What's Going On: Stay warm watching grapplers

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January 15, 2012

The Dalton Daily Citizen Sun Jan 15, 2012, 10:02 PM EST

A couple of weeks ago, I brimmed with enthusiasm as the real meat of the high school basketball schedule was upon us with sub-region play taking on new meaning.

Funny how such a chilly weekend can make you yearn for the opening up of baseball season, lounging in your fold-out chair and listening to the opening claps of “Centerfield” by John Fogerty or make you long to learn new phrases in Spanish as the fans of the local high school soccer teams taunt each other across the pitch.

The best thing about winter sports is that they are played indoors because we all know there will be at least one week of the baseball season where you have HotHands shoved in your pockets and concession stands are doing brisk business in hot chocolate.

Either that, or I will find myself this year in Harmon Field covering a soccer game while high schoolers run around in shorts with snow flurries falling down on the field.

One place that should be warm and toasty is Murray County High School as the annual Murray Duals and Invitational wrestling tournament will be held this weekend.

The duals portion of the tournament will be held on Friday starting at 5 p.m., while the traditional invitational will begin at 9:30 on Saturday morning.

Area teams Coahulla Creek, Dalton and North Murray will join the host Indians this year, along with wrestlers from Alcoa (Tenn.), Cherokee, Dade County, Fort Payne (Ala.), Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, Ridgeland and Ringgold.

Defending champion Gordon Lee is missing from the tournament this year, and Heritage-Catoosa — fresh off a runner-up finish at the GHSA Class 3A State Duals this past weekend — should be the favorite.

The Generals finished runner-up to Gilmer in the championships a week after topping the Bobcats for the Area 7-3A title. Gilmer won 29-27 after rolling through the tournament bracket.

Heritage had an equally easy path to the finals after a 53-16 win in the semifinals over Locust Grove.

The tournament is annually one of the most anticipated for area wrestling fans, and the presenting of the Todd Granger Award.

Last year, the award went to Murray County’s Dalton Lane, who breezed through the 152-pound weight class with three pins to claim his second straight Todd Granger Award as the most outstanding wrestler in the tournament.

Granger won a state championship while wrestling at Murray County and was a 1994 graduate of the high school. He died in an automobile accident the following year.

This will be one of the last big tournaments before the area traditional tournaments are held the first weekend of February with the state traditional tournament the following week.

• Spring Forward: Speaking of the upcoming spring sports season, it’s time once again for coaches and athletic directors to send in those schedules so the area’s fans can stay up on who is playing whom.

The local schedule is a fixture in our Scoreboard part of the sports section and is usually on page 3B.

Coaches and athletic directors are asked to please send their schedules for inclusion to sports@daltoncitizen.com.

Chris Whitfield is a sports writer for The Daily Citizen. Got something you think should be in What’s Going On? Write to him at chriswhitfield@daltoncitizen.com.

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