Dec. 4—BLACKSVILLE — The sidewalk outside of Clay-Battelle High School was full of fans Thursday evening, sending off the mighty Cee-Bees for their state championship game against the Wheeling Central Catholic Maroon Knights on Friday.Aaron LaPoe, the head coach of the Clay-Battelle football team, noted a sense of pride in the community and the team.”It’s kind of like that feeling when you’re a kid and you want to make your parents proud, ” LaPoe said. “It’s just like that on a bigger scale. All these boys are making their parents proud and this whole team is making the community proud.”This is the first time in Clay-Battelle’s 86 year history that a football team has made it to the state championship.”When you do things the right way it’s a good feeling that fills you up, ” LaPoe said. “Because not all times in life doing things the right way works out for you, there’s still a lot of adversity and things that can turn into wins. For this team to do it the right way and actually turn adversity into wins for them is a beautiful thing.”LaPoe added the sendoff was a little overwhelming.”It’s a feeling of love, ” he said. “When you look around in the stands and when you look at the churches coming here and feeding the boys and interacting with the boys, it’s special. All of these people are coming together and the football team is at the center of it. The beautiful part about it is people loving their neighbors and loving our community.”LaPoe also noted it is a blessing to share all of this special time with his coaching staff and his team.”This is a special locker room, and this is a real special moment in time, ” he said. “It’s made a lot of great memories that will last a lifetime. I’m old enough now to know that there were times where I was in my golden years, these are sort of the golden years for these boys. There is still time for more golden years for me, my players and my coaching staff.”