They were in Barnesville and couldn’t even park close to the stadium.
Once their vehicle was positioned (most likely illegally), they took a trot through a wooded area (again, most likely illegally). They then, oops, stumbled upon someone’s yard. They walked through that, too, most likely, yes, illegally.
And, oh yes, a dog did bark. A lot. That dog, in fact, wouldn’t quiet down no matter how much shushing the pair performed.
“Jeff (Stephens) thought the dog was going to get him, too,” Tom Salkovick said with a chuckle. “But hey, it’s the stories like that we want to tell.”
Salkovick and Stephens were in Barnesville to cover a Shamrocks’ football game soon after purchasing OVAthletics.com, a website complete with coverage of all sports on all levels and message boards. They purchased the internet site in late August from Brian Gossett, a gentleman who founded the URL back in 2008.
Gossett moved away from the Upper Ohio Valley to South Carolina eight years ago, so he decided the time to sell – to the right people, mind you – had finally arrived and he determined Salkovick and Stephens were suited well to become the new owners.
“Brian interviewed us before he would sell it to us,” Salkovick revealed. “He wanted to make sure the new owners were going to do the site the way it was intended to be operated.”
Salkovick has been a physical education and health teacher in Marshall County since 2009, and he has coached multiple sports with both genders and at multiple levels. Stephens, the current athletic director for Sherrard Middle School where has been an educator for the past nine years, has coached football and basketball there for 13 years and eight years respectively.
“Both of us have been in coaching and most of the time it’s a thankless job, but you do get to help kids and that makes it worth it,” Stephens said. “When Tom approached me about possibly buying OV Athletics, we talked about the passion we both have for coaching about 50 to 60 kids per year. When Tom presented this to me, he made me realize that we could help thousands of kids here in our valley.
“Plus, it’s the Ohio Valley community and I don’t know if someone else will understand what that means if they aren’t from here because, to us, it’s about our community and the help we’ve received since taking over has told us that OV Athletics is very important to people in our community,” he said. “It gave us that sense that we’re all together on this because it is the valley and it’s something special for us to be able to give back to our community.”
Caring about the Kids
They publish new articles every few days depending on the action taking place throughout the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference, a league with five divisions and 51 member schools and 21 recognized sports with more than 650 coaches and as many as 25,000 student-athletes.
But Salkovick and Stephens don’t stop there. They cover club sports, too, like high school hockey at Wesbanco Arena where Wheeling rivals are permitted to be rivals, and they keep an eye on the college and professional levels, too.
“But our articles are different than what most people see when they are reading the newspaper or on other websites,” Salkovick said. “Usually what they are writing is very analytical and they usually run down that this person did this and that people did that, but what we try to do is to tell a story instead. We do that and our readers seem to enjoy them.
“My writing skills are improving because I work on my writing every day,” he explained. “Jeff helps me with a lot of details that are out there so we do work collaboratively on most of our articles. It’s a good partnership because we have our strong suits.”
Stephens and Zach Klemm host the weekly streamcast too, obviously, to talk sports. The duo offers previews, recaps, and they offer their perspectives that are based on growing up and living here where more attention is paid to prep sports than is given to Santa Claus coming to town.
“When we started figuring out our duties, Tom told me that I would take care of the streamcast that we do and that he would do most of the writing because he’s been working on that and his writing is fabulous,” Stephens explained. “I like being out there and I really like talking to people who are attending the games, too. Being noticed doesn’t bother me and I’m really having a lot of fun on the weekly show. I believe we put a lot of great information out there.
“No matter what we’re doing, our mindset stays on the student-athletes because they are the reasons why we’re doing what we’re doing,” he said. “Those kids are working hard out there no matter what sport they are playing so we want to make sure we’re working just as hard.”
New Look, New Future
OVA attracts visitors. Thousands per week, in fact.
“It’s really humbling,” Salkovick admitted. “It just tells us how much people care of about the kids.”
So, there’s pressure?
“We don’t see it that way,” the co-owner insisted. “Our analytics just excites us, and they let us know that what we put out there is going to get attention. That support makes it all worth it.”
The partners have redesigned the site and have added the streamcast, but Salkovick teased that much more is in the OVA pipeline.
“But, of course, nothing happens as quickly as you want them to,” he said. “But things are coming along nicely and some new features will be revealed in the future. We are eager to do more to make it bigger than it is now, but we have to accept that it’s going to take a little more time.
“We are a Super 6 sponsor this year, and that is something that Jeff and I are very, very proud of because it was one of many things we wanted to do as the owners,” Salkovick explained. “We want to give back and we’re getting to the point where we’ll be able to do that in the future. There are a lot of things in the works and those things, even though I can’t explain them right now, will all help the kids here in the Ohio Valley.”
How OVA evolves from there is up to those who visit and communicate their thoughts and ideas.
“Without a doubt, we want to hear from people here in the Upper Ohio Valley, and from people from here that have moved away. Maybe they have seen something where they live now that we could add to our site,” Salkovick said. “Who knows? We just want to hear from them because we can’t think of everything no matter how hard we try.”
“If you see one of us at a game, say hi and let us know what you think,” Stephens said. “We just want to make it better and better and that’s how we can make it happen.”
