Inside today
In the works
Pirates’
Maholm
blanks Cubs
on 3 hits.
Page 5-C
SPORTS EDITOR DREW RUBENSTEIN ■ 304-291-9431
DREW
RUBENSTEIN
Sports
Ex-Marine’s aim:
Bring attention
to military vets
R
SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011 THE DOMINION POST
WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT: Nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization designed to help
wounded veterans. More info,
or to contribute to Jamie Summerlin and the Wounded Warrior Project: Go to dominion
post.com and click on the link.
BY MARK SCHRAF
For The Dominion Post
NOEL DEVINE HAS NEVER been one
DREW RUBENSTEIN is sports editor of
The Dominion Post. Write to him at
[email protected].
Monday
1-C
City man to run ’cross country (the U.S.)
Devine sees a
divine purpose
in his time off
to sulk in self pity.
Getting snubbed in April’s
NFL draft and being unable to
sign with a team because of the
ongoing league lockout hasn’t
dampened his perspective.
The former WVU star running
back was sitting in his Fort Myers,
Fla., home, surrounded by friends,
family and children Desirae,
Andre and Destyni one day earlier this month when his motor
again kicked into high gear.
He decided it was time to
return to Morgantown, to reenroll at WVU and chip away at
those 20 or so hours that separate him from a degree in
anthropology and sociology. (He
took his last semester off to
train for the NFL draft.)
“Had to come back to the
mountains,” Devine said with a
chuckle. “I actually thought I was
closer than I am. Some classes I
took didn’t actually count toward
my major and I ended up changing my major too at one point.”
He arrived back in town last
week; classes start June 5.
“I would be a fool not to finish,”
said Devine, who took a break
from rewatching December’s
Champs Sports Bowl game to talk
on the phone. “I am not far off. I
have come a long way, and I am
going a long way. Why stop here?
This is just the beginning for me.
“I have come this far, and then
not to finish? Come on now. I have
kids and there are other kids looking up to me, so that’s what it is
all about. You’ve got to better
those close to you, hopefully set a
trend (by) earning a degree.”
Since the first day he arrived
in Morgantown as a highly touted
5-foot-8 jitterbug from southern
Florida, Devine has maintained a
mindset focused on what he can
control — on his future.
He’s not interested in secondguessing how a number of unfortunate leg and ankle injuries late
in his college career may have
damaged his appeal to NFL
teams. He’s not bitter about not
getting drafted, and he’s not
much worried or concerned
about an undetermined future.
“I mean, the trials and tribulations I experienced in my childhood, and not even my childhood
but early on in my life, have
helped prepare me for the life that
is ahead of me,” Devine said.
Both of his parents died of
AIDS by the time Devine was 11,
and he was also present when a
friend was shot and killed in
Florida. “I am staying strong.
With my parents, nothing broke
me. Nothing in the future is going
to break me because I believe the
hardest thing I’ve ever gone
through was my childhood.”
Devine talks as if he knows
an NFL team will call when this
lockout ends, and he speaks with
great certainty that he will make
an impression.
“There are others going
through this same thing. They
feel like they deserved a shot (in
the NFL) too,” said Devine, who
finished third in WVU history
with 4,315 rushing yards. The difference “is just how you go about
it. Quitting is not an option for
me. It’s in my blood to not give up.
Am I losing hope? No.”
Until that day comes, Devine,
who is also working out with former teammates at the Puskar Center, looks at this void as just another phase of life that’s unfolding the
way it was intended. If football
doesn’t provide a future, he knows
a college diploma will open doors.
“God works in his ways. It’s all
him working his ways. I didn’t
know it at the time,” Devine said
of how he’s planning to use his
time away from football. His
major “is perfect. I am happy to
learn about it all, about the different coaches who were assigned to
me and everything that goes on,
like why kids do the things they
do. I have a better understanding
of the world, and I feel like I can
help in a way. I know I have a purpose, a purpose God gave me.”
