St. Christopher's School Wrestling

It's hard to believe that the 2009-10 wrestling season is almost one-third over! Once the inital weeks of practice are over and the competitions begin, time really begins to fly! It seems as it were only yesterday that the team met for the first day of practice, and here we are at the dawn of 2010. The expectations for the 2009-10 St. Christopher's wrestling team are high: a ninth consecutive VISAA State Championship, a top three place at the St. Alban's Tournament, and  a top ten (or better) finish at Nationals. A lot of great stuff happened in the first month, but more to come over the next two months.

The schedule is one of the toughest I have seen as a high school wrestling coach. There are very few "easy" weekends throughout the season; the wrestlers and the team will be battle tested week in and week out, preparing for the ultimate goals at the end of the season. But this is also one of the most talented wrestling teams I have ever been associated with. Not only do we have four National Prep All-Americans and two State champions returning, but the rest of the team has improved too. We have also welcomed two newcomers to the team: freshman Brandon Jeske and sophomore Tyler Cornett. Jeske's pedigre is outstanding; in 2009 alone he won the FILA Cadet Nationals and placed third at the USA Wrestling Cadet Nationals- both in Greco Roman. Cornett comes to St. Christopher's via Massaponax HS, ironically the same school where I spent seven successful season as head coach. He was a VHSL Northwest Region qualifier in 2009 and fits in beautifully to the starting line up.

And thus far, the Saints have responded well to the rigors of this season's schedule. We started the season at Hopewell with their annual tournament. What began as a good opening date turned into a barn-burner of a tournament. Wyoming Seminary, one of the top five programs in the nation, Frank Cox and Christiansburg, both number one ranked teams in Virginia in AAA and AA respectively, and Westfield, the 2009 VHSL Northern Region champions all met up with the Saints at Hopewell. We wrestled well, Jeske and junior David Wesley both placed second and the team finished in 5th place- the highest amongst metro Richmond teams. Five seniors: Rennie Merhige, Loren Phillips, Ted Gottwald, Edward Custer, and Chris Gill all placed in the top six of their weights, as did junior Trey Tarr.

The following week was one of the longest of my life; I was in charge of running the show for our home opener- the St. Christopher's Invitational. Between the constant line up changes, technical gliches, and other assorted things, the tournament ran well...actually very well! We finished the day twenty minutes after the championship round was scheduled to begin. Not bad at all! And the team wrestled well too, bringing home the team trophy. We had eleven kids in the finals and placed just about everyone. I was definitely glad to have the tournament run well, but then again, it could have been much worse.

Then it was off to the Beast of the East in Delaware with part of the team. We had to race the impending weather to make it up to the tournament the night before. This was my first trip to the "Beast" and it definitely lived up to my expectations. Once again, the kids wrestled really well; Jeske made it to the finals and almost one the thing as a freshman! He beat the number 8, 1, and 4 seeds along the way. You can see the videos on the STC Video page. Phillips and Gill missed placing by one round; Loren lost to kids who placed fifth and sixth. What a tournament!! Talk about intensity!

Now we have a few days off to celebrate the holidays before heading back out on the road, this time to James Wood HS in Winchester, VA for their holiday tournament. Hopefully the weather will behave this time around. But if it doesn't, we know that the St. Christopher's mini-busses are like tanks and will make it through the weather. Enjoy the holidays and see you soon on the mats!