Brafford signs with Oklahoma

George Washington's Matthew Brafford, West Virginia's top high school boys distance runner, signed to run both men's cross country and track with the University of Oklahoma at GW on Wednesday morning.

Brafford joins three other former West Virginia runners now with the Sooners in Jefferson's Eric Graf and Brandon Doughty, and Cabell Midland graduate Jacob Burcham.

My full article on Brafford's signing will run in Thursday's The Charleston Daily Mail and should be posted on the paper's website soon. In the meantime, below I've posted some additional quotes from my interviews with Brafford, Brafford's high school cross country coach Nick Bias and Brafford's OU teammate Burcham.

Matt Brafford

-on feeling welcomed by the Oklahoma coaching staff 

“Just talking to the coaches, they were all very supportive of the idea of me going there. They acted like they wanted me there. They said they would work personally with me and get to know me, make sure I succeed both athletically and academically.”

-on joining such a prestigious running program

“It means a lot to me, just because being around here there’s not a whole lot or runners of that caliber and to go to a school that has a whole team full of them that are all dedicated to running and care about the sport.”

-on the West Virginia pipeline of runners to Oklahoma

“It just shows that their program is fit for the type of runners West Virginia runners are and they can adapt to whatever terrain it is out there.”

-on becoming teammates with Burcham, his former running rival in West Virginia

“It’s going to be a change because we’ve always been competing. For three years, we were competing against each other and we’re finally going to be on the same team and running for the same school. It’s going to be a change, but I think it’s going to be really nice because when we were on our visit we got along great and we just acted like we were part of the team.”

-more on his decision to pick Oklahoma over schools like Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Tulsa and Colorado School of Mines

“Just talking to the coaches there and just seeing how happy Eric and Jacob and Brandon were there and just being introduced to the whole team. That was one of the things that really stood out to me. They had an indoor track meet while I was there and after the meet they had a team meeting in the weight room. The coach introduced me to the whole team. I was standing outside the door as they were leaving and almost all of them introduced themselves to me and said they look forward to having me there. That’s one of the things that stood out to me, because everyone was just so welcoming and nice to me.”

Nick Bias

-on significance of Brafford's signing

“Being his coach this year, obviously I’m grinning ear to ear. He’s a great kid, wonderful kid. He definitely deserves it. He works extremely hard. I’ve said before in the past, he’s the epitome of student-athlete. That’s Matthew Brafford. I think he’s done an excellent job of running, but I also think he’s going to do a great job in academics as well.”

-on prestige of Oklahoma's running program

“Oklahoma, they’re a top 25 program as far as cross country goes.”

Jacob Burcham

-on significance of having so many West Virginia runners at a top-tier program like Oklahoma

“Hopefully, it will get West Virginia more on the map, on the running scene at least as far as for high school track and field and cross country. We establish the state as a running state and it will attract more talent. It will be good for the sport.”

Reds Caravan

On Friday, I was lucky enough to interview new Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price and starting pitcher Homer Bailey as they visited the Charleston Town Center during the team's annual Winter Caravan. For me, a Cincinnati native and lifelong Reds fan, it was a great experience to interview Price and Bailey. I still have my ticket stubs from attending Bailey's MLB debut against the Cleveland Indians.


Below are some extra quotes from my interviews with Price and Bailey, quotes that did not make my article for The Charleston Daily Mail. For my article in Monday's paper, click here.


Bryan Price


-On the fans' perspective trying to learn the strengths and philosophy of a new manager


“I think one thing you have to do is you have to understand their personality. I can say well I want to win more and I want to be more aggressive on the bases, but the bottom line is without Billy Hamilton, we’re not necessarily a speed team. I do think we can enhance our base running and our base stealing, but we want to be aggressive. We want to have, we want to grind out at-bats and have better at-bats.”

