Back Row(L-R): Tate Mullenax, Brandon Zirk, Raheim Lamb, Corrick Ambrose, Cameron Wamsley, Wesley Snyder, Rudy Pennington, Austin Clark, Gus Mullennex, Wyatt Betler and Jeffrey Snyder – Photo by Dave Helmick
The Tucker County High School Boys’ Basketball program will have a new head coach this season. Jim Ambrose, former Tucker County Girls’ Basketball head coach and Tucker County graduate has taken over this season.
Ambrose has been the TCHS Girls’ Basketball head coach the last 5 years and has led the Lady Mt. Lions to the State Tournament in all 5 of those seasons. Coach Ambrose had this to say about the tradition and taking over the Boys’ program, “Were going to do what we do, we are going to play hard and not give up, no matter who we play we are going to play harder than our opponent and try to keep that Tucker County tradition alive.”
Coach Ambrose has 21 total players out this season with 9 of those players being varsity players. There is 3 seniors on the team this year in Wesley Snyder, Brandon Zirk and Luke Poling. Wesley Snyder is the only returning starter back from last year and Coach Ambrose had this to say about Snyder, “We are putting a lot of pressure on Wes to pick up where he left off from last year and we are expecting more from him this season.”
The other remaining members of the varsity team will consist of 6 juniors. Leading that class will be Coach Ambrose’s son Corrick Ambrose along with Alec Cummings, Jeffrey Snyder, Cameron Wamsley, Ben Cromer and Owen Poling. Ambrose stated this about this junior class, “We are excited about this group of juniors, they are a pretty hard working group, Corrick had a great spring and summer and has played a lot of AAU basketball and he has gotten better and we are going to expect more from him this season.”
Gone from the team is 1,000 point scorer Ethan Crosten along with fellow seniors Kordell Fulton, Josh Kincaid and Jakob Cousin. Ambrose returns just 3 players total that seen varsity action last season in Wesley Snyder, Brandon Zirk and Corrick Ambrose. Ambrose stated, “All of them are going to have to contribute, we are going to need a total team effort and one person is not going to be able to carry this team we are going to have to do it as one unit.” The rest of the 21 total players besides the 9 varsity players includes Juniors; Raheim Lamb, Austin Clark, Sophomores: Ethan Pacella, Wyatt White, Holden Young, Rudy Pennington; Freshmen: Gus Mullennex, Wyatt Betler, Jeremy Liller, Trey Key, Hunter Elza and Tate Mullenax.
Tucker County will open their season on December 6th at home against Elkins. The schedule will see some different teams this season as Petersburg decided to not play this season and Pocahontas County dropped out of the PVC Conference. The Mt. Lions replaced those 4 games with home and away contest with “A” powerhouse Wheeling Central Catholic, an away contest with “AA” Lincoln and a home contest with Bishop-Walsh a Catholic school from Cumberland, MD.
The schedule will still see home and away contest with Moorefield, East Hardy, Pendleton County, Southern, Elkins, Preston and Notre Dame. The Mt. Lions will also travel to Trinity for one contest and host Keyser for one game. Tucker County will also compete in the IOGA Tournament at Glenville State early in the season that will see a first round contest against Fayetteville on December 11th.
For a full season schedule go to TuckerCountySports.Com. A number of TCHS Boys’ Basketball games will be broadcast by Chris George on 94.7 FM WELK and online also at TuckerCountySports.Com.
