Romeo's trust in WVU program rewarded

Walk-on Richard Romeo couldn’t help but bask in the moment because in his final game inside the West Virginia Coliseum the focus was solely on him down the stretch.

“Romeo, Romeo, Romeo,” the West Virginia crowd chanted as he entered the game in the waning moments and was able to hit a jump shot to finish his career by scoring in his final home appearance.

Romeo has spent four long years putting in the same amount of work as every other scholarship player on the team to see a grand total of 53-minutes of game action.

That’s four years of blood, sweat and tears to see a little more than a full game’s worth of action on the floor mostly in lopsided affairs.

But Romeo wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Greenbrier East High School product has developed into a fan favorite off the bench and for good reason as he marks the first player in the Bob Huggins era to spend all four seasons as walk-on in the program. That meant ups and downs as he dealt with the disappointments of his first two seasons on campus as well as limited playing time that he could have gotten elsewhere had he elected to transfer down.

“It’s difficult just to be a part of West Virginia basketball, let alone to be a walk on,” Romeo said. “That situation and under those circumstances it’s definitely hard work and nobody understands it until you go through it.”

Romeo watched as other walk-on players filtered through the program during his tenure but yet he still remained. Driven by loyalty and the vision he had for the program, he realized that he had found his home already and there was no need to search elsewhere.

“It was a no brainer to stay even with my playing situation. I figured I still wanted to be here and it meant a lot,” Romeo said.

That’s not to say leaving the program didn’t cross his mind to pursue playing time at other schools but he kept coming back to the faith he has in the basketball program and Huggins as his head coach.

It was a faith that kept him believing in the program from his first college game a blowout loss to Gonzaga to when Huggins made his now famous “fix it,” speech amidst a losing season. That year was followed by a trip to the NIT the following season and improvement was the goal.

It’s a testament to that faith that he and his teammates were rewarded with a trip to the Sweet 16 the year after that and a highly successful season in his final year with more still on the horizon.

“Just having trust in coach Huggins and trust in the program. One year didn’t turn the whole deal around but I still kept faith in him, he’s our leader,” Romeo said.

It’s a lifelong dream that Romeo realized and it’s something that had become a goal since attending the 2010 Final Four and seeing the Mountaineers up close. Making the reaction of the crowd even more special to Romeo considering he had dreamt of seeing the floor for his Mountaineers.

“After these four years they saw a little bit more of my hard work and they appreciate the times I get in the game,” he said. “It means a lot.”

Romeo stuck it out when so many didn’t and those 53 minutes are something that he will always cherish. But even more importantly is his experiences with his teammates.

“I wanted to be here. I choose to be here when others didn’t. It means a lot to see I didn’t stay here for no reason,” he said. “We got better and everything I trusted and had faith in was real.”