By Mark Carpenter-
In ceremonies held on Dec. 15, West Union High School inducted five new members to their Athletic Hall of Fame- Harold Blanton, David Harris, Jill Potts Kennedy, Tim Potts, and Tom Potts. The ceremonies were held before the West Union-Western Latham boys varsity basketball game and emceed by WUHS Athletic Director Jason Little.
Harold “Smokey” Blanton was a 1952 graduate of West Union High School, where he played baseball and basketball. On the hardwood, he scored over 830 points in his career on a Dragons team that captured the county league and tournaments in 1951 and 1952. Blanton averaged 19.4 points a game in his senior season, leading the West Union hoopsters to a 22-3 record.
After high school, Blanton joined the Air Force and served for 32 years both home and abroad, competing on the force’s baseball and basketball squads.
David Harris graduated from West Union High School in 1950, where he was a basketball standout, scoring over 1,000 points in his career as a Dragons and helping WUHS to the County Championship in 1948. Harris attended Morehead State University where he was a member of the baseball and basketball teams. After graduating from college, he enlisted in the Marines and rose to the rank of Captain, then returned to West Union in 1957 to coach baseball and basketball. His baseball teams won the county tournament twice and his basketball squad had a combined two-year record of 33-13 along with a league title in 1958.
A better offer came along and Harris left WUHS to teach and coach at Warren G. Harding High School, where he stayed until retirement. In 1966, his basketball team went to the State Final Four and he was inducted into the OHSAA Basketball Hall of Fame in 1973.
Jill Potts Kennedy graduated from WUHS in 1993, a multi-sport star in volleyball, softball, and basketball. She was selected All-League in softball in 1991 and volleyball the next year, but will best be recalled for her exploits on the basketball court, where she was named All-League three times, hauled down over 700 rebounds, and finished her time at WUHS with 1.034 varsity points, making her the all-time leading scorer for the Lady Dragons.
After high school, Jill went on to star at Midway College where she scored 1,039 points and was a Small College All-American and is still in the schools’ Top 10 in numerous categories and has had her number retired. She now teaches at Manchester, where her children, Brooke and Drew, are also multi-sport athletes.
A 1966 graduate of West Union, Tim Potts was a three-year starter on the basketball team and scored 400 points his senior campaign to lead the Dragons to their final Adams County League title.
After graduation, Tim attended Morehead State and later returned to West Union as a teacher and coach. In 1972, he was named the boys varsity coach, a job he held for three seasons before his untimely passing in 1975. A memorial scholarship in his honor is given each year to a deserving WUHS senior student-athlete.
The final inductee of the night was 1965 WUHS graduate Tom Potts. Tom was also a multi-sport athlete, starring in baseball, basketball, and track, scoring over 1,000 points in his high school hoops career. He was selected to the All-County Basketball Team twice and once to the All-County Baseball Team.
After leaving WUHS, Tom attended Morehead State, receiving a Bachelor of Science on Education, then a Master’s degree in Educational Administration from Xavier University. He served 30 years in the education field as a teacher, coach, and administrator and enjoyed spending time with his children and grandchildren until he passed away in 2011.