Bearcats aiming at another trip to state wrestling meet
BAINBRIDGE – The road to the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s state wrestling meet — held annually at Ohio State University’s Value City Arena — is a curvy, rocky route with multiple obstacles and road blocks along the way.
Thankfully, for the Paint Valley Bearcats, it’s a road they’ve navigated before.
The Bearcats have sent six individual state qualifiers to the state meet in the past 10 seasons. The first state qualifier was in 2007
This year, they look to add four names to that total.
“Columbus is where you want to be at the end of the year,” Paint Valley coach Dave Salomone said. “To me, there’s only one statistic that matters and that’s how many kids we sent to the state meet from our program. That’s always the main goal. It’s pretty special up there.”
Salomone, in his 10th year as head coach, started the program in 2004. Since then, he’s built the Bearcats from the ground up — while molding his student athletes to some of the best in the area in the process.
“What’s really helped us in doing that is having the same coaching staff for all of that time,” Salomone said. “Having myself and my assistants Zack Taylor and Mike McMahon be here for all 10 years has created consistency. Plus we’ve been fortunate enough to have some good talent come in and when that happens, other kids feed off of the energy. From there, the talent grows.”
In 2014-15, the Bearcats’ talent pool has started with returning state qualifiers Caleb Johnson and Teagan McFadden.
Johnson wrestles in the 182-pound weight class and is 34-4 on the year and McFadden is 22-0, wrestling in the 170-pound class.
“Caleb brings a tall frame to the mat and that allows him to have leverage with most of his opponents,” Salomone said. “He likes to throw guys around a lot and has really good balance. He’s like a cat; he always lands on his feet. On the other hand, Teagan is one of the best kids around this area as well. He’s got good technique, speed and strength. He’s also a smart wrestler. He anticipates his opponents’ next moves while Caleb doesn’t do that.”
For both of his juniors, Salomone expects nothing less than two state meet qualifications.
“They were both sectional champs so that helps out a lot,” he said. “They’ve both been there before. I think they both definitely have a shot at being in Columbus this season as well. Last year, we took eight wrestlers to sectional and all eight qualified for district competition. This year, we took ten to sectionals while five qualified for district and one is an alternate. Through all of that, Teagan and Caleb have always been at the top of their game.”
While Johnson and McFadden are both superior wrestlers, Paint Valley’s talent pool doesn’t stop there.
Senior DeShawn Davis and sophomore Blake Evans also have outside shots at making it to the Schottenstein Center. Davis, wrestling in the 195-pound weight class is 31-13 this season while Evans, in the 113-pound class, is 31-8.
“DeShawn has been with us since he was nine to ten years old,” Salomone said. “He’s a ball of muscle. He’s very explosive and while undersized, he’s strong. Plus he wrestles with heart and he wrestles hard. When it comes to Blake, he wrestled last year at 120 pounds. He’s had a really good year this year while being a scrappy, technical wrestler. He’s wrestled some really good kids this year and has beaten some quality opponents.”
With Johnson, McFadden, Davis and Evans front and center, the Bearcats finished second in this past year’s first ever Scioto Valley Conference meet with 124 points — eight behind Zane Trace. In that event, Paint Valley won four individual titles (Evans, Johnson, McFadden and Will Gillingham).
“You want to win your conference meet, then your sectional, your district and compete in Columbus,” Salomone said. “We don’t win a lot of tournaments because our enrollment has went down. Without the numbers, it’s hard to win tournaments as a team. We just focus on the quality of the quantity we have.”
The Bearcats will be in district action this Saturday at Coshocton High School as they try and meet their aspirations of making it to state.
Derrick Webb is a Gazette sportswriter and can be reached at dwebb@chillicothegazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @dw1509.
Paint Valley First Round Matchups in Division III District Tournament
113 pounds: Blake Evans vs. Michael Irvin (Steubenville Catholic Central, 16-20)
138 pounds: Dylan Knight vs. Hunter Pizzino (Harrison Central, 26-1)
170 pounds: Teagan McFadden vs. David Marshall (Fredericktown, 17-9)
182 pounds: Caleb Johnson vs. Cody Redding (Madison Plains, 33-17)
195 pounds: DeShawn Davis vs. Caide Bunfill (Barnesville, 41-4)