The turnout is there, the experience is there and now it’s time for the Sweet Home wrestling team to see if it has what it takes to win a second straight regional championship and a state trophy after that.
Steve Thorpe welcomes 46 boys, representing a wide range of weight levels, for his 16th team as head coach.
“We have a good turnout,” said Thorpe, whose Huskies finished second, behind transfer-loaded Henley, last year and whose teams have won four state titles at Sweet Home.
“We’ve got all levels, from kids who are the tops in the country to kids that are rookies. We have a lot of experience, but that doesn’t mean we have 46 kids that could wrestle tomorrow.”
Although the Huskies lost state champion Kris Newport to graduation, along with seniors Jacob Jewell and Kyle Hummer, they return two-time state champion Colton Schilling and state runner-up Tyler Cowger, both juniors, and four defending regional champions – Schilling, Cowger, senior Scottie Stockman and junior Wade Paulus. Plus, sophomore Justin Nicholson and juniors Colton Holly and Zach Gill, all of whom qualified for state, are back.
Nicholson, a sophomore with one year of wrestling experience under his belt, has potential, Thorpe said.
“Justin is not a first-year kid any more,” he said. “He is vastly improved.”
Also in the mix is junior Trever Olson, who didn’t wrestle at state last year, but went to the USA Juniors National Tournament freestyle tournament, where, Thorpe said, he got valuable experience.
Schilling placed second in the USA Cadet Nationals Greco tournament and Cowger was fourth, both taking All-American honors. Stockman and Olson were place-winners in the state Greco tournament.
“Having two guys who are All-Americans is something,” Thorpe said. “I expect what they expect. I know what they’re working towards. There are not just two guys trying to earn state championships this year. We have several kids. We’ve had guys who’ve worked all summer as well as all spring.
“Scottie Stockman is a two-time state placer who did a good job in the spring and in summer wrestling. And Trever never stopped wrestling. I see Trever being one of the top five or six guys, even though he didn’t qualify for state last year.
“Then, of course, there’s Wade Paulus. The guys he’s working out with, he’s making them better. They’re making him better.”
Junior Nate Melcher, a district place-winner in the tough 160-pound division, and senior Alex Armstrong also return.
“We have a lot of experience coming back,” Thorpe said. “Many guys did our summer camp and wrestled freestyle all spring.”
The really good news for the team, in addition to the dedication wrestlers have shown in the off-season, is the interest among the big boys.
Sweet Home has been thin above 150 pounds in recent years – last year they did not have wrestlers in the regional tournament finals at 160, 171 or 215 pounds. They’ve had to give up the heavier weight classes to teams like Philomath and Central and Cascade.
The last heavyweight state champion the Huskies have had was Andy Ellis, who won in 2000 after placing second in 1999. They’ve had some other wrestlers in the heavier weights, such as 215, do well at state, but this year Thorpe has over a dozen wrestlers who are 160 pounds or above, who will fill the holes.
“Having some big guys is kind of nice,” he said. “We haven’t had an overabundance, because, quite honestly, a lot of the big guys don’t want to work as hard as we do. But this year we got a lot of leadership from Zach Gill and David Skeen. They got guys to come out for wrestling from football. Those guys saw the success Zach and David had in football. They attribute that to wrestling, not just to going to the weight room and lifting.
“It is going to be nice to have a full line-up of big guys.
“Sweet Home has always had some good big guys but now we have Zach Gill, who is a legitimate heavyweight with a very good opportunity to be successful this year. And it’s not just heavyweights. We’ve got Wade Paulus coming in as a 195-pounder and David Skeen.”
Rounding out the roster are seniors Nick Hall, Ty Harvey, Raul Hernandez, Glen Hesberg, Chance Jucutan and Scottie Stockman; juniors Travis Hult, Bobby Malloy, Ne Ne Mauer, Zach Murphy and Quin Wise; sophomores Brendon Boatwright, Nick Dadey, Dylan Elder, Cody Hall, Troy Hazelton, Ty Kirkland, Angel Negron, Ryan Richards, Ian Search, John SIms and Ben Terry; and freshmen Ryan Adams, Cole Ashcraft, Austin Bruijn, Austin Coy, Anthony Hardee, Jacob Maas, Luke Melbye, Tyler Schilling, Collyn VanEck, Cole Thompson, Sam Woosley and Travis Petersen.
Thorpe is assisted by Tim Boatwright (no relation to Brendon), Steve Hummer, Eric Tagle, Steve Schilling, Tomas Rosa and Clint Sieminski.
The Huskies are focusing on building a team, starting with their now-annual outdoor exercise event two weeks ago that put wrestlers in situations where they had to rely on each other for help, and teamwork.
“We’re already seeing some guys establish themselves as leaders, which is always nice,” Thorpe said.
“Right now we’re focusing on trying to get some people healthy. We’re not healthy right now, with a few guys who went out for football. We’re not focusing on technique right now. We’re focusing on getting tough, and wrestling fast and hard, completing things.
“We can work on getting guys in shape, physically, and then we’ll take care of the technique. Technique can always come if you get in shape physically.”
The next step is to find wrestlers who can fill the holes for the Huskies, “who are going to score those points we need,” Thorpe said.
This year’s schedule is a brutal one for Sweet Home. The season opens at 4 p.m. Friday with dual-meet face-offs against Henley, the defending state champion, another top 4A team in Crook County and Lebanon, considered one of the top 5A teams in the state.
“We are starting of an incredibly tough schedule – tougher than previous years,” Thorpe said. “Our kids will see at least 50 matches before the district tournament. We want our kids to wrestle not only the best in the 4A division, but the best in the state of Oregon. That’s what gets you ready for the district tournament and the state tournament.”
Thorpe expects Cascade, which is currently ranked above Sweet Home in the 4A polls, to be a force at the regional meet, and he said Philomath has some good individual wrestlers. He also expects improvement at Stayton, where Husky alum Kyle Temple has taken over the program.
“Our expectation is to try to get better every single week and try to win a regional title and a state title,” he said. “A key component for us in our program is we give kids opportunity. We have what’s considered to be one of the best wrestling camps in the state of Oregon. We host international exchange teams. We have off-season freestyle and Greco wrestling. People who don’t have the opportunity to do that at home come to Sweet Home to do it with us.”
“These opportunities are what help us have success.
“I’m excited about wresting going strong here. We have a lot of junior high kids. We’re just going to keep on doing what we’re doing, tweaking it every year.
“But the one thing we don’t tweak is that we work hard and we have to be mentally tough.”