Aug 31, 2008 By Christine Haines 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – Flying wood chips and roaring chain saws were the telltale signs that the 11th Annual Timber Day Celebration sponsored by the Connellsville Area Chamber of Commerce was under way at Yough River Park. Both amateur and professional lumberjacks competed in a number of events, with a family from Somerset County sweeping the amateur competitions.

In the amateur speed cutting competition John Teets III of Berlin, Somerset County, took first place, cutting three “cookies” from a log with a chain saw in 8.45 seconds. His brothers Jason Teets of Berlin and Lonnie Prinkey of Ohiopyle took first place in the two-man saw competition. Prinkey also placed first in the amateur precision chain saw competition, cutting the three thinnest cookies with a chain saw in 33.6 seconds.

Jason Teets said all three brothers have cut timber for a living at one time or another. John Teets III said he currently works for a tree trimming contractor and the family has timbered some of the land at Patsy Hillman Park in Luzerne Township.

“It was just born into us, I guess,” Prinkey said. “I grew up around it all my life.”

John Teets Jr., the father of the three competitors, said he cut timber for 40 years, simultaneously working in the mines for 23 of those years.

“I’d work night shift in the coal mines and during the day I cut timber,” John Teets Jr. said. “Their grandfather did it too. Cutting mine posts was the big thing.”

There were family connections among the professional lumberjacks too, and not just in the Jack and Jill competitions featuring husbands and wives on two-person saws. There were also cousins among the competitors, including 21-year-old Matt Cogar, who has only been competing for the past year, and veteran lumberjack Arden Cogar, of West Hamlin, W.Va., who has been competing for more than 20 years and is one of the top lumberjacks in the nation.

Even though the men are considered professional competitors in the lumberjack world, that doesn’t mean they make their living cutting timber.

“We come from all walks of life and have jobs outside of this sport,” Arden Cogar said.

Arden Cogar is an attorney. His cousin Matt intends to go on to become a chiropractor. Both men began competing while in college, as many of the professional lumberjacks have done, Arden Cogar said.

While there were many people in the audience who were first-time visitors to Timber Day or were area residents looking for something to do, it also predictably attracted people interested specifically in wood and chopping wood, including Joe Valentovich of Uniontown.

“I teach woodshop in the Uniontown school district,” Valentovich said.

“I’ve always been interested in wood, but this is the first time I’ve made it down here. It’s great.”

He marveled at the speed with which the two-man crosscut saw teams cut cookies from 12-inch logs, a mere 7.5 seconds and about six swipes of the saw blade.

Chuck Colbert of New Kensington was in the audience with his 14-year-old son Bob picking up pointers for their own competition efforts.

“We both agree this is a little out of our league,” Bob Colbert said.

He has been competing in the two-man event with his father since he was 11-years old and has added some additional events to his repertoire this year, but they generally don’t enter competitions with logs more than 9 inches in diameter, Chuck Colbert said.

Chuck Colbert, who is a civil engineer, said he began competing in lumberjack events when he was a student at Penn State University.