Freshman and JV wrestlers Riley Smith and Evan Lehmann are practicing c-grips in the Wrestling Room on Nov. 10. The Clarke Central High School JV and varsity wrestling teams have their first matches this Saturday, Nov. 14. Varsity will be at Banks County High School and JV will be at Archer High School. “They’ve seen that level of competitiveness and aggressiveness and intensity in the practice room,” Head varsity wrestling coach and physical education teacher, Tim Stoudenmire said. “Now that they’re ninth graders they don’t have any lack of understanding to what’s expected of them.” Photo by Hannah Gale.
By HANNAH GALE – Staff Writer
The Clarke Central High School wrestling season began on Oct. 26 for seventh through twelfth graders. This upcoming Thursday, the CCHS C-team wrestlers will compete at Athens Christian School, with the JV and Varsity wrestling teams competing this Saturday at Archer High School and Banks County High School.
The Clarke Central High School varsity wrestling team is the reigning region 8-AAAAA champion last year. The team placed second at sectionals and finished in the top ten at state.
Head varsity wrestling coach, Tim Stoudenmire plans to continue this winning mentality in the future by heavily recruiting towards the seventh and eighth grades to join their c-team program and immerse them in the CCHS wrestling culture.
“We practice our C-team guys, our seventh and eighth graders, in the room with our high school guys,” Stoudenmire said. “They don’t practice against them, but they practice near them and they hear the same terminology, they see how intense practice is and what that does is it breeds a culture so they’re not shocked when they show up in the ninth grade”
A majority of the current freshman wrestlers have participated in the CCHS wrestling program since the seventh grade and are now part of the JV or varsity teams.
“Competing for c team helped me improve my moves for the matches in high school,”
freshman and JV wrestler Evan Lehmann said. “The expectation in high school is much higher and the competition is at a higher level.”
Seventh through 12th grade wrestlers began conditioning in April for the 2015-2016 season. The program practiced throughout June and went to tournaments and wrestling dual meets. At the beginning of the school year, a majority of the wrestlers worked out in the weight room before and after school to begin the process to get their weight down and get into shape.
“Wrestling in middle school helped me a lot because I got some early experience and I was able to learn a lot of the basic skills,” Lehmann said.
The C-team competes along with the varsity and JV teams because Coach Stoudenmire believes that the high competition at a young age promotes their level of success.
“They need to practice, they need to compete, and they need to compete at a high level but understand that its junior varsity,” Stoudenmire said. “At some point in time when they get to the varsity everything they’ve learned and gone through up to that point should help to pay off.”
“We have the best freshman class that we’ve had in the 11 years that I’ve been here,” Stoudenmire said.
