of the team and barely played defense. Like BigApple said teams from our area and across the state have benefitted and been hurt from players transferring.

Like i said Martinsburg is beatable but at 100% i just don't see any local team doing that. So far there only losses were to teams in the top 7 in the state and none of those were blowouts. Martinsburg shot themselves in the foot against Hedgesville by making terrible passes and not hitting their free throws. BigApple is right HHS should have won considering MHS didn't convert on the many turnovers and only shot 25% from the field which is way below their average. Its not saying that Hedgesville is a bad team by saying that Martinsburg is better. I think they both have a chance to go to states where both teams will face a very difficult road to winning. The top 4-5 teams are VERY good as Jefferson found out againt North Marion and Musselman against Nitro. They have a lot of talent and play good fundamental team ball. If Martinsburg could learn a few things from them before states then I think they have a very good chance of winning it all otherwise they have just a slight chance. And BigApple i wouldn't have minded Martinsburg losing either and i think they may lose tonight against Jefferson. The seeding will be very interesting considering how the games played out between jefferson, musselman and hedgesville. i'm not sure how they will rank those 3.

It was just a weird night all around. You really can't base your opinion of Hedgesville on that game against Musselman, our girls had a horrible night and some were sick and if I recall, oh never mind about the refs.

Anyway, it has been said that there was sickness all around and it wasn't a typical game for either team, obviously.

I am an HHS fan and yes we are glad Martinsburg didn't have their usual shooting night, but then again neither did we so thats a wash too. Don't know why the coach didn't take them out of the zone more often, but I am assuming he just decided that Martinsburg was quicker.......

It just goes to show that any team can be beaten, look what our girls did against Jefferson, for that matter look what your girls did. Also look at what happened to us at Berkeley Springs, we lost by 2, although that was a game that was NOT decided by talent alone. Look what happened to Musselman against Berk. Springs, you got beat by 20!

You just never know what is going to happen in any given game. There is NOT a team that can't be beaten around here. If things had been just a little different last night our girls would have came away with the win and I think the Martinsburg coaches would tell you the same thing.

We too had some sick players and still held Martinsburg to their lowest scoring all season, so the sickness thing was pretty even, and the outcome was could have gone either way. Our girls were not at 100% either. Martinsburg did a good job holding one of our leading scorers low by pasting a girl or 2 to her constantly and she was sick by the way too. And as you saw one of our guards had a problem with her back too and is still a little sick from before.

We lost and I still thought the officiating was pretty fair for the most part, their were a few things here and there for BOTH sides that were questionable, but as a whole I think this was the fairest game we have had called for us the entire season. It was definitely different than when we came to Martinsburg!

Unfortunately our point guard doesn't have enough confidence to change up yet, and yes she does do the same thing all the time. She has actually been shooting more the last few games so maybe she will get that confidence soon enough.