West Virginia
DeVries hopeful timing of Italy trip works in Mountaineers' favor – WV MetroNews
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — One week from today, West Virginia’s men’s basketball program will face outside competition for the first time under head coach Darian DeVries.
The Mountaineers head to Italy on Wednesday and play their first of three games overseas August 3 at 12:30 p.m. ET against BC Zaligiris Kaunas-2 in Genoa.
“We’ll throw out different lineups to get a look at different things. Some guys will play more or less,” DeVries said. “We’ll try to play the younger guys a little more just to get some post high school experience. You never know what you’re going to get over there. Sometimes you get a great game and really challenged, and sometimes you don’t.
“I just want us to play together and play the way we want them to play every night. I don’t expect it to be great. You travel, we’re not doing a shoot-around, no walkthrough, just go play. It’s the way they like it.”
The Mountaineers are also slated to face Orange1 Bassano on August 6 in Florence before playing their final game of the trip August 8 against Stella#EBK in Rome.
The contests will allow DeVries and the staff he’s assembled to get their first look at a roster with only one scholarship holdover from last season’s WVU team, but they won’t receiver near the same attention as a regular season game.
“They’re going to have five, we’re going to have five and toss ‘er up,” DeVries said. “We’ll figure out who can shoot it by halftime.”
Still, with 12 new players and an entirely new coaching staff, the trip appears to come at an ideal time for West Virginia.
“That’s what I love about the timing of this trip for us,” DeVries said. “We have a whole new group and whole new staff, so to get to go spend ten or eleven days on a trip is certainly good timing for us to get to know each other on a more personal level outside of basketball.”
Only forward Tucker DeVries and guard Joseph Yesufu have previously played for the first-year WVU head coach. It’s been since the 2020-21 campaign for Yesufu, who remains sidelined with a hip injury that sidelined him most of last season at Washington State, though he’s expected to be back not long after the Mountaineers return home.
DeVries is more concerned with his team applying what’s consistently being worked on throughout summer practices in favor of specific results on the foreign trip, though he admits an eagerness to seeing how players respond to certain situations.
“I don’t try to put a lot into it,” he said. “I’ve been on several of these, and some head coaches sit in the stands and watch during these games. I always felt like, especially with a new group, I need to be out there and coach them. But for the most part, try to get them a little bit of a rhythm together and an identity of how we want to play. You also take into account all the travel and all the stuff that goes with it. I don’t have unrealistic expectations of what it’s going to look like. I’d love for it to be a great game.
“Last year, we took our team to Spain at Drake and we got beat in our first game. We were up like 15 with 10 minutes to go and we played the young guys. It was the greatest thing ever, because they had to finish out a game and whether we won or lost wasn’t the point. The point was they were in a situation we were going to see and we got an opportunity to watch how they responded. Hoping we get something like that again on this trip.”
DeVries says there’s also a high likelihood the Mountaineers’ roster increases following the trip from its current 14 players, 12 of which are program newcomers.
“We’re still very much actively recruiting,” he said. “There’s multiple players we’re still trying to recruit and get them here by the start of school.”
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – The Verizon Network is currently experiencing a widespread outage across West Virginia.
A service alert was sent to residents in Kanawha County.
Verizon customers should still be able to call 911.
If a Verizon customer experiences an issue with contacting 911, a landline should be used if possible.
However, only contact 911 if there is a true emergency.
At this time, Verizon is not giving an estimated time for restoration.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
JACKSON COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Alyssa’s Law passed through the West Virginia Legislature, creating a fund to bring panic buttons and other life-saving technology to schools statewide.
Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, who helped create Alyssa’s Law, said, “Every teacher, every staff member equipped with a wearable panic button that allows them a literal one push to the 911 center, to local law enforcement and EMS.”
Alyssa Alhadeff was a 14-year-old who died alongside 16 other students in the Parkland school shooting in 2018. Her parents are giving the first official funds to West Virginia through the organization called Make Our Schools Safe.
“They’ll make a contribution this evening of $48,888,” Pinson said. “That number 8 is recurring because it was Alyssa’s volleyball number.”
The state Department of Education is giving $348,888 to the fund, as well.
In Jackson County, local funding helped bring in panic buttons, and deputies are required to spend time in schools every week.
Jackson County Sheriff Ross Mellinger said the panic buttons give local law enforcement maps and an alert to their phone.
“It’s a pretty big lift to get the money and we’re looking at $9.5-10 million to get this thing done, and the sad reality is if we had a school shooting tomorrow, we would bend over backwards to get you the money then, but at that point it’s too little too late,” Mellinger said.
He said he wants to be proactive and encourages other counties to do the same.
Pinson said the cost of technology will drop over time, and Alyssa’s Law allows more safety upgrades in the future.
Pinson said Jackson County is a perfect example of what kind of upgrades are possible.
“Right here in Jackson County, they are unveiling AI driven cameras that can immediately alert the school and local law enforcement if a person of concern were to come on campus,” he said.
Leaders hope this technology can save lives across West Virginia. Pinson said the initial cost for panic buttons is about $20,000 per school and the fund is held with Homeland Security until hitting the goal of about $10 million.
Copyright 2026 WSAZ. All rights reserved.
GRAFTON, W.Va. — The 159th annual West Virginia Memorial Day Parade is set to take place in Grafton on May 25th. The parade will begin at 10 a.m.
This tradition that Grafton residents hold near and dear to their hearts has been recognized nationwide as the longest continuous running Memorial Day parade in the country.
“We tightened up our boot straps, and hopefully we will put on a very nice program and remember what the day is about this year,” Scott Willis, Parade Committee Chairman, said.
In 2016, the West Virginia Legislature designated Grafton’s parade as the Official Memorial Day Parade of West Virginia, a distinction earned through unwavering devotion, remembrance, and community pride.
“Grafton does it right, we really do,” Willis stated. “We hold true to what the day is about and understand the importance of Grafton, as it has the only national cemeteries in the state.”
As the parade continues to grow, Grafton hopes that more volunteers will continue to offer aid and assistance.
“We’re always looking for volunteers,” Willis said. “We’re a complete volunteer organization that puts this on every year.”
In addition to seeking volunteers, to further prepare for this event, Grafton will be hosting organizational meetings every Monday up until Memorial Day weekend at the City Council Chambers. The meetings will begin at 7 p.m. The meetings will aid in discussing volunteer work, logistics of the entire event, and consider some of the success in previous years.
“We feel we have a responsibility not only to the participants and the patrons of this, but our biggest responsibility is to those who lay beneath the white markers at both of our national cemeteries in Grafton because that’s what the day is about,” Willis added.
Those interested in learning more about the event or seeking to volunteer, may email parade@wvmemorialday.com or visit wvmemorialday.com.
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