'Rockin' and rollin' this spring': Middle school wrestling to debut in Vigo County

Dec. 29—This past January, initial meetings took place to discuss adding wrestling to the list of Vigo County School Corporation middle school athletics.

Next month, also January, competitive meets on the mats — new ones at that — will begin.

"We wanted to plan out how we could bring middle school wrestling to fruition," explained Stacy Mason, the VCSC's assistant superintendent of building leadership.

"Through several meetings through the spring and again this fall, we have our seasons ready to go."

Mason mentioned that high school wrestling is popular in this community, so it's not surprising that Vigo County's high school coaches contributed helpful suggestions to those planning discussions.

"They were a major help in getting this off the ground," Mason emphasized.

At least one of those coaches, Terre Haute South's Gabe Cook (a state-champion wrestler from West Vigo in 1996), is pleased to see the sport become available for the county's middle school students.

"I'm really excited to see the youth in our community have this new opportunity," Cook told the Tribune-Star. "I know there have been a lot of obstacles to get this started, but we are very grateful to all the coaches and administrators who stepped up and made this happen."

Mason rattled off names of the middle school head coaches — Ian Newton (Woodrow Wilson), Emmitt Tyler II (Sarah Scott), Paul Bennett (Honey Creek), James Hudson (Otter Creek) and Kyle Camp (West Vigo). Wrestling now is part of a list that also includes swimming (in its first season as well), basketball, volleyball, tennis, track and cross country at the middle school level.

Mason admitted there was consideration to making this first season only about conditioning and learning wrestling skills instead of having meets.

"We were really able to move this along a lot faster," she added. "We've got meets on the schedule for this [school] year. ... Everybody's gonna have mats and we'll be rockin' and rollin' this spring."

Mason said boys and girls from all three middle school grades — sixth through eighth — have a chance to compete, although weight classes will be slightly different than high school classes.

Count Newton and Tyler in as being among the middle school coaches who can't wait to hear the meet whistles blow.

"The students are blindly excited," Tyler pointed out. "I don't think they realize how grueling and physical a match can be. Until they lock up in their first collar tie, get their legs pulled from underneath them by a true opponent or experience how one minute can feel like 10, they won't understand what they've signed up for. It is going to be exciting for Mr. [assistant coach Colin] Sons and I to see these first experiences, the wins, ups, downs and the character building wrestling can bring to student-athletes. The discipline and perseverance they will learn may not be realized until later in life. But I promise you, wrestling will fold it into them."

"I'm very excited about wrestling growing in Vigo County," Newton said. "Terre Haute South has been a state-ranked [Class 3A] team the last several years, beating teams with great middle school feeder programs. Adding wrestling to the middle schools will be huge for all three high school programs to take the next step toward success. I'm thankful to be given the opportunity to help all Vigo County schools with this addition."

Tyler, who's a Sarah Scott art teacher and a seventh/eighth-grade track coach as well, and Newton, who coaches football, wrestling and track at South and teaches algebra at South, bring plenty of match experience. Both wrestled competitively in their younger days — Tyler at Terre Haute North and Newton (along with his sister Haley) under Cook at South. Bennett also wrestled for South as a teenager.

"Sarah Scott middle school wrestling is in its infant stage," Tyler acknowledged. "The majority of our kids had no idea what to expect until we introduced them to a college wrestling YouTube video. I've talked to the wrestling coaches at Terre Haute South and they are pleased that more student-athletes will be receiving their first wrestling experiences in middle school before they reach the high school level. I am glad to see another athletic option for students who reach a different skill set than your more dominant sports.

"Students are trying out for wrestling that I never thought had any interest in being a part of one of our school's athletic teams. Practices officially start Jan. 16. There are 22 weight classes, ranging from 70 pounds to 285 pounds."

Mason said the season will last until mid-March, then the pros and cons of it will be evaluated.

"We know that after we go through Year 1 this spring, there are going to be some tweaks that we'll want to make to the schedules and the processes of how we do things," she mentioned.

Each school's season is likely to consist of six or seven meets, she added.