NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — For the Woodside Wolverines, it all comes down to this.
“Starting August 1st, the guys go through boot camp and we’re here from 7 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon and it’s all work. It’s not easy,” said head coach Stefan Welsh on his team’s summer training.
A product six months in the making has led them to this Saturday: a chance to win back-to-back state titles for the first time since 2004 and 2005.
“A lot of times I don’t even want to get up in the morning for it but with the results that we see from it, we’re fully committed to that. We do the bulk of our training in August and if you can get through August you can get through anything,” explained Welsh.
“It was hard. I really didn’t want to do it, but I had to,” said junior guard Masiah Stevens. “We’d have to go outside in the field, and we’d have to like, bear-crawl all the way down the field. But in the end, it was all worth it.”
Now waiting on the other side for the Wolverines is a shot at a second straight state championship, and fourth since Stefan Welsh took over at his alma mater in 2017.
"When I decided to come here the goal was rebuild the program and turn it into a national power and I think we're headed in the right direction."
As Welsh will tell you, he knew Masiah was made for this program ever since watching him play at a local elementary school.
“He was at Greenwood Elementary on the playground when he was younger and my wife was a teacher there at the time and he was outside just dribbling because they didn’t have hoops there at the time and he was really handling the ball,” recalled Welsh. “We've seen wild moments from him since he was 10 or 11 years old. From that moment I just kind of put my arms around him.”
“It’s true! We didn’t have a hoop, so I just dribbled the ball,” Masiah said.
Welsh also says that Masiah reminds him a lot of himself, and now Masiah has the chance to lead Woodside to back-to-back championships for the first time since Welsh did it as a player in ’04 and ’05.
"It's really crazy," Masiah explained. "I never thought I would be here and here I am. It means everything to me."
Woodside will go up against L.C. Bird at VCU's Siegel Center on Saturday, March 9 at 6:30.
