West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins has resigned a day after his arrest on suspicion of drunken driving, the latest incident in a Hall of Fame career that imploded quickly.

The university announced the resignation Saturday night. It came a month after the university suspended him for three games for using an anti-gay slur while also denigrating Catholics during a radio interview.

Huggins, 69, leaves as the third-winningest coach all-time in Division I with 935 career victories, behind only Mike Krzyzewski of Duke (1,202) and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse (998), both of whom are retired. Unlike the others, Huggins had no national titles, taking Cincinnati to the Final Four in 1992 and West Virginia in 2010.

Huggins had 16-year stints each with the Bearcats and Mountaineers. Both ended in the aftermath of arrests for drinking and driving.

Huggins was charged with driving under the influence Friday night after his SUV had stopped in the middle of traffic in Pittsburgh with a shredded tire and the driver’s-side door was open at about 8:30 p.m. According to a criminal complaint, a breath test determined Huggins’ blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit.

Huggins was charged with driving under the influence, released from custody and will appear later for a preliminary hearing, according to a police report.

In a statement to the West Virginia community Saturday night, Huggins said: “Today, I have submitted a letter to President Gordon Gee and Vice President and Director of Athletics Wren Baker informing them of my resignation and intention to retire as head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia University effective immediately.”

In a separate statement Saturday night, West Virginia’s athletic department said it accepted the resignation “in light of recent events.

“We support his decision so that he can focus on his health and family. On behalf of West Virginia University, we share our appreciation for his service to our University, our community and our state.”

No replacement was immediately named for Huggins. The athletic department statement said that “in the days ahead, we will focus on supporting the student-athletes in our men’s basketball program and solidifying leadership for our program.”

Huggins said his recent actions do not represent the university’s values or the leadership expected in his role as coach.

“While I have always tried to represent our University with honor, I have let all of you — and myself — down,” he said. “I am solely responsible for my conduct and sincerely apologize to the University community — particularly to the student-athletes, coaches and staff in our program. I must do better, and I plan to spend the next few months focused on my health and my family so that I can be the person they deserve.”

Huggins added that it was “the honor of my professional career” to lead the team at his alma mater. Born in Morgantown, he said it “will always be my home, and I will always be a Mountaineer. Thank you to everyone who has supported our program over the years. It has meant more to me and my family than you could ever know.”

Friday night, officers directed Huggins to move off the road so they could help with the tire, then activated their lights when they observed Huggins having trouble maneuvering the SUV to allow vehicles to pass. Upon questioning, officers suspected he was intoxicated and asked him to exit the vehicle. The report said he failed standard field sobriety tests, was taken into custody without incident and transported for further testing.

It was Huggins’ second such arrest. The other occurred in 2004, when he was the head coach at Cincinnati.

In June 2004, Huggins pleaded no contest to driving under the influence in a suburb of Cincinnati and was ordered to attend a three-day intervention program. The University of Cincinnati suspended him indefinitely with pay and told Huggins to rehabilitate himself.

Huggins was allowed to return to work two months later, saying that “I made a terrible mistake, and what bothers me most is I hurt other people. All I can do is work like crazy to be a better person, a better coach, be better at everything I do and make those people proud of me.”

By 2005, Huggins’ Cincinnati career was over; he was fired amid a power struggle with the school’s president, as well as the aftermath of the 2004 arrest.

After spending one season at Kansas State, Huggins took his dream job at West Virginia, his alma mater, in 2007.

Last month, Huggins agreed to a three-game suspension, a $1 million salary reduction and sensitivity training for using a slur during an interview with Cincinnati radio station WLW. Huggins was asked about the transfer portal and whether he had a chance of landing a player at West Virginia from Xavier, a Jesuit school.

“Catholics don’t do that,” Huggins said. “I tell you what, any school that can throw rubber penises on the floor and then say they didn’t do it, by God they can get away with anything.

“It was the Crosstown Shootout. What it was, was all those (expletive), those Catholic (expletive), I think.”

In a joint statement later that week, Gee and Baker said the university “made it explicitly clear to Coach Huggins that any incidents of similar derogatory and offensive language will result in immediate termination.”

