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Girls wrestling team wins after rebuilding

Star Telegram 12/20/2001

Last weekend was a good one for the Sam Houston girls wrestling team at the Southern Assault Tournament.

The Texans won the tournament at Martin, scoring 109 points and edging Arlington.

Four Texans won their weight divisions. Maria Morales won the 95-pound class, Glory Dalton the 138-pound class, Ember Brettman the 165-pound class and Monica Coleman the 215-pound class. Coleman was also selected the outstanding girls wrestler.

"I thought they did pretty well," Sam Houston coach Tommy Bonds said. "We lost a lot of girls from last year, but this team is starting to take shape. We just had to re-tool."

Sam Houston's boys didn't fare as well, finishing seventh. Coppell won, and District 8-5A foes Martin, Arlington and Lamar finished ahead of the Texans.

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Warriors meaty with new wrestlers

December 19,2001

By Mike English
Sports Editor

Another good turnout means the Jupiter High wrestling team probably won’t have to forfeit any weight classes this season.

"We’ll fill them all, but it’ll be scary," coach Doug Rasmusson said.

"We had a lot of returning wrestlers who had other priorities. We had a bunch of them coming back but they had other things they would rather be doing than working hard in (the training room) and that’s fine if that’s what they want to do," he said.

"I’d rather have kids who want to be in here than those that don’t. I’d rather lose with kids that want to be here, who want to work and want to learn than to win with kids who I have to beg to wrestle. I’ve certainly been around long enough to know I don’t want to do that any more."

Back for his seventh year as the Warriors head coach, Rasmusson has a dozen returning wrestlers: 103 pounds sophomore Chris Throndike; 112 sophomore Blake Feldman; 130 sophomore Shane Viens; 140 sophomore Matt Eshack; 145 junior Dan McLean; 152 senior Stephen Fiebiger and senior Chris Maniscalco; 160 sophomore Dan Pages; 171 senior Alex Kalfin; 189 Anthony Lopez; 215 senior Chris Hafner; Heavyweight (275) senior Billy Bauer.

New wrestlers include: 112 - freshmen Nick Snowney and Luke Ackerman; 119 - junior Lauren Molloy; 125 - freshman Alex Costa and sophomore Ryan Moeller; 130 freshman Logan Larkin and junior Whitney Wiseman; 135 freshman Peter Winters and sophomore Tyler Crum (a transfer from William T. Dwyer High); 152 freshman Matt Land and sophomore Steven Johnston; 160 freshman Robert Stubblebine and junior David Floyd; 171 freshman Jason Lee; 189 freshman Ryan Homen; 215 sophomore Jorden Beard.

"It’s a good group of kids - kids who want to learn and that alone makes it worth coming in every day," Rasmusson said.

None of the Warriors wrestle year-round but Viens, Feldman and Bauer wrestled a bit in the spring.

There are some athletes scattered among the new wrestlers.

"We have a lot of swimmers and a lot of cross country runners come out this year and we have a couple of band geeks," he said.

"I’ve had more wrestlers quit than most other schools have on their teams, and I still have over 25 wrestlers."

The problem is, most are newcomers to the sport.

"This is the most inexperienced team that we’ve had, but the kids who are here want to be here. They’re getting some quality experience young. A lot of the kids who are back didn’t get a lot of experience last year and we were young then. Last year’s team was the most inexperienced team we’ve had until this year," Rasmusson said.

Still, the Warriors won the Palm Beach County Athletic Conference title last year over Dwyer but finished fifth in the district championship (Dwyer was third). Seven Warriors advanced to the regional tournament, but none reached the state finals as Jupiter finished 21st.

"We had a horrible district tournament last year and we’ll be horrible again this year in tournaments," Rasmusson said. "We’ll win dual meets by filling up every weight class. We’ll do that and that’s a goal I set my first year as head coach and we only had 13 wrestlers."

The Warriors should be pretty strong at the lower weights with Thorndike at 102 and Feldman at 112. Viens at 130, Fiebiger at 152 and Floyd at 160 should have good seasons, the coach said.

Kalfin at 171 and Lopez at 189 should also wrestle well as should heavyweight Bauer.

"We are strongest at 152 and up," Rasmusson said.

The Warriors will wrestle in the six-team District 14 2A along with Dwyer, Fort Pierce Central, Okeechobee, Port St. Lucie and South Fork High.

"Fort Pierce Central will tear everybody up," Rasmusson said.

Jupiter will host the district tournament in February. They’ll also sponsor the North County championship on Jan. 12. The Jupiter High Dual Tournament on Jan. 25 and the annual Jupiter Invitational Tournament on Feb. 1-2.

"I’m still looking for sponsors for all those tournaments," he said.

Because there are only six teams in the district and the top four advance, the Warriors will probably be taking more wrestlers to the regionals in Kissimmee this year.

"Regionals are going to cost a fortune," Rasmusson said. "We’ll take quite a few but getting out of regionals is going to be next to impossible."

Rasmusson will be assisted again by Tim Higgins, who will also coach the JV. Jeff Hardy also returns and Mike Newberg will also help out.

"Our JV is going to be tough," Rasmusson said. "We had a JV tournament here and we wrestled our JV kids at Martin County and they did real well.

"This is the most prepared JV group we’ve every had but they’re going to have to step up pretty quickly."

Molloy, who will wrestle JV matches, is the first girl Jupiter has had in six seasons since Jamie Maynor graduated.

"This girl is an athlete," Rasmusson said. "She runs cross country and she held the (cross country) record here for a while."

Girl wrestlers aren’t as scarce as they once were, Fort Pierce had four on their team, including one who wrestles 130 pounds. Boynton Beach also has a couple of girls on their JV.

"They (Central) have three on the JV and one on the varsity," Rasmusson said. "Okeechobee was trying to put together a girls wrestling team.

"(Molloy) is very quiet and she really wants to be out here," the coach said. "She’s busted her tail to be out here. Just like the other kids, she wants to learn."

"I don’t care who you are, boy or girl, if you’re out here and you want to learn we’ll teach you."

Normally a cross country and track runner, Molloy lost her first two matches, at the Martin County JV tournament, but she points out she wasn’t pinned in her last outing.

"I lost by points," Molloy said. "I was one of the only females not to get pinned.

"One of the girls beat a guy, but it was a guy from her own team."

Molloy decided to wrestle because it was different.

"I wanted to do something other than running," she said. "I’ve been running since I was in sixth grade."

Conditioning isn’t that hard, she said, since she was already in shape for running.

"For some of the guys it’s been pretty hard but I have pretty good endurance," she said.

Although she started out at 119 pounds, she’s trying to get down to 112 for the rest of the season.

"Coach Higgins said I would less likely be hurt if I was in the lower weight class," she said. "There are no females in my weight class right now.

"I can beat girls easily. I’m tough for a female. Coach Higgins said it won’t be long before I’m beating guys."