Jones family
wrestling tenure
at WVU draws
to a close.
Ron Rittenhouse/The Dominion Post
Jamie Summerlin started running distance races in 2009.
About a year ago, Jamie Summerlin had a chance to take a long
look at his life.
He had picked up the hobby of
running distance races in 2009
and then gotten hooked on ultra
marathons, where participants
race for 30, 50 or 100 miles or more.
His typical training regimen
included running up to a dozen
hours in a day, which left plenty of
time for introspection, and Summerlin quickly realized he had it
pretty good.
He and his wife, Tiffany, both ex-
Marines, had lived in Morgantown since 1998, had two great
kids, 11-year-old Nicholas and 9year-old Shayna, plus a pile of
pets, a nice house, good jobs and
good friends.
The American Dream.
But something was gnawing at
him, running alongside him as he
pounded out the miles in his
pre-dawn workouts, something
shaking him from his comfortable complacency.
“I approached my wife, and I
asked if she thought that we as a
family were making a big enough
impact with our lives,” said Summerlin, who works as an I.T. manager at Centra Bank. “And then I told
her what I was thinking about.”
And what Summerlin was thinking about was big. Really big. As big
as the whole country, in fact.
About 3,200 miles, from Oregon to Baltimore, in 100 days.
“I told her I wanted to run
across the United States,” he said.
“I didn’t want to run just for my
personal gratification. So many
other long-distance runners have
organized charity events around
their races, and the more I thought
about it, the more I wanted to do
it, to run for a greater purpose.
“And if I was gonna do it, I
might as well do it right. But I
couldn’t do it with out her and
the kids’ support.”
SEE RUN, 6-C
Cam trades
roundball
for a globe
Thoroughman will
put master’s to use
Isaiah Rosier/The Dominion Post
Representatives and former coaches of the original 10 Preston County high schools listen as museum Project Coordinator Anna Nassif speaks at the opening ceremony Saturday, in Rowlesburg.
“Looking into the past helps us find who we are.”
ty high schools wandered slowly
from one school display to another, perusing photographs of themselves and old friends. They traded stories about old coaches, friends
on the teams and each other.
Davis-Wolfe stood with her husband, Joe Wolfe, and longtime
friend Glenn Luzier near the display for Arthurdale High, where all
three graduated in the early 1950s.
Davis-Wolfe gestured at a photograph of four cheerleaders.
“You might not believe it, but that
SEE MUSEUM, 6-C
SEE CAM, 6-C
Isaiah Rosier/The Dominion Post
Preston sports new
home for memories
BY ISAIAH ROSIER
The Dominion Post
ROWLESBURG — “Wonderful
memories.”
Marion Davis-Wolfe spoke the
words softly as the alumnus of
Arthurdale High gazed at old
school photographs at the opening
of the Preston County Sports
Museum, at the Szilagyi Center, on
Saturday.
“Wonderful memories” perfectly summarizes the concept of
the museum.
Alumni of the original 10 coun-
The Dominion Post
J
Glenn Luzier (right), visiting the museum with his friends and fellow Arthurdale High School alumni
Marion Davis-Wolfe and Joe Wolfe, points to himself in a photograph at the Arthurdale display.
THE PRESTON COUNTY
SPORTS MUSEUM, on the
third floor of the Szilagyi Center
in Rowlesburg, is open from 14 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
until Nov. 13. A $5 donation is
requested to help cover costs.
BY JUSTIN JACKSON
oe Mazzulla will
never forget the first
time he met Cam
Thoroughman.
Mazzulla and former WVU
men’s basketball teammate
Jonnie West were walking
down a hallway when
they spotted
Thoroughman decked
out in a
white Tshirt, shorts,
boat shoes
and a neckCam Thorlace made of
oughman
shells.
“That necklace was something else,” Mazzulla said.
“We’ve given him all kinds of
grief about it over the years.”