Huggins’ salary of $4.15 million had been reduced by $1 million after the slur. That reduction was to be used to directly support WVU’s LGBTQ+ Center, as well as a mental health center at the university and other groups that support marginalized communities. At the time, he was suspended for the first three games of the 2023-24 season. In addition, his contract was amended from a multiyear agreement to a year-by-year agreement that began on May 10.

Huggins entered the Basketball Hall of Fame last September. In 41 seasons, his teams have gone to 25 NCAA Tournaments, finished ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll seven times and finished under .500 five times. The Mountaineers have 11 NCAA Tournament appearances under Huggins.

Huggins had assembled a solid group from the transfer portal for next season, including Syracuse center Jesse Edwards, Arizona guard Kerr Kriisa, Manhattan guards Jose Perez and Omar Silverio, and Montana State guard RaeQuan Battle.

“Man.. I knew the dude 3 months but felt like forever,” Kriisa said Saturday night on Twitter. “So thankful for really believing in me and taking me as part of your family forever. Love u coach.”

LOCAL BASEBALL

The Peninsula Pilots snapped a three-game losing streak Saturday night with a 5-4, 10-inning victory over Martinsville before a crowd of 3,431 at War Memorial Stadium in Hampton.

VMI’s Trey Morgan, who has played for the Pilots since his Hampton High days, drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home Ryan Dooley with the winning run.

Extra innings in the Coastal Plain League begin with runners on first and second. Craig Kenny scored on Carter Dorighi’s sacrifice fly to give the Mustangs (3-7) a 4-3 lead in the top of the 10th, but the Pilots (3-8) sent their fans home happy by answering in the bottom of the 10th.

Marc Cisco scored the tying run on a wild pitch, setting up Morgan to complete the victory.

The Mustangs went ahead 1-0 before Henry Garcia stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on an error for a 1-1 tie. Sacrifice flies in the fourth inning by Morgan and Zac Morris put Peninsula ahead 3-2, but Martinsville squared the game at 3 in the seventh.

Doc Daniels, who began the game playing second base but was the sixth Mustang to pitch, had three hits but took the loss, giving up both runs in the 10th.

Garcia batted 3 for 4 for the Pilots, who will play the Morehead City Marlins at 6 p.m. Sunday in North Carolina. Michael Caldon pitched the ninth and 10th for the victory.

LOCAL SOCCER

Lionsbridge, D.C. United U23s compete to draw

Lionsbridge FC and the D.C. United U23 team played to a 1-1 non-league draw before a large crowd at Christopher Newport’s TowneBank Stadium.

The Lions (5-1 in USL League Two) went ahead in the 18th minute when Shepherd converted a pass from Blondel. D.C. United leveled the score in the 31st minute, and that score held.

Lionsbridge next will play at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against league foe Northern Virginia FC in Leesburg, then will return home to face the Patuxent Football Athletics at 7 p.m. Saturday.

From 2021-2022, the U.S. economy added nearly 11 million jobs, but workforce participation still remains below pre-pandemic levels, in part because unemployed Americans lack access to the job training needed to fill vacant jobs. Recent legislation passed in Congress, including the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, is expected to create millions of new jobs, but industries are reporting that there won’t be enough skilled workers to fill these openings, underscoring the need for Congress to make investments to train more workers.

The JOBS Act would allow Pell Grants to be used for high-quality job training programs that are at least eight weeks in length and lead to industry-recognized credentials or certificates. By expanding Pell Grant eligibility, the JOBS Act would help close the skills gap and provide workers with the job training and credentials they need for careers in high-demand fields.

Since taxpayer dollars already fund our public-school programs, why can programs like the one outlined by the government not be delivered while students are in high school at no additional cost to taxpayers and parents? An informed decision would be to review our current public-school programs to include industry-recognized credentialing or certifications delivered before graduation, as is being done in Switzerland and Germany.

Many states have started to consider and implement a defined set of skills by deploying a competency-based learning (CBL) approach to increase qualified graduation rates and ensure  students demonstrate mastery before graduation. Key findings emerged from studying the deployment of competency-based learning are:

1. Students must demonstrate mastery of all required competencies to earn credit or graduate.

2. Students advance once they have demonstrated mastery, and students receive more time, and possibly personalized instruction, to demonstrate mastery if needed.

