To the Editor:
 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank a very special man in our community.  This man has given of his time and money to help uplift the young men of our community.  Many parents don¹t either have the time or the desire to spend with their own children let alone someone else's. 
The man I am referring to is none other than Harley ‘Bucky’ Staggers. Bucky, as most commonly referred has been the 7th grade basketball coach for Keyser¹s youth for many years now.  When his own children grew beyond the 7th grade, Bucky continued to coach everyone else's children.  Now if you have ever coached or been affiliated at all with children, you know it's no small task. You are dealing with many different personalities not just with the children, but also with their parents.  I want to personally thank Bucky for giving of himself to so many of our youth and especially my son McKean Taylor. 
I watched Bucky before a game one night in the dressing room of Westmar middle school as he was preparing his team to play for the Scaletta championship.  As the boys were doing what boys in the 7th grade do before a game, Bucky asked everyone to have a seat.  Bucky was well dressed this evening because his own son had been nominated for the Ed Kelly award at Keyser High School and he needed to leave quickly after the game to go to the banquet. 
Now Bucky could have talked about his son during this meeting with the team but he chose to not mention him or how proud he was. 
Bucky had something more important to teach these young men and he used the story of Mr. Ed Kelly to do so.  As I stood there and listened to the Ed. Kelly story as told by this 7th grade basketball coach, I watched, as a calm sense of respect came over these young boys and a quiet hush filled the room in order to listen to their coach tell such a tear jerking story. 
As Bucky told the story, it was obvious to all present how grateful he was to Ed Kelly for the sacrifice he gave to this great country. This was an emotional story for this coach to tell to a bunch of 7th grade boys who normally don’t think its very cool for a grown man to cry, much less their coach, but this time it was ok. 
As Bucky's assistant coach this year, I along with all of these fine young boys, heard many stories come from the lips of this good man. All of Bucky's stories were uplifting and thought provoking.  They were meant to teach these youth valuable lessons that were not only relevant to the game of basketball, but to life itself. It of course, is up to each boy on the team to allow these stories to influence their lives.
Every coach has their own way of coaching the game of basketball and not everyone agrees with everyone else how to do that, but I was very impressed with coach Stagger’s views on how to talk with players and especially very young players.  I never once heard Bucky talk in a disrespectful way to any of the boys, I only heard words of encouragement directed to them and in today's world, that seems to be a real rarity.  I have been appalled at some of the opposing coaches demeanors towards their team.  They are so caught up with winning that they forget the most important thing of all, that being to make these young boys better and to help them become great men someday. Twenty years from now, no one will care how many 7th grade basketball games these boys won, but they will care about what kind of a person they have become.  Bucky taught through love and respect for these boys and for that I thank him.
It was truly a pleasure being apart of this team this year and I have to say along with the boys, I learned a lot from Coach Harley Staggers. 
Keyser and our youth need more men like Bucky.
 
Thank you,
Dan Taylor
(Assistant Coach Keyser 7th grade boys basketball)
Keyser