Published: November 21, 2008 11:49 pm            

Let the grappling begin

Northwest, Southeast, Murray open up today

Top four finishes at both the Class 4A state duals and traditional tournament for Northwest Whitfield. A second-place finish at Area 5-5A duals for Murray County. Three state medalists for Dalton. The start of a new era under coach Neil Nichols for Southeast.

Those were all big moments for area high school wrestling programs during the 2007-08 season, but you won’t have to wait much longer to see what’s shaping up for this season on the mat — the Georgia High School Association’s first day for varsity wrestling competitions passed on Friday and Murray County, Northwest and Southeast all compete today, with Dalton just a little more than a week away from its opening date.

Here’s a glance at each team and what might be in store for the 2008-09 season:

Dalton

Charles Mitchell begins his third season as coach of the Catamounts knowing he has some old hands in the lineup, but he also has some new faces on his coaching staff to help as he continues a rebuilding process that has already shown some results on the area and state level.

Mitchell will be assisted this season by twin brothers Michael and Josh Keefe, former state title winners at Ringgold who went on to wrestle for the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga earlier this decade. While Michael is already working with the Cats, Josh will lead Dalton Middle’s program until its season is finished, then join the high school staff.

The addition of the Keefes gives Mitchell another pair of voices to back the philosophy he’s tried to pass on to his wrestlers since taking over in 2006.

“I’ve always been preaching to the kids to commit to your team, be unselfish, work hard, visualize your goals,” Mitchell said. “And in everything you do, see yourself beating your opponent. Now, instead of me just saying it, I’ve got other people on board that believe the same thing, other coaches — that can’t do nothing but help.”

Help also comes from a lineup that delivers big on its small end. Once more, the Cats should be able to count on their lower weights for consistency as Eduardo Gutierrez (103-pound weight class), Jordan White (112), Christian Washington (119) and Henry Torres (125) give Mitchell a solid foursome to start.

All four — Gutierrez and White are seniors, Washington and Torres juniors — have at least one state traditional tourney appearance to their credit, while Washington and White won area traditional titles and made The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Team last season and Torres placed fifth in 125 at the Class 4A state tourney.

Taylor Duckworth (160), a senior who has made two straight trips to state, should also be able to contribute experience and leadership to a team that will have to count on some freshmen maturing quickly to reach Mitchell’s daily goal of “championship effort.”

“We’re looking for a lot of great things (from younger wrestlers),” Mitchell said. “They might be nobodies to everybody else, but we’re not going to worry about that. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”

In anticipation of what he expects will be a tough road for everyone involved at this year’s Area 7-4A duals and traditional tourney, Mitchell has made a tough schedule a priority for Dalton, which has compiled a 47-22 duals record in the coach’s first two seasons.

“This is an animal,” Mitchell said when asked to rate 7-4A’s level of competition.

Dalton opens its season on Dec. 3 with a double dual against Marietta and host Paulding County in Dallas.

Murray County

Graduating 10 seniors who filled all but four of the spots in your lineup might create a serious level of discomfort for some coaches, but Murray County’s Chris Thornbury is going with the flow in just such a situation for a couple reasons.

First, Thornbury knows he has plenty of wrestlers who received valuable mat time during the 2007-08 schedule, even if it was only as occasional starters or in junior varsity action.

“We’ve got good kids that weren’t able to wrestle last year because the older guys were more experienced,” said Thornbury, whose team returns to Area 7-4A after finishing last year among the top tier of 5-5A. “But they probably could have started for a lot of other people.”

Second, he never worries about the readiness of the athletes who come from Murray County’s two middle school feeder programs.

“We’re a young team,” Thornbury said. “But they come from Bagley and Gladden, so they’re good freshmen. We’ll probably start five or six of them.”

This year’s Indians will try to hold up the standard set by a group of seniors who won at least 26 dual meets each of their four seasons, and Thornbury has been pleased with the early practice effort shown toward that task.

“The guys are working hard,” he said. “They’re doing what I’ve asked them to do, what other coaches have asked them to do. So I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

Among the expected major contributors for the Indians are sophomore Dalton Lane (140) — whose offseason growth spurt created a big jump for the former 112-pounder — and senior Jake McConathy (285), both returning state qualifiers who were a match shy from placing at last year’s Class 5A traditional.

Other anticipated starters include seniors David Miles (135) and Heath Lents (145), juniors Kolby Youell (152), Andrew Baldwin (152) and David Thornbury (171) and sophomore Zach Shoemaker (125).

The Indians, who open today at the Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe Duals, will cram in two more duals events during Thanksgiving week and keep up the hectic pace during a December that includes trips to Dalton’s Carpet Classic, the Brett Warren Invitational and the McCallie Invitational on consecutive weekends.

