The race to Wheeling Island Stadium kicked off with the announcement of game times and locations for the playoffs Sunday morning at the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission office.

Class AAA Martinsburg, Class AA Fairmont Senior and Class A Doddridge County claimed the top seeds as projected by several on-line outlets.

Both the Bulldogs and Polar Bears are the defending state champion, while the DC Bulldogs advanced to the semifinals last season.

Bobby Burnside’s Doddridge group enters its first-round contest against No. 16 Madonna on a 20-game regular season winning streak.

And despite their top status, Burnside is keeping the boys focused on the Blue Dons.

“What I think is that we are going to get ready to play Madonna,” said Burnside, when asked to comment on the playoff bracket. “Their only losses have been to teams out of Ohio and it is a program that has turned it around. Having the No. 1 seed and having homefield throughout the playoffs is awesome, but we don’t have time to celebrate. We have got to prepare and work hard, that is what got us here.”

Joining the green and gold clad group from West Union in the playoff field are three other Little Kanawha Conference teams.

Williamstown, Ritchie County and St. Marys joined their conference mate in the field.

But, the Blue Devils are the only team on Doddridge County’s side of the bracket. If Jodi Mote’s group advances past Cameron at 1:30 p.m. Saturday then Midland Trail or East Hardy, it will meet the Bulldogs in the semifinals.

St. Marys will play at home until then.

These two teams last met two seasons ago. St. Marys put on an offensive show in the second half for a 42-14 victory. Mote’s squad would advance to The Island for a second straight year.

The team beating them in the championship game finished with the tenth seed.

Two time defending Class A champion Wheeling Central, who had three games to figure things out following the loss of all-state first-team quarterback Curtis McGhee III to an ACL injury, kick off their postseason with a visit to Tolsia.

The Maroon Knights path back to The Island features possible matchups against the Rebels (second round) and Yellowjackets (semifinals).

Ritchie County’s 7:30 p.m. Friday matchup with South Harrison comes as one of two re-matches in the state’s smallest classification. Rick Haught’s Rebels bested Chris Underwood’s Hawks 38-12 on Oct. 11.

Pendleton County versus Moorefield is the other re-match. The Yellow Jackets from the Eastern Panhandle shut out the then-top rated Wildcats, 35-0, Nov. 1 at home.

Williamstown, meanwhile, welcomes visitors from Williamson in Tug Valley. Terry Smith’s Yellowjackets rested last week on a bye. His players have had time to think about a 20-7 loss to Doddridge County in the season finale. The loss snapped their eight-game win streak, cost the group the LKC title as well as home field advantage until the semifinals.

In Class AAA, South and Parkersburg High’s potential path to the championship matchup goes through Martinsburg.

Of course, they have to get there first.

Nathan Tanner, in his first year as head coach of the Patriots, led his team to a 9-1 record and were rewarded with the fourth seed. They can play two home games in the upcoming weeks. Provided they send South Charleston back to the Kanawha Valley with a defeat. Donnie Mays’ group comes in off a 62-21 loss to second-seeded Cabell Midland.

The Eagles do have two wins over playoff teams in Hurricane and George Washington by the identical score of 28-14.

Overall, they faced five 2019 postseason qualifying teams in the regular season.

PHS faced seven playoffs teams, but finished with a 2-5 mark against said competition. Mike Byus’ group beat Hurricane (42-28) and Eastern Panhandle opponent Spring Mills (27-7).

Spring Mills, of course, traveled to meet the Big Reds.

Byus’ group doesn’t get lucky the second time around facing a EP team.

Musselman and standout running back Blake Hartman welcome PHS for a 7:30 p.m. Friday kickoff at the home of the Appleman.

Wins by both the Patriots and the Big Reds sets up a rematch at Erickson All-Sports Facility the following Friday or Saturday. Game time would be decided by PHS as the road team.

If either team advanced, the date with the top-ranked Bulldogs happens the following week.

Of course, in order to achieve goals and break school and state records, a lot of work has to take place behind the scenes in the matroom.

The beauty of covering the sport is in watching the athletes try to realize their dreams.

Parkersburg South senior 152-pounder Josh Humphreys had a new home this winter, but things couldn’t have turned out any better.

Not only did Humphreys’ final win in the state finals to secure his fourth career title, but it also pushed South to a new state scoring record.

Ask any of the Patriot wrestlers about Humphreys and one of the first things they will tell you is how glad they were to have the opportunity to have him as a member of the team.

That includes Humphreys himself.

When I asked him if he had made some lifelong friends at PSHS he replied “no doubt about it. This group of guys are the best group of guys I’ve been with, without a doubt.

“I love these guys. They are the hardest workers. I love seeing all these guys get state championships.”

State champion Patriot Zane Hinzman is definitely going to miss his main practice partner next year.

“I mean, he’s such a good kid,” Hinzman said of Humphreys. “We used to wrestle all the time in peewee and all of our matches were close. We were like 9 or 10 and he beat me like six times throughout the year and when I was at the state finals I finally beat him in overtime in the last seconds.

“I always hold that against him, even though he beats me now. I still hold that against him. Him and his family are great people.”

Brayden Roberts, who also won his first state mat title, gave props to Humphreys and others for making PSHS wrestling what it is.

“This team is great,” he said. “The atmosphere is wonderful and it definitely helps that I got teammates like Josh Humphreys, Braxton (Amos), Luke Martin, Gavin (Quiocho). Everybody puts in some type of work and makes everybody better.

“The next couple of years, I went over to the junior states and I can definitely see us doing great things the next couple years because we’ve got some middle schoolers coming up and some prospects. We want to keep the winning tradition up for as long as we can.”

The sophomore Amos, who finally got his first state mat title after missing last year due to injury, also was appreciative of being able to experience a matroom with Humphreys in it.

“It was a lot of fun. Coming in I didn’t know Josh a whole lot,” Amos stated. “We knew each other from just passing in tournaments and stuff.

“Getting to know him has been an honor of mine. He’s a great guy and a great role model for anyone to look up to. I wish him the best of luck at Lehigh.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com