Everything happens while I'm on vacation

Jun. 19—Summer can prove a challenging season during which to fill a sports section at the local level. High school sports rule the proverbial roost around here and with students out on their well-deserved summer vacations, there isn't as much to write about.

That doesn't mean there's nothing to cover, and the next six weeks or so will bear that out. But without the set schedule you see from August until June, things can certainly get slow.

(Even more so with the West Virginia Miners on what I selfishly hope is a one-year sabbatical.)

So, of course, I was expecting the week to be typically slow while I enjoyed a rare vacation with my family. Tuesday came and that was clearly not going to be the case.

It started with the surprise news that David Price, who recently retired as Superintendent of Raleigh County Schools, will return to the workforce as the new Executive Director of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission.

I only got to speak with Price a handful of times during his nine-year tenure with Raleigh County Schools but always enjoyed the conversations. I know he made decisions people were not happy about (that comes with the territory), but I always felt he had the students' and parents' best interests at heart.

(And I truly enjoyed hearing his voice on the other end of the phone at 4 a.m. on snowy winter mornings. It always meant a few more hours of sleep.)

Price will officially take his post July 1, one day after current director Bernie Dolan's retirement becomes official.

Seemingly minutes after that afternoon announcement came word that Greenbrier West head football coach Toby Harris would be resigning. Harris was the first football coach in school history, from 1968-1977, and had a two-year stop (2005-2007) at Oak Hill before being hired for his second stint in Charmco in 2019.

Harris retires with a career record of 100-45-1.

Harris' return to the Cavaliers came at a time when I wasn't getting out of the office much due to in-house responsibilities. I only spoke to him once in his capacity but could tell he is a good man.

His second stint was successful, taking the Cavaliers to the Class A state playoffs all four seasons.

Word also came out that Kevin Hedinger has been approved as the new head baseball coach at Wyoming East. Hedinger has been involved with Wyoming County sports for a long time and it has always been fun talking to him at games or while he was calling in a box score (and his son Jeremy was one of my son's sixth grade teachers at Park Middle School this year).

I will certainly miss Ron "Chief" Mayhew, the longtime coach at both Pineville and Wyoming East — including a Class AA state championship run with the Warriors in 2012. Talking baseball (forever my favorite sport) with someone as knowledgable as Chief was always a privilege.

Things did slow down after that — until Saturday morning, when I hadn't been awake long and was anticipating our last day on the beach. My wife asked, "Gary, did Bob Huggins get arrested?"

Of course, we all know the answer to that question. Huggins' arrest on DUI charges late Friday night and subsequent resignation as West Virginia University's head men's basketball coach is a sad ending for a Hall of Fame coach enjoying his dream job.

Huggins resigned the next night, and you always have to wonder if it's a case of resign-or-be-fired when these things happen. Either way, there was no way Huggins' employment was going to survive. He was barely a month removed from the slur he uttered on a live radio broadcast that led to him having his salary reduced by a million dollars and being suspended the first three games of the 2023-24 season.

That came with a statement from Director of Athletics Wren Baker and President Gordon Gee that essentially set forth zero tolerance moving forward.

I've never been one to clamor for anyone's firing to make myself look good on the optics spectrum of social media. But Gee and Baker would have been left with no alternative but to dismiss Huggins had he not resigned.

My opinion of Huggins and the radio incident, from the time it happened, was that he was not in his right mind. In no way is that intended to defend what he said. Rather, it's to say he is beyond smart enough not to say something that bad if he had all his faculties.

Then, to register a .210 blood alcohol content while behind the wheel of a car? It certainly seems Huggins has some issues, and if so, hopefully he can get them ironed out.

Now I'm back in Beckley, trying to shake the cobwebs that come with being thrust from island time. And I'm sure now that I'm back, the local sports news cycle will stop spinning.

Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5