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Snowstorm turns back Whitewater fans

Two buses full of football fans and one with the UW-Whitewater band and cheerleaders turned back in the face of an East Coast snowstorm early Saturday morning.

An unknown number of others who drove themselves either turned back or made it through about a foot of snow to watch their UW-W Warhawks defeat Mount Union College for the NCAA Division III national championship.

Perhaps none of the bus riders was more disappointed than Porter Coppage, father of running back Levell Coppage, who scored three times.

“I felt disgusted” about turning back, Coppage said by telephone from the bus before the game began.

“I wanted to keep going, because the snow was wet snow, It wasn’t frozen. I didn’t see any spots where we’d be sliding,” Coppage said.

Coppage knew arrangements were being made to stop at a Buffalo Wild Wings in West Lafayette, Ind., so the fans could watch the game, “but there’s nothing like live. I could’ve given my son a hug when he won the national title.”

Dan Jahnke of Juneau was on the bus with his son, a UW-W freshman.

“There’s a lot of people disappointed. We had our hearts and souls set on cheering on the Warhawks, and then to go 13 hours and be told we had to turn back, it was very disheartening,” Jahnke said.

Jahnke said he and his is son, Wesley, had followed the Warhawks throughout their undefeated season.

Jahnke said people on the bus had heard from others who waited and then found the highway open to them and had gotten through to the game in Salem, Va.

Steve Van Galder of the Van Galder Bus Co. said the road was closed around 4:30 a.m. Saturday east of Huntington, W.Va.

The bus driver consulted with the local highway patrol and heard of a 10-mile backup. Whitewater officials told Van Galder that at that point, it wasn’t clear the game would be played on Saturday.

“So we made a decision to turn those buses around and head for home,” Van Galder said. “…I told them we weren’t going over the mountain with the road closed, and we had no idea from anybody that it was going to open any time soon.”

By the time the game was rescheduled, the buses were headed home, Van Galder said.

Student Grant Nelson said riders knew the forecast.

“We had hopes of getting out there, but in the back of your mind, you kind of know it would be tough getting out there in the first place,” Nelson said.