Names change, but same goal for Trojan wrestling
They might be a couple of weeks away from having the opportunity to prove it at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa, but don’t count out the Post Falls wrestling team from a chance to win a third straight state 5A title.
Sure, some of the names have changed, but the attitude and effort hasn’t.
Not by a long shot.
IT HAS been over a decade since a team has won three straight state titles in 5A, when Eagle won from 2003-05. Coeur d’Alene won in 2010 and 2011, but had its run stopped by Lewiston in 2012. Post Falls kept Centennial from a three-peat in 2015, when it won the first of its two titles.
“We’re in a really good spot right now,” said Post Falls coach Pete Reardon, in his eighth year as Trojans coach. “We’re starting to get into that last phase of the season and the kids know what they’ve got to do to be ready for regionals. The kids seem to be hungry, and we’ll see how we do in the next couple of weeks.”
In Wednesday’s regular season finale, Post Falls had eight straight wins, all by pin starting at 106 to 152 pounds. Jordan Grimm (113), A.J. De La Rosa (120), Matt McLeod (126), Mathias De La Rosa (132), Jason Burchell (138), Braydon Huber (145) and Wyatt Shelly (152) all placed at state last year in Pocatello.
Grimm, Mathias De La Rosa and Huber finished runner-up, with McLeod winning a state title last year. Sophomore Ridge Lovett, who sat out Wednesday’s match at 113 pounds so a senior could wrestle at that weight on senior night, hasn’t lost a high school match.
“Those guys are really tough,” Reardon said. “Our lower weights to 152-160 are really tough. They’re really solid and it’s nice to have those guys to get wins and bonus points.”
As far as qualifying goes, Region 1 will get the top three in each weight class to state. District 3 (Boise area) receives the top nine and District 5-6 will qualify the top four.
While they might not have the strength in numbers as some of their counterparts, they’ve got strength were it counts to make things interesting when the time comes.
A FEW years ago, when Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson got his contract extension, a teammate said that it’s going to be hard to keep everyone.
While they’ve done their best to keep all the key pieces from the team that won a Super Bowl title, it appears that time has ran out on one of those players.
Seattle signed kicker Blair Walsh, formerly of Minnesota, on Thursday afternoon. The signing could mean the end of Steven Hauschka’s time with the team after six years. Hauschka is scheduled to become a free agent in the offseason.
Granted, Hauschka missed a few kicks that were costly. The first came at Arizona, when he shanked a kick that led to the game finishing in a tie. Another was having an extra point blocked against Arizona and finished with a loss that cost the team a first-round bye in the playoffs.
As far as Walsh as an upgrade, keep in mind that it was Walsh that extended the Seahawks playoff run in 2016 with a missed field goal in a wild-card game while in Minnesota.
And who knows, maybe they’ll opt to keep both in camp next year to have both compete for the job.
Something that if Seahawks fans have learned over the years, they love to compete.
No matter what the names might be.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.