West Virginia
JJ Quinerly wrapping up an impressive junior season at West Virginia – Blue Gold Sports
It was no secret heading into the season that JJ Quinerly was West Virginia Women’s Basketball’s top player. After all, she was a unanimous All-Big 12 selection the season prior.
This season, she is having arguably her best season to date. Her performance has had her named to multiple watchlists, including a candidate for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watchlist, and the Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year Award Watchlist.
She is averaging a couple of career highs, including minutes with 30.9 per game, in points with 19.6 per game, and in steals with 3.1 per game. Her points per game are good enough to rank her 27th nationally, with her steals per game ranking 10th.
Quinerly has scored at least 10 points in all but one game this season, and her best individual performance in that category came when she scored 33 points in a loss to Baylor last Saturday.
“The kid is such a competitor, such a competitor,” head coach Mark Kellogg said after that game.
It is worth noting that Quinerly has played for a different coach each season she has been at West Virginia. She first played at West Virginia under Mike Carey, then opted to stay around when Dawn Plitzuweit was brought in, and now Kellogg is in as West Virginia’s head coach.
Quinerly spoke to the media earlier this season and talked about what it has been like to play for current coach Kellogg.
“He’s actually a pretty great coach,” Quinerly said. “I put a lot of trust into him when he came to this school and he’s taken us a pretty long way for it to be the start of the season, so I’m gonna continue to trust him and the other coaches too.”
Kellogg has helped the Mountaineers sit at 22-6 on the season, their first such season with at least 22 wins since 2020-21. He has also helped players such as Quinerly improve statistically.
Quinerly still has the regular season finale on Saturday and the postseason to continue adding to her impressive stats. She hopes to bring home some more hardware when it is all said and done at the end of the season.
Baseball and the 4th of July. It goes together so well, and perhaps one day, we will see a pair of West Virginia Mountaineers sporting the red, white, and blue for Team USA in the Olympics (set to return in 2028) or the World Baseball Classic.
I know most everyone’s attention in West Virginia over the last two or so months has been consumed by the Mountaineers’ magical run to the College World Series, so you may not realize how much of a tear former Mountaineer star JJ Wetherholt has been on in the big leagues.
We’ll catch you up to speed.
In the first 81 games of his career, Wetherholt has hit 12 home runs, recorded 35 RBI, and has slashed .260/.357/.398. On top of being one of the best-hitting second basemen in the entire game, he is a perfect 9/9 on stolen base attempts and has been elite with the glove, committing just two errors on the season, giving him a fielding percentage of .994.
One of the best moments of Wetherholt’s red-hot start was this leadoff home run against Paul Skenes, last year’s Cy Young award winner.
JJ Wetherholt hits a leadoff shot off Paul Skenes! pic.twitter.com/7KzVkutArL
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 30, 2026
Hitting a bomb off one of the most talented pitchers in the game certainly raised some eyebrows, but I’m not sure even that tops what he did in just his second game, shooting a ball through the right side of the infield, collecting his first-ever walk-off hit in the majors.
JJ WETHERHOLT WALKS IT OFF! pic.twitter.com/5Adski5dMn
— MLB (@MLB) March 28, 2026
For you baseball junkies out there, Wetherholt currently has a WAR (wins above replacement) of 3.8. Only nine others in the entire MLB — pitcher or position player — have a higher rating. Those players are P Christopher Sanchez (PHI), P/DH Shohei Ohtani (LAD), OF Pete Crow-Armstrong (CHC), SS Bobby Witt Jr. (KC), IF Kevin McGonigle (DET), P Chase Burns (CIN), P Jacob Misirowski (MIL), OF Andy Pages (LAD), and SS Otto Lopez (MIA).
The next big league star
I think if you polled 100 scouts at the next level, you would get pretty close to a consensus that West Virginia catcher/second baseman is going to be a really good player in the big leagues for a really long time. The hit tool is off the charts, as we all know, but the glove is just as impressive. He finished the season with an overall fielding percentage of .987, helping him earn All-American honors at two different positions, which is incredibly rare. I won’t go as far as saying it’s the baseball version of what Travis Hunter did at Colorado playing wide receiver and corner, but it’s pretty darn close.
As a sophomore, Kelly flirted with a .400 batting average for much of the season before ending the year with a .382 mark. He belted 19 home runs and drove in 63 runs. The scary thing for opposing pitchers is that he still has a ton of room to get bigger and stronger, which will only improve his power numbers and slugging percentage.
With another strong year in 2027, Kelly could be one of the handful of names considered to be the No. 1 overall pick in next summer’s draft.
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West Virginia
Iconic country music band Alabama takes stage for West Virginia’s America 250 celebration
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS) — Thousands descended upon the West Virginia Capitol on Friday night to hear one of the most iconic country music bands of all time.
Alabama took to the Boulevard Stage shortly before 8 p.m. and gave fans a show lasting approximately 90 minutes, despite the grueling heat that has been factor throughout America250 celebrations and the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta.
Performing songs such as “Song of the South,” “Can’t Keep a Good Man Down” and the classic “Dixieland Delight,” the two-time Grammy Award-winning band even gave West Virginians a treat by playing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” which the band said was at the request of Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
The band opened up a weekend full of performances at the Capitol. The West Virginia Symphony Orchestra will take the stage on Saturday, while the Marshall Tucker Band will perform on Sunday.
The performances are just a piece of what is going on at the Capitol, as vendors and family-friendly activities are offered all weekend. In the evenings, fireworks, light shows and drone shows will light up the night in celebration of America’s 250th.
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Additionally, a 230-foot Ferris wheel is free for visitors to ride throughout the weekend.
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