Experience, or lack thereof, main issue facing Worth, WHS wrestlers
Wooster High wrestling coach Troy Worth hopes the growing pains will grow into something valuable.
The Generals didn’t have the league finish they were hoping for last season, but Worth and assistant Don Rammel still stayed busy to the end of the season as the Generals qualified a pair of wrestlers into the State tournament. Zach Ellsworth (160) and Anthony Catanzarite (152) both made it to the final 16 wrestlers in the state, with Catanzarite earning eighth place and All-Ohio honors.
They both graduated, though, and that lack of experience throughout the lineup is going to be felt in the early going for the Generals. The progress Wooster shows this year will come as a result of how quickly it grows, both individually and as a team.
“We had some very experienced wrestlers last year, but in all reality we only have one person who was in a tournament finals last year and that person is Nate Stebbins,” said Worth. “Last year our juniors did well and showed major improvement – they just aren’t experienced enough.”
Worth welcomes 20 wrestlers to the team, a slight bump up from last season’s roster. Six members of that group earned letters last season, but there is only one senior in that group.
The Generals’ immediate strength comes in the lower weight classes. There will be some holes in the upper weights as the people work to get to the proper weight class, but even by season’s end Wooster won’t be able to fill every weight class.
At the lower end of the spectrum, sophomore Phil Wentz will wrestle at 113 before possibly settling in at 106.
“We don’t have anyone at either weight class, so he gets to pick,” laughed Worth. “As a sophomore he’s made major improvement. He’s a lot stronger and he’s quite a bit larger because he only weighed 92-94 pounds last year. He had a nice growth spurt and has started to fill out. He’s not a little skeleton like last year – I wouldn’t wrestle him when he was too far under. He got taller and he’s been lifting and coming to open mats. He picked up a lot of experience over the summer.
“At 120 we have Logan Gable, who is a junior. He’s gained a little strength … and I hope we’ll see more improvement from him and he does well.
“Nate Stebbins, a senior, will wrestle at 126 or maybe 120. He did well last year – he was 25-11 – and he did well in some tournaments. He’s worked hard on getting takedowns because that was an area of weakness for him. He got hurt last year when he couldn’t get a takedown at the end of the match.
“At 132, Drew Worth is a junior and he’s quite a bit stronger. He made a lot of open mats this summer and worked on improving his technique from the top and bottom. With Nate and Drew, I expect them to do well in most tournaments because they’ve been on the mat more than some of the other lighter weights.
“Ethan Keck (junior) will start at ’52 and drop to ’45, but he won’t reach that until the WIT (Wayne Invitational Tournament). He’s coming off some injuries, so he will be a work in progress and we’re going to progress slowly with him. I don’t think he’s had a healthy year yet.
“Trever Chapman is our heavyweight. He’s a junior and he’s gotten stronger over last year. Hopefully he’ll be at 260. With some of the larger heavyweights, with his strength hopefully he’ll be able to move on them and get some wins. He’s been working hard on developing moves and getting out from under the big guys … and improving his footwork.”
There are questions throughout the rest of the lineup, including whether 138 will get filled.
“At 170 will be a freshman, Aaron Saal,” said Worth. “Todd Williams is a sophomore who could drop down to 160 or Aaron could drop down, and we have a senior, Jeb Beeman, at 170. I don’t know we’ll fill 182 and we have some 220-pounders who may be able to drop down to 195, but not for a while.
“We have a couple 220s and five heavyweights, so hopefully they will spread out and by the end of the season get to where we are filling some weight classes. We’ll forfeit ’6 or ’13 for sure, and we’ll have some upper forfeits until the weight allowances drop. It doesn’t look like we’ll do as well in our first dual meets, but by the end of the season we should be more competitive once we get people in the right places or get more experience under our belts.”
Worth will ease some of the younger wrestlers into competition, noting “it’s a big jump going from eighth-grade to high school, especially at 138 or the upper weights.”
“We’re looking to do a lot of individual stuff… and hope to see improvement one match at a time,” he said. “We’ll get them into a lot of JV tournaments at the beginning. They may not go to the big tournaments the first couple times so we can get them some experience. That will pay off in experience and some confidence so at the end of the year they will be ready for Sectionals, where it counts.”
Hopefully they could be ready a couple weeks earlier when Wooster hosts the Ohio Cardinal Conference tournament this year.
“That’s our league and everyone wants to wrestle well,” said Worth. “We had a big letdown last year (at OCC) – it was a bad tournament for all of us. The younger guys who should have finished in the top four had some injuries and key kids lost matches they should have won because things happened.
“I don’t know if we’ll be ready by then. Two weeks is huge. I don’t know how we’ll end up – it depends on if the younger one’s catch fire at the right time and the more experienced wrestlers don’t freeze up. It will help that it is a home event for us. Being in front of the home crowd will help.”
