Ours, Viani sign to play college football, baseball at DII level

Mar. 28—FAIRMONT — Their decisions finalized, two Fairmont Senior student athletes signed letters of intent to pursue college athletics at the NCAA Division II level.

Dylan Ours signed to play football at PennWest California, formerly California University of Pennsylvania, in California, Pa., and Sammy Viani signed to play baseball at Fairmont State University.

Ours received offers from DII schools like Cal U, Shepherd University and Fairmont State and a DI offer from Southern Utah. Ultimately, Ours went out of state but still close to home with Cal U.

"I felt the most wanted there, from the whole coaching staff and the whole program there," Ours said. "Felt a lot more loved than anywhere else. It's closer to home, parents could come watch games on the weekend, being able to come in for breaks and everything like that. And Cal U just being a great place overall."

Given the option to play on either offense or defense by the coaching staff, Ours opted for defense and will play at middle linebacker. He also expects to receive some time on special teams for punt and kick returns.

Ours, a native of Keyser, transferred to Fairmont Senior before his freshman year in the midst of the COVID pandemic. He said that while it seemed distant from everyone, he felt the love of the community around the football team.

"I could feel the community, the love that they have for the football here and every other sport," Ours said. "The support behind this school is insane with the staff, the students, the town, everybody around it, even people outside of the town. We got people rooting for us everywhere."

Ours said he never thought he'd be the one people looked to make plays in clutch moments. He played with local greats such as Gage Michael and Germaine "Jiggy" Lewis but still got reps and worked up to be RB1 on the depth chart senior year.

His high school career culminated in his senior year, as Ours called it the best team Fairmont Senior ever had chemistry wise. A team so close together it went on to win the AA state title off Ours' record breaking six rushing touchdowns, a feat he remained humble in retelling.

"It's something I wasn't really expecting to do coming into the game, but if that's what had to be done to win the game, then that's what had to be done," Ours said. "By no means am I gonna boast about having those six touchdowns. They weren't any crazy 90-yard runs or anything. Most of those runs were two or three yard runs just from right under the center and going up the middle."

Ours plans on majoring in business management, saying he can see himself doing that in the future.

Viani signed with the one school that offered him an athletic scholarship after his season-ending knee injury his junior year. He believes Fairmont State will give him the best four years of playing baseball at the college level.

After suffering his injury, Viani garnered a greater appreciation for playing baseball. He framed it as something he couldn't live without.

"I appreciate it a lot more," Viani said. "Feels like I couldn't have as much fun in my daily life without playing baseball. More of like an enjoyment thing."

Viani said he'll be on the mound pitching for Fairmont State, likely as a pitcher-only player. He'll be working directly with East Fairmont High and West Virginia University alumnus and former Major League Baseball pitcher David Carpenter, Fairmont State's pitching coach.

Working with Carpenter created quite the appeal for Viani considering his pedigree and the pedigree of Head Coach Matt Yurish, also a West Virginia University product. Viani also has former Fairmont Senior teammates and friends on the team already who played at Big X schools like Robert C. Byrd, Lewis County and Buckhannon-Upshur.

Fairmont Senior Head Coach David Ricer thinks Viani made a good decision to play at Fairmont State.

"I think it's a good decision," Ricer said. "He stays home; that lets his family be there, and the more family support he has, I think the better his chances of graduating will."

Ricer was there to see Viani go through the injury and the recovery his junior year. Viani tore up his whole knee, ACL, meniscus and everything, playing church league in January and had surgery the first week of practice that year to repair it. Ricer said Viani put in the work since then and looks better than before the injury.

Still, it wasn't easy to watch Viani experience such a destructive injury in the first place.

"It was tough watching him go through it," Ricer said. "But he was constantly down in my class telling me 'I did this today, I did that today,' and he was just generally pretty excited, pretty enthusiastic about the way things were going. We just tried to keep everything upbeat.

"When he came out the first day [this season] against Cameron, we'd seen him in practice, but we hadn't seen him throw like that. He was lights out that night."

A year of high school baseball still left to play, Viani has some high goals he wants to achieve his senior season.

"I want to accomplish the state championship," Viani said. "And hopefully first team all-state and Big X Player of the Year maybe. Just like a heads up on maybe I might do it."

Viani plans on majoring in business or sports management with hopes of working in sports as a career.

Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548