Thoroughman has since
traded in the necklace and
the shorts for the corporate
look. He juggled his senior
season with the Mountaineers between practice,
graduate level classes and
an internship with Performance Results Corp., located
at the Glenmark Centre,
near Morgantown.
On June 10, he will earn
his master’s degree in industrial and labor relations. A
week later, he will travel to
New Orleans and begin
another internship, with
Marathon Oil.
Basketball is now his past,
no longer his future.
“I couldn’t even tell you
the last time I picked one up,”
he said.
As part of his graduate
classes, Thoroughman
recently took a tour of
Europe, where he and his
classmates visited Germany,
Switzerland and France over
a 10-day period.
“It was a good time,” said
Anna Nassif, project coordinator
Museum displays
artifacts from
10 high schools
EX ’EERS
Carrier, Bland earn Rowing team gear
spots in NCAA meet costs a boatload
The Dominion Post
REGIONAL TRACK
Submitted to The Dominion Post
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — WVU
seniors Chelsea Carrier and Keri
Bland advanced to the national
finals in the 100-meter hurdles
and 1,500-meter run, respectively,
Saturday, at the NCAA outdoor
track and field East Regional.
As of now, seven Mountaineers
will represent WVU in seven
events at the NCAA championships: Carrier (heptathlon and
Keri
Bland
Chelsea
Carrier
100-meter hurdles), Bland (1,500),
Meghan Mock (long jump), Kate
SEE TRACK, 5-C
There’s a lot more to the sport
of rowing than the boat and oars.
Jimmy King’s WVU rowing
team is equipped with proper
attire and the tools needed to
compete.
For instance, WVU takes to
the water with a speed-coach system, valued at $599, and a cox
box and speaker system, which
costs $868. The speed-coach system informs WVU’s athletes exactly how fast they are moving on the
water, while the cox box and
speaker system allow the
coxswain — the person who steers
the boat and directs the team’s
path — to clearly communicate to
all teammates in the boat.
WVU’s 8-oared shell is made
of carbon fiber. The boat is 55 feet
long and weighs 195 pounds,
while the oars are 12 feet, 2 inches long.
In its continuing Sports Equipment 101 feature, The Dominion
Post takes an in-depth look at
what the sport of rowing costs
WVU. See Page 4-C.
6-C THE DOMINION POST SUNDAY, MAY 29, 2011
SPORTS
RUN
FROM PAGE 1-C
Tiffany remembers the
conversation well.
“At first, it was just a concept, a dream,” Tiffany said,
“We all have crazy ideas,
from time to time, so it really wasn’t like he was waiting
for a yes or no from me. But
once we started to think
about helping out Wounded
Warriors, an organization
that helps returning military veterans, we realized
that this was something that
could really happen. We could
really make an impact on
the lives of true heroes from
across the nation. After that,
it was definitely a ‘Go!’ ”
Dream becomes reality
Thirty to 35 miles a day
seemed well within his capabilities. After all, he’d run a
50K, or about 31 miles, in 14
degree weather through 5
inches of snow through the
Kanawha State Forest in
Charleston during the Frozen
Sasquatch race on Jan. 2,
2010, in his first-ever ultra
marathon, right?
So when he approached
his friends in the West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners Association, they all said
basically the same two things:
“They all told me I was
certifiably insane,” Summerlin said with a laugh,
“and then they gave me their
100 percent support.”
Summerlin’s journey
doesn’t start until next
spring, and not so much for
training purposes, but
because his goals for the run
extend far beyond his own
path to the finish line.
“Look, this isn’t about me.
It’s about so much more,” he
insisted. “This is about the
Wounded Warrior Project,
and about raising awareness
about and honoring our military veterans across the country who have given so much,
sacrificed so much so that
we can enjoy all the freedoms
we hold so dearly in this country. I also want specifically
to shine a positive light on
West Virginia, because we as
a state have contributed so
much to the armed forces
through our history.”
Summerlin’s ambitious
and enthusiastic flow of ideas
continued well past the $500,000
donation goal he’s set.
