St. Clairsville Athletic Hall Of Fame To Welcome Four Individuals, One Team During Game vs. Bloom-Carroll

ST. CLAIRSVILLE - During halftime of Friday night's football game at Red Devil Stadium, four individuals and one team will be inducted into the St. Clairsville Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2025.

The honorees include Jay Browning, Pat Drazga, Heidi (Zavatsky) Mooney, Stephen Polinsky and the 2016 Boys Track and Field team.

A brief capsule of each inductee follows:

JAY BROWNING, Class of 1972

A multi-year letterman in four sports, it was the sport of basketball where Browning shined the brightest.

Browning earned four letters on the hardwood, scoring 917 career points. A bulk of those came during his senior campaign when he led the Ohio Valley in scoring at a 27.2 points per game clip. All told, he played 72 career games for the Red Devils and connected on 360 field goals. He was also efficient at the foul line, covering 197 of 290 opportunities.

Browning earned All-OVAC and captained the team for his efforts as a senior.

On the football field, Browning accumulated 875 yards as a senior as he earned his third letter.

A standout in baseball, Browning lettered twice and hit .350 as a senior. He also lettered twice in track and field.

Browning went on to play basketball at Walsh College.

PAT DRAZGA, Class of 1987

A multi-sport standout during his time with the Red Devils, Drazga shined in basketball, baseball and football.

On the court, Drazga scored 1,045 career points, including 562 of those points during his senior season. He had a career-high output of 41 points during a senior season in which he averaged 25.6 points a game. He wasn't just a scorer, however. He also averaged 8.6 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. That followed a junior season in which he ranked 10th in the Ohio Valley in scoring at 17.6 a night.

Drazga was his team's MVP as both a junior and senior and earned Third-Team All-Ohio in basketball. He was chosen All-District 12, All-Eastern District, All-OVAC and All-Valley. He played in the DIstrict 12 and Ohio North-South All-Star Games.

On the diamond, Drazga was a pitcher and first baseman for legendary head coach and fellow HOF'er Lefty Hall. As a senior, Drazga helped the Red Devils post a 15-8 record by hitting .333 and his work on the mound resulted in a 3.89 earned run average in 27 innings of work.

That followed a 1986 season in which Drazga hit .353.

In football, Drazga started at defensive back for the Red Devils as a senior, helping St. C. to reach the state semifinals.

After his prep career, Drazga elected to continue his basketball career at Wright State University.

He played in 12 games as a frosh, but shifted to baseball for the balance of his college athletic career. He was a relief pitcher.

Drazga graduated from Wright State in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. He's since moved to Wexford, Pa. and owns and operates Drazga Wealth Advisors. He and his wife, Julia, have two children.

HEIDI MOONEY, Class of 1990

Mooney has bled Red and Gray during her life where she shined as an athlete and returned to St. C. as a teacher and coach, earning a multitude of accolades.

As a coach, Mooney helped take the Lady Red Devils' cross country team to new heights nearly two decades ago. During the 2009 season, Mooney guided her team to a state runner-up team finish in cross country, coming up just eight points shy of the title.

Prior to the state meet, St. C. was undefeated that fall. It had won the Buckeye 8, OVCCL, OVAC, District and regional meets in basically commanding fashion. Her team had three All-Ohio finishers (Kelly Perzanowski, Kate Hodgson and Jamie Perzanowski).

That campaign followed a season in which the Devils began to show what was in store. St. C. won the OVAC (class and overall titles) and district before finishing second in the regional to advance to the state meet, as a team, for the first time in school history.

Mooney guided the Red Devils to the 2007 OVAC title and a trip to the regional meet.

Mooney coached the cross country team from 1994 through 2010. She won four East District Coach of the Year honors, was a finalist for OVAC Coach of the Year in 2010 and received the Fred Daffler Career State Coaching Award in 2009.

Mooney, who earned nine letters as an athlete at St. C. in cross country, basketball and track, is a member of the St. C. teaching faculty. She is currently the St. C. head golf coach and led the Red Devils to an OVAC Class 4A title last month.

Heidi and her husband, Ronan, have three children — Beau, Julia and Ryan.

STEPHEN POLINSKY, Class of 1985

It was on the wrestling mats where Polinsky made his biggest mark in Red Devil history.

Polinsky finished his senior season with an impressive 30-1 mark with his only loss coming in the state championship bout. En route to the state runner-up finish, Polinsky won the OVAC, district and regional titles at 126 pounds.

Finishing with more than 100 wins in his prep career, Polinsky was a two-time state qualifier and placed fourth in the OVAC in 1984. He also won the championship at the Barnesville Invite and was a four-time champion of the Steubenville Open Tournament.

Along with his wrestling exploits, Polinsky lettered in cross country and served as team captain as a senior.

Stephen and his wife, Rubi, have been married 31 years and currently reside in San Antonio. The couple has three sons — Alex, Zach and Nate.

2016 BOYS TRACK & FIELD TEAM

This team put forth a season that won't be ever forgotten because a state championship banner hangs in the gymnasium to honor it.

With the OVAC, district and regional titles already dotting its resume, the Red Devils sent a delegation of five athletes — Zach Bigelow, Isiah Green, DeVon Harris, Malachi Mellema and Jordan Vincent — in five events to Columbus for the Division II state meet.

Then head coach Tony Ciroli's group, which included a coaching staff of Greg Kazmirski and Natalie (Perzanowski) Bigelow, couldn't have scripted a better start to the meet. Vincent, who was a junior on the team, won the long jump title, making him the first St. C. athlete — regardless of sport — to claim an individual state championship with a mark of 22-11 3/4.

Those 10 points set the tone because Mellema, who was also a junior, proceeded to qualify to the championship run in the 110 high hurdles and 300 intermediate hurdles, while the 4×100 team of Green, Harris, Bigelow and Vincent, grabbed the ninth and final qualifying spot to the championship final by three, one hundredths of a second.

That set up what was about to occur on Saturday afternoon. Mellema got things going when he joined Vincent as an individual state champion in the high hurdles. He added eight more points in intermediate hurdles as the state runnerup.

However, it was the 4×1 team that truly proved to be the ultimate difference. Prior to this season, only eight teams had advanced to the championship running finals, but taking advantage of another opportunity to race, the Red Devils quartet turned in a fourth-place finish for a crucial five points.

With 33 points racked up after 13 events, the Devils were in the clubhouse and could simply wait and see. Lexington, which finished second, scored its final points in the 3200 meter run and didn't have a 4×4 team in the field. Thus, the Red Devils had clinched the title.