A lot of talk on our staff has surrounded this topic. The fact of the matter is that it would be incredibly hard to do a tournament-style competition to decide what team is the greatest ever. However… we might just do it. But, what are the guidelines or rules?
First off, do we automatically exclude any team that did not win a state championship? Most likely. With nearly 200 winners in the state’s history, it would be get messy if we start including teams that didn’t even win. The only plausible scenario would be a team that was clearly historic and suffered injuries, disqualification, or another happening that stopped the team’s run other than their quality.
Second, how do we decide across generations? Going back to the topic of State Champions, it took years to get to the 16-team playoff. Many elders would argue their teams missed out on the opportunity when only two, four, or eight teams were taken. Must this be taken into account?
Thirdly, what about dynasties? Speaking currently, Martinsburg has won six state championships in eight years. I think many would argue that they should be considered when speaking about the greatest ever. Yet, how many teams do we include from one stint? There are several cases of this throughout history.
Finally, do we base this completely off domination or transgenerational and transclass talent. Logically, the greatest single A team will not match up with the greatest triple A team. The team size and depth is just too big of a factor. Also, when we imagine these teams playing- whose rules do we play by?
Regardless, we want to do this. But, we need help picking our qualifying teams. Comment here, email us (coalfieldsco@gmail), DM or @ us on Twitter or Facebook, anything! Part of bringing light to West Virginia ball is having a proper interpretation of history. Let’s get it.