Young, Wharton, DeNardi recognized for starting West Fairmont Middle, Fairmont Senior High soccer programs
Oct. 4—FAIRMONT — Standing on the turf field on a sunny morning at East-West Stadium, Ben Young, Andy Wharton and Jim DeNardi received recognition for their contributions for starting the soccer programs at West Fairmont Middle and Fairmont Senior High schools in between the girls and boys games against Charleston Catholic last Saturday.
"It means a lot," Wharton said, fighting back some tears. "It's good [to] recognize a lot of the work. It was a lot of work, a lot of effort, a little bit of recognition for it. It's not why you do it, but it's pretty cool when it happens."
Wharton and Young were recognized first during the surprise ceremony. In 2018, the two of them led the effort to start the middle school soccer teams at West Fairmont. According to the ceremony script, provided to the Times West Virginian by Jennie Amos, Young coached the boys team and Wharton coached the girls team and recruited parents to start team boosters clubs.
There were multiple factors for the creation of the West Fairmont teams. According to Wharton, East Fairmont Middle School had recently started its own soccer program, and the parents at West Fairmont wanted to follow suit.
"There was a group of people that started an East Fairmont Middle School boys soccer program, and it seemed like that was the way things were going," Wharton said. "West needed to step up and have a program as well. Since I was involved with the youth program, it made sense for me to help be the person to move that forward.
Young mentioned the desire to have an alternative to travel soccer teams. As he put it, not every family could afford putting their kids on a travel team, so it became important for the middle school to have a team that parents didn't have to pay for.
"I think a lot of kids get the chance to play travel, but not everybody could afford it," Young said. "I thought it was really important to offer a chance for all kids to learn and play soccer, and I think the middle school program allows us to do that, to give quality instruction. Some of the travel teams cost $1,400 to $2,000 a year. It's not reasonable for people, so I was really happy to be able to offer it to the kids."
Young gave up coaching the boys team, and Wharton picked up the reins after, although Wharton plans to step down from that after this year.
Even after all the challenges that came with starting the programs, it's special for both men to see players they coached in middle school playing at the high school level. Wharton, whose daughter Lilly and son Chase play on the high school teams, simply called it "humbling," and Young, whose sons Caleb and Jack play for the boys team, finds the experience rewarding.
"I think it's amazing to watch kids over the years," Young said. "Some mature early, some mature late, and watching the ones that work hard and believe in it and trust and watch what happens in our labs and some of the lessons that you learn through athletics I think are super important. And I think watching the boys mature and grow up and become young men is really rewarding."
DeNardi began the boys and girls soccer teams at Fairmont Senior High School back in 1997. A few years earlier, he helped establish the Marion County Youth Soccer Association recreational league. He noticed kids in Marion County didn't have a way to continue playing soccer after the U14 level, so he and other community members went to the Board of Education and convinced the Board to start soccer programs at all three high schools.
"We started all three schools the same year," DeNardi said. "East got their team, North Marion got their team, and we got our team here at Fairmont Senior. They've all been going on pretty well since then."
With the support of his wife, Kathy, DeNardi took the lead in starting the boys and girls teams. Facing challenges of becoming a competitive and self-sufficient program, DeNardi eventually brought the boys team to success as its head coach — 10 section championships, seven regional championships, two state runners-up and three state championships. He's been named Big X Coach of the Year four times and State Coach of the Year once.
When DeNardi stepped down from being head coach, long-time assistant Darrin Paul took his place, and DeNardi remains with the boys team as an assistant coach, making him a constant presence for the team in the entirety of its existence.
DeNardi enjoyed being recognized in front of the crowd at East-West Stadium on Saturday, and he humbly accepted it knowing it wasn't all him that got the program going.
"It's nice to get a little bit of recognition for at least getting it started," DeNardi said. "But it wasn't all me. There's a lot of people behind the scenes that do a lot of stuff that keep the programs going and make the programs successful, gets all the stuff that boys and girls need to be successful."
Reach Colin C. Rhodes at 304-367-2548
