Comprised of 11 high school teams throughout the southern region of the state, the West Virginian half of the Hatfield-McCoy Senior Bowl sloshed through a wet, Thursday afternoon practice. Rainy weather aside, John Fry, head coach of the West Virginia seniors and assistant coach of the Matewan Tigers, and his team were all business.

"We've got a solid team this year, good linemen especially," stated Fry. "Every single one of these kids was the stars of their high school team and has been practicing for this game all week. They're good kids, and they're dedicated so we should do well."

The 31 players of the West Virginia roster are representing Chapmanville, Gilbert, Iaeger, Man, Logan, Sherman, Tug Valley, Wayne, Westside, and Williamson High Schools as well as the host of the exhibition game, Matewan. Over one third of the roster is made up of seniors from Matewan High School, 12 in all, Chapmanville High School with 6, and Logan and Man High Schools with 4 respectively.

As of press time, the West Virginia starting roster had not been completed, but Coach Fry plans to start Derrick Perrin of Logan at wide receiver and Matewan's Josh Sammons at quarterback.

"I'm going to miss it here, my teammates especially. They're all really good guys," Sammons said. "I look forward to playing in this game and will hopefully get to play at Marshall University this fall."

The Matewan Tiger's Head Coach, Danny "Yogi" Kinder, had nothing but good things to say about Sammons. "He's a leader, he's excellent, and he's tough. Not only is he a good player, he's a great person and any team would be lucky to have him play for them," said Kinder.

Matewan plans to begin practice for their upcoming football season at 12:01 a.m. Aug. 3, Matewan's version of "midnight madness".

The Hatfield-McCoy Senior Bowl will be held at Matewan High School Aug. 1 at 8 p.m.