The three week summer practice period is the best rule the WVSSAC has adopted in many years.

As many of you know, in the past, West Virginia high school coaches could not have any contact with their players during the summer months.

Now they may have three weeks to work with the players and even accompany them to team camps.

Both Tug Valley and Mingo Central are participating in the team basketball camp at Belfry High School this week.

In the past, when other states like Kentucky could work with their student athletes in the summer months, the Mountain State suffered the consequences. But now the playing field has been leveled.

The only drawback is that those players, who play multiple sports, have to try to attend practice two or three times a day. For the boys, they try to shuffle between football, basketball and baseball. For the girls is it volleyball, basketball and softball.

Throw in tennis, track and other sports and it can be tough on the coaches to work out a schedule that fits for everyone. But that is a nice problem to have and is only a minor issue when it comes down to athletes getting quality time with the coaching staffs during the summer.

SHORT STUFF:

Several West Virginia University freshman football recruits are already on campus and enrolled in summer school. This enables them to work out at the Mountaineer’s facilities and they can run some drills with returning players. In all 16 new recruits and two invited walk-ons are in Morgantown.

Four of the new recruits graduated early and enrolled in the spring semester. That included big-time Texas quarterback prospect Ford Childress.

…. Huntington Prep Academy’s boys’ basketball team already looked solid with Class of 2014 top-rated national prospect Andrew Wiggins and Xavier-Rathan Mayes, a top 70 member of the Class of 2013. Now Coach Rob Fulford has added 6-foot-9, 210-pound Moses Kingsley, a native Nigerian from Mississippi, is joining the Huntington team for his senior season. Scout.com rates Kingsley as the No. 7 center prospect and No. 52 player overall in the Class of 2013. Look for a lot of major college coaches to be traveling to Huntington this season.

…. It was good to see Randy McCoy, the former Elkhorn City and Pikeville College coach Wednesday at the Belfry High team camp. McCoy is back in the region as head coach of East Ridge.

…. The First Baptist Church 18th Annual Bible Basketball Camp will be held at the Williamson Memorial Fieldhouse, July 9 - 13, 2012. It will be in memory of the late Virginia Williamson, a longtime director and participant of the camp. Grades Kindergarten - 3rd Grades - 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm, Grades 4th - 6th Grades - 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm. If anyone has questions or need transportation they can call the church (304)235-1930.

… Delbarton Midget League football sign-ups will be held Saturday morning, June 16, at the park in Delbarton from 9 am – 12 noon. This is for kids ages 5-12. Registration is $30 and parents or guardians need to bring a copy of the child’s birth certificate.

… Last year’s homecoming queens will be vying for one more title at the annual Hatfield-McCoy Bowl on July 28 at Mingo Central High School. Anyone interested in participating should contact Marcella Charles.

(Kyle Lovern is the sports editor for the Williamson Daily News. Comments or story ideas can be sent to klovern@williamsondailynews.com)