SPARTA — Highland High School will play host to several wrestling teams, including East Knox and Fredericktown, when the Scots host the Highland Invitational on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Along with the local teams will be teams from Medina, Lexington, Fisher Catholic, Columbus Northland, Africentric and South Central.
“We’ve got some good teams with a lot of good wrestlers,” said Highland coach Adam Gilmore. “South Central has some really young wrestlers, but they’ve also got a couple of state placers and a handful of district qualifiers. They’ll each get two to five matches, depending on who is in their weight class. Hopefully, they’ll all get five matches under their belt.”
With the variety of wrestlers who are expected to be on hand, the matchups should be interesting.
“I hope some of the studs from some of the other schools match up with some of our better wrestlers,” said Gilmore. “At least I’m hoping it works out that way.”
The tournament will give all participants a chance to go up against new competition.
“I think that makes it exciting for them,” said Gilmore. “It opens up things for them and lets them see a bigger world of wrestling and it gives them an idea where to go back and work.”
Although Gilmore is in his first year as head coach, he and former head coach Terry Woolf know what it takes to put a good tournament together.
“We’ve done it a few times, so we are getting better with it,” said Gilmore. “We know how to get organized now. It just takes the time to do it. We’ve also got some great moms and great dads; we’ve got great support. It’s good. The excitement’s there.”
