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Lewicki is skating into new territory as PWHPA member

MOUNDSVILLE — Kristin Lewicki is skating into a new challenge. The John Marshall High grad is now a member of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association (PWHPA). Lewicki, after a spectacular career at Adrian College in Michigan, played the last two seasons in the National Women’s Hockey League. She skated for the Buffalo Beauts as a rookie while being a Metropolitan Riveter last winter. The fledgling PWHPA came to fruition last year in response to the low salaries, no health insurance and overall feeble support the professional league provided its players. The ...

Mason, Baugh claim Sands Electric tourney title

A couple of weeks ago, I declared that Off the Tee was finished for the season. Well, officially it was, but a lot of recent golf tournaments came across my desk, so here we are. One of the longest running area tournaments was held earlier this month at Belmont Hills Country Club. The 34th annual Sands Electric Company Golf Classic was staged. The event returned after being washed out in 2018 due to Hurricane Gordon. It attracted a field of 24 players. The format the tournament utilizes is two-man, best ball/scramble. Firing a round of 1-under, 71 to claim the title was the ...

COLLEGE NOTEBOOK: Wooding, Bell making climb up leaderboards

While many area players are making an impact at the collegiate level across a myriad of sports, two are continuing to climb up their programs’ respective all-time leaderboards. Linsly graduate Von Wooding and Wheeling Park product Elijah Bell have been making their presences felt at Division III Oberlin and Division I FCS North Carolina A&T basically from the moment they stepped onto their respective campuses. Wooding, who starts at linebacker, moved into fifth place all time on the Oberlin tackle chart with 251 career stops earlier this month. Wooding added five more to that ...

Downing left an imprint on Bridgeport in a short time

Ted Downing came to Bridgeport as an outsider. He wasn’t an Ohio Valley product, but he was a people person. Downing was hired in April of 2009 as superintendent of the Bridgeport Exempted Village School District. He served in that capacity, as well as a few others, for six years. He came from the Eastern Brown Local School District were he was principal for 18 years. Sadly, he passed away Sunday in a Cincinnati hospital with his family by his side due to complications following back surgery. He was 67. I had the opportunity to talk with Ted on various occasions during his ...

Coaching turnover occurring at a rapid pace in the OV

During the spring of 2018, the immediate area saw coaching icons Dave Bruney (Martins Ferry football), Jay Circosta (Monroe Central football) and Kim Clifford (St. Clairsville boys basketball) retire after careers of upwards of 40 years. While those were tough to swallow simply because of what those three guys meant to the programs they coached, their longevity made it clear that eventually their time for retirement was coming. When those occurred, I immediately throught, ‘I am not sure we’ll ever see coaches, especially in those three sports, have careers that last anywhere ...

Ryan primed to take Cardinal hoop reins

WHEELING - It wasn’t too long ago that the common perception had Wheeling Jesuit University (now Wheeling University) dead and buried. It appeared its financial and academic woes may deal the school a fatal blow. But the Cardinals appear to be taking flight. Wheeling University’s football team made an impressive debut last weekend, dropping a last-minute heartbreaker to rival West Liberty before a large and raucous crowd. It may take another year or two but Zac Bruney will build a formidable Cardinal grid program. Moreover, Wheeling University officials are planning on ...