Wrestling: Lake County's high school teams surveys
Leader Sports
Arlee Warriors
Coaching staff: Head coach Ken Hill, 11 years with the team; Dan Ries, four years; volunteer coaches Joe Trujillo and Clint Rice
Conference: District 9-C
Record last year: 14 — 4 dual record
Playoffs: Won B-C Divisional tournament last years and won the Class C state championship
Returners:
Last season’s three state placers include: defending state champion senior Jake Trujillo (career record 83 — 9), sixth-placed senior Jordan Lefler (91 — 26), and fourth-placed sophomore Cole Rice (43-9).
Three state qualifiers include: seniors Tucker Lytle, Daylon Martin and sophomore Cassandra Kline.
Arlee has six seniors, three juniors, six sophomores, and seven freshmen.
Potential new wrestlers:
Sophomores Damon Cordier, Justin Monson, Alan O’Neill, and Curt Siedel all came a long way last season, their freshman year and have shown great promise.
Promising freshmen include: Zack Carver, Carter Clinkenbeard, Logan Lefler, Dakota Paul, Brady Potts, Zach Tameler and Clayton Trimble.
Early Schedule:
The Warriors open their season with the Cascade Badgers wrestling tournament in Cascade Montana on Dec. 5 and 6, and will return home to host a dual with Summit Prep., Noxon, Thompson Falls and Florence on Thursday, Dec. 11 at Arlee.
Coaches’ comments:
The freshman class this season has been in the Little Guy program for years and have accumulated many Little Guy State Championships. This freshman class is one of the most talented Coach Hill has seen in many years. They work hard, listen well and learn fast. A number of these young Warrior athletes will compete for Divisional titles and also places in the state tournament.
St. Ignatius/Charlo
Coaching staff: First year head coach Lyle Cronk, first year assistant coach Jim Petersen
Conference: Western Class B
Record last year: Unknown
Playoffs: Yes
Returners:
State placers returning: senior Matt Faroni (fourth at 189 lbs.), senior Jordan Rohrich (fourth at 171 lbs.), and Jame Petersen (fifth at 130 lbs.).
Most of the lineup is returning with only two seniors leaving.
Potential new wrestlers:
We are looking forward to our incoming freshmen contributing to this line up.
Coaches’ comments:
Both coaches are excited for the opportunity to coach in the St. Ignatius/Charlo community and looking forward to a great season for our wrestlers.
Ronan Chiefs
Coaching staff: Head coach Ryan Fisher, fifth year with team; assistant coach Al Onsager, fifth year; assistant coach Dustyn Azure, third year.
Conference: Northwestern Class A
Record last year: 20-1 dual record
Playoffs: 2008 divisional champs, state runner-up
Returners:
State placers returning: seniors Zach Robinson (2006, fifth at state; 2008, second at state) and Tyson Noyes ( 2007, third at state; 2008, sixth at state), juniors Cameron Neiss (2007, second at state; 2008, third at state) and Micky Cheff (2008, third at state), sophomores Cole McArthur (2008, fifth at state) and Toby Cheff (2008, third at state).
We also have a number of Divisiona placers returning from last year to round out the team.
Potential new wrestlers:
Freshman Riley Dennis and Dilan Starkel show great potential.
Challenges:
We will be a stronger tournament team than a dual team. Some of the boys are grouped tightly together by weight and we might have to do some maneuvering to fill all the weight classes, but I expect those issues will iron themselves out. Our depth chart will be shallow so we will have to avoid injuries and illness the best we can to be competitive as a team.
Expectations:
We have the potential to be Divisional contenders and at brining home State Tournament hardware. We strive for progress each year and we will have some challenging goals in place for this season. Our returning wrestlers feel very strongly about the coming season and have been preparing themselves for varying levels of team and personal success. We are excited to officially begin the season and test ourselves.
Competition:
Whitefish is struggling with program numbers right now, but they consistently show great improvement as the year continues. Polson, Columbia Falls and Libby will all have strong competitors in their lineups. Each one of these teams develop very competitively throughout the year and present challenges. Polson has a great core of seasoned wrestlers who have given our crowds great matches. I expect some of those to be feature matches again this year. Columbia Falls brings back a competitive field and Libby will be the physical aggressors as usual.
Coaches’ comments:
In our division, the victors are usually only determined by a few matches, and those matches are sometimes determined by slim margins. In this sense, our duals are great for spectators.
Polson Pirate Wrestling
Coaching staff: head coach Bob Owen, 34 years with the team; assistant coach Bill Owen, 33 years; assistant coach Eric Huffine, 3 years.
Conference: Western Class A
Record: 15 - 5
Playoffs: Finished second in Western Division
Returners:
Divisional placers include: junior Brock Picard (first), Jesse Alfiero (first), Trae Fouty (second), Dakota Jensen (second), Keio Salmonson (second), Jacob Young (second), and Ty Fouty (fourth).
Picard was a State Champion, and junior Kaden Thomas was third in the state of Alaska last season.
Other returners are Josh Rostad and Randy Kelley.
Potential new wrestlers:
Freshmen wrestlers with much experience in the Little Guy Program include: Brock Bleazard, Gavin Fox, Eric Gerrity, Chris Cote, Josiah Clairmont and Nick Howell.
Challenges:
Biggest challenge will be getting everyone into the line-up. Many of them are around the same weight.
Expectations:
We are expecting big things from this crew as most of them have wrestled for us for a long time. They are very hard workers and believe in our system.
Competition:
Ronan returns more state placers than any other team, and will again be the team to beat this season. Libby will also return some good wrestlers from last season.
Coaches’ comments:
We are going to be in the Bozeman Invitational this season. It looks to be the toughest tournament in the state now. They are also hosting a big time college duel between the University of Michigan and Oregon State University that day. It will be neat for our guys to get a chance to see what that caliber of wrestling is like.