Goodbye, Thank You & Good Night

Liki Turner's buzzer-beater ended the Concord men's basketball team's season Tuesday night, capping a wonderful college basketball game in Shepherdstown.
With the Mountain Lion men and women eliminated from the WVIAC Tournament, our broadcast season has come to an end on Classic Rock 102 The New River and theriver102.com.

Time for some Thank You's.

Thanks to Lew Whitener, who started the season as an untested rookie board engineer, and ended it as a proven veteran.
Board operators do a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that gets our games on the air. You would literally not be able to listen to Concord or Summers County sports on The New River without people like Lew, Nate Dogg, Candyman and Rick Rizer. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thanks to Concord Director of Athletics Greg Quick. The last few months have been a time of great change for Greg, but through it all he's been unfailingly supportive and optimistic. I admire him for it.

Thanks to Concord's coaches: Greg, and now Mike Kellar, in football; Steve Cox, Will Johnson and Don Christie in men's basketball; and Kenny Osbourne, Jamie Cluesmann and Wes Aldrich in women's basketball. Your time and effort was invaluable.
This was my first season working with the Concord program and the WVIAC. The learning curve was pretty steep. Greg, Steve, Kenny and their staffs made the learning process quicker and easier.
Thanks as well to the other Concord coaches that, like the football and basketball staffs, took the time to be guests on our "Mountain Lion Weekly" program (Tuesday nights at 6:00 on The New River): Steve Barrett, Carol Bonnes, Mike Cox and Pat Hardin, and soon to come, Kevin Barrett, Lisa Blankenship and Sabrina McCullough.

Thanks to new SID Joey Fama, who had a lot to learn in a little time.
Thanks to Anita Conner and Tina Barrett in the front office in the Athletic Department, who've been unceasingly helpful and always have a friendly word to say.

Thanks to WVIAC Associate Commissioner Will Prewitt, who does yeoman's work keeping everyone in and around the league upated on, well, everything. Every time you heard an updated score from another game around the league, that update came from Will.
Will also made my first-year learning curve much easier to negotiate.

Thanks to the great businesses who sponsored our Concord broadcasts. We look forward to working together again, and for a long time to come.

Of course, great thanks to all of Concord's players, without whom none of this would be possible.
I travel with the teams, and on every trip all the players conducted themselves well as representatives of Concord University. Plus, they're a hoot to be around.

And, thanks to everyone who listened on the air and on-line. Your support and kind words
mean a great deal to me and everyone at Southern Communications. We may be in the off-season when it comes to our Concord broadcasts, but we'll work year-round to get better at what we do.

The 2009 CU football season starts August 29. It'll be here sooner than we think.