But until yesterday I didn't realize what he had been doing for
the sport in Marshall County for the past 5 years, and I'll bet not
all of you know either.

Besides being the varsity coach, Stan sponsors an entry-level
basketball league for 5th and 6th grade County girls.  There are
teams from Central, Sherrard, Glen Dale, Park View, McNinch,
Sanford, & Center McMechen.

Each year hundreds of little girls are involved with learning the
game of basketball and competing every  Saturday in games and
tournaments that Coach Blankenship arranges, staffs, and
cleans up afterward.  My daughter played every year on one of
these little teams, as did some of yours.  These kids learn to
either love it or give it up in these testing years.

Most of the staff are volunteers, including most of his JM Staff,
plus the JM girls, a few friends, and his biggest supporter, his
wife Shannon, who freezes by the door every year receiving
admissions.  This goes on for 6 weeks!

The door money and the snack bar profits, go to buy trophies for
both the tournament and the finals, and last year they had a couple
hundred dollars left over.

You know what he did with it?  Wouldn't you have think he'd earned
a little profit, and taken Shannon out someplace nice to eat...
nah, he gave each 1997 graduating senior $100.  How about
that?

I am so impressed!  Aren't you? Shannon tells me that he plans on
doing this for all the graduating seniors as long as he coaches. She
says that he would have liked for it to have been more, but that the
fund will grow a little each year depending on how many seniors
are on the team each year.

This is such a great idea that I hate to think that it will end when and
if he retires.  I wonder if it is possible to set something up to make
sure it does.  Maybe...

Stan Blankenship Girls Basketball Scholarship Fund

Why wait 'till he retires or dies to give him the laurels he has earned
over the years?  Is death a necessity before we can honor a man who
gives his best to the youth of our county?  Don't you think this would
mean a lot to the kids who participate in this league?