BECKLEY —
The 36th Coalfield Conference Wrestling tournament has the makings of being an exceptional competition. Greenbrier West will host this year’s tournament on Friday and Saturday. Wrestling will begin at 5:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday.
At least 13 high schools will participate, including three state-ranked teams. The Greenbrier West Cavaliers are currently tied for the top spot in the state AA/A classification and Independence is ranked seventh. Shady Spring is ranked eighth in the AAA classification.
As an added plus, Greenbrier East and Nicholas County will return to compete this year.
Other teams participating are Fayetteville, Midland Trail, River View, Richwood, Bluefield, Oak Hill, Liberty and Webster County.
The Independence Patriots won the overall championship last year.
Until 1978, the Coalfield Conference championship was decided by regular season results. Usually the winner of the Woodrow Wilson/Shady Spring match was declared champion.
The first Coalfield tournament was held in 1978 and Shady Spring was the overall team champion. Since then Woodrow Wilson has joined the Mountain State Athletic Conference and Independence has had the most Coalfield tournament championships, with 15 titles.
In the initial tournament of 1978, the individual champions were Shady’s David Farley, John Walker, James Thompson, Jerry Settle and John Lynch. Beckley’s champions were Phil Carson, Ardie Jenkins, Larry Maiolo and Clarence Bowles.
Greenbrier West had Chris Morelle and Wesley Walker, while Greenbrier East had one champion in Rick Ramsey.
Individually, this year’s tournament should be a dogfight with over 45 state-ranked wrestlers participating. Three wrestlers will be seeking their third Coalfield title: Indy’s Colton Ward, Marc Williams of Oak Hill and West’s Tyler Parker. Wrestlers going after a second championship include Shady’s John Forren and Tyler Kosut, Liberty’s R.J. Elam and Cody Clifton, Indy’s Teddy Stover and West’s Malik Boatwright.
The semifinal and final matches should be worth the price of admission.
Other Coalfield Notes:
n Greenbrier West’s Bill Walkup was the first three-time Coalfield Conference Champion, winning 1981-82-83.
n Independence’s Robert Rash was the Coalfield’s first four-time champion, winning 2003-04-05-06.
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This week a squeeze of the water bottle goes to Kenny Powers, a big wrestling fan and an avid reader of this column.
High School Sports
Coalfield tournament should be exceptional
- High School Sports
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Special moments, players and coaches in state sports history
In celebration of West Virginia's 150th birthday, our sports staff decided to take a look at some of the athletes, coaches and venues that make sports in the Mountain State special.
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Class AAA All-State baseball list
As selected by a panel of the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
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GBC’s Mullins ready for last performance in the hoops spotlight
Ask anyone who has been around the Greater Beckley Christian program the last two years and they’ll all agree, Keith Mullins is a special young man.
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AAA first-team all-state list includes Woodrow’s Greco
Hunter Greco wanted his senior season to end with him and his Woodrow Wilson teammates raising a state championship trophy.
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Replacing stars a big challenge for Culicerto
Vince Culicerto has enjoyed his last three seasons as head coach for Shady Spring.
The Tigers were a playoff team in both 2010 and 2011 in Class AA, before making the jump to Class AAA in 2012. -
Back to the gridiron
It’s in the air. Can you smell it?
Football. -
AA All-State team filled with local talent
When Drew D’Angelo and Wyatt Adkins transfered to Independence from Oak Hill, the Patriots didn’t just get more firepower for their offense.
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McGinnis named all-stater
The season had an all-too-familiar end for Valley — a loss in the Class A state semifinals.
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All-star events set for Charleston next weekend
If summer is bringing you the prep sports blues, perhaps a trip to the Capital City next weekend is just what the doctor ordered.
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Bostick calls it a day at Woodrow Wilson
Bernie Bostick said he saw more of his Woodrow Wilson girls basketball team during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays the past 10 years than he did his own family.
That will change. - More High School Sports Headlines
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Special moments, players and coaches in state sports history
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Paris, Prince Depositions Used in Jackson Trial
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