JH Wrestling completes perfect season
Posted on 02/05/2020
Sapulpa Herald article about the JH Wrestling team(SPS) - The Junior High Wrestling team’s season can be summed up quite easily -- 23 up, 23 down.

Dual after dual, tournament after tournament, these Chieftains never lost a team event and completed their regular season 23-0.

“It’s been a great season so far,” said head coach Peter Carter. “Lost a lot of kids last year, thought we weren’t gonna be very good this year and it turns out the kids came out fighting and proved us all wrong.”

Wrestling is an individual sport, but as coach Carter pointed out, he and coach Cody Fuller emphasize a team concept which is to not give up in an individual match and to think about the bigger outcome.

“A kid may have a bad match and he may lose that day, but the team can still win based on him fighting and not getting pinned,” said Carter.

That mentality has carried the Junior High Chieftains throughout the season. It was around early January going into the Glenpool Tournament when Carter thought his team was doing something special. They finished third in the tournament the year before but won it this year and it was then he realized they may be on to something special.

“We’re sitting at 15-0 and we’re halfway through the season and we got a few more matches to go, we think we can win out.”

And win out is exactly what they did. In late January, they took down Ponca City, Sand Springs, and Muskogee to win district. Two days later they beat Owasso to close out the regular season. Now they head to the Junior High State Tournament on Feb. 7 and 8.

Coach Carter has high expectations for the tournament despite it being what he says is probably one of the hardest tournaments a wrestler will compete in during a junior high career. Regardless of how they finish, he said he’s proud of the progress his wrestlers have made this year.

“Each week you could see the kids getting better and better,” he said. “It’s a fun group to watch.”

The State Jr. High Wrestling Championship is held at the Jim Norick Arena at the State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. Matches begin at 8 a.m. both Friday and Saturday. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children.