-on lessons from a conversation with San Diego Padres manager Bud Black

“The biggest one was that Bud was coming from as an American League pitching coach to a National League manager and that, to me, was what was really appealing to talk about. I’ve known Bud for a long time, he’s a great person, and I think his feeling was that it’s very, very important to make sure that the players understand you know what you’re doing and that you’re doing things for the right reasons, and that you get involved in different areas that you might not customarily be involved in doing, that you sit in the batting cage every now and again and watch the guys hit. Even though I might not have an opinion – I’m not a hitting guy, an infielder or a base running guy, they still understand what our coaches are doing, what our players are doing and definitely to make sure to interact with all the players each day.”

-on the importance of having a healthy Ryan Ludwick in the lineup

“With the way that Choo and Joey got on base last year, just imagine if you had not only Brandon and Jay, but we also had Ludwick back there to drive these guys in. It could have been a difference maker.”




Homer Bailey

 -on having a former pitching coach as his manager

 “Just because you’re a pitching coach or a hitting coach does not mean your expertise is going to be less as a manager. We’re around the game of baseball day-in and day-out, especially those guys. Bryan’s role was not just solely pitchers. You’re around position players. You see the games and how they’re being played, and that’s why he has people under him and around him, as in your hitting coaches, your base running coaches, your outfield coaches. We have a multitude of coaches that he has access to and also knowing the way that he sees the game, I think, is going to be a little bit of a change, but I think overall it’s going to be a good thing.”


-on the strength of the NL Central Division

“I think that the National League Central has always been the most – it’s definitely a strong division, just judging by the number of teams that are constantly in the playoffs. I’ve actually thought it was always one of the stronger divisions just based on the hitters you had in it. At one time you had Albert Pujols, Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Joey Votto, Andrew McCutcheon. There’s a lot of MVPs right there, so they’re very, very underrated and I think it’s more just because they don’t get the media coverage but just as far as hitters wise I’ve thought they’ve always been one of the toughest divisions to pitch to.”

-on playing in Cincinnati

 “It’s a lot of fun. It’s frustrating as times as a pitcher, but with our team we have a lot of fun inside our clubhouse. We have a great group of guys and we have a good time.”

-on recording two no-hitters

“It was a lot of fun during the games. It’s an accomplishment not too many people get so it’s something I can always reflect on and remember good times.”

-on his expectations for this season and keys to his success during the past two years

“To be honest, I just see myself getting stronger. Over the last two years, my velocity has gone up, I’m walking less people. I actually see myself getting better this year than I was last year. I see myself getting stronger than I was last year. I feel better, I’m healthier, a little bit stronger, I’ve got a little more experience, so no, actually I don’t see it as how are you going to hold up? It’s how high can I go?

-on the team's readiness to put recent playoff woes in the past

“I think every year since 2010, we’ve had an on year, off year, on year, off year. There’s something to be said for that pattern, a direct reflection of actual things that are going on. I don’t think that we need to be any more motivated. I think we should have been more motivated last year. I think what we need to look at is, instead of the playoff losses, is the stuff during the season that you create habits by. Whether it’s talking about the playoffs against the Giants when you’re up 2-0 and you lose three straight. There was a time when we should have put them away and taken care of business, but instead it was almost like an atmosphere of ‘Well, we’re not going to lose three in a row.’ Well, we did. Last year, we didn’t develop good habits throughout the season as a whole. Meaning, we didn’t do the little things: the base running, the errors, the different things that our pitchers did. We have to do a better job of doing the small things.”


-on his role and any changes with the departure of Bronson Arroyo

 “As long as I’m just getting the ball every fifth day, that’s (it). I don’t know about leadership stuff. Bronson’s definitely a leader in his own right, in his own way even. It’s definitely going to be a guy that’s hard to replace.”

-on strength of the team

“I think that overall that we need to do a better job of playing the game, not making as many mistakes. The strength of our team has been pitching and we need to continue that path that we’ve been on and also keep the trend that we’ve been doing.”

-on contract talks

“I think there’s a chance. Obviously, there’s been talks as the media’s reported. Where that’ll guy, I’m not a sports agent. I don’t know. That’s not my job. I leave that up to them as well as…"