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Show fleams face obstacles as '90 season begins School-With three consecutive Region One titles under his belt. Viking coach Bart Thompson is ready to start looking for his fourth. athletes to develop a strong work ethic, dependability and learn that hard work pays off." Bountiful will begin its season this weekend at the Layton High tournament. WOODS CROSS-The Wildcats' coach Glen Orme watched four of his returning varsity wrestlers with 20 or more wins last season decide not to return. "We've had good group chemistry," chem-istry," said Thompson. "The kids have really working together and helped each other. I get to work with the best kids at Viewmont High School simply because wrestling wrestl-ing attracts very dedicated athletes that want to do well." Viewmont will kick off its 1990-91 1990-91 season this Thursday at home against the returning state champion Alta at 7:30 p.m. BOUNTIFULBraves coach Jerry Staley is also facing a transition tran-sition year as he begins his eighth season. I Bv (i. BRETT HART j . j The hungry look in the eyes of a select group of high school athletes can only mean one thing -wrest ling ! season is here. j The hungry look, of course, is the j result of two kinds of hunger. One j is the desire for one-on-one com- petition unique to the sport of ; wrestling. The other is the result of trying to get "suck weight" in order to wrestle in a given weight category. Here's a look at the upcoming -season, one that promises . challenges and success for each of the four south Davis high schools. KAYS VILLE-Da vis High will face a transition period this year. In his first year as head coach, Alan Porter not only inherited last year's Region One, fourth place finisher, he has inherited a couple of mixed blessings along with the Davis team. at the 103-pound spot. Jason Wid-dison, Wid-dison, a senior, pinned his Ogden opponent to add points in the Wildcats' cause in the 1 12 division. Carrey Beers wrestled two close matches in the 119 division, and Jason Grey won his first match ever against an Ogden opponent in the 125 class. Both Beers and Grey are juniors. Brandon Bell and Chad Wray filled the 130- and 135-divisions for the 'Cats. Bell is a senior, Wray is a sophomore. Jason Henrie scored two pins in the tri-meet match as a senior 140-pounder. 140-pounder. The rest of the Wildcats' lineup is made up of seniors. Jed Feller wrestled for Woods Cross in the 145 division. Greg Gehring started for Woods Cross at the 152 spot wrestling for two ties. Mike Jacketta beat his Ogden opponent and came from behind to tie his Morgan opponent. Finally, Lee Larson filled the 189 spot for the 'Cats while Erickson went from his usual 189 position to wrestle at heavyweight. Erickson beat the odds and pinned both of his opponents in the meet. Orme has been an assistant wrestling coach for 14 years and has spent the last four years as Woods Cross head coach. Orme said that he stays with coaching because of the positive effects the sport can have on the athletes. "Wrestling is the toughest sport. It teaches more about developing a self-image and how to handle one's self than any other sport. I like to work with the kids, and wrestling attracts a good quality of person. You can't go around breaking training train-ing rules and be a successful wrestler. "I like wrestling because I don't have to make the decision about who's varsity. The kids wrestle off to decide that. They decide it themselves. them-selves. There's no politics involved. in-volved. ' ' J X I X tl I- I i. I i : I '' s I. . f "Wrestling is a dying sport," added Porter. "You have to love the sport; otherwise, there's not much incentive." The Darts' varsity wrestling squad consists of sophomore Jamie Carson in the 103-pound division. Junior Chad Billings, a move-in from Virginia, will battle with junior ju-nior Travis White for the 112-pound 112-pound spot. Sophomore Matt Harker, a three-time three-time district champ at the junior high level will own the 1 19 spot whUe Adam Fox, one of the Darts' few senior starters, will hold the 125 spot. Senior Jason Robinson promises to be one of the Darts' leaders this season. Robinson took third in state competition last year. He'll begin the season filling the Darts' 130 spot. Sophomore Jason Sanders currently holds varsity honors in the 135-pound spot, and junior Jeremy Bingham is expected to do well in the 140-pound division. Senior Travis Adams started for the Darts in the 145 class, but the 152 class will be a battle between junior Steve Macurdy and sophomore Mike Peterson. The four heavy positions will be anchored by junior Kohn Cullimore, 160; Adam Strader, a sophomore in the 171-pound class; Josh Lowry, a 189-pound junior. Junior Danny Hart and sophomore Shane Cook will battle for the heavyweight spot. The Darts saw the new season's first action in a four-team tournament tourna-ment Friday against Brighton, Cypress and Lehi. The Darts finished fin-ished third. "That's about where we expected ex-pected to be," said Porter. Jason Robinson, Kohn Cullimore and Danny Hart each earned first place finishes in the tournament while Harker and Mcurdy both won seconds. "We stress two things in our program, take downs and escapes. You've got to be able to do both to win," said Porter. "We need to teach the kids to be more aggressive, too. Davis has always been more of a finesse school. We're too nice." The Darts' next competition will be at the annual, 15-team tournament tourna-ment sponsored by Layton High this weekend. The tournament will include wrestlers from Bountiful, Box Elder, Clearfield, Davis, Emery, Granger, Hunter, Layton, Orem, Pineview, Pleasant