Talk about throwing a team into the fire.
The Emporia High wrestling team begins its season on Saturday at the Arkansas City Tournament and will face the likes of defending 6A State champion and No. 1-ranked Goddard, defending 4A State champion Andale, ranked No. 1 in Class 4A, Arkansas City, ranked in the top 5 in Class 5A, and Oklahoma powerhouses Stillwater and Owasso.
And EHS coach Greg Buckbee wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, he spent the last two years trying to make it that way.
“That’s our schedule all year long. We don’t have an easy week,” Buckbee said. “Our wrestlers have got to be ready to wrestle at their top performance every week.”
Looking for an answer as to why Buckbee would pit his team against the best of the best week in and week out?
“There’s one of two things that is going to happen: They are either going to step up and get tougher, or they’re going to shy away and have a rough time,” he said. “Hopefully, by the time we get to league, Regionals and State, I want my kids seasoned; I want them thinking, ‘Man, this is easy.’ Last year, our easiest tournament of the year was Regionals, and that’s what I want.”
For a program that prides itself on being one of the best in the state, the Spartans will certainly have the chance to prove it many times this year.
Tournaments and matchups with Manhattan, Lawrence, Council Grove, Newton and Garden City, among others, also dot the schedule. But for a program used to seeing success year after year, senior Bryce Shaver said the only way to continue that success is to find out where the team matches up with the best.
“We always look forward to the challenge. We pick these hard teams to get us ready for the more important tournaments,” Shaver said. “I feel that as a team, we’ve gotten a lot stronger. We’ve got a lot of kids in all the weight classes that are real good wrestlers.
I think we’re a good team too.”
Emporia High is coming off a 2005-06 season in which it placed ninth at State in Class 5A by sending nine wrestlers to the tournament. Six of those nine qualifiers are back this year, led by senior James Sparks, who placed second at the State meet in the 215-pound weight class.
Though he is battling injuries and is expected to miss Saturday’s meet, Sparks is expected to be the cornerstone for the Spartans this season, Buckbee said.
“When he gets back to full health, we’re looking for big things from him, obviously,” Buckbee said. “The one person he lost to last year (Valley Center’s Justin Naccarato) is done and graduated and has moved on, and he lost to him in double overtime twice. We’re looking for great things from James.”
Justin Rose placed fifth at 103 and Sal Tovar came in fifth at 112 to complete the other EHS State tournament placers from a year ago, while Shaver (145), junior Josh Rodriguez (285) and sophomore Tavo Dikin (125) each qualified.
“All of our State returners have looked good,” Buckbee said. “They all look great. But again, they look great in the practice room, but until we go up against real competition, it’s just hard to tell.”
While the six who made it to State last year will no doubt be the foundation of the program, there is a youth movement sweeping the EHS wrestling squad that will be evident as early as the first tournament on Saturday. Five freshmen are expected to start in their respective weight classes when EHS travels to the Arkansas City Tournament: Colby Walecki at 130, Logan Gaskill at 145, Nico Rodriguez at 152, Armando Ortiz at 171 and Mark Kolmer at 189.
Kolmer’s situation is an interesting one, as he is coming off a football season in which he became the first freshman ever to play varsity for coach Bill Lowe in all his years as a high school football coach.
Kolmer has the chance to somewhat repeat that performance on the wrestling mats, though the situation with wrestling won’t be quite as rare — or perhaps unexpected — as his football exploits.
“This is a little different. Last year, I was coming up here and working out with these guys,” said Kolmer, who began wrestling in the third grade. “I’ve been wrestling with most of these guys since I started, so this is a little different than football.
“It’s a little different atmosphere I guess. I’m not nervous about how I’m going to do, but there is a little fear of the unknown.”
The biggest immediate challenge for the Spartans, Buckbee said, will be getting the younger athletes like Kolmer acclimated to the step up in competition.
“They (the freshmen) have proven that they are the best on our team at their weight at this point,” he said. “All of them have had experience in wrestling, but not at the high school level, so you never know what they’re going to do.
“We don’t have an easy schedule, so this freshman bunch will have to learn awfully fast how to wrestle at the high school level, and that might take some time.”