Top 10 W.Va. sports stories of 2024: Hirings, legal action and drama stand out

Let’s take a look at the top 10 West Virginia statewide sports stories from 2024.

10. Darian DeVries introduced at WVU

The 2023-24 West Virginia men’s basketball season was one fans want to forget forever.

The Mountaineers, under interim coach Josh Eilert after the dismissal of coach Bob Huggins, finished 9-23 overall and 4-14 in Big 12 Conference play. WVU quickly made the move following the season’s conclusion to find a new coach.

WVU athletic director Wren Baker hired Drake Bulldogs coach Darian DeVries.

DeVries coached six seasons at Drake, leading the Bulldogs to six straight 20-win seasons and three Missouri Valley Conference titles. He also guided Drake to three NCAA tournament appearances.

The Mountaineers have already exceeded their win total from last season. WVU is 10-2 entering the new year after winning a 62-61 thriller at Kansas on Tuesday. The Mountaineers had never before won in Allen Fieldhouse.

9. WVU women’s basketball climbs

in Mark Kellogg’s first season

West Virginia University, like Marshall, played its first season with a new women’s basketball coach.

Mark Kellogg led the Mountaineers during the 2023-24 season, piecing together an impressive 25-8 record.

The 25 wins are the most by a first-year coach in the Mountaineers’ history. WVU reached the NCAA tournament for the 15th time ever, making the second round before falling short to the eventual national runner-up Iowa Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark.

Clark finished with 32 points but committed a team-high six turnovers.

West Virginia was ranked in the AP national poll nine times and finished 24th in the country at the end of the season.

8. Marshall women’s basketball thrives — for a season — under Kim Caldwell

Kim Caldwell was hired at Marshall in March 2023. However, 13 months later, she was heading to Tennessee to coach the Volunteers.

Caldwell guided Marshall to a 26-7 season, leading all Division I coaches in wins in their first year. Those 26 wins marked the most in a single season in Thundering Herd history.

Marshall captured the Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships and went 17-1 in conference play.

The conference title allowed Marshall to play in its first NCAA tournament since 1997.

Making it more special was Caldwell’s standing as a Mountain State native. She hails from Parkersburg and is an alumna of Parkersburg South and Glenville State.

Marshall University hired Juli Fulks on April 12.

7. Martinsburg coach Walker ties state record for most football titles

The Martinsburg Bulldogs have been the alpha dogs in West Virginia high school football under coach Dave Walker’s watch.

Walker cemented his name amongst West Virginia’s coaching greats in December with his 10th state title as a head coach.

Martinsburg won the inaugural Class AAAA state championship on Dec. 14 over rival Spring Mills, 24-17.

Walker has tied Ceredo-Kenova’s Carl Ward for the most state titles as a coach with 10.

The veteran Bulldogs coach is also closing in on the most wins at one school, as Martinsburg has won 274 games under his direction. The record is 288 by Larry McClintic at Meadow Bridge.

6. Soccer in the Mountain State remains prominent

The West Virginia and Marshall University men’s soccer teams have been nationally elite the last few seasons.

In 2024, both teams were ranked highly in the national polls, with Marshall going the furthest in the NCAA tournament.

The Thundering Herd finished as the national runner-up. Marshall fell short in the College Cup final to Vermont, 2-1, in overtime in Cary, North Carolina. Marshall’s season came to a close at 15-2-7.

West Virginia finished 13-2-7. The Mountaineers were crowned both the Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champions.

WVU beat its in-state rival in both appearances this season, including in the Sun Belt tournament final. The Mountaineers lost in the second round to Virginia, 2-1, in the NCAA tournament.

At the NCAA Division II level, the University of ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉä men’s team finished as national runner-up as well, further solidifying the Mountain State’s nationwide excellence on the pitch.

5. Marshall football drama

The football Marshall Thundering Herd had one of its best seasons since 2010.

The Herd’s season came to a close at 10-3. Marshall won the Sun Belt championship over Louisiana, 31-3, on Dec. 7.

