South’s Braxton Amos staying focused

January 7, 2018

Let’s be honest for a minute ... There is nothing easy about being a teenager most, if not all, of the time. Teens have a lot going on between puberty, school, fighting with parents, a love life, friends, phones and extracurricular activities. Something almost always is cropping up. If you are Parkersburg South’s 220-pound wrestler Braxton Amos, an athlete with Olympic aspirations and the talent to match, you can have so much on a plate in just one of those categories alone that it can be overwhelming. “It is hard sometimes,” shared Amos. “But I just take it one ...

This week in MOV Athletics

January 1, 2018

Happy New Year to all my readers! 2018 surely will be a blast. And we have some great sporting events to help ring in the New Year this week as well. Some of you may be wondering where this column was last week with expectations dashed when it didn't appear. Jay W. Bennett and I had so much to say on other topics we didn't get around to putting last week's matchups in the paper. Never fear though because I am back this week. Before we get started however, there were a few of our athletes who are the recipients of national honors. Congratulations go out to Parkersburg High's ...

Red Devils still a work in progress

December 31, 2017

A pleasant surprise was sitting on my desk last week inside a vanilla envelope when I came into the office Wednesday afternoon. Lo and behold when I opened it up, there was the 2017-18 Runnin’ Red Devils basketball program. Although I’ve only had a chance to peruse the annual Ravenswood media guide, if anyone gets the opportunity to pick one up or go through it, make sure to check out page 25. Located there are a few pictures of head coach Mick Price and the one circa the 1980s is just great. It also was great to finally get to see Parkersburg Catholic and the Red Devils ...

PC’s Alkire sees things differently

December 24, 2017

Parkersburg Catholic student Mikalya Alkire is very smart. Being the recent recipient of a 30 score on her ACT is proof enough of this fact. The Crusaderette basketball player also was quick to deduce why I wished to speak with her when I showed up Tuesday at practice. “It is okay,” said Alkire. “Everyone asks me about it.” What is “it” you ask? Well ... We take a trip back to Jan. 17 for the beginning of the story. Parkersburg Catholic hosted Ravenswood in a regular-season girls basketball game with everything going as normally as it could for an LKC ...

A look back at Big Reds, South hoops Friday night

December 24, 2017

Friday night’s basketball game between rivals Parkersburg and Parkersburg South inside the Rod Oldham Athletic Center was quite the joy to cover. Granted, neither program could throw the ball into the proverbial ocean, but it sure wasn’t for a lack of trying. Especially in the first half, I have no clue how many shots South head boys coach Mike Fallon’s club had rim in and out of the cylinder. It also didn’t help the Big Reds of head coach Jeff Mennillo when big man Brenton Strange had to miss almost all of the second quarter after picking up foul number two on the ...

This week in MOV athletics

December 18, 2017

Now the Winter Tab and schedule book are done and in reader’s hands, I can turn my attention to the action on the court, in the water and on the mats. Last year, I started a column to keep high school sports fans up-to-date with the happenings each week in the Mid-Ohio Valley prep sports winter scene. I received a lot of good feedback, and so have brought my Monday morning column back again this year. Before we get started with the week ahead, I wanted to send a shoutout to the Parkersburg South wrestling program. Shaun Smith’s Patriots entered the InterMat.com national high ...