Wyoming East coaches Herbie and Derek Brooks are no strangers to the Charleston Coliseum.
Herbie is one of the most decorated athletes in state tournament history as a three-time state champion at Mullens, still holding the single-game scoring record with 50 points against Parkersburg Catholic.
Derek, the head coach at East, was on the 2002 championship team that won the program’s first title.
Now they’ll hope to impart some of the wisdom they’ve acquired upon a team that’s never stepped foot on the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center floor.
Snapping their longest state tournament drought in school history, the Warriors and the rest of the New Richmond Rowdies will invade Charleston with a familiar foe standing in their way – Bluefield.
When the Beavers and Warriors meet under the bright lights of the Coliseum, they’ll do so with history and familiarity.
The Warriors finally threw the monkey off their back when they beat the Beavers in the impenetrable Brushfork Armory in the sectional championship, earning a home regional game. It was a confidence boost for the Warriors, who are 2-1 this season against their sectional nemesis. The wins have come at Brushfork and on a neutral court at the Greenbrier in the Battle for the Springhouse.
“We know what they got and they know what we got,” Brooks said. “It’s the fourth time but I mean last year they put a (box-and-one) on us there at East in the sectional championship that kind of gave my guys some fits even though we worked on it all week. I’m sure they’ll throw a little something different at us defensively and maybe offensively where we kind of had them stifled last time. We’re going to come in with the same game plan and that’s to play hard-nosed, gritty, physical Wyoming East basketball and that’s what we’re going in with.”
Unaccustomed to the venue, Brooks hopes it won’t be overwhelming for his squad. In fact he hopes they’re well prepared as they’ve played in similar venues.
“We’ve played in some coliseum type atmospheres,” Brooks said. “Especially the (Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center). We try to play two to four times a year. Sometimes maybe more and that’s kind of the same background you have there at the (Coliseum) so we hope that will translate over into the (Coliseum) for us in terms of shooting the ball. We’ve played in different atmospheres and different backgrounds and we shot the ball okay there. Hopefully we’re hitting shots but if not we’ll rely on our defense like we have here lately. We’re looking forward to it.”
In order to win the Warriors will also need to tap into the consistency they discovered down the stretch, winning six of their last eight games after dropping four of the previous five.
“Effort’s the key,” Brooks said. “I think we started that trend in the right direction in the second half of the Bluefield game at The Greenbrier. I kind of lit a fire under them in the locker room and let them have it if you say so. They were a different team when they came out and you kind of saw a different team the rest of the year until the game at Chapmanville. I don’t know what happened there and why the effort wasn’t there. Maybe the game didn’t mean anything. The games always mean something to me and I never like to lose. But that had no tournament implications but I don’t know if that had a part in it. We were a different team three days before that at East. We were that team against Bluefield in the sectional.
“I don’t think we’ll have that problem now knowing what’s at stake. It’s win or go home now so I think the effort is going to be there but that’s been our downfall. Some nights it’s like we take a night off and I don’t think you’ll see that going forward.”
Leading East will be first-team all-stater Tanner Whitten, a 6-foot-5 forward who can shoot it as well as score in the paint at will. Throughout the second half of the season he hasn’t had to carry as much of the scoring burden with junior guard Garrett Mitchell routinely pitching in double figures.
“That’s huge for us,” Brooks said. “Most people forget Whitten’s a shooter but he can flat out stroke it too. If they’re trying to key on him inside we can always take him out to the perimeter and he can score at a high efficiency level as well. It’s big for us to have him. Everybody knows he’s our go-to but what’s helped us here lately is we’ve had Garrett knocking downs tons of shots too and playing very well. Him and Whitten together have been a tough combo for people to handle.”
The Warriors will open state tournament play on Wednesday when they play Bluefield at 11:15 a.m.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94