And it was that same day, January 2nd, 2006, that will forever shape Ben's career in journalism. While he was in Atlanta, there was an explosion at a small coal mine 600 miles away in Upshur County, WV. 13 men were trapped inside the Sago Mine. Only one came out alive. What began as local story quickly became national news. And Ben was covering college football.

     Within 24 hours of the explosion, Ben had reported live from Atlanta with interviews from the Governor and several local people who had made the trip to Georgia for the big game, had covered the biggest victory in WVU football history, and had made the 600 mile trip back to Sago to help in his station's coverage of the biggest national news story of the new year.

     What happened to those men and their families is nothing short of a tragedy. And it was difficult to witness the transformation from joy, when the initial false reports that 12 were found alive spread like wildfire through the crowd, to horror when the awful truth was revealed. But Ben is proud of the work he and his colleagues produced, and he counts himself lucky for having had the opportunity to tell the stories of the people and the families for whom the Sago Mine will forever be a reminder of how precious life is.

     In addition to working in West Virginia, Ben is a 2003 Graduate of the West Virginia University Perley Isaac Reed School of Journalism. He graduated Magna Cum Laude and at the top of his Broadcast Sequence. And to complete the West Virginia trifecta, Ben is also a native of the Mountain State! Morgantown, the University City, is home. His parents and many of his friends still live there. And Ben plans to make the 3 1/2 hour trip often, especially during Mountaineer football season.