“I’d love to get WVU
involved from a research perspective,” he said. “Sports
psychology, exercise physiology, journalism, film studies, even economics and
sports management could
get involved. And I really
hope we can coordinate with
CAM
FROM PAGE 1-C
Thoroughman, who has a
bachelor’s degree in business management. “We
went and visited different companies to see how
they ran certain aspects
of their business. We visited with General
Motors, John Deere, Hoffman-LaRoche and some
other companies.
“It’s amazing to see
how the world of business is becoming more
globalized. You really
have to have an international way of thinking to
stay in business.”
Thoroughman’s hope is
to one day play a role in
helping to train and
recruit employees to a
company.
“Basically with industrial relations, I’m looking
to stay on the people side,”
Thoroughman said. “I’ll be
working in human
resource departments and
will work on training and
developing. You try to
make it a better place to
work. I believe if you have
a good HR department,
then you’ll have a good
place to work. There’s also
some recruiting involved.”
Coming from a college
basketball background,
recruiting should be right
up Thoroughman’s alley.
“There are a lot of similarities,” he said. “You
want to try and find the
right candidates for a job,
whether that may be looking at college graduates or
Submitted image
The approximate path Jamie Summerlin plans to run in 100 days, from Coos County, Ore., to Baltimore, starting March 26.
For the veterans
Submitted photos
Jamie Summerlin and his wife, Tiffany. “We all have crazy
ideas, from time to time,” she said of his notion of running
across the United States, “so it really wasn’t like he was
waiting for a yes or no from me. But once we started to think
about helping out Wounded Warriors, an organization that
helps returning military veterans, we realized that this was
something that could really happen.”
The Smmerlins plan to take their children, Nicholas, 11,
and Shayna, 9, with them on Jamie’s run. They are working with the Monongalia County school system on ways to
help the kids keep up their classwork.
the local grade school system to track my progress.
Think of how much they
could learn about geography, mileage mathematics,
calculating calories burned,
and so many other links with
their curriculum. And how
great would it be if we could
set up college scholarships to
veterans’ children, or use
this to promote a healthy
lifestyle?”
Even the launch date and
location — Coos County, Ore.,
on March 26 — have a special
meaning.
ferent stops. He said he’s
already started talking to
the Monongalia County
school system to work out
details for his kids to keep up
with their classwork.
While the exact path hasn’t been finalized due to significant logistical considerations, Summerlin hopes to
maximize the opportunities.
“We want to arrange as
many events as possible
along the route,” he said.
“Wounded Warrior 5K races,
stops at veterans’ hospitals,
anything we can do to help
“I’m starting from my
wife’s hometown exactly 100
days before I plan to arrive
in Baltimore, on the Fourth
of July,” he said. “It certainly seemed like a good
number of days and a great
day to finish. And since
Tiffany and the kids will be
with me every step of the
way, seeing America up
close, I wanted to honor her
hometown as well as my
own on the route.”
Summerlin said his wife
and children will follow in a
car and wait for him at dif-
their cause. We wanted to
really celebrate and honor
the state, so I’m pretty sure
we’ll be coming down
through southern Ohio into
Huntington and Charleston,
then heading north into my
hometown of Burnsville in
Braxton County, then up
through Morgantown on our
way to Baltimore.
“It will add another couple hundred miles and a lot
more hills on the trip, but
like I told my wife, after 3,200
miles, what’s a couple hundred more?”
MUSEUM
“
FROM PAGE 1-C
I enjoyed my
time here. The
people here
were great.
They were
genuine.
Cam Thoroughman
”
at resumes on the Internet.
You have to find the right
guy, just like a basketball
coach has to find the right
guy to play for his team.”
Thoroughman said he
would never forget how
much of an impact the
people of West Virginia
made on him.
“I enjoyed my time
here,” he said. “The people
here were great. They
were genuine. [WVU coach
Bob] Huggins always
stressed that to us about
how much the fans cared
about us, and I will never
forget that.”
