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2016 MOV Hall of Fame class elected

PARKERSBURG – The Mid-Ohio Valley Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2016 inductees have been elected.

They are Mike Deem (Jackson County), Tom Hill (Pleasants County), Ryan Jobes (Wood County), Charlie Kupfner (Wirt/Wood counties), Taylor Phillips (Wood County), Jimmy Scott (Ritchie County), Sarah Tokodi (Wood County), Ray Swisher (Jackson County), Danny Tennant (Wood County) and Bill Warden (Washington County).

The enshrinees each year are nominated from seven counties (five in West Virginia and two in Ohio), then voted on by MOV Sports Hall of Fame committee members.

They will be inducted June 11 during a dinner to honor them at the Grand Pointe Conference and Reception Center in Vienna.

Deem lettered in an unheard-of five sports (football, basketball, wrestling, baseball and track) at Williamstown High School.

He captained both the all-LKC and Class AA all-state football teams as a senior, graduated in 1966 and was recruited by WVU’s Bobby Bowden.

But Deem decided to play football for Bill Hanlin at Glenville State College, where he was a four-year starter – three at tight end, earning all-WVIAC honors as a junior, and at offensive tackle as a senior.

Deem coached and taught for 37 years at Ripley High School, including 27 as athletic director, and was named West Virginia Athletic Director of the Year in 2004.

Hill enjoyed a remarkable career as a track athlete at St. Marys High School, but had so many second places in the 1600 and 3200 because he was running behind teammate and previous MOV Sports Hall of Fame inductee Steve Taylor.

At Cedarville (Ohio) College on a sports scholarship, Hill was a four-time NCCAA outdoor track champion with wins in the 5,000 in 1984 and 1987, won the 10K title in 1984 and his 1986 NCCAA title in the 1500 in 3:31.16 was a meet record then.

As an assistant track coach at Baylor University, Hill coached Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson.

Jobes, who died in an auto accident in December 2005, led Williamstown High to state track championships in 2003 and 2004, winning not only four events each year at the state meet, but also was the high scorer each time too with 32.5 points.

After winning every race he entered as a senior, Jobes was awarded an athletic scholarship to the University of Richmond, where he ran track and cross country under coach Steve Taylor until his untimely death.

Jobes’ memory is honored each year with a memorial road race in December and a spring track meet named for him at Williamstown High School.

Kupfner played football and wrestled, finishing third in the state as a senior, at Parkersburg High. At West Virginia Tech, Kupfner played football both ways for four years, and was a team co-captain and all-conference center as a senior. Hired as Wirt County’s head football coach in 1973, Kupfner’s team won the LKC championship and was the Class A state runner-up in 1975 with him being named state football Coach of the Year. He also started the first track program at Wirt.

In 1984, Kupfner became the head football coach at Parkersburg South, but had to resign after the 1989 season due to back surgery. In 1990, he began coaching the Williamstown junior high track program, placing first and second in the county championship.

He lastly was offensive coordinator for Big Red head football coach Bernie Buttrey from 2004-07.

Phillips played basketball at both Parkersburg Catholic and Parkersburg South in her prep career. First at PCHS, she helped lead the Crusaderettes to a 26-1 record and Class A state championship as a sophomore with 21 points and 11 rebounds in the title game. At South, she was a two-sport standout in basketball and volleyball. Phillips tallied 1,583 career points, the last 763 for the Patriots. As a junior, she was a catalyst in South’s first-ever Class AAA girls cage crown.

In 2007 at South as a senior, Phillips was both a Wendy’s High School Heisman and a W.Va. Gatorade Player of the Year nominee, the runner-up for the state girls Player of the Year and captain of the Class AAA all-state first team,

Between now being a West Virginia state trooper and high school, Phillips played college basketball for four years at Bucknell University in the Patriot League.

Scott was only a freshman when golf got started at Harrisville High School, but for four years, he was the medalist for the team in most of the matches he played.

As a junior, Scott qualified to play in the state tournament as the medalist in the regional, accomplished against players from schools of all sizes. In 1972, he set a course record of 59 at North Bend and tied for third place in the W.Va. Open.

At Glenville State, Scott became the team medalist as a mere freshman as the Pioneers captured the WVIAC championship. Then as a sophomore, he was awarded WVIAC Golfer of the Year honors as GSC won another WVIAC title, after which playing in the NAIA nationals, Scott was the lone Glenville golfer to make the cut, finishing 35th in a field of 180.

Tokodi, who followed sisters Elizabeth and Rebecca playing basketball at Parkersburg Catholic High School, led the Crusaderettes to back-to-back West Virginia state championships in 2005 and 2006. She was a three-time all-state first-team selection, including the captain in 2005. In Tokodi’s four years at PCHS, the Crusaderettes won 70 games as she averaged 19.9 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.0 steals and 4.1 assists per game.

She was also a three-time Little Kanawha Conference Player of the Year, two-time Street and Smith honorable mention All-American, Nike All-American and The Parkersburg News Player of the Year.

“In my 45 years of coaching, both boys and girls, Sarah is the best I have ever coached,” said Dick Wildt, her coach at Catholic. “She was a complete player with all the tools for success.”

Swisher is a 1967 Ripley High School grad who lettered four years in baseball, basketball and football, where he played quarterback and as a kicker was the top scorer in the state. At Glenville State College, Swisher kicked and still today holds the conference records for field-goal and extra-point percentage.

In 1975, Swisher took over the reins as head baseball coach at his alma mater, a position he would hold for 36 years. In that time, he accumulated over 700 victories in winning 24 sectionals, eight regionals and two state championships in 1997 and 2004 – the only team state championships Ripley High School had ever won at that time.

Both a Ripley football and baseball hall of fame inductee in 2013 and 2015 respectively, Swisher was in the inaugural class of the West Virginia Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

Tennant has done just about everything at Parkersburg Catholic High School from playing there to coaching, teaching and serving as athletic director.

An all-state football and baseball player at PCHS, Tennant not only walked-on to the Marshall University football team as a freshman in 1977, but went on to be a two-year (1979-80) starter at cornerback with 119 tackles (including 18 solo stops) and two fumble recoveries.

He was named head football coach at his alma mater for 1984 and remained in that position through 2010 – 27 years with a record of 197-101, finishing with 16 playoff berths in his last 17 seasons. He was named the state high school football Coach of the Year in 2011. But before that, Tennant was tabbed as the North head coach for the 1991 West Virginia North-South football game, and was the winning coach.

He also was the W.Va. head coach for the first-ever Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis Football Classic in 1984, and is a BACF board member as well as the game director for football.

Warden, a four-sport (basketball, football, baseball and track) standout at Marietta High School, is considered by many to be one of the best athletes to ever play for the Tigers. He was second-team all-Ohio in basketball and the Central Ohio League scoring champion as a junior on an undefeated regular-season team, and a second-team all-Ohio pick in football too as a senior at running back/defensive back.

Numerous college scholarship offers in both football and basketball came Warden’s way. He even had dinner with Ohio State’s Woody Hayes during the recruiting process. Eventually though, Warden accepted a full scholarship to Ohio University for football and had permission to play basketball for the Bobcats as well. But he blew out his knee playing football for OU.

Warden was elected to the Dugout Sports Park softball Hall of Fame in 2010.

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