It was a year of personal triumph more so than for teams.

While there were some team success stories, individual milestones were more prevalent during the past local sports year. Here are some of the highlights:

January

Rock Hill Redwomen senior guard Jordan Edwards scored the 1,000th point of her career.

Zach Murphy, a student at Deering Elementary, advanced to the state competition of the annual Elks Hoop Shoot foul shooting contest.

February

Ironton's Roman Fry signed a scholarship to play for Clemson.

Chesapeake boys won an unprecedented seventh straight OVC basketball championship. Rock Hill claimed the girls cage crown.

Green won its seventh district title in a row after winning the SOC title for the fifth time in six years. The Green girls also won the sectional.

Bill Dressel became the eighth player in St. Joseph school history to score 1,000 career points. Included on the list are his father, Bill, and brother, Joe.

Chesapeake reached the district finals while South Point advanced to the district semifinals. The Chesapeake girls lost in the district semifinals while the Fairland girls fell in the district finals.

Former Chesapeake standout Brian Davis, son of head football coach Phil Davis, was named to the fourth annual NCAA Div. I-AA Athletic Directors Academic All-Star team. Davis was a defensive back for Morehead State.

Mark Vass, an athletic standout at Ironton, was named head golf coach at Heidelberg College. Vass also serves as an assistant football coach at the school.

March

Chesapeake boys basketball coach Norm Persin received the Paul Walker Award for his significant contributions to the

high school game. The presentation was made during ceremonies at the state basketball tournament.

Ironton St. Joseph's Bill Dressel was a first team AP Div. IV All-Ohio selection after being the district Player of the Year. Green's Jacob Yarnell was special mention All-Ohio and Symmes Valley's Drew Hunt honorable mention.

In Div. III, South Point's Shane Holsinger (special mention), Chesapeake's Aaron Gossett (honorable mention) and Rock Hill's David Schug (honorable mention) were honored on the All-Ohio team.

Named to the girls Div. III AP All-Ohio basketball team as special mention were Rock Hill's Jordan Edwards and Fairland's Jeana Diamond.

Selected All-Ohio honorable mention were Ironton's Candace Ferguson, Chesapeake's Emily Delimpo and Lisa Perry, and Fairland's Brooke Fisher.

In Div. IV, Green's Megan Tackett was a first team pick.

Former Ironton Lady Fighting Tigers All-Ohio star Kristen New was named to the 2001-02 South Atlantic first team all-conference women's basketball team. New scored 1,000 career points at Tusculum College.

Ironton native and former race car driver Roger Gustin was a unanimous choice to be inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

April

Fairland Lady Dragons pitcher Jessica Mann set the school record for career wins with No. 37, surpassing JoAnn Harmon held the old mark with a 36-15 record.

Marshall sophomore forward and former St. Joseph star Joe Dressel was the co-recipient of the Whitey Wilson Student/Athlete Award, the top academic award given to a Herd basketball player.

Fairland won both the boys baseball and girls softball OVC championships.

May

St. Joseph's Bill Dressel was honored as an All-Ohio Academic selection. Dressel was first team All-Ohio in basketball and posted a 3.91 grade point average.

Ironton's Mike Burcham retired as the school's athletic director after 30 years in the position. He was a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Directors Hall of Fame.

Ironton beat South Point 13-2 to win the Div. III sectional championship, but lost in extra innings to Minford in the district finals.

Chesapeake won the boys and girls OVC track championships.

Fairland won the sectional softball title, but lost to Oak Hill in the district finals.

Symmes Valley won the boys SOC baseball championship and reached the district finals before falling to New Boston.

Mark Madden, an Ironton native, was named to the Michigan High School Tennis Coaches Association's Hall of Fame.

June

Chesapeake's Ryan Slone set a school record with the 1:55.77 clocking in the 800 meters to qualify for the state meet. He eclipsed the old mark of 1:56.6 set by Charles Wolfe in 1966.

Roger Zornes was named Ironton's new boys basketball coach after a long and successful career at Boyd County, Ky. Zornes had a 447-175 record that includes 15 district titles, seven regionals crowns, and guided the Lions to seven state tournament berths.

Qualifying for the state track meet were Slone, Rock Hill hurdler Jessica Kerns, Fairland's Britani Keeney, South Point's Donte Pennington, Zach Smith and Porsha Ball, Chesapeake Eric Myers and Michael Hunt, Coal Grove's Rick Wynn and Dan Cordle, and Fairland 4×100 relay team of Tristan Clark, Tyler Bowman, Chance Adkins and Antwuane Brown.

At the state meet, Slone was second in the 800 meters and Keeney runner-up in the discus. Pennington was third in the 100 and fifth in the 200. Ball was seventh in the 100 meters and Smith eighth in the 800.

Hunt was fifth in the 300 hurdles and eighth in the 110 hurdles. Myers was sixth in the discus.

Ironton's Chad Parker, who set several school hitting records, was named to the All-Ohio team in baseball, while Fairland's Jessica Mann and Symmes Valley's Lori Harmon were All-Ohio in softball.

Beth Freeman was named Ironton girls volleyball and softball coach, and Amy Hughes took over as the girls basketball coach.

Ironton's Roman Fry played in the annual North/South All-Ohio Classic and the Big 33 All-Star Game that pits Ohio's top 33 players against the Pennsylvania All-Stars.

Bob Wilds returned as the girls basketball coach at Rock Hill.

July

A dedication ceremony was held as legendary Tanks Memorial Stadium was named a historic site in Ohio.

Ohio State golfer and former Ironton All-Ohio star Justin Collins was fourth in the Ohio Amateur Tournament.

Ironton's Little League team won the district tournament and advanced to the state event.

Fairland's senior league qualified for the state tournament and finished as runners-up.

Ironton Fighting Tigers team physician Dr. John Leach was named the recipient of the second annual Dr. Gregory Brooks Memorial Award for his dedicated work with high school athletics.

August

Fairland's Little League girls softball team finished as state runners-up.

Ironton All-Ohio quarterback and safety Drew Mains signed to play at Wittenburg University.

South Point's Shane Holsinger became a member of the Eastern Kentucky men's basketball team.

September

Ironton native Brian Citti was named the Marshall University athletic department marketing director.

Fairland won its sixth straight OVC golf title.

October

Ironton and Fairland qualified for the district golf tournament.

ESPN's Kenny Mayne interviewed Ironton's Glenn Presnell for a segment on the NFL Today. Presnell is the oldest living former NFL player.

Symmes Valley won its first-ever SOC football championship while Chesapeake won the OVC title for the fourth straight year.

Ironton, Chesapeake and Symmes Valley qualified for the postseason playoffs. Chesapeake reach the regional finals for the first time in school history before losing to Amanda-Clearcreek in Div. V.

November

Ironton's Matt White and Tyler Whaley were first team All-Ohio selections in Div. IV.

Named special mention were Ironton's Jeremy Akers, Rock Hill's David Schug and James Russell.

In Div. VI, Symmes Valley's Joseph Patterson was a first team pick while teammates Michael Roth,

Drew Hunt Nathan Pinkerman were special mention along with Green's Jimmy Moore.

Chesapeake had Michael Hunt, Cody Hunt, Zach Waugh, and Todd Marcum named special mention All-Ohio in Div. V.

December

Rock Hill's David Schug scored 21 points to eclipse the 1,000-point career scoring mark.

Dan McDavid was named the new South Point High School football coach.

Ironton native Courtney Doughman signed a letter-of-intent to play for Maryland Baltimore.

Marshall won the MAC championship and quarterback Byron Leftwich won a second straight conference Player of the Year award.