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Low numbers still hamper Class AA wrestling

6 min read
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Washington 145-pounder Kurt Adkins gets his headgear adjusted by referee Mike Larking during the Tri-CADA Wrestling Tournament. Adkins is one of the few experienced wrestlers for the Prexies.

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James Campbell, a 145-pound senior, works to pin Eric Holmes of Beth-Center in the Tri-CADA Wrestling Tournament. Campbell is the only wrestler on California High School’s team.

At one time, Charleroi High School had a thriving wrestling program, filled the weights and turned out talented competitors.

This season, six wrestlers came out for the team, forcing it to drop from section competition in favor of strictly tournament competition.

At one time, West Greene was a strong program that had epic battles against section rival Washington, and even won a WPIAL Team Tournament title in 1994 under coach Allen Hughes.

Now, the Pioneers’ roster consists of five wrestlers after finishing last season with only eight.

At one time, Washington had a premier program, proud of its 13 individual state champions and seven WPIAL Team Tournament championships.

Now, the Prexies’ program is slowly making its way back after nearly being discontinued a few years ago.

For the past four years, California’s wrestling program consisted of one wrestler: James Campbell.

These might be the most severe cases of an epidemic that seems to have no cure. Class AA wrestling numbers are falling and more and more schools are unable to field even half the weight classes.

It makes for some unwatchable dual meets. One match this season, involving Avella and Avonworth, had only one bout contested and it resulted in a second-period fall.

So how do you solve this problem?

“I’m still searching for that answer,” said Kory Bissett, West Greene’s head coach.

The 11 local dual meets contested Wednesday night offered a possible 154 combined bouts. Of those, 61 were either forfeits or called a no match, the situation where neither team has a wrestler to fill that weight class.

That’s 40 percent of the bouts from that evening.

Nearly everyone interviewed for this story said there are some good athletes at their school who simply choose not to compete. Enrollment is falling in many of the area’s school districts but not so much that it can be totally blamed for the lack of numbers in wrestling.

Charleroi pulled out of section competition and became a tournament team in the WPIAL. The Cougars are not eligible to participate in the team tournament events but wrestlers are eligible for the individual tournaments. Discontinuing the program was an option two years ago and a co-op was discussed with Bentworth. In the end, the program stayed, but needed a coach.

“At first, I just asked to be an assistant coach,” said Nick Golden, Charleroi’s head coach. “But no one stepped up for the head coaching job, and I didn’t want the program to go away. So I said, sure, I’ll do it.”

Golden is a physical education teacher in the district who specializes in personal training. As head wrestling coach, he has to teach the wrestlers, coach the matches and recruit in the school for the program.

“We’re small, but mighty,” he said. “I drive them to tournaments, pick them up, take them home. I try to make it positive because when you get to the high school after starting in the youth leagues, you get burned out. You don’t want to do it anymore.”

Bissett said he tries to make practice challenging and fun, but that doesn’t seem to have an affect.

“For whatever the reason, we’re struggling when it comes to numbers,” said Bissett. “It’s frustrating. It appears to be not just us. There are other schools in the same boat.”

Garrett Johnston took over as head coach of Chartiers-Houston’s program when Bill Sutton resigned after the 2012-2013 season. Johnston has managed to attract athletes but much of the C-H roster is filled with first-year or inexperienced wrestlers. It’s difficult to win with inexperienced wrestlers.

“This is the most kids we’ve had on the team since I’ve been here, and probably since Garrett (Vulcano) and Tanner (Sutton) were here (2010-13),” said Johnston. “In basketball, you get instant gratification. You make a basket, and you say, ‘Hey, I just made a basket.’ In wrestling, you might get a takedown but you can still get whooped out there. Kids are different. Back when I was in school, they just wanted to be a part of something. You had a bond and you wanted to keep going with those kids.”

Johnston said it’s an advantage to be in the school, where he can recruit and have a closer contact with the athletes.

“I teach all these kids and it helps build a bond there, so that helps,” he said. “Wrestling is not an easy sport, so you have to try to make it fun. You have to. I try to teach them that wrestling might not be the most important thing when you are in the room, but it will make you a better person. It’s tough. I’m not going to lie.

“I try to tell them, ‘You’re going to get a win. It’s coming.’ But kids want instant gratification. That’s the hard part of it.”

Washington coach Adrian Turner used his position as assistant football coach to attract kids to wrestling. Like Johnston, he has decent numbers but most of the wrestlers lack experience.

“I coached junior high football for Wash High and I got a lot of kids to come out for wrestling. We need the athletes to come out. If we get the athletes to come out, then we can work things out. Kids want to play basketball but there are only a limited number of spots.

“I don’t work in the school but if I were in the school, I think I can get more out. I think slowly but surely, it’s coming.”

Overcoming the difficulties presented with the lack of a strong junior high program is a challenge.

“If we get the junior high program figured out, then that will help our high school numbers,” Turner said. “We can get more kids out. This year, we have decent numbers, more numbers, but we’re inexperienced. So that’s what we have going on now with the junior high program.”

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