Wheeling Central’s Mike Young will be inducted into West Liberty Universities athletic Hall of Fame this month.
A four-year letterman on Coach Edgar Martin’s West Liberty tennis team (1967-71), Mike Young also helped lay the foundation for WL’s highly-regarded athletic training program before embarking on a remarkable high school coaching career
During his time on the hilltop, the Wheeling Central Catholic graduate served as athletic trainer for all sports in the Student Trainer program initiated by Martin, Bob Roe and Dr. Al Blatnik.
After graduation, he had a long and successful career as a teacher, coach and trainer at St. Clairsville (Ohio) High School.
Young won two OVAC tennis titles and was a two-time District Football Coach of the Year selection, compiling a 52-41 record with six ECOL crowns and two OVAC championships.
He moved to Wheeling Central as an assistant football coach in 1997, helping the Maroon Knights to three state titles before taking the head coaching reins in 2005.
Young’s Central teams have gone 80-15 with five state titles and a state record-tying 36-game win streak. He was the 2007 Upper Ohio Valley Dapper Dan Man of the Year and the 2012 OVAC Coach of the Year.
Young taught Special Education for 35 years at St. Clairsville and served 10 years as principal at Fox Run Hospital School. He has been athletic director and Dean of Students at Wheeling Central since 2006.
He and his wife, fellow West Liberty alum Carol Coe Young, reside in Wheeling. They have three sons, John, Jason and Justin, along with a daughter, Whitney, and are the grandparents of Sam and Jillian.
