MORGANTOWN — (Editor’s Note: This is the final part of a three-part series looking at local athletes of the decade, from 2000 to 2009. Today, we look at the young men and women who played sports at West Virginia University.)

We have reached a decade that could be labeled “The Golden Age of Athletics at West Virginia University”, a decade unlike any that preceded it.

There were great moments in the past, to be sure, but for the overall success of the athletic department, for the variety of great moments and great athletes, nothing can beat the 2000s.

It begin with a magic moment, veteran football coach Don Nehlen ending his long bowl jinx by winning his final game over Mississippi in the Music City Bowl, followed a few year later by Nehlen’s induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

He was replaced by Rich Rodriguez, who revived the football program, brought us the likes of Patrick White and Steve Slaton and Noel Devine and Owen Schmitt, won a BCS bowl victory over Georgia and took the program to the brink of a national championship.

While Rodriguez could not win a national championship, in the 2000s WVU athletes like Greg Jones and Megan Metcalf and a revived rifle team took home national championships.

It was decade, too, when men’s basketball captured not only the state’s but the nation’s imagination, Coach John Beilein’s teams “Pittsnogled” opponents and when he left Bob Huggins returned to his roots and brought the state a Top 10 team and a first-round draft pick in Joe Alexander.

It was decade when West Virginia may have lost a shot at football national championship by being upset by Pitt, and became the center of controversy when Rodriguez bolted for Michigan, but it turned quickly as Oklahoma fell in the Fiesta Bowl and the Mountaineers got a taste of sweet revenge against Pitt under Bill Stewart.

It was a time of coaches, yes, but in the end was a time of unmatched athletes, men and women who will forever be remembered at the school. Here then, are the Top 10 WVU athletes of the decade:

1. Patrick White, QB, WVU football

On Oct. 15, 2005, West Virginia football changed forever. On that day quarterback Adam Bednarik was injured as the Mountaineers fell far behind Louisville at Mountaineer Field. To replace him Coach Rich Rodriguez sent freshman Patrick White into the game and he engineered an amazing comeback, leading to a 46-44, triple-overtime victory.

WVU would win the next 13 games behind White, upset Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and by the time White ended his career with a 31-30 victory over North Carolina in the Meineke Car Bowl he had become arguably the best player ever to play at WVU. In a Fiesta Bowl victory over Oklahoma he threw for 176 yards and ran for 151.

White became the only quarterback in NCAA history to start and win four bowl games, including victories over Georgia and Oklahoma in BCS games. He set the all-time NCAA rushing record for quarterbacks with more than 4,400 yards, creating so many memories and moments for Mountaineer fans that they are too numerous to recount.

He did that while remaining humble and friendly, eventually becoming a second-round draft pick of the Miami Dolphins, where he is currently trying to break in as a “Wildcat” quarterback.

2. Greg Jones, Wrestling

Winning an NCAA championship is incredibly difficult in any sport. To win two of them is a magnificent feat. To win three is almost unheard of.

Say hello to Greg Jones, not only a three-time NCAA wrestling champion, but a man who won championships in two different weight classes. Considering that only 39 wrestlers have ever won three NCAA titles and only 20 in won two different weight classes, this makes Jones one of the greatest collegiate wrestlers of all time.

Jones was born in Greensburg, Pa., one of five children. His brother, Vertus, was a 3-time All-American at WVU and his younger brother, Donnie, wrestles there now. But it was Greg Jones who set the gold standard, winning at 174 pounds in 2002, at 184 pounds in 2003 and 2005.

In 2005, when he defeated Tyler Baier for the 184 championship, he completed a career with 204 victories and just four defeats, earning the title of Most Outstanding wrestler at the NCAA’s that year.

Jones is currently an assistant coach at WVU.

3. Steve Slaton, RB, WVU football

If the Louisville game was a coming out party for White, it was more so for his best friend and running back, Steve Slaton, who blossomed in that game by scoring six touchdowns while gaining 188 yards on 31 carries.

Slaton came out of eastern Pennsylvania as pretty much an unknown, much of the recruiting attention at WVU being on Jason Gwaltney. But all through camp in his freshman year, Coach Rich Rodriguez kept mentioning Slaton and finally turned him loose against Louisville.

Slaton became an All-American as a sophomore, finishing fourth in the 2006 Heisman Trophy Award voting behind Troy Smith of Ohio State, Darren McFadden of Arkansas and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame.

Slaton’s greatest moment came in the Sugar Bowl that year when the Mountaineers stunned a favored Georgia team, Slaton rushing for 204 yards, a Sugar Bowl record and the second most yards ever in BCS bowl game.

Slaton left WVU after his junior year and has been a starting running back for the Houston Texans, currently fighting injury.

4. Kevin Pittsnogle, F, WVU basketball

Kevin Pittsnogle was something of a basketball freak, a 6-11 big man covered in tattoos who could rain 3-point shots on an opponent from the outside.

Recruited out of Martinsburg by Gale Catlett, he was fortunate to wind up playing his career for John Beilein, who found him to be the perfect player for his intricate system that included a barrage of outside shooting.

