WEHS, WESTSIDE COMPETE IN SHADY WRESTLING TOURNAMENT:
Wyoming East and Westside competed in a five-team wrestling tournament at Shady Spring on February 1. East went 3-1 in head-to-head competition. The Warriors defeated Westside 60-12, Midland Trail by 54-21 and Gilbert 66-6. Westside scored its first-ever win over Gilbert, another fledgeling program, by a score of 36-12. The Renegades lost to Shady Spring 60-18 and to Midland Trail 42-24. For East, Adam Justice (140) and Adam Lattie(150) each went 4-0 on the day. Cory McGraw, Coben Thorn, Zack Francis, Josh Blankenship, Randall Bennett and Mark Blackwell all won three matches each. Winning two matches were Chris mcGraw, Brian Daniels, Josh Bishop and Ryan Campbell. The Coalfield Conference tournament will be held this Friday and Saturday at Greenbrier West.
Independent Herald Article.
FROM PAIGE CLINE'S SPORTS'S PAGE
We talked here not long ago about the revival of the wrestling programs in the county and the first wrestling team at Westside. Pate King, whose sone, Mike, is a past state champ while a student at Mullens, has brought the Wyoming East program to a competitive level. Bugs Stover is attempting to do the same thing at Westside. The last known history of wrestling in that part of the county was at Oceana High in the sixties under Ronnie Rose. Rose was a Pineville High grad who had developed an interest in wrestling and initiated the program at Oceana in 1964. The Indians were 1-7 their first year, but in '67 Mike Blankenship went undefeated in the regular season. Both he and David Haynes made it to the state tournament. When Rose left for a coaching and teaching job in Charleston, there was no wrestling coach, so the program had to be discontinued. How do I know all this? Simple. I went to Coach Gene Gilliland. Gene may be retired from teaching and coaching, but he is still a valuable source of information about Oceana athletics. And some about Pineville High, from whence he graduated.
The grade school tournaments are underway. It is themost exciting time of the year for the kids and, goodness knows, their families. There are some good players in the seventh and eight grades, look for some of them to play for Westside or East next year.
We are going to the mats this time for the Players-of-the-week. Adam Justice of the Wyoming East team has distinguished himself all year. He went 4-0 in a five-way match last weekend at Shady Spring. Also, young Andrew Scott of the fledgling Westside team won his first-ever match by defeating a wrestler from a Shady Spring team that is always tough. Andrew has a shiner as a memento of his win. Scott and Justice are the PLAYERS OF THE WEEK!!!
And finally from Paige - There was a death in the family. When the space shuttle exploded last Saturday morning and all aboard were killed, a part of the American family was lost. Fortunately, all of them died doing what they loved. And serving their country whil they did.
