Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Town of Champions, Part V


In the latest installment of Town of Champions, which takes a brief look at the rich local sports tradition of a local school/town, the Varsity Letters examines Waynesburg Central High School.

Waynesburg

Wrestling and Waynesburg High School go hand-in-hand. The Raiders rank right behind legendary powerhouses Canon-McMillan and Trinity in terms of tradition and champions. The Raiders won WPIAL championships in 1977, 79, 80, 88 and 1989. A total of 30 state champions wrestled for the program.

Football also had its share of success, winning the 1999 WPIAL Class AA title. Lanfer Simpson and Lee Fritz, who went on the lead the Big East in batting while at West Virginia, were the standouts.

Waynesburg also won a WPIAL baseball title in 1999 and reached the state championship that year.

The softball team won the 2005 WPIAL Class AA championship.

A wide variety of standout athletes call Waynesburg home, none more heralded than Bill George.

While with the Chicago Bears, George is credited with inventing the position of standup linebacker. He is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Waynesburg also produced Josh Kosheck, a former NCAA wrestling champion and one of the more controversial stars in UFC. Jocelyn Lindsay is the first WPIAL and PIAA Class AA pole vault champion. Rachel Rohanna has won two of the last three PIAA golf championships and is in her senior year.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are we also including Waynesburg University as part of the "town of champions?" If so, be prepared to include a baseball national title this year with the ditty brothers doing their canseco-mcgwire impression.

mike_kovak said...

Thought about adding Waynesburg U but I didn't add W&J to Washington.

Anonymous said...

Ditty how ya doin kid? You should come play with me up at Kent State. We could tear it up. You are the only Left-handed hitter that I cannot strikeout.