Sago and Sports


Something akin to normal: the flat white light of a high school gymnasium. A Thursday night wrestling meet.



Buckhannon-Upshur High's basketball team brings a sense of normalcy to the community with their first game after the tragedy.
On a blue mat laid across a hardwood basketball court, the boys of Buckhannon-Upshur High stretch and grapple, getting loose. The visiting North Marion squad jogs in a lazy semicircle, half the team sporting Mohawk haircuts. The 140-pound class is sponsored by Sam's Pizza. Heavyweights are brought to you by Strader Backhoe Service.

In the bleachers, parents and locals wear ribbons pinned to wool sweaters and broken-in baseball caps.

Ribbons, black like coal.

"In a way, these ribbons are silly," says Sheri Haver-Newbrough, 47, a resident of Upshur County. "But they're just to show the families that we support them. That if we could take their grief, we would."