If you look in the dictionary under “excellence” and “quality” you should see this synonym: “Monongah.”

Monongah Middle School girls track continued the Monongah tradition of quality and excellence, repeating as Marion County Middle School champions.

Chad Davidson and Anna McKenzie coached the 2018 track queens. Chad has been the boys coach for 7 years, winning 3 Mason-Dixon championships in 4 years and one Marion County and at the same time that Monongah took 3 girls Mason-Dixon championships and one Marion County.

Plus cross-country championship in girls one year and boys the previous year.

And the Monongah Lions won the A-Ball baseball title last year. The team was made up of Monongah and Mannington players.

Monongah High won five state football titles (1952, 1955, 1968, 1969 and 1973) and a state baseball championship (1955, with the late Frank DeMoss the star pitcher on that team).

Monongah Middle excels beyond sports, too.

It is a West Virginia State Exemplary School, a West Virginia Reward School and, in 2013, was a National Blue Ribbon School for its academic excellence.

Paula Cook McIntire was 2017 Marion County Teacher of the Year for her exemplary influence at Monongah Elementary.

Monongah Middle received a Superior rating, the highest possible, at the Regional 10 Band Festival last year in Bridgeport.

Monongah Middle raised the most money for the United Way five times in six years.

Last year Monongah Middle School cheerleaders won the Beckley-Stratton Middle School cheer competition title.

Monongah Middle School language arts teacher Lisa Myers McCombs, Class of 1977, is a  children’s book author who received the Marion County Reading Council’s Patti R. Pollack Reading Teacher of the Year Award.

All these great achievements emulate the great Monongah High teachers of eons ago like Mary Turkovich and Blair Wolfe.