How Pisgah alumni are helping wrestlers prepare for NCHSAA state championships
Pisgah wrestling is sending four boys and two girls to the NCHSAA individual state championships this weekend. And they will have an advantage most of the other wrestlers don’t — alumni who come back to help.
The alumni will have played a key role if Kane Bryson, Kail Burnette, Xander Hill, Landon Pope, Paloma Ramirez and Treyleigh Miller win a state title for Pisgah this weekend in Greensboro.
There were three alumni, Lucas Whitted, John Mehaffey and David Queen, helping at practice Tuesday. Coach Ryan Gibson said there have been as many as six former Pisgah wrestlers working with the current team throughout the season.
Whitted won the 2A 152-pound state title as a senior for Pisgah in 2021. Queen and Mehaffey also have experience competing at state championships, and Mehaffey is the wrestling coach at Bethel Middle School.
Whitted said the tradition of former wrestlers coming back to help the program goes back to when he competed for the Bears. He remembers when Dillon O’Neil returned to help the team when he was a senior. O’Neil was the first Pisgah wrestler to win a state championship.
“Every year there’s guys that come back,” Whitted said. “And it’s such a good culture to know that those people really are behind you. Like that’s not the way it is everywhere. I feel like we actually have a community around our wrestling team. It’s not just a sport. It’s more than that to a lot of people.”
Whitted said toward the end of his high school career, he started to realize how much he enjoyed the coaching side of wrestling. Hill, as a freshman, was actually Whitted’s wrestling partner when he was a senior.
“I really enjoyed taking those younger guys and coaching them and mentoring them not only as wrestlers but as men, helping their work ethic and mental game,” he said.
Gibson said he always welcomes his former wrestlers back.
“It’s what we built our program on,” he said. “It’s that family atmosphere. Being a family and passing it down from one family member to the next.”
When alumni come back, they don’t just watch from the sidelines, either. For example, Gibson paired Whitted, Mehaffey and Queen with some of the current wrestlers during drills.
Burnette said it’s quite a luxury to have them come back so much.
“It helps a lot,” he said. “They give us tips and gives us more confidence.”
Whitted said there isn’t much advice he can give the six Pisgah wrestlers competing this weekend other than to tell them to give it their best shot and to remind them of the work they put in to get where they are.
“That’s one of the things I’ve tried to get into their head was like you’re good enough to be here, so don’t count yourself out,” he said. “Like who cares who that guy is, what his record is. You’re here, too. So just go out there and make him take it from you.”
But Whitted doesn’t want any credit if Pisgah brings home any trophies.
“They’re here because of what they’ve done,” he said. “Not because of any coach or alumni coming back. They’ve taken every step along the way and all we can hope to do is just be some kind of steppingstone to help them on their success.”
HITTING ITS STRIDE AT THE RIGHT TIME: Why Roberson wrestling is hitting its stride entering NCHSAA individual state championships
COACHES CONFIDENTIAL PART THREE: Favorite opponent's gym at which to play
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Pisgah alumni helping wrestlers prepare for state championships
