Schedule Highlights for 2018-19

   Below are some of the important and intriguing matches and tournaments for the upcoming high school wrestling season around the local area:

December 7
   North Star at Everett - Opening Night for Winter Sports, and this could be a good match to kick off the new season between two of the upper echelon teams in District 5.

December 11
   Forest Hills at Bedford - A bunch of new faces, and familiar ones in new spots. Joel Easter makes his head coaching debut at Bedford, who will also have Kaden Cassidy in its lineup as the former junior high standout in Bison colors returns home. Meanwhile, it will be an early chance to see a few of the highly anticipated freshmen expected to be in the lineup for the Rangers.

December 14-15
   Panther Holiday Classic, King of the Mountain Tournament - The first big tournament weekend hits with events at Mount Aloysius and Central Mountain. Chestnut Ridge will attempt to win a second straight KOM team title.

December 18
   Forest Hills at Chestnut Ridge - Expect a full house in Fishertown on this night, which could ultimately determine the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship. While Chestnut Ridge does have to replace most of its middleweight portion of its lineup, it's a chance to see how good Forest Hills is against one of the top programs in the state over the last half-dozen years.

Holiday Week Tournaments
   Southmoreland Classic, Powerade Tournament - In the past, Northern Bedford was the only team from the county to go to Southmoreland, which is not Powerade level but still a solid event between a lot of Class AA and AAA schools from the Southwest Regionals. Bedford and Tussey Mountain join the fold this year. Meanwhile at Canon-Mac, Chestnut Ridge's Jared McGill will be the local highlight as he goes for two straight Powerade titles against a top-notch field.

January 5
   Everett Duals - Everett hosts its dual-meet event again, with other teams including Cambria Heights, Central, and Forest Hills among others on hand.

January 19
   Ultimate Duals - Chestnut Ridge returns again to Brookville's Ultimate Duals, where the Lions have fared rather well over the years against a field that includes defending state duals champion Reynolds, host Brookville, Burrell, and others. This year, Conneaut Area and Freedom are also slated to be there.
 
January 25-26
   Thomas Tournament - It wouldn't be a wrestling season around here without the annual Thomas Tournament, which features a number of programs from Districts 5 and 6 along with some from Districts 3, 7, 10, 11 and Maryland.

February 2
   District 5 Duals - Chestnut Ridge has owned the district team duals title for six straight years - can anyone knock the Lions off? This is the day for that to be determined.

February 7-9
   Class AA, Class AAA state duals - Hershey's Giant Center plays host to its first of two annual wrestling championships as the team duals take center stage first. Reynolds (Class AA) and Bethlehem Catholic (Class AAA) are defending champs.

February 15-16
   District 5, District 6-AA Tournaments - Regional qualifiers in Class AA from District 5 and District 6 will be determined in separate events at UPJ's Sports Center and the Altoona Fieldhouse.

February 22-23
   Class AA Southwest Regional - IUP will be the place to be to see how many locals earn their place in the state tournament for the season.

March 7-9
   Class AA, Class AAA State Tournament - After a week off for area AA wrestlers, the state tournament in Hershey closes out what should be another strong season of local competition.