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New gym … A long time coming for Martins Ferry

It’s been a long time coming for Martins Ferry High School. After being denied by the voters several times, the new campus-style school buildings opened up Friday for students to resume classes and tonight the athletic department gets into the act. The brand-new high school gymnasium will open its doors for its first game this evening when Linsly visits the Purple Riders. “We’re pleased with the way things turned out here,” said Ferry athletic director Dave Bruney. “Not only with the athletic facilities, but also the academic part of the building. It exceeded our ...

New Ferry gymnasium as nice as advertised

A lot has been written and said about the new school Martins Ferry moved into last week and everything that’s been said and written is well-deserved. The new Martins Ferry High School is the Taj Mahal of area schools and the gymnasium is simply top of the line. The Purple Rider officials deserve major kudos for getting it done. They didn’t do it half-way. They got everything they wanted both academically and athletically and again that’s a credit to the school officials and the voters of the district for seizing the opportunity. I had a chance to look around the gymnasium for a ...

Buckeye 8 Tourney could play role in OVAC Seeds

This past weekend wrestlers from the Buckeye 8 Conference gathered in Morristown to tweak their records one last time before heading into this week's Ron Mauck OVAC Wrestling Tournament. Using the eight-team conference dual meet tournament as a spring board into the OVAC tourney isn't the typical thought process since teams see each other so much during the season anyways. However, that wasn't the case as St. Clairsville freshman Dominic Prezzia took full advantage of the opportunity to improve his seeding during Sunday's OVAC seed meeting. Prezzia would start the day knocking off ...

Buckeye standouts saying together

OHIO STATE linebacker James Laurinaitis never met Mark Twain, but they expressed similar thoughts although one was talking about his teammates and the other referred to a comet. When noting he had been partly influenced by other Ohio State juniors returning for their senior year, the popular Buckeye told Ken Gordon of The Columbus Dispatch that they (the junior players) “promised we would come in and leave together.” That brought to mind Twain’s comment. “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835,” noted Twain. “It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out ...

Gable captures ’07 kennel crown

For the third time in five years, the Gable Kennel has captured the win championship at the Wheeling Island racetrack. The Gable Kennel sprinted to the lead early in the 2007 racing season and never looked back as they notched 555 victories. Charter Kennel captured runnerup honors for the second consecutive year with 529 wins while 2006 champion Flying Eagles-Miner Kennel finished third with 486 victories. “We are extremely happy. At the beginning of the year we set a goal of 500 wins and if we accomplished that we knew we’d be in the hunt,” Gable Kennel trainer Wayne Piquette ...

OVAC Wrestling Tourney is a true family affair for everyone

The Ohio Valley Athletic Conference has long been the biggest prep sporting conference in the nation. With 45-members strong, the conference has a glowing history of producing fine athletes in a bevy of sports. However, there’s something about those three chilly days in January, which brings together the conference in a whole new way. And actually we’re currently in the midst of those three days. The 55th annual Ron Mauck OVAC Wrestling Tournament opened Thursday evening at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling. Wrestling is one of the purest sports in the world. It’s ...