Wirt Tigers in new territory

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ELIZABETH - While the Wirt County football program has tasted a state championship and suffered only two winless campaigns in its history, the Tigers of third-year head coach Jason Hickman are in new territory this week.

Yes, Wirt County has been eligible to act as the host school for a postseason game before, but come 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Wilson-Eismon Field the orange and black Tigers will play their first official contest at home instead of having it at area venues around the Mid-Ohio Valley.

The last time Wirt County made the postseason was 1994 when then head coach Mike Lucas' team finished 6-5, ending its regular season with a 42-15 loss to Valley (Wetzel) and then falling in the opening round of the playoffs in Pine Grove to the Lumberjacks, 27-14.

Excitement from the community is high and the Class A No. 6 Tigers (8-2) know a win against No. 11 Iaeger (8-2) will get them in the state quarterfinals next week with a road trip to No. 3 Richwood or perhaps another home game if No. 14 Pendleton County can pull off the upset.

Hamilton Middle School special education (autism) teacher David Pierotti, a former lineman and defensive end, recalls the glory years of the past. After all, Pierotti lettered as a sophomore on the 1992 undefeated Tiger team and graduated in 1995.

Pierotti's last game, though, left him with more than one bad memory from the loss.

"In the playoff game I blew out my right knee," he said. "I hurt it right at the end of the first quarter when we scored.

"They checked it out on the sideline and they said there couldn't be more damage done to it. I tore my ACL and meniscus on that, but kept playing."

Although Pierotti is far from old, he's feeling his age a little bit more as news of the Tigers' push toward the playoffs became closer to a reality in the final weeks of the season.

"When I was a lifeguard (at Wirt County) they were just the little ones in the pool and now they are in high school playing and it's fun to see that," Pierotti added, recalling what it was like to be a player in that era.

"You had a lot of expectations. You had to make sure you worked to keep that going and that was one of the things. One of the phrases was leave everything on the field and the coaches used that all the time."

Current Ripley head coach Jimmy Frashier was an assistant on Lucas' staff at Wirt County. Jason Ward, a current Ripley assistant, was a two-way lineman who played on Wirt County's final playoff team in 1994 and was then a senior on the unit that started the long streak of absences from the postseason the following year.

"Coach Hickman has brought a tremendous energy and enthusiasm that the kids have really bought into," Ward said. "They deserve everything they are earning this year. I couldn't be more proud of Wirt County."

"I have moved on to Ripley, but when you play four years and coach for eight at a school, you can't help but always root for great things from the orange and black."

Wirt County, a program with more than 450 all-time wins, has now reached the postseason in every decade since the 1940s.

Pierotti said he tries to attend at least one Wirt County game each year, usually the St. Marys contest because that's where his wife is from.

If everything goes as planned, Pierotti will be just one of many in attendance for what is expected to be an over-flow crowd in Elizabeth come Saturday evening.

"I'm glad to see we are finally able to host one," he added. "That's a good thing.

"All the years when I was there, it was great the fact we always made it, but we were unable to have it on our own field."