Audio feature story that will run during Saturday’s state championship games
MT. STORM, W.Va. — Tuesday marked history for the Union High School girl’s basketball team. When the ball was tipped at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center against Gilmer County, it marked the first time in the school’s 55-year history that the program played in the state basketball tournament.
The school, Union Education Complex, only has around 50 students in grades 9-12 and is connected in every way. Union Athletics Director Jamie Tallman told MetroNews that every student in the Mt. Storm complex, grades K-12, knows someone on the team.
And it showed with almost every single student in attendance for the first round matchup.
Before the game on Tuesday, I spoke with Tallman, Union Principal Stephanie Chapman, 9th grade student and student section leader Samuel Jones, and David Bomboy, the grandfather of Union player Olivia Bomboy, about their emotions on the historic run. Some of them were overjoyed with tears.
Despite Union falling to Gilmer County, the team rallied a mountain top community, brought everyone closer together and rewrote history. That’s what the state basketball tournament is all about.
Their comments are featured in an audio feature that will air Saturday during the state championship games on WV MetroNews. The feature can be listened to below: