Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — It’s time for wrestling season, and area high school wrestlers are ready to hit the mats for this year’s competition. Last season, Loudonville finished first in the Mid-Buckeye Conference, followed by Utica, Fredericktown and Johnstown. Highland placed seventh in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference.

The coaches continue to train their wrestlers and grow their programs as they all fight to win a conference title. Loudonville will be the team everyone is gunning for this season, as the Redbirds have won back-to-back conference titles and are returning a state qualifier from last year, senior Ryan Thatcher. Head coach Steve Furlong wants his team to work even harder this year and put last year’s success behind it.

“We have the same expectations year in and year out,” said Furlong. “We try to reach the same goals and we have high expectations of the kids and high demands of the kids to work as hard as they can to reach those goals. The last two years this same group of kids won the MBC, so anything less for them, speaking of conference, would probably be unsatisfying to them.”

Furlong expects Thatcher to improve, not settle with his achievements last season.

Furlong knows there’s tough competition in the MBC, and is preparing his team for those teams that could have a chance at upsetting the Redbirds’ season.

“There’s a lot of good teams and a lot of good kids returning from other teams, and if our kids don’t work hard or harder than they did last year, it’s going to be harder to [win] because there’s some people out there shooting for us. So we’re going to have to be able to step it up,” he said.

Fredericktown is one of teams Loudonville will be watching out for. Head coach Jason Hinkle returns five wrestlers and two district qualifiers, and believes his team has a chance at being conference champs.

“We definitely hope to get a lot of experience and then a conference championship,” said Hinkle. “I don’t think it’s out of reach; even though we are as young as what we are, we have some really, really superior athletes that are freshmen. I think if not this year, definitely we’ll be a shoo-in for next year as conference champions.

“We lightened our schedule up a little from last year because of the amount of freshmen that we have lettering, of which we have seven in our lineup,” he continued. “So with them along with the two returning sophomores, we’re still pretty young.”

The Freddies will be looking for strong leadership out of the returning wrestlers. Senior Eric Blount has been working hard in the off-season to prepare.

“Eric Blount has done all the right things this summer to become a great wrestler,” said Hinkle. “He wrestled throughout the summer and participated in the Junior Olympics and things like that. He’s taken the right steps to be a really good leader and a very talented wrestler this year. He’s been working real hard and things are going to pay off for him this winter.”

Senior Cory Weiss and junior Jeremy Howerton are also strong wrestlers for the Freddies, and will be great leaders for this season.

“Another one is senior Cory Weiss. He returned to football this year, which we were glad to see that [as] it kept him active. He was a real good wrestler last year and missed the district tournament by one match, and it was a tight one at that. But we are expecting big things out of him as well,” said Hinkle. “Jeremy Howerton, too. He has made a major mental improvement from last year to this year. He really believes now in himself and wrestling and that’s starting to pay off for him.”

Johnstown is another team in the running for the MBC title. Head coach Brad Todd brings back nine returners to the team. Last season, the Johnnies had two district qualifiers, Chris Block and Tony Meyers. Todd expects leadership and improvement out of the two qualifiers, and for them to build on their success.

“Well, hopefully they’ve taken on a good leadership role and I expect them hopefully to reach that next level. Where last year they made it to districts, I hope this year they take that next step and make it to state with a little bit of maturing and developing.”

Johnstown brings back a district ultimate from last year, Josh Chambers. New to the varsity team is freshman Scott Robinson, who placed in the state tournament for middle school. Todd beefed up the schedule for this season to help his team get to the next level.

“I expect a big improvement,” he said . “We have nine returning letterwinners. Most of them are sophomores, but with them gaining the experience they got last year, I think we’ll be a step above where we were last year.”

There are two new head coaches this year, Mike Linkenhoker of Centerburg and Brian Foust of Clear Fork.

Linkenhoker was the assistant coach at Centerburg for the last two years. In 2005, he started to grow the wrestling program by getting athletes interested at the junior high level in order to get more participation in high school.

“I want to try to build the program and get bigger numbers out,” said Linkenhoker. “Which we did by starting a junior high program last year; I ran it. And then, of course, to build on that, we also added the little kids program a few weeks ago.”

This year, the Centerburg High School varsity wrestling team will grow with the leadership of three junior athletes. Julian Anderson, Corey Lindsey and Jon Pozderac are all returning from last season and will be strong competitors for the Trojans.

“Well, I’d say the three that I’ve got back — Julian, Corey and Pozderac — I think all three will do pretty good,” said Linkenhoker. “And then I’ve got a new senior out, Jon Andrews, and I think that kid, for never wrestling for us, will be pretty good.”

The goal for Linkenhoker is to grow in numbers and not lose any wrestlers throughout the season.

“One thing would be to get them to follow through with their commitment and stay on the team,” said Linkenhoker. “The last two years, we ended up with six kids at the end of the year. I’ve got probably 13 out there right now and I don’t foresee any of them quitting. I’ve already had a couple quit already, but I think what I have left now will stick the whole way.”

Foust was the assistant coach for the Colts last season. He has 10 returning wrestlers, but even so, it’s a young team. He wants to continue to improve this year and has high hopes for his team’s achievements during the season.

“At this point, I’m hoping to do better than what we did last year,” said Foust. “I hope to pick the intensity up. I have nine freshmen and I also have two first-year juniors who have never wrestled for us. They’re all very athletic. I have a very optimistic outlook for this year.”

East Knox head coach Keith Kauffman is also optimistic for his team and the growth of the wrestling program. This will be only the second year the Bulldogs have wrestled. The team will return eight athletes this year.

“Well, I think with one year of experience, a lot of the kids were in a total learning process last year,” said Kauffman. “The sport of wrestling is so in depth in technique, and learning the moves just takes a long time to get that so that things are second nature. So this year they’ve got that first-year experience behind them. I look for them to do better this year, I really do.”

Kauffman has also expanded the program into the younger grades so the youths can learn the skills of wrestling earlier.

“I think there’s a great future at East Knox for wrestling,” Kauffman said. “That’s the basis for sports in high school, is to get a little kids program going, and that’s a big plus for East Knox wrestling.”

Utica and Highland coaches were not available for comment.