Inside the World of Women’s Roller Derby in Wheeling Karin Butyn March 13, 2023 “This sport is so empowering,” Krystal, more aptly known as Green Eggs and Slam, explains as we discuss the following Ohio Valley Roller Derby has built in the valley over the course of the last thirteen years....
Wheeling and WesBanco Arena To Serve as Host for The Basketball Tournament’s 2023 West Virginia Regional Provided March 2, 2023 The Basketball Tournament (TBT), the 64-team, $1 million winner-take-all event, today announced that Wheeling and WesBanco Arena will serve as a host site for one of TBT’s regional events for 2023. Best Virgini...
Wheeling Lightningbirds Inspire All Of Us To Try Something New Lindsay Ammirante November 29, 2022 Growing up in Wheeling allows for some pretty special core memories. From your trips through the Oglebay Festival Lights to the Italian Festival “back when it was on Market Street,” to biting into slice of DiCa...
Bowling Meets Golf This Weekend in Wheeling Kaden Bednarek September 23, 2022 What do bowling, golf, and winding country roads have in common? The answer is Irish Road Bowling, and this beloved sporting event returns this weekend in Wheeling! Not familiar with Irish Road Bowling? Thi...
The Secret Lives of Wheeling’s Pigeons Kate Wietor January 5, 2022 Pigeons. Doves. Rats with wings. All names for Columba livia— our humble city pigeon. Have you seen the flock of pigeons around town? Sometimes they are on a sunny roof, surveying the scene below. Other times t...
This Popular Sport is Taking Wheeling by Storm Rich Wooding January 4, 2022 As folks from across the Ohio Valley hit gyms en masse in an effort to kickstart new healthy habits in the new year, there is one activity they may want to consider: pickleball, the fastest growing sport in Ame...
The Era of the Ironmen, Wheeling’s Semi-Pro Football Team Rich Wooding December 29, 2020 It was a chance encounter. A Columbus, OH attorney who had just launched a mid-west semi-professional football league came to Wheeling, WV for a federal court matter and saw Wheeling Island Stadium. The s...
The Inspiration, Wisdom, And Courage Of Ann Thomas Steve Novotney June 3, 2020 8 Editor's note: This week, Weelunk will pause our normally scheduled programming to highlight stories that feature Black narratives. We have chosen to take this time to amplify those voices that are so often sil...
Wheeling’s Women Are Slam Dunks Stacey Miller Sacco May 4, 2020 Wheeling loves sports. This is evident by the high participation in every Ohio Valley Athletic Conference event. You know it when you see the hundreds of people who come to Wheeling for Super Six weekend or Bea...
Cracks, Whizzes and Cheers: Eight Decades of American Legion Baseball Nick Musgrave July 5, 2019 Before the advent of television, Wheeling families found entertainment among the sounds of cracks, whizzes and cheers of the local baseball diamonds. The Friendly City was home to teams at all levels: from the ...
Our South American Odyssey: Day 7 Jason Koegler April 8, 2019 Day 6 brought practice, Day 7, April 3 2019, was Game Day. It seems all of our efforts in fundraising, planning and practicing have led to this moment. This was the day our boys from Wheeling and the Ohio Valle...
Our South American Odyssey: Day 6 Jason Koegler April 6, 2019 We have been in in Cordoba, Argentina now for three days and on Tuesday April 2 2019 we were ready to take the field for the first time. But first we needed to take care of something we had been planning for a ...
Our South American Odyssey: Day 5 Jason Koegler April 4, 2019 Last you heard from us it was Day 4 and the boys were holding a "sleepover" with their host families. When they awoke on Monday April 1 2019, they had, literally and figuratively, never been this far home. Yes,...
Our South American Odyssey: Day 1 Jason Koegler March 30, 2019 It was 5 a.m. on Thursday, March 27, 2019, when 14 boys from the FC Wheeling United U-14 soccer team became a part of a long-standing Wheeling “send-off” tradition by convening at the White Palace parking lot i...
Sports Complex Addition for The Highlands Steve Novotney November 9, 2017 5 A goal adopted by the Ohio County Commission a decade ago will finally be realized at The Highlands when a multi-purpose sports complex is constructed and opened to the public in late 2018 or early 2019. Orp...
My Summer of Golf Weelunk Staff September 13, 2017 2 The leadership of Oglebay Park and the Wheeling Park Commission decided to DO SOMETHING this year about the state of golf in the Ohio Valley - namely, that golf numbers are down, and young local people aren't n...
WOTC Offers Youth and Adult Summer Camps at Oglebay Debbie Pickens June 6, 2017 Let this be the summer that your family begins the sport of a lifetime! The Wheeling Oglebay Tennis Club wants to get you on the courts. With the goal of growing the sport, the WOTC will be sponsoring both yout...
When “Big League” Basketball Came to Wheeling Chris Rouhier May 25, 2017 When “Big League” Basketball Came to Town: The Short-Lived West Virginia Wheels In 2009 and 2010, as a then-junior at Wheeling Jesuit University, I compiled quite a bit of research and interviews related to ...
Cardinals Are Sweet Sixteen Chris Myers March 12, 2017 And it's on to the Cardinals first NCAA Division II Regional Final! Wheeling Jesuit put together a 24-5 run starting with 10 minutes left and surged past Shippensburg, 97-91, in the Atlantic Regional Semifinals...