Pittsnogle went from a player to a legend and from a noun into a verb, for as his fame spread West Virginia’s would refer to it as being “Pittsnogled” when he hit one of his 3-point shots from far out.

Pittsnogle was coming off the bench for Beilein until the Pitt game of 2004-05 when D’Or Fisher was sick. Given the start, scored 27 in an upset of the Panthers and never gave up his starting job.

Pittsnogle’s most famous moment came against Texas in the NCAA tournament when, despite a bloody nose, he tied the game with his fifth 3-point shot of the game with 5 seconds left, only to have the Longhorns’ Kenton Paulino hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to win the game.

Pittsnogle, who now plays for the Albuquerque Thunderbirds of the NBA Developmental League, left WVU with 1,708 points, sixth most all time, and with the second best three-point shooting percentage of 41.1.

5. Grant Wiley, LB, WVU football

Grant Wiley became West Virgnia’s 9th consensus All-American in 2003 after surpassing Darryl Talley, another consensus All-American in career tackles, finishing with 492, but none were bigger than the tackle he made on the goal line at Virginia Tech on Nov. 20, 2002.

WVU led 21-16 but Tech had driven 71 yards to the 1 and was looking at fourth down when they gave the ball to running back Lee Suggs, who led the nation in touchdowns. Suggs surged into the line but Wiley knifed through and brought him down. It was the third play WVU had stopped Virginia Tech inside the 1.

Always a tough guy, the kid out of Trappe, Pa., played his freshman season with numbness in his left arm that made him unable to make two-armed tackles and he broke his leg in the Music City Bowl but didn’t want to come out of the game.

Wiley went to the NFL with Minnesota but suffered a career-ending shoulder injury and is now a professional actor.

6. Da’Sean Butler, F, WVU basketball

No West Virginia player since Lowes Moore 31 years earlier had scored points in a game at the Coliseum until Da’Sean got a hot hand against Villanova on Feb. 13, leading the Mountaineers to an upset of the nation’s No. 13 team that would go to the NCAA Final Four.

Butler came out of Bloomfield Tech in New Jersey to become a solid player for John Beilein and then a star for Bob Huggins, who used his versatility to play guard and forward, to shoot inside and outside and to handle the ball.

Now a senior, Butler leads the Mountaineers in scoring and is a preseason selection to make the All-Big East team.

7. Yinka Sanni, C, WVU women’s basketball

West Virginia’s women’s basketball team under Mike Carey has had any number of players who could qualify in the top 10 athletes, but Yinka Sanni stood tallest of them all. A powerful inside player out of Chicago Heights, Ill., Sanni and teammate Meg Bulger were the only two first team All-Big East performers the school has had.

Sanni finished her career with 1,602 points, seventh on the school’s all-time list, grabbed 774 rebounds and is the single game, single season and career field goal percentage leader at WVU. She was an honorable mention All-American, two-time All-Big East performer and a second-round pick of the Detroit Shock of WNBA.

8. Dan Mozes, C, WVU football

In football, centers normally operate in obscurity, but Dan Mozes stood out in the middle of the West Virginia offensive line.

He came to school out of Washington, Pa., as an offensive guard and started at that position for two years before being moved to center in the middle of his junior year, a move that could not have worked out better.

His senior year, Mozes became a consensus All-American with running back Steve Slaton, the first time the school ever had two consensus All-Americans, and he became the only WVU player to win one of college football’s major awards, taking down the Rimington Award, presented to the nation’s top center.

9. Megan Metcalfe, Distance runner, WVU track

West Virginia Track Coach Sean Cleary has had great success going into his native Canada and recruiting distance runners. He got a national champion in Kate Vermuelen in the 1990s and in the 2000s it was Megan Metcalfe who brought home a national title.

A native of Edmonton, Metcalfe won the 2005 NCAA 5,000-meter indoor championship and in 2007 she went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and won the 5,000 in the Pan-Am games. She also was vocal in her assistance to help bring back men’s track when West Virginia dropped it.

10. Lisa Stoia, midfield, WVU women’s soccer

Nikki Izzo-Brown is the only woman’s soccer coach WVU has ever had and she has built a program capable of competing for Big East and NCAA championships, in part because of dedicated players like Lisa Stoia.

A dynamic performer in the midfield, Stoia became West Virginia’s second All-American in 2001 when she was a Soccer Buzz honorable mention selection. The Shirley, N.Y., native earned Big East Midfielder of the Year honors in 2002 for her efforts in leading West Virginia to its first regular season championship. Stoia was a NSCAA/adidas and Soccer Buzz second team All-American in 2002 and earned first team All-American honors f rom Soccer Buzz and NSCAA in 2003.

Honorable mention

Men’s basketball: Mike Gansey, Joe Alexander. Women’s basketball: Meg Bulger, Yolanda Paige. Women’s soccer: Carolyn Blank. Baseball: Jedd Gyorko. Football: Noel Devine, Quincy Wilson. Rifle Nicole Allare.