Regardless of what you’re talking about, 50 years is a long time to do anything.

Tom Bechtel will definitely attest.

The long-time and highly successful Wheeling Recreation Department Director, who retired a handful of years ago, remembers it vividly.

“I was 22 years old and Sam Andy was coaching at Wheeling High School,” Bechtel said. “He asked me about the possibilities of starting a summer (basketball) league.”

Basically, the rest is history.

The Wheeling Recreation Basketball Summer Leagues started in the summer of 1974 and has developed into an Ohio Valley sports staple.

“It seems like everyone I talk to played in or was involved somehow with the summer league,” Bechtel said. “I have such great memories of the league.”

As the rules in both West Virginia and Ohio were different in terms of rules dealing with coaching contact with prep athletes during the offseason, Bechtel adapted the original set of rules to make sure schools on both sides of the river could benefit.

“One of the states was only allowed to have two kids from a team on a team back then,” Bechtel said. “So, the first year we had the league, we had a draft.”

Teams from Bellaire, Martins Ferry, Warwood, Wheeling and Wheeling Central entered. Thus, each school picked a roster with a maximum of two players per team, so everyone was within the rules and not risking their prep eligibility.

The venue for those games? Outdoors at courts at an area known as Pleasanton, which is basically located behind the current Wheeling University campus.

“There were plenty of times we could hardly shoot a foul shot because the wind was blowing so badly,” Bechtel said.

Bechtel, who was an assistant basketball coach at Wheeling College at the time, basically “begged” Paul Baker to allow him to use the indoor courts inside what is now the old gym at the McDonough Center.

It took a couple of years, but finally the powers to be at Wheeling College relented and allowed the summer league to move inside. However, just at that time, the league’s popularity grew to the point where the outdoor courts were still needed because of the sheer volume of squads.

“Along with the indoor courts, we had two outdoor courts in the parking lot outside the gym and we actually made portable hoops,” Bechtel said. “So, we played two games in the gym, two games in the front parking lot and one at Pleasanton.”

At this point, the league was fully alive and well. And it got to the point where it was almost too much for even Bechtel to handle.

At its peak, the league grew to 100 teams between boys, girls and all of the different levels of play stretching from varsity down to middle school.

“Every school in the valley was playing with multiple teams,” Bechtel said. “In its prime, we used to play 24 games a night between the four courts. It was just a huge amount of teams.”

It wasn’t necessarily the volume of games that Bechtel regrets in hindsight, it was the number of days at which he held the league. During its first couple of summers, there was league action six days a week.

Wheeling University eventually opened the new gymnasium and Bechtel was given permission to use the facility and the league shortened to three nights a week with games stretching between 5 and 11 p.m.

That change led to some serious intense labor to prepare for the games.

“We had to bring hoops from the Wheeling Civic Center,” Bechtel laughed. “We would go down to the Civic Center, load their hoops onto a truck and then drive them to Wheeling Jesuit and set them up in there to make sure we had enough courts. I think we got the Wheeling College basketball team to lift the hoops off of the trailer for us.”

It wasn’t all too long ago that a handful of other summer leagues popped up in the area. St. Clairsville’s Recreation Department started a league, which took away some teams. However, Bechtel wasn’t disappointed.

“We kept growing and growing and were honestly getting too big, so when other leagues popped up, I wasn’t disappointed,” Bechtel relayed. “We were playing games all over Wheeling and it got to the point where it was driving me ragged going all over the place trying to keep an eye on things.”

Bechtel started working on the league shortly after the high school season ended.

“You kind of had a good idea, from year to year, which schools were going to enter, but the biggest thing was the number of teams we had to plan for. For instance, one year, Wheeling Park had seven teams in it.”

Not to be one to rest or let too much grass grow under his feet, Bechtel decided that the summer league wasn’t necessarily enough. So, he was the mastermind of the Wheeling Recreation Shootout, which is still held annually on the second weekend in June.

“In 1991, we started the shootout simply as an off-shoot to the summer league,” Bechtel said. “We used to bring in some really good teams, but things have changed in terms of how many of these shootout-type events there are, so a lot of teams don’t need to travel as much or as far.”

While Bechtel and the late Sam Andy were the original people to get the leagues started, Bechtel pointed out that it was by no means a one-man show.

For instance, Bechtel pointed out that the late Bob Battista oversaw a gymnasium in the summer league for 35 consecutive years. Gene Ammirante — the legendary and hall of fame coach at Bellaire — was highly active and visible in the league and actually served as its director for many years after he retired from education and joined the Wheeling Recreation Department staff.

Currently, Bellaire head coach J.R. Battista serves as the director and he doesn’t have to put all sorts of miles on his car driving from gym to gym. For the last couple of summers, the entire league — boys and girls — is played at the Highlands Sports Complex.

“The people were the ones who made the league a success,” Bechtel said. “We had so many people from the folks who ran a gym to the scorekeepers and timers that there are just too many to even try to name. It was remarkable the number of people we had help us out over the years. It got to the point where the league was something that everyone looked forward to.”

Along with the teams and workers, Bechtel also applauded the officials who “were a big part of the success” and the local media “which always gave good publicity.”

And obviously, Bechtel pointed out the cooperation he received from the Ohio County Schools and the Parochial Schools for opening their facilities.

“We had total support from the schools,” Bechtel said.

SETH’S SCOOPS

LOGAN BINEGAR was formally approved as the new Athletics Director at Monroe Central High School. He takes over for John Ischy, who stepped down at the end of the school year.

UNION LOCAL grad Alli DeLaney was hired last week as the head girls basketball coach at Claymont High School. She had spent the last couple of seasons working on the Jets’ staff and prior to that she coached at Wheeling University.

DENNY SOUK, of Flushing, recorded a hole-in-one on April 15 at BecWood Hills Golf Course. He aced the 125-yard, 16th hole with a pitching wedge. His shot was witnessed by Mike Bushion, Doug Lucas and John Knosh.

THE ANNUAL Sons of Italy Golf Scramble was held at Belmont Hills Country Club. The team of Andrew Johnston, Stan Krol, Mel Hand and Joey Bodnar won the title at 12-under.

HAPPY FATHER’S Day to all of the dads out there! Enjoy the weekend! To all of the sons out there, treasure the time with your dads!

Staskey can be reached via email at sstaskey@timesleaderonline.com