ELKVIEW, WV (WOWK) – It’s a day of celebration after Herbert Hoover High School Students finally walked in the doors to their brand new school Friday morning.

The new school was long-awaited after the devastating floods that hit parts of the Mountain State in June 2016 that affected thousands of lives and destroyed communities throughout West Virginia wiped out the former Herbert Hoover High School building.

Since then, the Huskies have been persevering through, while holding their classes in portable classrooms for the past seven years.

With the first day in the new building finally in the books, the Herbert Hoover High School community is celebrating this milestone Saturday afternoon during a football scrimmage against John Marshall High School. Earlier this summer, the Huskies announced JMHS alumnus and country music star Brad Paisley would be attending the game.

“First of all, as a John Marshall Monarch, this is a bittersweet day. I cannot believe you went and got my school to be the guinea pig on this field today. That’s a low blow,” Paisley joked.

The scrimmage is set to take place at 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19. However, events kicked off at 4:30 p.m. with a pregame performance by the Herbert Hoover High School marching band and cheerleaders.

A ribbon cutting ceremony followed the band’s and cheerleaders’ performance with speakers including Clendenin Mayor Kay Summers, Herbert Hoover High School Principal Mike Kelly, Kanawha County Schools Superintendent Tom Williams, U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin, and Brad Paisley.

During his speech, Kelly spoke about the perseverance of the students that have come through Herbert Hoover since the flooding, excelling even when they had no school building to truly call home.

“We say excuses are a reason to fail. We say wishing things were different is unproductive. And we say there is greatness in traveling the hard path. And that’s what we have done and we have done it together,” said Kelly. “And we owe a debt to all of those students who fought the hard fight between 2016 and 2023, and so that’s what the challenge is to every current and future student is that you live up to the struggle that they went through.”

“Stay strong. Stay together. Stand up for Hoover. We said those words over and over and over again seven years ago.”

HERBERT HOOVER HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL MIKE KELLY