Pocahontas principal stresses importance of athletics

Dunmore, WV – At the close of a school year, sports teams, the band, and clubs hold events to reflect on their group accomplishments and honor outstanding individual achievements. Band director Ryan Ullman stressed the importance of music and arts during the band concert Tuesday evening and during the PCHS athletic banquet on Wednesday evening, the school honored its sports teams, coaches and community members who support the teams.

During the banquet, principal Tom Sanders discussed the importance of athletics in the school curriculum. Sanders says he wants to keep sports functioning at a high level at PCHS.

“Athletics teaches a lot of different characteristics, such as leadership, morals, values that you will use in real life, with teamwork, working on a job, you will use some of the same things that you would use if you’re playing on a team in sports,” he said. “So, it’s very valuable to keep athletics functioning at as high a level as we possibly can, here at Pocahontas County High School.”
The principal says coaches are the key to accomplishing the goal of sports in the school curriculum.

“Well, your coaches provide the organization and the leadership and the teaching of the skills, so, they’re a very, very valuable asset,” he said. “The students will look up to them for guidance, and not only athletics, but they’ll look at them for guidance in real-life situations. So, coaches’ relationship with players is very important.”

Sanders describes how students learn from sports and talks about the special challenges faced by Pocahontas County athletes.

“They learn how to cooperate with each other,” he said. “They learn how to work with each other. They learn how to take control of situations in providing leadership, when it’s appropriate, because the coach usually sets that up with who’s going to be the captains or who’s going to be the leaders of the team. And work ethics – they have to work hard. To be an athlete here, obviously, you don’t just live down the road a little ways. You have to travel several miles. Our kids are devoted enough that they know they’re not going to get home till 6:30, 7:00, 7:30 at night, if they’re playing athletics – and that’s just after practice. That work ethic right there, in my opinion, is very valuable to our students.”

PCHS sports teams and individual athletes recorded significant accomplishments during the school year. Tune in to noon hour sports on Thursday to hear about those accomplishments and awardees from Wednesday night’s sports banquet.