Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
In their last year as Capital Conference members, the Sweet Home wrestlers want to put an exclamation mark on their run of five straight district championships.
“A lot of guys are setting pretty high goals, pretty high standards,” said Steve Thorpe, who is entering his 15th year with the team, the last 10 as head coach.
Assisted by Tom Boatright, Steve Hummer and Eric Tagle, Thorpe is steering his 60 wrestlers toward what the team hopes will be its final championship in this league. But it won’t be easy.
“Our conference returns good wrestlers,” Thorpe said. “Cascade looks very tough, as does Mollala.”
To meet this challenge, the Huskies welcome back “a very good senior class,” according to Thorpe, that includes two state place winners in seniors Trevor Tagle (140 pounds) and Shane Vandehei (130), both of whom finished third in the state 3A championships last season.
Vandehei is a three-time state placer, who said he’s shooting for more this year. He said he participated in the Sweet Home wrestling camp, wrestled freestyle and greco-roman during the off-season and trained during the fall to get ready for his senior season.
“I want to try to break the (school) record for most falls – 28,” he said. “I plan to be the district champ for the third year in a row and I want to be a state champion this year.”
Tagle, who just finished the football season as a tailback and all-league defensive back, said he’s still working on getting into wrestling shape and he’s shooting for a district title and “hopefully I’ll take the state title this year.”
He also participated in the Sweet Home camp and also went to the Oregon State University camp last summer, as he hopes to wrestle at OSU.
Tagle said he’s been working on his leg shots and riding technique, two areas where he said he wasn’t too strong last season.
“I got switched a lot,” he said. “I’ve worked on that.”
Also back are senior Colton Cooley (171) and sophomore Cody Sells (125), who placed at the state freestyle and greco-roman state championships which followed the OSAA championships meet. Plus, Sweet Home has four returning state qualifiers in sophomore Joe McCaslin (119), Sells, junior Sawyer Anderson (152) and senior Kyle Albert (130).
Sweet Home will open its season Dec. 2-3 at the Cottage Grove tournament, where Thorpe expects his team to wrestle five duals. The freshmen/novice team will wrestle Dec. 1 at South Albany.
Thorpe said he thinks his team is further along than it was at this point last season.
“We’ve had lots of guys train over the spring, summer and fall in preparation for this season,” he said. “We’ve had good leadership out of the senior crew. And we have a freshman class that’s willing to learn and get better.”
Sweet Home Wrestling Roster
Sawyer Anderson, Jr., 152
Kyle Albert, Sr., 130
Ben Brewer, So., 171
Blain Bates, Jr., 189
Rasmus Birk, Jr., 160
Ben Brewer, So., 171
Robert Callagan, Fr., 171
Logan Clark, Fr., 215
Colton Cooley, Sr., 171
Nathan Dahl, So., 275
Joey Ellis, Sr., 189
Lief Erickson, Fr., 125
Chris Farris, Fr., 103
Laura Gourley, Fr., 160
Stephen Hall, So., 119
Casey Hanscam, Jr., 135
Robert Helfrich, Jr., 160
Tom Helfrich, Sr., 152
Jacob Heppler, Fr., 160
Kyle Holmes, Fr., 275
Mark Horton, Jr., 112
Casey Johnson, So., 112
Danny Johnson, So., 103
Caleb Keeney, Fr., 160
Stephen Kidd, Sr., 171
Andrew Knight, Jr. 152
Thomas Larsen, Jr., 275
Brandon Lawson, Jr., 160
Jacob McCullum, Fr., 152
Ridge McKinney, Jr., 145
James Meeker, Sr., 145
Cory Ottre, Jr., 152
Matt Parker, Jr., 275
Jack Perry, Fr., 125
Kody Pickle, So., 160
Nick Pitts, So, 152
Za Ramsey, So., 160
Josh Rice, Fr., 103
Derek Sharp, So., 119
Daniel Smith, Jr., 135
Jake Smith, Jr., 125
Nikki Smith, Fr., 112
Aris Somatis, So., 112
John Sutten, Sr., 130
Trevor Tagle, Sr., 140
Paul Torres, Fr., 215
Shaw Valentine, So., 215
Shane Vandehei, Sr., 130
Travis Walker, Sr., 130
Levi Weikel, Fr., 130
Shorty Weikel, Sr., 145
Logan White, Fr., 119
Tyler White, Fr., 103
Alex Whitlow, Fr., 152
Brent Woody, Jr., 171
Kevin Yeung, Jr., 130
Nick Zahler, So., 103
Managers:
Danielle Dimick
Alicia Nichol
Wrestling
Schedule may be subject to change. If in doubt, check weekly schedule in The New Era.
Dec. 1 @South Albany Novice TBA
Dec. 2 @ Cottage Grove TBA
Dec. 7 @ Banks 5 p.m.
Dec. 9 Lebanon, Silverton 4 p.m.
Central Linn
Dec. 14 @ Lebanon 4 p.m.
Dec. 17 @ McKay Tournament TBA
Jan. 5 Cascade 6 p.m.
Jan. 7 @ Roseburg Tournament TBA
Jan. 11 @ Molalla 6 p.m.
Jan. 13-14 @ Oregon Classic TBA
(Redmond)
Jan. 14 @ Taft Tournament (JV) TBA
Jan. 19 North Marion, Culver 6 p.m.
Jan. 20-21 @ Pac Rim Tournament TBA
(Seaside)
Jan. 26 @ Stayton 6 p.m.
Jan. 28 @ South Albany Tournament 10 a.m.
Feb. 2 @ Sisters 6 p.m.
Feb. 10-11 Districts-Stayton TBA
Feb. 16-17 State Championships-Salem TBA