Forging Ahead

Life doesn’t always allow us to, of course.

 

Challenges arise. Roadblocks and detours fill our paths. Sometimes, strong headwinds slow our progress. Only through patience, resilience, and resolve do we approach our destination, often battered and bruised, tattered and torn, but better for having had the experience.

 

After Covid restrictions reduced Collegiate’s wrestling program to a non-contact sport in the winter of 2020-2021, Coach Andy Stone and his staff found themselves in a rebuilding mode.

 

Little by little, they reassembled the lineup by taking young, inexperienced guys and girls, teaching them technique and toughness in a highly technical sport, and sending them onto the mat against talented and seasoned league and state competition.

 

While the team results did not always light up the scoreboard, Stone, his staff, and their athletes knew they were progressing.

 

They had a plan, you see, and the plan, four years in, is slowly but surely coming to fruition.

 

Are they where they want to be, though?

 

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get there because the goal post is always pushed back because we have higher expectations,” Stone said one recent afternoon before the Cougars began a training session in the Jamie Robertson ’04 Wrestling Room. “If I could have looked in a crystal ball right after Covid and seen where we are now, I’d be pretty pleased and feel like the plan is working.”

 

Senior Alexander Tan, who wrestles in either the 138 or 144 weight class, provides experience, as does sophomore Henry Hofheimer, an all-state performer at 120 last year.

 

Then there’s a group of four-season juniors — Alicia Carter (120), Pierson Harris (157), Hunter Holland (144), Ferran Salhab (165), and Thomas Shaia (165) — who arrived on the scene following Covid and have grown with the program.

 

“That’s the core of our team,” Stone said. “We also have a really good group of freshmen who look to those experienced guys. They train with them. That speeds up the process tremendously.  With the first group that comes through, you’re remaking the program. They started from scratch as opposed to the kids who come in and have experienced wrestlers ahead of them that they can learn from.

 

“That builds on itself. After the 9th grade group, we have really good 7th and 8th graders, and it will hopefully keep going. We’re layering one good group on another and constantly ratcheting up the skill and experience level. Now, we’re seeing the result of our hard work.”

 

The expenditure of time and effort, then, have paid dividends.

 

“We have other guys who’ve been with us for a while,” Stone added. “They’re huge contributors. They don’t necessarily wrestle varsity, but they’re integral to helping the others improve. Their skill level is building as well. When you have a good practice room, your wrestlers can be like extra coaches because they’re with each other one on one. You have to have not just your top varsity guys but layers of guys who make you more resilient and just a better team.”

 

How do they become more resilient?

 

“Wrestling is obviously an individual sport,” Stone continued, “but in the wrestling room, you have to have good workout partners, not just one guy that you’re wrestling all the time. The more good guys you can drill with, the better you can practice different scenarios. Wrestling is a super-skill sport. You can imagine how many different positions wrestlers can end up in. You have to understand those, understand what your opponent does, and understand what you need to do. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to do that when someone’s fighting you. It’s kind of like you’re in a play, and you’re trying to remember your lines, but somebody’s trying to throw you off the stage.”

 

Mac Friddell assists Stone with the varsity. Asher Rolfe coaches the JV. Michael Blair, along with David Peck, oversees the Middle School squad. Marcella Leonard-Jackson assists throughout the program.

 

“We’re all in the room together,” Stone said. “Some guys wrestle both JV and varsity. Some middle school kids wrestle JV and a few might wrestle in varsity matches. It’s not like a typical team where lines are drawn.”

 

The age-old problem is filling all 14 weight classes. The Cougars have a preponderance of middle-weight wrestlers. No one competes in the three classes above 175. There’re also gaps in the lower weights that Stone hopes younger wrestlers will fill as they improve their skills.

 

In a recent quad meet with Grace Christian, Deep Run, and Douglas Freeman, for example, the Cougars surrendered 30 points to each because of the inability to fill five classes but still recorded two team victories.

 

“We’re really doing well with the guys we have,” Stone said. “We just don’t have any big guys. We joke that we have a whole team of 150 pounders. The challenge of the sport is you need really good guys at 106 and a really good guy at 285.”

 

The Cougars forge ahead. They’re working together to make each other better, through both the grind of training and the encouragement they provide one another. Progress, they understand, is occurring, albeit step by step, rep by rep.

 

“As coaches and competitors, we hate to lose and the kids hate to lose,” Stone said. “They want to be good. That’s what drives us. You have to trust the processes you’ve put in place and are tried and true. When you’re building a program, you need support from the school, guys that are committed to what you’re doing, and a stable group of coaches that are on the same page. We’re fortunate to have all that. That’s why this is working for us.”

~Weldon Bradshaw