WHEELING – The wait is nearly over.

While the OVAC Rudy Mumley All-Star game provided us an appetizer, the main course of prep football will be served up beginning Thursday. A pair of regular-season games will be staged that night at Harding Stadium in Steubenville.

Most of the OVAC schools will debut Friday with a few more doing the same on Saturday. For passionate grid fans, it is the best time of the year. Prep football re-energizes the Ohio Valley.

Optimism currently abounds with each team. Everyone is 0-0, harboring playoff hopes.

The 2015 season played out as a special one in the valley. No more so than at Wheeling Park where Chris Daugherty led the Patriots to their first state grid championship. Park will not disappear this year. Daugherty has established a program that will compete at a high level year-in and year-out.

Steubenville was on the cusp of a state title last season, going unbeaten until Week 15, falling to Columbus Bishop Hartley in the Division IV state title game. Big Red never rebuilds. Look for Reno Saccoccia’s charges to make another title run this fall.

Magnolia enjoyed a dream season, finishing unblemished in winning the Class A championship, blasting East Hardy in the finale at Wheeling Island Stadium. Head coach Josh Sims has moved on. Dave Chapman takes over and is a quality coach and has a talented cast of skilled players returning.

Brooke exhibited signs of past glory under second-year boss Mac McLean. The Bruins went 8-4, posting an impressive win over Morgantown in the playoffs. Brooke also dished out Wheeling Park’s only setback of 2015. The current Bruins are young but McLean has them on the right course.

Wheeling Central appeared to be on a Super Six showdown with Magnolia, only to get ambushed at East Hardy, a road trip of some four hours. A physically banged up Maroon Knight outfit encountered some very questionable officiating in dropping a controversial outcome. Mike Young has his Knights poised for a stellar season.

Shadyside enjoyed a mid-season renaissance, turning what looked like a very rare poor campaign into yet another playoff appearance. The Tigers are no longer the youthful bunch they were at this time last year. Coach Mark Holenka’s squad faces a daunting schedule but should be up to the task.

River is coming off a 9-1 season which translated into a Division VI playoff berth. The Pilots must replace all-Ohio quarterback Joe Flannery but mostly everyone else returns which bodes well for another Pilot post-season run.

St. Clairsville has been on an impressive roll in recent seasons. Coach Brett McLean’s charges went 8-1 last fall, winning the OVAC 4A crown and earning a playoff berth once again. The Red Devils lost much quality talent via graduation but McLean has built a program that keeps winning despite such sheepskin losses.

Weir is coming off a playoff campaign under veteran Tony Filberto. The Red Riders lost some prime-time talent but the cupboard is far from empty and Weir appears poised for another playoff berth.

Martins Ferry failed to make the playoffs a year ago, going 5-5, with four losses coming in the fourth quarter. Don’t look for the Purple Riders to be post-season spectators again as Coach Dave Bruney’s charges are a much more veteran team this fall.

Barnesville is another team harboring hopes of a banner campaign. The Shamrocks are coming off a 7-3 campaign and have some nice talent returning. Coach Matt Johnson has done a masterful job of constructing a solid program.

In addition to St. Clairsville, Wheeling Park (5A), Magnolia (3A), Caldwell (2A) and Valley (1A) captured OVAC grid crowns last fall.

ROE BECOMES BRAVE

STEUBENVILLE-BORN Chaz Roe is now pitching for Atlanta. The Braves claimed him from the Baltimore Orioles recently. The 29-year-old righthander enjoyed a nice season in 2015 with the Orioles.

He compiled a 4-2 mark last year in 36 games. Roe, a first-round pick by the Colorado Rockies in 2005, struck out 38 batters in 41 innings of work.

So far with the Braves, Roe has appeared in six games with no decisions. He has nine strikeouts in six innings of work.

His father, Don, was a football star at Buckeye North and a standout gridder at the University of Kentucky. Chaz’s uncle is Jim Hoover, another Buckeye North grid standout who played at Eastern Michigan and now is an assistant at Martins Ferry High.

BUBBA’S BITS

IT IS a small world. Jemima Sumgong won the women’s marathon in the Rio Olympics last week. In 2005, she placed second in the annual Debbie Green race, now held in Wheeling. Sumgong finished second in that race to a Russian.

WHATEVER happened to the concerns about the Zika virus at the Olympics? What was once a major story before the games now has faded away with no mention during actual competition.

THE OVAC Hall of Fame Banquet is a gala affair. I had the pleasure of sitting at the same table with former Martins Ferry football great Rich Weiskircher. After playing football at WVU and coaching at Ferry, Weiskircher matriculated to Marysville High (near Columbus). Once there, he built the school into a football power, leading the Monarchs to a pair of Final Four appearances. After retiring from Marysville, he worked on Jim Tressell’s staff at Ohio State for six years and another year and a half for Urban Meyer.

ROSS COMIS led Weirton Madonna to the West Virginia Class A football championship in 2013 after finishing runnerup the year prior. Now the 6-2, 205-pounder is leading the UMass football team. Comis has been named the Minutemen’s starting QB. He takes over the reins from record-setting Blake Frohnapfel, whose father Steve Frohnapfel was an all-Ohio performer at St. John Central in 1978. UMass opens the season Sept. 3 against the Florida Gators.