3. Students are assessed using multiple measures to determine mastery, usually requiring that students apply their knowledge, not just repeat facts.

4. Students can earn credit toward graduation in other ways, including apprenticeships, blended learning, dual enrollment, career and technical education programs, and other learning opportunities outside the traditional classroom setting.

Schools should commit to redesigning schedules, assessments and student support practices to ensure systems are designed to provide equity in everyone’s education, while celebrating each individual student’s achievement by offering the support each needs to meet high expectations. Pursuing CBL reflects a deep belief that the education system needs to change to become a more inclusive and learner-centered approach.

To help deploy and validate the success of CBL initiative. ETS and the Carnegie Foundation are envisioning a process to prepare and measure students’ skills. The potential changes in measuring education experience come as the conversation about shifting to a “skills-based” approach to jobs and hiring has exploded over the past few years.

Companies have long evaluated new employees by post-secondary credentialing, college degrees and their years of experience in a field. In school, learning has been measured by “credit hour” — the time spent in a classroom — since 1906. As the economy evolves, technology advances and the workforce changes, individuals will need to have the relevant skills, intellectual curiosity and willingness to learn and adapt to all the new-collar jobs.

Reshoring Initiative President Harry Moser explained that a national mind shift is needed for achieving success by promoting skills-based education and demonstrated proficiency as a pathway to high-paying new-collar careers of the future. Now companies such as Google, IBM, Accenture and others want to drop degree requirements and put more emphasis on skills when hiring.

As education breaks free from classroom boundaries and seat time, public school districts have an opportunity to collaborate through public-private partnerships and learn together how to effectively graduate skilled and career-ready citizens. The goal of competency-based learning is to ensure that students are acquiring the knowledge and skills that are deemed to be essential to success in school, higher education, careers and adult life. Graduating students with demonstrated competency-based skills is a proven career pathway to achieving the American dream.

Glenn Marshall of Williamsburg serves on the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Management Team, leading a renaissance for manufacturing. He is a member of the Reshoring Initiative and Industry Reimagined 2030 team. Email him at [email protected] and visit ame.org.

Summer vacation has long been seen as carefree months of swimming, hiking and catching fireflies. But as school lets out in a haze of smoky skies, moms and dads across the commonwealth are coming to see summer as a time to be managed, rather than a time to be enjoyed.

Whether it’s smoke, heatwaves or other challenges, families increasingly experience the health impacts of climate change. Virginia does have a solution that protects us from the challenges of a warming world. But last week, an unelected board used back-door maneuvers to cancel this successful, market-based solution. Now, our choice of legislators will make a difference in whether our families’ health is protected.

I can relate to the growing risk of health challenges associated with climate change, as I have been diagnosed with Lyme disease. Lyme disease can cause joint pain, fever and heart trouble. It’s carried by ticks, and it’s becoming more common as warmer winters give the ticks that carry Lyme disease a better chance of surviving from year to year.

But it’s not only Lyme disease that’s increasing with higher temperatures. Allergy seasons are longer and stronger. Heat waves are getting more intense and more frequent. Most surprisingly, warmer air carries more particles and chemicals, so warmer temperatures exacerbate asthma and other respiratory ailments.

Our kids’ doctors are grappling with these problems. Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action, a group of doctors and nurses in the commonwealth, acknowledges that “Virginians today are experiencing direct and concrete effects from a changing climate.”

Of course, there are lots of health worries for parents to think about: falling off bikes, sharing germs, or even vaping and drinking. But the health risks that many of us grew up with are ones we can choose to avoid.

Climate change is different. We can’t choose to take climate change out of the equation. It’s already here, and it is affecting us across the board.

It’s crucial that our elected officials take action. One clear solution is the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an East Coast program that requires big energy utilities to adhere to limits on greenhouse gas emissions or pay a fee.

RGGI gives utilities a good incentive to decrease emissions and increase efficiency. In turn, that reduces air pollution and helps create the safer, more stable climate that families want.

Across its 12 member states, RGGI has successfully improved air quality and kept kids with respiratory conditions out of the doctor’s office, while also funding critical investments in energy efficiency and flood prevention. Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action has concluded that “Virginia’s participation in RGGI is critical to funding efforts that protect public health in the state.”

