Photo courtesy of Tim Stoudenmire.
By Kevin Mobley – Sports Writer
On Sat., Feb. 1, the Clarke Central High School varsity wrestling team notched a championship performance at the Region 8-AAAAA Traditional Championships.
The team captured the 8-AAAAA Traditional title, as eleven wrestlers placed in the top three in their respective weight classes. Among those, freshman Justin Barnett and junior Josh Williams were champions.
The title comes one month after securing the 8-AAAAA Duals championship, the first time in program history that both have been achieved in the same season.
“Once we got into an actual region competition with all the other schools and then performing as well as we did, I felt like we could be a real threat to win the Traditionals and qualify a lot of guys for (sectionals),” Stoudenmire said. “I felt really good coming out of (Duals) weekend.”
The team’s performance this season has come as an astonishment to Stoudenmire and his staff.
“We graduated so many guys last year that had a lot of experience and success,” Stoudenmire said. “I fully expected this year to be what most coaches call a rebuilding season.”
Stoudenmire feels that there is a new dynamic to the 2013-14 team compared to last year’s squad.
“Last year, we had more athletic ability and more wrestling talent and had absolutely no leadership,” Stoudenmire said. “This year, we have less talent, but we have so much leadership.”
This weekend, the team will compete at the AAAAA East Sectional competition at Cambridge High School in Milton, Ga. 12 of the 14 members of the varsity wrestling team will compete.
“I don’t know if we’ll have the same results because the sectional is twice as hard as the region, but at the same time, the way we’ve been wrestling, I don’t put anything beyond this team,” Stoudenmire said.
