LEWISBURG- “The likelihood of us running the table with the schedule we had, was zero.”
Those were the first words spoken by Greenbrier East Lady Spartans basketball coach and U.S. Senator Jim Justice in an interview session over the weekend.
But now that the exact obstacle is cleared, Justice could not be prouder of his 2026 Lady Spartan state champs.
Greenbrier East ran the table with a perfect 27-0 record, defeated 23 of those opponents by double figures, won the state title, and crowned senior Kennedy Stewart the Class AAA MVP in the process.
When Justice thinks back on how it all transpired, he remembered pulling tricks out early in the season to keep the team’s momentum going in the right direction.
“In the first 11 games that we played, we pulled every rabbit out of the hat that you can imagine,” Justice laughed.
“In eight of those games, we could have ended up in a real dog fight that didn’t end well at all. So, it’s a tribute to just how hard those kids worked and the fact we run a lot of stuff, and by running a lot of stuff and with them knowing how to do it, you know, it just gives me a war chest. But those kids accomplished something that was unbelievable, just unbelievable,” he added.
The coach admitted that on championship Saturday, when he saw his girls, that he didn’t think they were ready to go out and play in the state title game.
“I really felt like we weren’t ready, even though we had prepared as best as we possibly could, I honestly felt like we were almost to the demeanor of we have done really, really, really good and it reminded me of Babydog. She’s done really good and then I take her to Chick-Fil-A and she ate a few chicken nuggets and then she’s laying over there half asleep,” Justice joked.
He continued that championship day story.
“That’s how I felt and I really got after them big time. We watched film and I challenged them in a great big way. There was a kid (for East Fairmont) who made a bunch of 3s the first time we played them, and I told Ava (Workman) if she’s going to play three feet off of her and let her shoot then I’ll put Mackenna (McClure) on her. Then, Ava shut her down,” he continued.
Another player Justice challenged was Hannah Fuller, who was named the MVP of the championship game when she finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds, so the coach’s words to her obviously worked.
“I really challenged Hannah. I thought with her size she could be the difference in the game. Now, sometimes Hannah responds and sometimes Hannah doesn’t respond,” Justice joked.
“But what an unbelievable performance by Hannah.”
Something special for the Spartans about their championship is the local flavor the team featured. Many of the girls had family in the past play for the Spartans in their days and Justice said this title kind of justifies the family members past careers and the current champs as well.
“A lot of those parents live in their kids,” Justice said.
“A lot of those family members were good athletes and maybe they didn’t quite accomplish what they wanted to, so they live through the kids and that is great stuff to me, great, great stuff,” he added.
With Justice being a busy man balancing basketball and politics, he is thankful for his assistant coaches and support staff and gave them more credit than he gave himself. Holly Jo Gillespie, Jill Long (daughter), Rondale Watson, and Donald Parker were a huge part of the team’s success.
“They’re great,” Justice said.
Holly and Jill and Rondale all played for me, and Donald’s two kids, Brittany and Ashley played for me, so they know what I want and they believe in me and I’ll go to my grave saying this, the key to our success in a lot of ways was everybody bought in. Everybody got behind one another and every time we had somebody sick, somebody hurt, we lost Sandy Banton and that was a giant blow, but you know whatever it was, we all the time had each other’s backs. So, having all those four people, they are just stellar people and they’re just invaluable,” he explained.
When asked what Lady Spartan basketball will look like over the next 3-4 years, especially after losing seven seniors off this team, Justice did not hesitate an answer.
“I don’t see us backing up. Now, it’s going to be pretty doggone difficult to accomplish what we did right here, but I’ve coached I think 32 seasons at Greenbrier East and that includes six boys’ seasons and 26 girls’ seasons. In those 32 seasons, I know we just recently passed winning 600 games. So, that’s my mindset. I don’t know if we can pull that off, but that’s my mindset,” Justice concluded.
There will be a celebration of the girls and their accomplishments this Thursday night, March 26 at the Spartan Gym at 7:00 PM. Everyone is invited to attend.
