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The PRESS BOX: Summer Sizzle

By Randy Rutherford - Sports Writer | Jul 31, 2024

Summer seems to be winding down faster than anyone wants but isn’t that the way it always goes each year? My family and I just returned from a wonderful summer vacation at Anna Maria Island on the Gulf of Mexico where we spent time every day playing on the beach and eating delicious seafood every evening. The week seemed to fly by! And in my book, it is not summer vacation unless I can enjoy raw oysters on the half shell. A few of my more adventurous family members enjoy eating them with me, but not many. The younger generation was completely grossed out.

Coming home I kept reminding myself not to get too depressed because there are still many events and activities to enjoy prior to fall. Many of the local sports teams are winding up their summer schedules putting final touches on flex days before the real work begins. I was able to attend several 7 on 7 football scrimmages and it looks like we can expect big things from our area football teams.

While we were out of town we heard the great news for Paden City High School as it will remain open this year. The scramble now facing the coaches at PCHS for fall sports is putting the pieces back together that they started before all the closing talk started. The final decision came on Thursday July 25th with a circuit court ruling to open the school. Head coaching jobs are being filled in both football and basketball with hopes that the athletes that were going to another school come back for their respective sport. For the senior athletes, it has been an emotional roller coaster. Hopefully, administrators, teachers, coaches and students alike can pull together to make it a positive experience for the community, especially the kids.

Paden City, Magnolia, Hundred and Valley all remain as Class A schools with the recent SSAC ruling to go to four classes in all sports. Tyler Consolidated moves to Class AA and will face stiffer competition this fall in all sports.

Area team’s fall sports schedules will be published in the coming weeks. I already saw TCHS’s football schedule posted on the high school Facebook page. Work in both the Star News and Wetzel Chronicle’s offices has already begun on the always popular Fall Sports Football Preview due out in August. The preview includes teams, bands and cheerleaders of all area schools with returning players featured as well as predictions, sure to go wrong for each team.

Another exciting event is the OVAC Hall of Fame induction ceremony taking place on August 10th at the Wesbanco Arena in Wheeling. Sistersville will feature two highly successful people with Head Football Coach Lou Nocida and All American basketball player Mike Carson included in the ceremony.

I drove past the pickleball courts in New Martinsville and Sistersville the other day and they were packed with players. New Martinsville had as many as 30 players with Sistersville adding another 20 to their courts. It sure is nice to see so many folks in the parks in both communities. The pools are also very busy as kids and adults get in as many swimming days as possible before school starts.

The Sistersville Elks sponsored eight free days at the Sistersville Pool this summer and served free hot dogs, chips and water on both July 18th and 25th which drew a large attendance. Funding for the free-swimming days and food was provided through the Beacon Grant from the Elks National Foundation.

The Local Farmer’s Market held every Tuesday at the Sistersville Park Shelter being at 4:30 continues to be a popular landing spot for many visitors. It is a great service to our community and provides not only needed produce and baked goods, but a social aspect that has been missing at the park for years.

I’ll close this week saying that I already knew I was getting old but traveling by air this past week highlighted how far out of the loop I really have become. Our adult kids were with us on vacation, and they made sure we had everything we needed to clear security and get to our gate. They downloaded apps to our phones to “load” our boarding passes and place breakfast orders for food in the airport. There were a few relics with paper boarding passes, but they were old folks like me. I’ll be honest, I kind of missed checking my pocket every few minutes to make sure my ticket was still there and see my seat assignment. I am an old dog, but I haven’t given up. I keep trying to learn new tricks.