Grove, Spanish Fork, Springville, Wasatch and West Jordan. BOUNTIFUL, Viewmont High 5 - l '" 'I J ' y GLEN ORME Though the prospect of filling these gaps poses the season's greatest challenge, Orme is optimistic. op-timistic. "Our challenge will be to get the kids enough experience to reach their potential. We've got some very good wrestlers that will eventually even-tually be successful, but it takes experience. ex-perience. They should come on very well as the season progresses. We'll still have a solid team, but we're a little green right now. "We may challenge for the region title, but we'll need to get experience." Woods Cross got its first experience experi-ence on Nov. 20 against Morgan and Ogden in a tri-team match. Woods Cross punished Ogden 44-1 8 but lost to Morgan 44-22. Sophomore Jason Cleverly replaced the injured George Davis BART THOMPSON Now in his sixth year at Viewmont, View-mont, Thompson will be forced to replace more vacancies in the Viking Vik-ing lineup than in any of his previous five seasons. "We lost nine seniors last year. Our team is young and untested," said Thompson. But then again, starting from scratch is nothing new for the Viewmont coach. Last year's championship team started off much the same way after the Vikes had lost eight graduating seniors. Junior John Rosenlund will start for Viewmont in the 103-pound division while seniors Aaron Bac-tista Bac-tista and Neil Randall will return to fill the 112 and 119 spots, respectively. respec-tively. Randall will be a strong asset and leader for the Vikes after earning a third place finish in last year's state tournament. Senior Jeff Zesinger will start the season at 125 and junior Scott Colquitt, Col-quitt, a move-in from Florida, has earned a varsity spot at the 130-pound 130-pound spot. Jared Stubbs, a senior, is Viewmont's 135 entry and Randy Yellow has earned the 140 varsity spot. Yellow is also a senior. Juniors Lance Wersland and Steve Bender are the Vikings' 145 and 152 pounders. Bender was a junior ju-nior varsity region champion last season. tf ALAN PORTER t On one hand, Porter faces the r same problem that plagues Davis, Woods Cross and Bountiful high schools-the headache of varsity wrestlers who, instead of returning ' to the mat, have decided to make an easier time of their winter months. But, with every cloud there is a silver lining; Porter has also inherited in-herited a number of talented young 1 wrestlers whose intensity and z dedication promises to pay off as the season progresses and in the years to come. "We had eight seniors who , wrestled varsity for us last year as i juniors who decided not to come ' out this year," explained Porter who graduated 12 years ago from 1 Davis High. "I've always wanted to coach, . i said Porter. "Wrestling isn't like football. It's not glamorous. It takes a lot of time like track but doesn't get as much recognition. JERRY STALEY "We're still looking for a couple of football players who wrestled for us last year to join the team," said Staley. Due to Bountiful' s football season ending only a week ago, Staley admits that few of his positions posi-tions have been filled in hopes that some additional seniors will join the team. Of the 40 wrestlers who began the season, only six were seniors. However, in the positions that have been filled, the Braves look strong and aim to improve on last year's second place, Region Six finish. "By the end of the season, we should be in the hunt for the region title," said Staley. ' 'We're a young team looking for quite a few seniors to step forward and be leaders." Mark Smith, a senior, will be definitely be a Bountiful grappler to watch this season in the 1 19-pound division. Senior Scott Olson is back for the Braves at 135. Olson earned a sixth place finish in the state tournament last year. Juniors Marshall Jones and Brian Smith will test their mettle in varsity varsi-ty spots at the 152- and 125-pound divisions while sophomore Jason Henderson will see plenty of action at 145. In spite of hurting for upper-weight upper-weight entrants, Staley said he was pleasantly surprised with the depth the Braves will have in some of the lower weights. Even though wrestling doesn't offer a lot of glamour or prestige, Staley feels that wrestling offers something more important. "I think kids compete in wrestling wrestl-ing because it gives them a chance to compete against someone their own size," said Staley. ' 'Wrestling give athletes the chance to have success even if the team as a whole isn't successful. "Wrestling is a mental sport. The way to teach mental toughness is through experience, through one-on-one competition. We want our Both Viewmont's 160- and 171-pound 171-pound classes are filled by seniors. , At 160, the Vikes will be represented rep-resented by Ben Seelos, and Alan Pratt will anchor the 171 -pound division. Senior Lee Mahlstede will return from a fourth place region finish last year to represent Viewmont at the 189-pound division, and Viewmont's heavyweight entrant is junior Aaron Mudrow. Thompson said that he enjoys coaching wrestling simply because he likes working with high school students. "We're concerned with the development de-velopment of the athletes. It's more than just winning. If our athletes can develop a pattern of maturity, self-discipline and goal setting, these lessons will last a lifetime. The winning will take care of itself," said Thompson. The Viewmont coach added that Viewmont's success was due partially par-tially to the strong junior high programs pro-grams at Centerville and Bountiful junior high schools, but also to the caliber of individuals attracted to the Viking program. |