Friday, March 29th, 2024 Church Directory
The 2021 Becker Wrestling team boasts 25 wrestlers with varsity experience. Pictured are this years wrestlers, coaches and team managers. (Photo courtesy of Chris Lommel Photography).

Bulldog wrestlers hope experience translates to victories

If the Becker wrestling team were to list three words that are the keys to the 2021 truncated season, they very well could be depth, depth and depth.  Having a hungry pack of able bodies will be of paramount importance for the Bulldogs, as they try to repeat their stellar performance from a year ago when they finished 22-2 and were named Mississippi 8 Conference Champions.

“We have 25 kids on the team that have varsity experience,” says co-head coach Matt Aho, in his 12th year leading the program.  “We will have many different options when we are filling out the lineup card.”

Aho and long time assistant Jeff Zimmer began sharing the head coaching duties a year ago.  They are joined by a talented group of assistant coaches with many years of experience, including Dustin Weege, Dewey Sommerdorf, Luke Salzer, Jaydon Grommersch and Andy Saunier.

The depth factor on the mat will undoubtedly play a prominent role in this season’s success, as the team will be limited to 16 events with each wrestler eligible for a total of 32 individual matches.  Gone for this season are the familiar quadrangular meets and tournaments, replaced by a MSHSL mandated cap of three teams (triangular) at each competition.

“As a team, we definitely have quite a bit of experience and we hope that helps us to be successful,” says Aho, who noted the program is in good shape with 35 overall athletes out for the sport.  

A pair of state entrants from a year ago, Lukas Paulson and Caden DeWall, provide plenty of optimism that the Bulldogs can live up to the preseason hype.  Another state entrant from last year, Ethan Anderson, will miss the action as he recovers from an injury.

Aho says that the new rules and practice configurations brought on by COVID have not been a detriment to his team’s numbers or preparations.

The team uses two scales for weigh-ins and breaks practice groups into pods in case contact tracing becomes a necessity.  There are also plenty of opportunities for sanitizing, something the wrestling community is already adept at in order to prevent ringworm infections.

“We are following all of the guidelines and protocols and the kids have been working extremely hard,” adds Aho.

While the plans for the post-season have not been released, Aho said his team is not wasting time worrying about things outside of its control.  There just isn’t the time to do so with the opening match of the season slated for last Thursday at home versus St. Francis, a AAA team.

“We know some kids have not been able to prepare for the season as they would have in the past, so our goal is to get in the best shape that we can with the time that we have,” says Aho.  “We are focused on having the best record we can in the dual meets and we will see what happens with the postseason.”

In the meantime, the depth in the practice room has led to some great competition as the team prepares its opening night lineup.

“We’re hoping and expecting to have another successful season,” says Aho.  “We’ll do our best and I expect we can again finish near the top of the section.”