West Virginia’s Vic Riggs resigned from his head coaching position after being with the program for the last 17 years.
According the public records, Riggs made $134,611.71 in 2023 and has hovered in the $130-140K range since 2018. The West Virginia men and women compete in the Big 12 Conference, which will be without Texas for the first time this upcoming season as Texas is moving to the SEC.
Let’s wildly speculate about who might take over this job.
The two most obvious choices are West Virginia alums who are currently coaching elsewhere in the NCAA, to notable success.
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Pablo Marmolejo, Head Coach, Delaware- Marmolejo is a West Virginia alum as he graduated from the program in 2009 before spending the 2009-2011 seasons with the program as a graduate assistant. He graduated in 2011 with a masters in Public Administration. After graduation, Marmolejo moved to the University of Delaware working as an assistant and recruiting director from 2012-2015. He then spent a few years away from collegiate coaching as he coached club swimming with Delaware Swim Team. Then, in 2018, he arrived back at Delaware as he was hired as head coach in May 2018. So far in his second stint with the Blue Hens, Marmolejo has risen the program to be at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Both teams finished 2nd at the 2024 CAA Championships finishing only behind UNCW. Marmolejo helped coach Toni Sabev to the 2024 NCAA Championships as Sabev became Delaware’s first NCAA qualifier in program history.
Jason Calanog, Associate Head Coach, Texas A&M (Men)- Calanog is also a West Virginia alum as he graduated in 2007. He served as a volunteer assistant for West Virginia during the 2006-2007 season. After graduation, Calanog coached at The Bolles School in Florida from 2007-2015 where he most famously coached Caeleb Dressel. After Bolles, he arrived as an assistant with Texas A&M in 2015 and was promoted to associate head coach in 2019. Earlier this month, it was announced that Texas A&M would combine its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs upon the retirement of women’s head coach Steve Bultman. With the combining of both programs, the situation for Calanog and the Texas A&M staff is up in the air for the time being. The Texas A&M men swam to a 16th place finish at 2024 NCAAs and were 4th (out of 10 teams) at 2024 SECs. The men’s team tied their program-high with a 10th place at NCAAs in 2021.
Peyton Brooks, Head Coach/Director of Competitive Swimming, Baylor Swim Club- It’s rare for Power 5 programs to hire head coaches straight out of the club or high school ranks, but Brooks is in a bit of a different position because he’s just a couple of years removed from a trajectory in the NCAA that was going to land himin charge of a program anyway. Prior to being hired at the Baylor Swim Club in October 2022, he spent three years as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, where the men’s team finished 11th at the NCAA Championships. He also spent a year as the head coach at D2 Alderson-Broaddus University in 2014-2015. Brooks is a West Virginia alumnus who swam for four years during the program’s heyday under Sergio Lopez. That included swimming on the 2007 Big East Championship team. He then spent his fifth year as a member of the West Virginia football team as a wide receiver, where he was the Offensive Scout Team Player of the Year.
Bonuses:
Wyatt Collins, Former Texas Men’s Associate Head Coach– With the arrival of Bob Bowman and now the hiring of Erik Posegay, it looks as if Collins will be looking for a new home. Collins was with the Texas men since 2014 starting as an assistant and being promoted to associate head coach in 2021.
Cory Chitwood, Indiana Associate Head Coach– Chitwood has been with Indiana for five seasons now and works primarily with the distance group, including Mariah Denigan who will represent the US in Open Water swimming in Paris. The connection here is having coached current senior Ivan Puskovitch who also has represented the US in Open Water competition as most recently both were at 2024 Worlds.
Damion Dennis, IUPUI Head Coach– Dennis has been the head coach at IUPUI since June 2019 but spent 11 season with West Virginia prior to that. West Virginia has been the longest stop in his coaching career as he has also been at UCSD, Princeton, and Michigan.
West Virginia University baseball hopes to further their aspirations to secure a conference championship and an opportunity to host an NCAA Regional as they prepare for another Big 12 road series.
The Mountaineers (27-16, 14-7) are set for a weekend clash with a historical conference rival in Cincinnati (25-20, 11-10). It will be the first meeting between the two programs in 13 years — the opponents last met on the diamond as members of the Big East Conference in May 2011. WVU narrowly leads the all-time series 18-17, but the Bearcats own a 10-6 advantage in their home stadium.
The Mountaineers are entering behind the momentum of completing a season sweep of Pittsburgh in the Backyard Brawl with an 11-1 at PNC Park on Tuesday. During that rivalry affair, West Virginia native and WVU first baseman Grant Hussey blasted a pair of homers out of the park en route to securing the program’s all-time home run record with 36 total.
WVU can drastically improve their shot at a conference title and a top seed in the Big 12 Tournament this weekend with a strong performance. They enter one game behind current conference leader Oklahoma, tied with Oklahoma State for second-place in the league standings. Oklahoma is set for a weekend series against fourth-place Texas — meanwhile Oklahoma State will face Texas Tech, who has the second-most overall wins and third-best overall winning percentage this season amongst conference teams.
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The Mountaineers are also certainly hoping to impress enough during the final month of the season to earn the opportunity to bring the NCAA Regional back to Morgantown — to host they will need to be one of the Top 16 seeds in the 64-team field. In the last D1 Baseball forecast for the postseason field, WVU is projected as a No. 2 seed in a potential Knoxville region hosted by Tennessee. That puts them between the 17th and 32nd overall seed currently.
WVU will face Cincinnati at UC Baseball Stadium — first pitch on Friday is set for 5 p.m., Saturday for 3 p.m., and Sunday for 1 p.m. Fans looking to watch the action live will be able to find a television stream of all three games on Big 12 Now on ESPN, and an audio stream will be available via the Mountaineers Sports Network radio affiliates, the Varsity Network, the WVU Gameday App, and WVUSports.com.
BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – Monongalia and Preston Counties now qualify as certified Build WV districts.
Passed in the 2022 legislative session, the Build WV Act aims to assist West Virginia’s growing communities in attracting much-needed housing development projects.
The most recent designation covers qualifying projects within a 20 mile radius of Browns Mill West Virginia.
These developments can now receive state sales and use tax exemptions for building materials.
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Projects will also receive a 10 year property value adjustment refundable tax to offset building costs.
The 20 mile radius covers most of Monongalia and Preston Counties in addition to parts of Marion County.
Projects eligible for the BUILD WV Act will meet the following criteria:
Be in a certified BUILD WV Act District.
Generate approved costs more than $3-million OR include at least six units or houses.
Create a significant positive economic impact on the state.
Will directly or indirectly improve opportunity in the area where the project will be located for the successful establishment or expansion of other commercial businesses.
Provide additional employment opportunities in the state.
Visit http: wvlegislature.gov/wvcode/ for the entire list of approval considerations.
Go to BuildWV District for an unofficial map of the district area. All interested housing developers or contractors should contact Meghan Smith, 304-993-3564, meghan.e.smith@wv.gov.
