The sport of wrestling is all about overcoming great difficulties. This will certainly be the theme with the 2008-2009 BSM wrestling team, who, for the third straight season, will be severely understaffed. While the elite wrestling teams in the state will have 40 or more members, BSM will likely have no more than eight.
This causes several problems for the wrestlers, especially in the Dual Meets. In these, teams accumulate points through each wrestler on their team, wrestling in different weight divisions. Because BSM does not have wrestlers in every weight division, they will have to forfeit those matches, effectively losing the overall meet.
This shortage also presents a problem in practice, due to the fact that the wrestlers will have no one to compete against in their own weight division. To combat this, the team is trying to bolster their roster: “We’ve got four ninth-graders coming out,” said Head Coach Jerry Henk, “So we’re pretty pumped about that. I’m also going to go after some football players.”
The team also has experienced another setback this season. Junior Alex Peck, a state qualifier in the previous two seasons, left BSM before this year in order to wrestle at Bloomington-Jefferson High School. “Bloomington-Jefferson and Bloomington-Kennedy merged,” explained Coach Henk, “This is good for Alex. He’ll get to wrestle a nationally-ranked opponent every day in practice.”
Despite Peck’s departure and the shortage of members, the team remains optimistic about the upcoming season. “We’ll be good,” said sophomore Peyton Goodrich,”We lost Alex [Peck], but we have a bunch of fresh blood.” With its shortage of members in mind, the team has set several goals, mostly pertaining to individual accolades. “We’re shooting for Nick Tourville placing in State and Nationals,” said Coach Henk, “We also want Jack Abraham and Peyton Goodrich to qualify for State.” However, the team also has several goals. “We want to get more kids out, and also improve,” said junior captain Nick Tourville. With the small number of wrestlers, the team is open to anyone who would like to wrestle.