RGGI is popular; 66 percent of Virginians want to remain in it. Crucially, that support comes from both the right and the left. Of more than 6,600 comments about RGGI that the commonwealth has collected, nearly 90% support the program.

Despite the popularity of RGGI, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been intent on pulling the commonwealth out. But RGGI is law, approved and later upheld by the Virginia legislature.

So Youngkin used an unelected board to issue a legally dubious ruling on the initiative. Last week, that board decided to take Virginia out of RGGI. Stunningly, on the very day the board voted, kids across the commonwealth were exposed to smoke from wildfires that were made more likely by climate change.

This legally doubtful decision will almost certainly go to the courts. In the end, legislators are likely to have the final say on RGGI.

As we look ahead to the end of summer vacation and the start of election season, it’s important to think about who we want in the legislature. We want moral, families-focused legislators who don’t insist on increasing dangerous air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

We want our kids to have the best possible chance of good health. We need elected officials who won’t load the dice against us.

Reba Elliott of Crozet is senior director at Laudato Si’ Movement and a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project, in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

If you were to collect your grocery receipts from the past two years, they would tell a simple yet distressing story about the current state of our economy: Prices are skyrocketing and making it harder for families to make ends meet. According to a CNBC report, the price of consumer goods is up 13% since 2021, while food and grocery prices are up nearly 20%.

As inflationary pressures erode the purchasing power of Virginians, individuals are forced to make difficult decisions to preserve their financial well-being. This includes pausing long-term investments, decreasing discretionary spending, and — in many cases — foregoing critical needs. To make matters worse, rampant inflation has been met with climbing interest rates from the federal government, making it nearly impossible for many families to purchase a house or a car.

Meanwhile, small businesses are also negatively impacted. Higher costs of materials and transportation diminish profits, impede growth and create uncertainty for the future. Additionally, when families must make the difficult decision to spend less on goods and services, businesses see less revenue. Reduced revenue while struggling with inflated expenses is a heavy burden on our small businesses, creating a dismal economic climate for Virginia.

While the Virginia General Assembly cannot directly control the rate of inflation, we have the means to help Virginians lower costs.

Earlier this year, every House Republican voted to do just that by passing legislation (House Bill 2138 & House Bill 2319, McNamara) that would provide more than $1 billion in tax relief over the next two years. Currently, 86% of taxpaying Virginians are in the top tax rate and would see their rate reduced. The plan would also raise the standard deduction to reduce taxable income, and an additional 14,000 Virginians would pay no state income taxes at all. Further, this would have lowered the corporate tax rate to keep Virginia businesses competitive with neighboring states and help them build capital to make critical hires.

I have also voted to eliminate the grocery tax and support efforts to lower electric bills. But as a legislature, we must do everything we can to lower costs for Virginia families. We must lower the burden of state income taxation.

A critical budget negotiation is underway in the General Assembly that will determine the long-term fate of the proposed corporate and income tax cuts. Unfortunately, these tax cuts have been hindered thanks to partisan bickering.

It’s time we put Virginia families first.

I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reconsider their position. In addition to the immediate financial benefits for families, tax relief can also inject much-needed liquidity back into the economy. Putting more money back in the hands of taxpayers can ease the burden of inflation, so consumers are empowered to spend more and support local businesses. This would not only bolster economic resilience, but also promote job creation and employment opportunities for years to come.

The end result will be a mutually beneficial system that enables families and businesses to flourish in Virginia.

Ultimately, tax relief can initiate the domino effect needed to combat inflation and generate economic development. I am proud to have worked with Gov. Glenn Youngkin to pass meaningful relief to lower electric bills and cut the grocery tax, and I am ready to get to work on cutting income taxes on Virginians.

Del. Karen Greenhalgh represents the 85th House District, which includes part of Virginia Beach. She serves on the House Finance Committee and the Small Business Commission. 

SUFFOLK — A small airplane crashed in a rural area of Suffolk Saturday afternoon.

The crash occurred at approximately 2:51 p.m. at 591 North Liberty Spring Road, according to Virginia State Police. The pilot, a man who has not been identified, suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The crash is being investigated.