A day later, coach Charles Huff left Huntington to become the new coach at Southern Miss.

Marshall accepted an invitation to the Independence Bowl to play Army. However, after a large contingent of players entered the transfer portal, the Thundering Herd withdrew from the bowl game due to roster size. A significant percentage of Marshall’s roster left Huntington, with some following Huff to Hattiesburg, including quarterback Braylon Braxton.

Marshall, shortly after Huff’s departure, announced Tony Gibson as its next coach. The Van native becomes the Herd’s 32nd head coach.

Yes, it was historic. However, it was a treacherous one, to say the least, for the Herd’s program.

4. WVU fires six-year football coach Neal Brown

Neal Brown was fired as the WVU football coach the day after the Mountaineers’ 52-15 loss to Texas Tech in their regular-season finale.

The Mountaineers went 37-35 under Brown’s direction. He was hired by athletic director Shane Lyons in 2019.

WVU went 6-6 under Brown in 2024, but the Mountaineers finished 6-7 after losing in the Frisco Bowl in Frisco, Texas.

He only posted one nine-win season, which came in 2023 as WVU went 9-4 and ended with a bowl victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, 30-10.

Brown’s departure from Morgantown will be an expensive one for the Mountaineers. WVU will owe him $9.775 million for the final three years of his contract.

WVU was 22-14 in Milan Puskar Stadium under Brown while going 13-20 on the road.

3. Jerry West dies

Jerry West was not only a basketball icon in West Virginia, but worldwide.

He may be most notable as the inspiration for the NBA logo. The Chelyan native died on June 12 at 86.

West wore many hats in his lifetime, dating back to his career at East Bank High School. He was on the 1956 Pioneers state title team.

The West Virginia basketball pioneer also has a long list of accomplishments, as he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, contributor and member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team.

West won one basketball title as a professional player, with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1972.

The former Pioneer was the architect of eight NBA titles as an executive, with five coming with the Lakers. He was known for piecing together the “Showtime Lakers� and pairing Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

2. Legal action delays prep sports postseasons

The 2024 West Virginia fall sports season saw considerable legal action, especially on the football side.

The saga started in August as 22 football teams were moved down a class, including five schools from Kanawha County.

Consequently, those teams’ contributions to opponents’ SSAC calculations for playoff seeding purposes decreased.

Initial football playoff pairings were released on Nov. 9. The same weekend, injunctions challenging those pairings began rolling out across the Mountain State.

On Nov. 12, the WVSSAC postponed the playoffs as the process played out in court. The delay ended up lasting one week.

That same week, Spring Mills regained four victories in court that the Cardinals had lost to forfeit due to using an ineligible player. Spring Mills was boosted back to being the No. 2 team in Class 4A.

A week following the SSAC’s announcement of the postponement of the playoffs, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ruled in favor of the SSAC, returning to the original seeding.

1. Rich Rodriguez returns to WVU after 17 years

West Virginia’s football coaching job wasn’t vacant long after Neal Brown was fired, and it was filled by a familiar face.

Rich Rodriguez coached the Mountaineers from 2001-07 and posted a 60-26 record during that stint.

The Grant Town native came back to fill that role again on Dec. 11.

Shortly following the Mountaineers’ infamous 13-9 loss to Pitt to conclude the 2007 regular season, Rodriguez left Morgantown for Michigan.

Rodriguez then had head-coaching stops at Arizona and Jacksonville State. He spent the last three seasons as the coach of the Gamecocks.

Rodriguez led Jacksonville State to three straight nine-win seasons. The Gamecocks won the 2024 Conference USA title over Western Kentucky, 52-12.

The Mountaineer fan base is seemingly split in bringing back a coach that was so prominent and successful in his first stint, but departed in a manner that engendered long-lasting bad feelings.

WVU opens its 2025 season on Aug. 30 against Robert Morris. The Mountaineers’ first true test is against the Pitt Panthers at home on Sept. 13.