BECKLEY, W.Va. — The 2025 fall enrollment report presented to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission shows 57,017 students enrolled which is 942 more students than last year.

The student enrollment is not growing at WVU Tech in Beckley, in fact, it shows the most significant decline in enrollment in the last five years at 25 percent. Enrollment has dropped to just more than 1,200 students.

More specifically, enrollment has decreased by 408 students in those five years including 66 fewer students this fall than last fall.

WVU moved WVU Tech from Montgomery to Beckley in 2017. The Montgomery campus had about the same number of students then that the Beckley campus has now.

WVU Tech Dean of Enrollment Kent Gamble said despite enrollment challenges the school’s programs are doing well.

“They’re attractive and students are coming to them,” Gamble said last week on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “Now, some of the other programs we may need to get out and recruit a little more and do some marketing.”

Gamble said high school enrollments in the area are falling. He said Tech must put more emphasis on the dual credit (enrollment) program involving high school students. He said it’s a positive starting point for any student considering post-secondary education and can be an important confidence builder for first generation students.

“It’s a great introduction because you can say to the students that you can be successful, you can do well in college look how you did in this in course while you were in high school for dual credit,” Gamble said.

WVU Tech officials conducted interviews last week for the next leader of the dual credit program.

“We’re looking for a coordinator for our program, so we’re excited to have some candidates on campus,” Gamble said. “Quality individuals that we think can move that enrollment needle with that program back up to about 500 students where we were in 2021.”

Gamble said WVU Tech hopes to take further advantage of its Metro Tuition Rate to use as an incentive for students outside the state of West Virginia. The rates can save students in Virginia thousands of dollars,” he said.

“We’re very close to the metropolitan areas of Christiansburg, Roanoke, Wytheville, as well as Charlotte and now we have the Metro Program to help us recruit out-of-state students.”

Gamble said they would like to follow the retention and freshman retention rates WVU in Morgantown had had in recent years. While first-time freshman enrollment increased by seven percent across the WVU system, the 2025 retention rate from freshman to sophomore was more than 85 percent.

“We’re also focusing on retention and strengthening retention- that is something the administration would like to do,” Gamble said. “We know we have some work to do in retention and we feel like that will move the enrollment needle.”

The Westhill boys basketball team was over 1,200 miles away from home and facing its toughest challenge of the season so far on Saturday.

The Wolf Pack trailed West Virginia’s 4A state champion, Spring Mills, by one point with seven seconds left in the final game of the program’s first trip to Florida for the prestigious KSA Pre-Holiday Tournament.

With the ball in the hands of Westhill’s reigning large school basketball player of the year, Eli Prince, the Wolf Pack advanced the ball up the court with ease.

Spring Mills’ defense collapsed on Prince and the crafty senior found fellow senior Jackson Goodness streaking down the middle of the court.

Goodness caught the ball, took a dribble to dodge a defender and threw up a high hanging floater from the left elbow.

“I just knew we needed to get some type of shot up because we were down and there were only a few seconds remaining,” Goodness said. “So, whether it was Eli or me … just one of us needed to get a shot off.

“It definitely came to me on the fly. It was kind of an awkward position because I had a really big kid on my right. I kind of had to do it on the run. It was kind of just all in the moment.”

The shot went in and the celebration began for Westhill’s thrilling 42-41 victory over Spring Mills.

“We didn’t necessarily have the play for any specific person,” Westhill coach Jon Connelly said. “It was kind of just a we can see what was there.”

This was the Wolf Pack’s third victory in three days on their trip to Florida for the KSA Events Pre-Holiday Basketball Tournament at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center.

Westhill defeated Sulphur (Louisiana) 63-53 on Thursday and Cullman (Alabama) 39-36 on Friday.

The Wolf Pack’s three out-of-state opponents boasted impressive résumés.

But so does Westhill.

They won the Class B state title in 2023 and reached the Class A regional round in 2024. Last year, the Wolf Pack finished with a 23-3 mark before falling to eventual Class A state champion Glens Falls in the regional championship. In total, Westhill has won six state titles in seven trips to the big game.

“We love what we have as far as our skill level and trust and chemistry within our group, but we also wanted to take these guys and get them out of her comfort zone a little bit,” Connelly said.

Sulphur won their 5A league title and finished last season with a 33-8 record.

Cullman sported a 26-5 record in the 2024-25 season and won its 6A league title. It was also just a few years removed from winning the Alabama state title in 2022.

“When you play teams in Central New York, you have some familiarity there,” Connelly said. “But then, when you’re on the road, you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s freeing … to just go play basketball with kind of nothing to lose, but at the same time, these guys show just incredible toughness and grit to show up and play. These teams we played were bigger than us. The kids were taller, they looked physically stronger, but proud of them for sure.”

The Wolf Pack return home with a 9-0 record and will look to recharge the batteries as they prepare to host Jamesville-DeWitt on Dec. 30.

“I mean, we just played four of our toughest games of the season in five days,” Connelly said. “We played ITC, then hopped on a plane the next morning and played these three teams. The kids deserve some rest.”

(A News and Sentinel Op-Ed – Photo Illustration – MetroCreativeConnection)

It has been the honor of my life to serve West Virginia as your United States Senator, fighting for the concerns of our communities and making sure the voices of West Virginians are heard loud and clear in Washington, D.C. As a lifelong native of the Mountain State, I know how diligent and determined the people of our state are, and they deserve representation that works as hard as they do. I’m proud to announce that I’m running for reelection in 2026 to continue my hard work on behalf of West Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

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