SPORTS

Area youth wrestling seeing growth, triumph

Derrick Webb
Reporter

CHILLICOTHE – Many high school wrestling programs around the area had successful 2014-15 campaigns.

Three individual wrestlers, Paint Valley's Caleb Johnson, Zane Trace's Avery Brown and Southeastern's Alex Gordy, even advanced to the Ohio High School Athletic Association state tournament in Columbus — an achievement that is noteworthy for any high school wrestler.

However, it turns out that high school wrestlers aren't the only ones having success on the mats.

A significant number of youth wrestling programs in the area have seen growth and, with it, success.

"Youth wrestling is kind of unique because all of the schools around the area work together," said Chris Scott, who is the head of the youth wrestling program at Zane Trace. "You look around the wrestling mat and there's four kids from four different schools but they're hanging out and are best buddies. They work together as a team throughout the county."

Schools around the surrounding area that have some type of a youth wrestling organization include Chillicothe, Zane Trace, Unioto, Adena, Southeastern, Paint Valley, Westfall and Huntington, which will start its program next year.

"It's bigger in the county than a lot of people know," Scott said. "Unioto had close to 50 kids come out this year initially. Chillicothe had around 50 to 60 to start out with, and I started out with around 20 here at Zane Trace. So there's at least over 100 kids in the county that participate."

Not only are the kids participating, but they're starting to win.

After wrestling in the Central Ohio Buckeye Youth Wrestling Association — a league that includes teams from Northeastern, Mechanicsburg, Madison Plains, Jonathan Adler and many more — athletes have had the chance to compete in tournaments around the state affiliated with the Ohio Wrestling Association for Youth.

In the past couple of weeks, three area youth wrestlers captured OH-WAY state titles — Adena's Dalton Metzger, Zane Trace's Brice Johnson and Chillicothe's Candy Keller.

Dalton, who wrestled in Division IV's 11- to 12-year-old, 126-pound weight class, went 4-0 in the tournament. He won his first two matches by decision, 18-1 and 8-4, and his second two by pins. In the championship match, he pinned Oak Hill's Lucas Stoddard at the 2:40 mark.

Wrestling at 58 pounds in D-I's 6-and-younger bracket was Brice, who went 2-0 and pinned Solon's Jack Molchak at the 1:06 mark.

Candy, who wrestled at 58 pounds in the Girls 8-U division, went 3-0 and beat Shore Sports Club's Madison Piatt by technical fall, 15-0.

For these three individuals and their peers who wrestle at a young age, winning early can result in successful high school careers.

"There's no question that these kids who are starting to wrestle early are setting themselves up for success during their careers in the future," Scott said. "And we're seeing the numbers grow across the area. That's a direct result from the coverage wrestling has received this year and the success that our local high school programs have had this year."

Speaking of high school programs, Scott noted how much of an asset it is to have Zane Trace head coach Reggie Wax involved with the youth program.

"With the Zane Trace program, coach Wax has been to probably 80 percent of the practices we've had for the youth," he said. "Seeing these head coaches of high school teams involved with the youth is huge. And I see that in other sports programs as well. When that happens, it makes a big difference. I think that's what's made a key difference in our program this year. Having coach Wax dedicated his time to the kids has made an impact."

As the young batch of athletes continue to prepare for their high school programs, they'll meanwhile continue to compete at a high level.

History tends to repeat itself and, for these youngsters, that means there are more wins on the way.

Derrick Webb is a Gazette sportswriter and can be reached at dwebb@chillicothegazette.com. Follow him on Twitter at @dw1509.