Wildcats Begin Inaugural Wrestling Season Tonight
Paden City High School opened its doors as a 9-12 school in 1951 and graduated its first class in 1952. As of 2017, Paden City High School houses grades 7-12 with an enrollment of nearly 200.
Paden City High School has several West Virginia State Champions, Ohio Valley Athletic Champions (OVAC), and Mason-Dixon Champions.
PCHS competes in the following WVSSAC sports: football, volleyball, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls track, baseball, softball, golf, cheerleading. PCHS is a conference member of Ohio Valley Athletic Conference (OVAC) and Mason-Dixon Conference. For boys and girls track, PCHS participates in the Wetzel/Tyler Track League and for basketball (boys and girls) PCHS is a member of the Hometown Invitational Tournament which is a group of smaller “hometown” schools in West Virginia that participate in a tournament across the state and crowns champions annually.
Despite being one of the smallest public schools in the state, Paden City High School has a history of athletic excellence capturing multiple state championships including football in 1970 and 1979, boys basketball in 1960, 1973, 1987, and cheerleading in 1994 and 1998.
Starting tonight the Wildcats, will begin a new sports era as they open the initial Paden City High School wrestling season when they travel to Cameron high school for a 6 p.m. quad meet with Cameron, Beallsville, Ohio and Linsly.
The Wildcat wrestling program is under the helm of first year head coach Mike Owens, a former River Local, Ohio athlete. Owens will be assisted by Mike Shreves, a Wildcat assistant football coach. With 14 wrestlers on the roster and every weight class but four covered the Cats are excited for the new beginning.
Following tonight’s match the Wildcats will compete on Friday, at 5 p.m. and Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. in the Ritchie County tournament. The Wildcats will compete for this first year in an all away schedule that includes a December 15, tournament @ North Marion beginning at 5 p.m.and the Magnolia Holiday Quad on December 29, starting at 10 a.m.
The rest of the schedule is as follows:
Jan.6 @ Cameron Wrestling Tournament 10 a.m., Jan. 13, @ Magnolia 6 p.m., Jan. 18,19, 20, @ Wesbanco Arena OVAC Wrestling Tournament. Jan. 26-27, @ Ritchie WV Class A Tournament, Jan. 31, @ Cameron 6 p.m., Feb. 9-10,@ Fairmont Armory, Regionals, Feb. 22-24, @ Huntington Civic Center, State
Tournament.