Local Tour Stop #2

   My travels around the local wrestling teams on Wednesday took me to Claysburg-Kimmel for a look at this year's version of the Bulldogs.
   Claysburg could have as many as 11 returning lettermen in the 2014-15 lineup, which is a good foundation to start from for second-year head coach Dave Aungst. The Bulldogs have seven returnees that posted at least 10 wins last season, led by mid-upperweight Dakotah Feathers with 18.
   Certainly, Aungst would like to see postseason success come from that experience. It was quite an odd sight not to see Claysburg represented at the regional tournament last season.

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   Speaking of Claysburg-Kimmel, the start of each wrestling year begins with one question for me: Who might be the Cody Feathers for this season?

   As a junior, Feathers caught lightning in a bottle during the 2006-07 postseason. It was my first year working at the Bedford Gazette, and Cody's run became a great story and still is one of my highlights over the past eight years of covering the sports scene around here.
   Feathers walked into the Altoona Fieldhouse as the sixth seed in a pretty solid 125-pound bracket at the District 6-AA Tournament. He got to the quarterfinals and knocked off Tyrone's T.J. Albright on that Friday night. The next day, he pinned Northern Cambria's Scott Knarr in the semifinals, then rallied with a late four-point move to defeat Glenn Winslow of Cambria Heights, 6-3, for the improbable championship.
   The next weekend in the Southwest Regional, Feathers earned another title with a 10-8 win over Winslow in the finals. District 6 owned that regional bracket. Aside from Feathers and Winslow, Albright was third, Paul Myers of Penn Cambria took fourth, and Knarr finished sixth.
   The Bulldog ended up winning his first 10 postseason bouts before losing in the state semifinals and eventually placing sixth in Hershey. He had a strong regular season as a senior, but didn't make it back to the Giant Center. However, Feathers was already etched in history, as former Claysburg and current Central head coach Dave Marko painted the names of district and regional champions, and state placewinners on the walls of CK's practice room. You can see my photo of Feathers' district winning accomplishment below.
   Back to the question, which evolves from the fact that Feathers was not even close to the radar when it came to potential state qualifiers, let alone medalists. Yet at the end of the season, he was the Gazette area's only state placewinner.

Is there another Cody Feathers story in the works for this season?