Now that the high school football, soccer, cross country, and volleyball seasons are over in our area, it’s time to focus on boys’ and girls’ basketball and wrestling. We will have a winter schedule booklet coming out Nov. 23, so be sure to get your schedules and follow the teams, both high school and middle schools, the best that you can.

But, before we go into this winter season, I would like to recap some sporting events during the last few weeks. First, the Lady Wildcat volleyball team not only won the Class-A OVAC crown, but they also won their third straight Mason-Dixon title and the Region I Sectional Championship, too. Paden City won 31 games and lost only eight. They did all of this with only two seniors on the team.

PCHS Head Coach Fred King and veteran Assistant Coach Jeff Bowers did an exceptional coaching job with what girls they had.

Also at Paden City, the cheerleading squad took second in the region and will be heading to Charleston in December to compete in the State Cheerleading Championships. Good Luck Lady ‘Cats!

At Magnolia, the football team missed out of going to the playoffs. If they had, it would have been the team’s seventh straight time in that bracket. They were a very young team and got better as the season went on. The Blue Eagles beat the tough Barnesville and Grafton teams down the stretch.

Eagles Head Coach Mark Batton won his 100th game and Jayson Keller became the best runningback in the school’s history. He scored 37 touchdowns and rushed for 2,527 yards – both school records.

Stephen Rogalski tied Kenny Fisher’s record of 25 receiving TDs and needs only one more receiving TD and 22 yards to hold the most career yards and TDs by a receiver. With one more season left, he should shatter both records.

WVU got rid of former New Martinsville resident and Magnolia graduate Bill Stewart and lost Ed Pastilong to retirement. The Mountaineers hired Dana Holgorsen to replace Stewart – something I don’t want to get into – and Oliver Luck as AD to replace Pastilong, brother of New Martinsville’s Danny Pastilong, who served in the position for many years.

Also, I am going to put on the Wetzel Chronicle Web site a list of present high schools, as well as former schools in our area, that have had some great sports stars. From December 2011 to December 2012, I would like you to vote for your favorite sports player or players. And if you could mention why you think so, that would be nice. If there is not a name on the list you think should be there, please fill in a name.

I will try to drum up as much information about each athlete that I can and include it. Most of the area sports buffs know the stars from recent years, but we will try to give you as much info about them as we can. Vote as many times as you want when you see it in the paper, then on the Web site. We will let you know the outcome in December 2012.

After a couple years away from coaching, I have teamed with Kelly Sine to help with the Lady Wildcats of Paden City in girls’ basketball. I will try to make sure that this winter high school sports pages are as good as ever. However, if you have a picture of an athletic event to put in the paper, don’t hesitate to send it. I’ll try my best to get it in.

And, if you don’t see your team in the paper each week, it’s probably because I didn’t get any stats or scores from that team.

The sportsmanship that was shown throughout the football, cross country, volleyball, and soccer seasons was outstanding. You usually hear about all the bad things, but I would like to mention just a few of the amazing things I saw.

In football, I was on the Magnolia sidelines for five games and never, ever heard a bad word come from the coaches’ mouths. super job coaches. I’ve seen players from River, Paden City, Magnolia, and Valley stop and help an opponent up after being on the ground.

In soccer, I never saw one red card all season and the MHS girls’ team was given a two thumbs up by the referees for their sportsmanship and dedication to the sport. Many times they had to play short handed because of absences, but they always gave it their all. A class act, especially when they played Tyler Consolidated. Both teams played hard, but respected each other and helped each other up when they went down. I also saw a Lady Eagle stop and tie the Knight goal keeper’s shoes while play was going on. That’s awesome!!

In conclusion, I would like to take this time to thank Short Line Construction for remodeling my kitchen. Not only did they do an outstanding job, they donated their time to remodel the VHS baseball field and did a lot of work on the football complex, too. The baseball field, when completed, will be the best in the area. Teams, I’m sure, will want to come to Pine Grove to play. Thank you Short Line Construction for helping my wife get her new kitchen and for all the work you have done at Tom West Field.