DANVILLE — Cade Mickley helped get the inaugural Danville wrestling season started.
Now, he’ll be the one to finish it.
Mickley will be the lone Blue Devil to take to the mat as the OHSAA State Wrestling Championship begins today. The Danville junior will be one of 16 wrestlers competing for the title in the 132-pound category. It’s his first time; Mickley placed sixth at the Division III district tournament in Coshocton last season.
He was just a sophomore then. Now, a year older and a year wiser, Mickley feels he’s ready for the biggest spotlight in Ohio.
“It was my goal,” Mickley told the News, shortly after another long practice earlier this week. “First, it was to win MBC (Mid-Buckeye Conference). Then, to get to districts. Then, to get to state.”
Unlike the other 15 participants, Mickley’s path to state took an unusual turn — one that took him about seven miles northeast.
Mickley had spent his first two years of high school at East Knox, but admitted he had been considering the idea of transferring to Danville throughout his sophomore year. Late that winter, following the district wrestling tournament at Coshocton, then-East Knox head coach Keith Kauffman informed the team that he had accepted the task of starting a wrestling program at Danville.