And it’s not just about staying busy.

“We’ll find a lot out about ourselves,” Thornbury said. “What we’re good at, what we’re not good at. Then we’ll start working in January to try and get better. But all the competition we face will expose some weaknesses, so we’ll try to fix them and wrestle well in February (when postseason traditional events are scheduled).”

Northwest Whitfield

Like Murray County, the Bruins face the task of adjusting to considerable losses — seven seniors, most of them state-level contenders, graduated — from a lineup that faced few serious challenges while compiling a 30-5 duals record in 2007-08.

But if there’s anything Northwest coach Allen Tucker has for rebuilding his lineup, it’s options.

As of this week, the Bruins had nearly 80 wrestlers practicing, a volume that has forced split workouts and close quarters, though the chances for a quality harvest with such a plentiful crop isn’t lost on Tucker.

“It’s hard to replace the seven kids we lost,” said the coach, who said goodbye to, among others, three-time Daily Citizen All-Area Wrestler of the Year Merle Bolton. “But I can see this team being strong at the end of the season — if we’ve got good senior leadership that’s willing to lead this bunch.”

Veterans who will be expected to take up that charge include Russell Royal (112), David Lewis (135), Josh Lewis (145) and Kenny Michael (140). All four qualified for last season’s Class 4A traditional state tournament, where the Bruins finished 4 1/2 points behind runner-up Stockbridge and four points behind third-place Jackson County.

“They’re kind of the old boys,” Tucker said.

But Tucker expects to dip into the shallow end of the varsity experience pool as well, and is optimistic a couple months of seasoning will have the Bruins ready to make a run at the Area 7-4A traditional, where they’ve finished first the past two seasons.

“I’m kind of excited,” Tucker said. “When we get in shape and get in our weight classes, I don’t know if we’ll be a better dual team than we were last year, but I think as a tournament team we could be better than we were last year.”

Ryan Banks (171) and Adam Wilkins (285) add some experience to the higher weight classes, though they’re among the football crowd that will need the first half of the season to complete the transition into wrestling shape.

But Tucker doesn’t seem concerned about hitting a few bumps along the way so long as the final destination for this year’s team is worth the view — like the one afforded by the top of the standings at the end of the area traditional.

“And we want to put ourselves in position to compete for a state title,” Tucker said. “Our seniors know what our goals are. As far as right now, everything in November and December is mat time ... what matters is after December, so we want to put ourselves in position to compete for area and state titles.”

Northwest opens today with a trip to Central Gwinnett High for the Black Knight Duals.

Southeast

If Neil Nichols was looking for a sign of acceptance after his first season leading the Raiders, he didn’t have to wait long.

When he arrived for this year’s first practice, he had trouble tracking down his wrestlers — only to find out that some of those who went through the 2007-08 season had followed the warmup routine he’d showed them last year and took the rest of the team on its pre-practice run without being asked.

“I walked outside and some of them were coming up,” said the coach, who also serves as Valley Point Middle School’s athletic director.

But even before then, Nichols had reason to feel good about his team.

Although they were extremely young last season — at one point, Nichols started two juniors, eight sophomores and three freshmen — the abundance of youth meant the Raiders lost no seniors. And a productive offseason that included sending Southeast wrestlers to camps put on by college coaching staffs gives Nichols even more reason for optimism as the Raiders make the move from Area 7-4A to 6-3A.

“As a coach, you always wait for that switch to get thrown,” Nichols said. “And I had some kids this summer come back and really surprise me with how hard they’re working at getting better to try and get to that next level.”

Some of Nichols’ wrestlers were already showing evidence of that climb last season, and they’ll be counted on to give leadership to those taking their first steps up the ladder.

Andy Pichardo, who earned All-Area honors at 135 last season, is certainly in that group. But Nichols will also count on the team’s other state qualifier from 2007-08, Tanner Phipps, to do so in his own way. A 140-pounder last season, Phipps — like Pichardo, a junior — will likely wrestle at 160 or 171 this year.

“I don’t think I gave him enough credit last year, because he’s not very vocal,” Nichols said. “He doesn’t say a whole lot, but he works his tail off and he has gotten so much better. And even last year, he was in a tough weight class but he qualified for state.”

Nick Didonato (145), Cristian Perez (215) and Jacob Stewart (285) are other returning starters who should contribute.

As for goals, Nichols — whose team finished 11-22 in duals last season — is dwelling more on the overall picture than specific numbers.

“We talk every day about how we’re not worried about just how many matches we win or (how many wrestlers we) send to state,” Nichols said. “It’s an old coaches’ cliché, wanting to get better every day, but I tell them if they’re doing everything they can to be better as a person and wrestler, all that other stuff takes care of itself.”

Southeast opens today at the LFO Duals.

        

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