Basketball Icon Comes To Pocahontas County

Dunmore, WV – Four years ago, Coach Tim McClung took his lady warriors down to Mountain State University in Beckley for a basketball clinic headed by Mountain State assistant coach Dave Barksdale. The clinic was so educational, and so thorough, that McClung asked if Barksdale could come to Pocahontas County and run a clinic specifically for his girl’s team and players in the area. Barksdale agreed and for the past three years he has taken one week of his time to come up to Pocahontas and teach basketball 101.

Coach Dave Barksdale is an icon and legend in West Virginia High School basketball. In seventeen seasons Barksdale amassed 335 wins and only 93 losses as the head coach of Beckley Woodrow Wilson. In those seventeen seasons with the Flying Eagles, he won five state championships. In 1999, he retired from Woodrow Wilson and moved to South Carolina, but was drawn back to West Virginia when the opportunity came for him to coach at Mountain State University.

Yet, the high school game has always been a true passion for Barksdale, and the ability to come to Pocahontas and teach for four day a year is a great chance to espouse his values on young players.

“Whether you’re young or old,” says Barksdale, “fundamentals and repetition is the key to success. We have younger girls and boys in the morning and work on their basic fundamentals. In the afternoon with the older kids, we go a little further so that it’s geared towards their age group.”

For Barskdale, the difference between high school and college basketball is something he has had to adjust to.

“In college,” says Barksdale, “the biggest thing is recruiting. If you don’t recruit then you won’t be eating much and you’ll have to find another job.”

But being around basketball is all he asks for.

“For me,” says Barksdale, “I would be in heaven working with any age group. I just love being in the gym.”

Camp ended Friday, but because of the relationship that has developed between Barksdale and McClung, and the effort he has put in to making the Pocahontas Lady Warriors basketball team better, you can count on him keeping up with their season and success.