Wheeling’s Golden Core Jason Koegler November 10, 2016 This isn't a sports story. It's not a sentimental story. It's not a "glory days" story. It's a story of a city, Wheeling, West Virginia, whose core is made of gold. State Champs On Novemember 9th, 19...
Sauter Returns for Pro Hockey’s 25th Anniversary Steve Novotney October 15, 2016 He bawled like a baby when he returned to Wesbanco Arena yesterday, and that’s not exactly how hockey fans in Wheeling remember Doug Sauter, the head coach that escorted a minor-league hockey franchise from Nor...
Nailers Coaches Prepping Team for Home Opener Steve Novotney October 11, 2016 It may seem like a wait-and-see situation for fans of the Wheeling Nailers, but the team’s coaches have not approached preseason training camp with an uncertain roster in mind. For head coach Jeff Christian ...
CCHS Airs Excitement Over Broadcasting Honor Steve Novotney October 2, 2016 “I like broadcasting because it helps me step out of my comfort zone. It also helps me with my speech and my public speaking. I am a little nervous before we get started, but once we get rolling, everything see...
CCHS Homecoming: Beach Day and Sports World Guest Speaker Kaitlyn Carpino September 29, 2016 As an alumna of Central Catholic High School, I was thrilled to learn that I would have the opportunity to return to my alma mater as a student teacher, and that I would once again be able to participate in CCH...
The King and Oglebay Steve Novotney September 26, 2016 2 Arnold Palmer Recalled by Oglebay's Randy Worls He knew it would spoil, but the child didn’t seem to care, so Arnold Palmer signed his banana peel and handed it to the young man. That’s the kind of man Pa...
Koslik Peddles Her Way to Nation’s Capital Steve Novotney September 14, 2016 2 It rained. Ok, so it actually poured. A lot. On her. At times, in fact, the rainfall seemed to be targeting her. “It’s the one thing you can’t plan for, and the weather did alter some things during the...
The Curse, The Crown, And The Clowns Jon-Erik Gilot September 11, 2016 How The Cleveland Cavaliers Restored My Hope In Humanity…And The Cleveland Browns When a friend asked me this past spring if I’d consider writing a Weelunk.com article on my Cleveland Browns fandom, I told ...
“Coach” Sam Andy: 1940 – 2016 Steve Novotney August 2, 2016 1 He fought for what he believed in whether he was a coach, a teacher, a member of the Ohio County Board of Education, a radio commentator, or a friend. And Sam Andy battled for people, too, because, in many c...
ECHL Hockey Legend’s Cup Is Overflowing Steve Novotney June 9, 2016 He admits it. He told a little fib during his very first hockey tryout. Patrick Kelly grew up in a small town in Ontario, and in 1948 the local fire department had placed an ad in the newspaper about the try...
Nailers Earn Trip to Cup Finals Weelunk Staff May 25, 2016 For the first time since 1993, Wheeling, W.Va, is going to the ECHL's Championship Series. On Tuesday night, the Wheeling Nailers broke a 2-2 tie with three goals in a span of 4:39 during the early stag...
The Toppers Take Texas LeeRoy March 28, 2016 The No. 5-ranked West Liberty University men's basketball team, playing in their fifth Elite Eight in six years, came up one basket short of advancing to their second NCAA Division II national championship game...
Central’s Harler A Winner On And Off Court Steve Novotney February 13, 2016 3 “The average person would lay there. Be different. Be great.” That is what one of two posters taped directly above his pillow states, and the other reads, “You’re lying there while someone is outworking you....
WJU #2, WLU #3 Weelunk Staff February 10, 2016 Ohio County is becoming NCAA Division II's Tobacco Road. Wheeling Jesuit University and West Liberty University are not only battling for local bragging rights, but are now competing for pole position in the ...
Help Celebrate WJU’s National Championship Philip Stahl January 17, 2016 Wheeling Jesuit University (WJU) has planned a week's worth of events for the campus and the community to celebrate the Cardinals' first-ever national championship. “Capturing a national championsh...
Donatelli: ‘I’m As Ready as I Ever Will Be’ Steve Novotney December 19, 2015 1 He doesn’t know. He didn’t know on Dec. 13, the day after Mike Johnston was fired as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he says he will know nothing until maybe Monday. But what Clark Donatelli d...
Ronell Green – Wheeling’s Boxing Champ Steve Novotney October 7, 2015 He stayed calm, and he listened; he followed the game plan; he paced himself; he was patient; he kept his temper tempered; and he represented East Wheeling’s Bullpen Fight Club exactly the way he wished. Tha...
Are You Ready For Some (Injury-Free) Football? Justin Kiger August 27, 2015 Go ahead. Sing it to yourself. We all hear it in our heads -- that familiar Monday Night Football tune. It’s coming. Football is back for 2015, and, depending on where you are in life, it has different meanings...
‘The Sportsical’ – A Dream Come True Steve Novotney January 18, 2015 3 By Steve Novotney Weelunk.com Jakob Bedway enjoys sports – even hockey, despite his father’s objections. “Watching hockey can be tough in the Bedway house,” the 11-year-old fifth grader honestly admitt...
