Charleston – Each year the Summers County girls basketball team makes the state tournament, former head coach and current Assistant Executive Director of the WVSSAC Wayne Ryan makes sure there’s an alumni picture taken.
The 2023 edition was no different.
They may have missed a couple of former players who were unaware of the tradition, but a snapshot taken Wednesday featured 19 players and coaches from seven different state championship teams (’94, ’00 and ’07-11) who have shared in the success of the program.
Every year Summers County plays in the state tournament, all of the former Lady Bobcats in attendance get together for an alumni pic. Former head coach Wayne Ryan said they missed a few but here’s this year’s shot courtesy of Heather Belcher! pic.twitter.com/Ne0c3zxDjm
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) March 9, 2023
It’s been 12 years since a sea of orange shirts flooded the Charleston Coliseum on the final Saturday of the season.
But the same people still manage to show up, whether they have floor seats on the bench or ones in the lower bowels of the arena.
Twelve years ago Liv Meador, a senior on this year’s Summers County team was a small girl watching the birth of the Lady Bobcat dynasty that secured titles from 2007-11.
Saturday she’ll take the floor as those she idolized take on the role she had in the stands over a decade ago. She even had the chance to spend time with former standouts and sisters Candace and Ashley Brown after Summers’ quarterfinal win against Frankfort. Both were a part of that dynasty.
“They’re role models for sure,” Liv Meador said. “Candace (Brown) and Ashley (Brown), I love them both for sure.”
“It’s just really weird being here at that age and we’re here now,” Meador added. “We’re them. It’s great to think about.”
The impact the Summers greats have had is ingrained into the very fabric of who Meador is, down to her name as explained by her father Chad, the head coach of this year’s team.
He’s been with the program for 22 years and graduated from Summers County in ’95. He’s seen the rise of the program and ushered in its rebirth, but even he’s been in awe of the support this year’s team has garnered.
But he’s appreciative.
“I was a part of a lot of those players’ (careers),” coach Meador said. “Candace Brown and Ashley Brown, we talk a lot. We’ve remained close throughout the years. What they did is kind of on another level. They still identify as Lady Bobcats. Candace Brown played four years at Gardner-Webb, played the most minutes in a career, made the game-winning shot against UNC her senior year but she still identifies as a Lady Bobcat. If you asked her that she would just grin and say yeah. Olivia Newsome was here. My daughter was named after Olivia Newsome. I think she graduated in ’04 or ’05. That’s pretty cool.”
Even in the midst of what seemed like an unlikely run to the title game in November, the rest of the Lady Bobcats have remained in awe as their idols watch them carry on the legacy.
“I think about it and I idolize these older girls,” Summers sophomore Avery Lilly said. “Ashley, Candace, Leslie Mack, Kelsie Lively and even some of the newer ones that have come along. It is a legacy and it is something I always felt I need to uphold. Younger girls coming through, the way this program was built, we say it’s a family and it is a family. You look up to these girls as older sisters. And then as we get older we see the work they put in and it inspires us to work. We see the grit that they had and it inspires us to be gritty and work hard and want to win. They weren’t afraid to win and I feel like that’s what we’re trying to get back to here.”
