photo by: Kim North

There will be five new coaches and one new program when the 70th annual OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Tournament begins on Jan.18-20 inside WesBanco Arena. Three of the new coaches are pictured. From left are Derek Martin, Cameron; Justin Rossiter, Shenandoah; and Andrew Jackson, Frontier. The Cougars will be making their OVAC debut. Not pictured are Brian Bullock (Dover) and Garrett Davis (Marietta).

The number of teams that will participate in the 70th annual OVAC Ron Mauck Wrestling Tournament in January has increased to 43 with the addition of Frontier.

The announcement was made Monday night inside the lobby at WesBanco Arena where the preseason press conference was held. All but three of the schools were represented.

“Be happy and be proud of this tournament,” OVAC Executive Director Dirk Decoy told those in attendance. “This is one of the OVAC’s crown jewels and we’re proud of it.”

The three-day event gets underway on Thursday, Jan. 18 with the Olympic-style opening ceremonies and concludes on Sat., Jan. 20 with the championship finals.

Andrew Jackson is the new coach at Frontier and he is excited to get going.

“I’m a transplant to the area and my son came to live with me last year during his freshman year,” Jackson said. “The only sport he is involved in is wrestling, so I started asking questions about what we needed to do to make this happen.”

Jackson said the Cougars were a “club sport” in 2022-23 but the wrestlers weren’t eligible for postseason action.

“We currently have 20 high school kids and a couple of middle school kids,” Jackson explained. “We’ve also got about 20 kids in our youth program, as well.”

As for his goals, Jackson would like to see the kids have a chance to go to the state tournament,” he stressed.

“I wanted to give the kids that opportunity. We need to coach the kids the right way and make sure they are developing the right way.”

The only costs involved were the purchase of a mat and some singlets

“It was easy to sell to the school board at that point,” he noted.

Other new coaches include Derek Martin (Cameron), Justin Rossiter (Shenandoah), Brian Bullock (Dover) and Garrett Davis (Marietta).