No further information was provided.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]

VIRGINIA BEACH — Martians landed on the Boardwalk Saturday to the delight of passersby, who ooh’d and aah’d over the little green creatures and their spaceships sketched by artists using sidewalk chalk and a little elbow grease.

The extraterrestrial sightings extended along two blocks with nearly 150 participants kneeling over the concrete path. The theme was “Out of this World!,” and artists were encouraged to depict their favorite space creatures or scenes from movies and books.

Several designs featured recognizable characters including Buzz Lightyear, Stitch, the Jetsons and E.T.

Jonathan Bradley, 35, of Portsmouth, opted for a self-portrait on Father’s Day eve.

“My wife told me I am an out of this world dad,” he said.

Bradley, a painter, chalked his face in the foreground with a paint brush in his mouth. His son, Christopher, 9, drew planets in the background.

People walking by could cast votes for the top three in each category: Youth, amateur and professional. To qualify for professional, the participant had to have previously sold a piece of his or her artwork.

Criteria included composition, use of color, technique, originality and adherence to the theme. Winners received a trophy and a cash prize.

Chalk the Walk has been held for 16 years as part of Virginia Beach’s free entertainment offerings at the beach. This year’s theme fit with another space-related summer event:  “Galactic Greats,” a film series to be held in July on 29th Street.

For more information, visit beacheventsvb.com.

Stacy Parker, 757-222-5125, [email protected]

Three years after a national reckoning on racial inequality and injustice roiled communities and institutions throughout this nation, the Juneteenth holiday prompts us to reflect on the progress made, not only in the time since but in the more than 400 years since the first Africans arrived in present-day Hampton.

Juneteenth should be celebratory and, indeed, there will be plenty of events that will mark the occasion with appropriate joy and revelry. But it should also prompt us to continue the steady march of progress, so that all Americans can share the bounty of freedom and liberty which are this nation’s foundational aspirations.

Two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Declaration, freeing slaves in those states rebelling against the federal government, Union forces reached Galveston, Texas. The war was over — the Confederates had surrendered two months earlier — but it wasn’t until U.S. Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 that all enslaved persons in the state were informed that they were free.

The date of that order, June 19, became an annual celebration, known as Freedom Day, Emancipation Day or, colloquially, Juneteenth. It was observed primarily among Black communities in the former Confederacy but its recognition expanded in subsequent years.

Black history has always been central to Virginia’s story, though its framing often depended on who was telling it.

It was here in Hampton Roads, at Point Comfort, where the first enslaved Africans set foot in North America, more than 400 years ago. And it was at Fort Monroe, occupying that same land, where slaves risked their lives to seize their freedom under the protection of Union forces during the Civil War.

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it was first read in Virginia under a large oak tree, which still stands proudly today on the campus of Hampton University. One can only imagine the sight of a community of people knowing their lives and their future were finally their own.

That was true, for a time. Reconstruction empowered Black Americans, inviting them to participate as full members of American society. They asserted their political will, pursued their academic aspirations and enjoyed economic opportunity.

But the door they were invited to enter quickly slammed shut. Jim Crow laws erected barriers to vote, to own businesses and to attend schools of their choosing. Enforcement of this strict segregation came through the power of the state or the viciousness of the mob.

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s forced the nation to take a hard look in the mirror. Protesters rightly asked how a nation that set forth its belief that “All men are created equal” could abide by a divided society and its two-tiered system of justice, commerce and democracy.

To hear some tell it today, those hard-won achievements transformed the United States into a color-blind nation. They are only too quick to repeat one line of Martin Luther King Jr.’s seminal 1963 speech to support that assertion, ignoring a body of work that firmly expected far more from his fellow Americans.

The protests in 2020 that followed the murder of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers asked similar questions of this nation — and of all of us. How can all lives matter if Black lives are seen as disposable or inconsequential? How can we continue to turn a blind eye to their suffering? How can we continue to marginalize their remarkable contributions to the fabric of this country?

The General Assembly and former Gov. Ralph Northam made a powerful statement three years ago by designating Juneteenth a state holiday. The federal government followed a year later.

While symbols are important and meaningful, they are no substitute for action. While the United States has made tremendous strides toward racial justice, there is still a long road to travel.

As we mark this holiday, we should celebrate that progress and pledge ourselves to moving forward, never back, in our pursuit of equality.