Marty Kirkland
martykirkland@daltoncitizen.com
— The ballots have been sent, the coaches are no doubt carefully contemplating their selections and we’ll soon have all the choices made for The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Wrestling Team and Wrestler of the Year for the 2009-10 season.
Even without knowing what the final lineup will be, I can promise you it will be an impressive collection of talent — because in the five years I’ve covered sports in this area, high school wrestling has consistently produced athletes who succeed on the statewide level.
Considering we had six local wrestlers who wrestled for state championships at this season’s state traditional tournament and three local schools that finished in the top ten in team standings, I’d say that standard is still pretty golden.
Following up with something started last year, I’ll precede the official all-area honors with a few awards of my own. Keep in mind, there’s no claim of great authority here, no outside input and no trophies.
(Sorry, guys. The budget for this awards ceremony is pretty slim.)
They’re based only on what I recall from what I saw while covering local high school wrestling this season — so if you pulled off the world’s greatest standing Granby and I wasn’t there to see it, my apologies — and are all “in my opinion.”
Some categories from last year return, some are new additions and all are arbitrary. (I’ll plagiarize last year’s column here: That’s a fancy way of saying I kind of made things up as I went along.)
All right, enough red carpet stuff. Now, presenting the second annual IMOs:
• Wrestler who should want next season to start right now: I did myself no favor in bringing back this category. It’s not that it’s not a good award, just that once I started trying to narrow it down, I realized I have no idea how to pick one single wrestler. There are plenty of worthy choices, but I’m going to split the difference between a pair of 103-pounders who were gaining momentum even as the season came to a close — Murray County junior Josh Webb and Dalton sophomore Luis Juan. A week after Juan beat Webb 12-10 in the Area 7-4A finals, Webb finished second at state and Juan was sixth, with both suffering losses to eventual champion Will Hale of Loganville. Both Juan and Webb were difference-makers for their team this year and will no doubt be expected to pick up where they left off.
• Most explosive string of firecrackers: The best run of weight classes the past couple seasons had been Dalton’s lightweights. While they were still solid, I’ll give a slight edge to a chain of Northwest Whitfield middleweights. At the 7-4A traditional tourney, the Bruins’ group from 140 to 160 pounds produced a champion (Garrett Henderson, 160), two runners-up (Dustin Pendergrass, 140; Josh Lewis, 152) and a fifth-place finisher (Connor Hayes, 145). At state, Lewis finished second, Henderson was fourth and Pendergrass advanced to the quarterfinals before losing a close one in the wrestlebacks, two wins shy of a medal.
• Most interesting move: It was nothing fancy by itself, but the step-ahead thinking exhibited by Southeast Whitfield’s Mario Rodriguez against Ringgold’s Josh Duncan during overtime of their match in the finals at the Murray Invitational made a simple standing switch special. When Duncan sunk a double-leg takedown attempt deep, Rodriguez turned his hips out and looked to be going belly down, essentially giving up the win. As it turns out, he was suckering his opponent into the switch, which he hit for a 10-8 victory. Nice.
• Best second act: Last year’s winner for the first award in this list — WWSWNSTSRN, for short — was Dalton’s Henry Torres. But Torres slipped up when he didn’t have his academics in order and was forced to sit out the first half of his senior season, meaning he had to practice and get in shape on his own even as he worked on his grades to make sure he was ready to return after the holidays. Give Torres credit, though, because he did come back and he came back strong. He fought through a nagging shoulder injury — I turned my head when it popped out at the Murray Invitational — to win another area title and took second at state at 119 pounds, proving himself a quick learner after the early mistake.
• Breakthrough of the year: Moving up in the world isn’t exactly easy when your world of wrestling is Northwest Georgia. But even so, Southeast’s Raiders have chipped a place away under coach Neil Nichols and made some noticeable progress by finishing fourth at the Area 6-3A duals this season. Nichols was right to be frustrated for his wrestlers who came close to taking an even higher step as individuals at the later traditional tourney — especially his seniors — but the Raiders are getting there. Guys like Rodriguez and 103-pounder Jeremy White, who was well under that limit on the scale, should help keep them moving forward in the future.
• Fantastic finisher: Northwest’s Russell Royal had always managed to find his way to state, but a place on the medal stand had been much harder to come by. But this year, running out of time to meet that goal, Royal found that extra little bit of oomph to push him over the edge and into medalist territory as he pinned and teched his way to the finals, where he beat Allatoona’s Nick Christakis, 3-2. Bruins coach Allen Tucker said it was the best stretch of wrestling he’d ever seen from Royal, whose timing was perfect.
• Best forecast for postseason success: I don’t know if it’s as prestigious as I’ve been told it once was, but the McCallie Invitational still seems to be a pretty good indicator of what direction one’s season is taking. Of Murray County’s three medalists at this past December’s McCallie Invitational, two medaled at state; of Northwest’s four, three did so. And making the finals at McCallie seems to be an especially good sign. Royal won a title in the 119-pound class there this season, while Murray County’s Dalton Lane — the area’s other state champion this season — took second, with only the ubertalented Brooks Climmons of Pope keeping him from a McCallie title.
• Wrestler you’d least like to tangle with: He’s talented, but the bigger problem with Murray County senior Andrew Baldwin might have been that whether or not he beat you, he was going to leave a mark or two. Baldwin’s gritty, head-pounding, shoulder-cranking, go-for-broke style made him far less than pleasant as an opponent, but the 152-pounder was a guy you’d love to have in your own lineup. I asked him about it after the Indians regained the Conasauga Cup this season and he almost slyly grinned when talking about Murray County’s knack for picking up pins. “We’ve always been headhunters,” he said.
• “Coolest” moment: North Miami Beach coach John Severe brought his team all the way to Dalton’s Carpet Classic this past December partly because he and Cats coach Charles Mitchell are old friends, partly because he wanted his wrestlers to get a glimpse of life outside South Florida and partly because he believed it would offer the Chargers a good competitive experience. Well, the Chargers ended up setting the pace as they won the tournament and got an unexpected bonus when an early-morning snow before the tourney marked the first time most of the team had seen such weather. Their joy derived from that moment and taking home a huge trophy was a good reminder there’s still a lot right with sports, especially at the high school level.
• Rock-solid starter: North Murray didn’t have an explosive start in its first season on the mat, but give the Mountaineers kudos for their boldness in jumping right into varsity competition and an extra pat on the back to sophomore Zach Penland, who returned to wrestling after a year off and proved one of the most dependable wrestlers in coach Larry Cornelius’ lineup. He became the school’s first area medalist and state qualifier and opened the door for future success if he and others follow through.
The rules for North Murray are no different than anyone else when it comes to stepping on the mat. For the most part, you get out of wrestling what you put into it.
And even if it is only my opinion, I think it’s safe to say: area programs put in a lot.
Marty Kirkland is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen.