Wooster opened its season Dec. 3 at the Mansfield Madison Coke Classic.
The Generals didn’t have the league finish they were hoping for last season, but Worth and assistant Don Rammel still stayed busy to the end of the season as the Generals qualified a pair of wrestlers into the State tournament. Zach Ellsworth (160) and Anthony Catanzarite (152) both made it to the final 16 wrestlers in the state, with Catanzarite earning eighth place and All-Ohio honors.
They both graduated, though, and that lack of experience throughout the lineup is going to be felt in the early going for the Generals. The progress Wooster shows this year will come as a result of how quickly it grows, both individually and as a team.
“We had some very experienced wrestlers last year, but in all reality we only have one person who was in a tournament finals last year and that person is Nate Stebbins,” said Worth. “Last year our juniors did well and showed major improvement – they just aren’t experienced enough.”
Worth welcomes 20 wrestlers to the team, a slight bump up from last season’s roster. Six members of that group earned letters last season, but there is only one senior in that group.
The Generals’ immediate strength comes in the lower weight classes. There will be some holes in the upper weights as the people work to get to the proper weight class, but even by season’s end Wooster won’t be able to fill every weight class.
At the lower end of the spectrum, sophomore Phil Wentz will wrestle at 113 before possibly settling in at 106.
“We don’t have anyone at either weight class, so he gets to pick,” laughed Worth. “As a sophomore he’s made major improvement. He’s a lot stronger and he’s quite a bit larger because he only weighed 92-94 pounds last year. He had a nice growth spurt and has started to fill out. He’s not a little skeleton like last year – I wouldn’t wrestle him when he was too far under. He got taller and he’s been lifting and coming to open mats. He picked up a lot of experience over the summer.
“At 120 we have Logan Gable, who is a junior. He’s gained a little strength … and I hope we’ll see more improvement from him and he does well.
“Nate Stebbins, a senior, will wrestle at 126 or maybe 120. He did well last year – he was 25-11 – and he did well in some tournaments. He’s worked hard on getting takedowns because that was an area of weakness for him. He got hurt last year when he couldn’t get a takedown at the end of the match.
“At 132, Drew Worth is a junior and he’s quite a bit stronger. He made a lot of open mats this summer and worked on improving his technique from the top and bottom. With Nate and Drew, I expect them to do well in most tournaments because they’ve been on the mat more than some of the other lighter weights.
“Ethan Keck (junior) will start at ’52 and drop to ’45, but he won’t reach that until the WIT (Wayne Invitational Tournament). He’s coming off some injuries, so he will be a work in progress and we’re going to progress slowly with him. I don’t think he’s had a healthy year yet.
“Trever Chapman is our heavyweight. He’s a junior and he’s gotten stronger over last year. Hopefully he’ll be at 260. With some of the larger heavyweights, with his strength hopefully he’ll be able to move on them and get some wins. He’s been working hard on developing moves and getting out from under the big guys … and improving his footwork.”
There are questions throughout the rest of the lineup, including whether 138 will get filled.
“At 170 will be a freshman, Aaron Saal,” said Worth. “Todd Williams is a sophomore who could drop down to 160 or Aaron could drop down, and we have a senior, Jeb Beeman, at 170. I don’t know we’ll fill 182 and we have some 220-pounders who may be able to drop down to 195, but not for a while.
“We have a couple 220s and five heavyweights, so hopefully they will spread out and by the end of the season get to where we are filling some weight classes. We’ll forfeit ’6 or ’13 for sure, and we’ll have some upper forfeits until the weight allowances drop. It doesn’t look like we’ll do as well in our first dual meets, but by the end of the season we should be more competitive once we get people in the right places or get more experience under our belts.”
Worth will ease some of the younger wrestlers into competition, noting “it’s a big jump going from eighth-grade to high school, especially at 138 or the upper weights.”
“We’re looking to do a lot of individual stuff… and hope to see improvement one match at a time,” he said. “We’ll get them into a lot of JV tournaments at the beginning. They may not go to the big tournaments the first couple times so we can get them some experience. That will pay off in experience and some confidence so at the end of the year they will be ready for Sectionals, where it counts.”
Hopefully they could be ready a couple weeks earlier when Wooster hosts the Ohio Cardinal Conference tournament this year.
“That’s our league and everyone wants to wrestle well,” said Worth. “We had a big letdown last year (at OCC) – it was a bad tournament for all of us. The younger guys who should have finished in the top four had some injuries and key kids lost matches they should have won because things happened.
“I don’t know if we’ll be ready by then. Two weeks is huge. I don’t know how we’ll end up – it depends on if the younger one’s catch fire at the right time and the more experienced wrestlers don’t freeze up. It will help that it is a home event for us. Being in front of the home crowd will help.”
Wooster opened its season Dec. 3 at the Mansfield Madison Coke Classic.
Published: November 30, 2011