It is now time for new
chapter in Thoroughman’s
life, one that will be written from an apartment and
a board office in
Louisiana, instead of the
playing floor at the WVU
Coliseum or inside Madison Square Garden.
“I’m definitely excited,”
Thoroughman said. “I’m
also nervous. It’s kind of
like starting out your first
day of college again.
You’re not sure what’s
going to happen or how
everything is going to
work out.”
Jason DeProspero/The Dominion Post file photo
Cam Thoroughman has a bachelor’s degree in business management and will soon be awarded his master’s in industrial and labor relations.
is actually me,” she joked.
Luzier noticed a newspaper clipping about himself
and some of his friends from
Arthurdale.
“The six of us still got
together every year for 20
years after we left the school,”
he said.
Davis-Wolfe tugged on her
husband’s arm and pointed
to an article near Luzier’s,
entitled “Joe Wolfe Hurls
No-hitter.” Wolfe leaned in
and chuckled when he read
the headline.
Davis-Wolfe noticed another photo of her husband and
some of his school friends.
“They went to school
together, she said. “They
were just like brothers.”
“The museum is very exciting for the county,” Marion
Wotring said. “I wish my uncle
was still alive to see this.”
Her uncle, George Ayersman, coached basketball at
Rowlesburg, after playing
basketball and baseball at
Marshall University in the
late 1930s.
He was later inducted into
the Marshall Hall of Fame
for both sports.
Dominick Marrarra went
to Kingwood High School in
the mid-1940s. He reminisced
about basketball coach Roy
Nutter, who took the team to
the state tournament four
times in the ’40s. Marrarra
remembered his own visit to
the tournament in 1946, where
the Stags lost to Stonewall
Jackson by nine points.
“We always got beat in
Summerlin plans to soon
start a Facebook page and
blog, and can envision writing a book about his experience, but he’s careful to point
out that he’s not out for personal fame or fortune.
“I promise that every
donation or any proceeds
that I make will go to Wounded Warriors,” he insisted.
“Look, the Marine Corps
taught me how to move past
my limits, to push through
pain, to mentally meet the
challenges I’ve encountered.
I’m not special, and I’m certainly a lot slower than some
of the men and women ultramarathon runners out there.
But I’m a tunnel vision kind
of guy, and I like to work
through a task until it’s done.
“I think I’ve found a way
to help and promote the
appreciation of our military
veterans, and I hope we can
all work together to show
how the people of the state of
West Virginia truly feel about
their war veterans.”
His wife concurs.
“It’s really exciting now
that we know this is really
going to happen,” she said.
“Life is too short to play it
safe your whole life. We need
to be safe and smart about
our decisions, but if you can
do more, make a difference,
then we have to go for it.
This will be a life-changing
adventure for our family, and
we can’t wait to get started.”
the first game,” he said. “But
we went.”
The Rowlesburg Revitalization Committee began
collecting memorabilia in
2009, Project Coordinator
Anna Nassif said.
“Looking into the past
helps us find who we are,”
she said.
When completed, the
exhibit will take up two full
rooms, Associate Project
Coordinator Dr. Mike Teets
said. One room is open now,
and holds trophies, photographs and uniforms from
the original 10 high schools:
Arthurdale, Aurora, Bruceton, Fellowsville, Kingwood,
Masontown-Valley, Newburg, Rowlesburg, Terra
Alta and Tunnelton.
The second room will contain memorabilia from high
schools that remained after
the consolidation in 1977:
Rowlesburg, Bruceton, Central, West and East.
“We have quite a heritage
in Preston County,” Teets said.
Teets estimates that the
project cost $10,000 and nearly half of that has been
received in donations. He
considers the museum to be
“a work in progress,” saying there are other things
he would like to do, such as
playing the school alma
maters.
Still, he expressed gratitude for the dedication and
hard work of the representatives from each of the
schools who have collected
trophies, photos, etc.
“The delegates have
worked very [selflessly],”
Teets said.