Home sweet home

Wrestling’s coming to town on Friday and Saturday.
Pittsburg High will host a regional tournament for the first time in the history of a wrestling program dating back to 1980.

“It’s great for our program,” Pittsburg head wrestling coach Scott Rieck said. “It’s great for our community having all these different schools coming into the community with their families and their friends. It’s going to build our program a little bit more. . . . It’s been long overdue. With Mr. Hitchcock (activities director Doug Hitchcock) and Mr. Bishop (PHS principal Jon Bishop), our administration, they’ll put on a show. They’ve done this many times at the kids level and what not. This isn’t their first rodeo and they’ll put on a real good show.”

“Have a nice crowd at home,” senior Gershom Avalos (220 pounds) said. “That will be really nice, cheering us on for the first time. I am really looking forward to that, having all our home people here and it will be nice to do something for our hometown.”

“I’ll definitely be excited wrestling at home,” senior Jeremiah Jones (113) said. “I’ll have my family, my girlfriend, my friends all coming down. That will be more motivation.”

In addition, the district will have no school on Friday and the Pittsburg basketball teams will play their standard Friday night games 24 hours earlier, at home against Coffeyville.

“Hopefully, people in the community who haven’t seen wrestling will come out and see what it’s all about,” Rieck said. “Support the local kids and all their hard work this year and in years past.”

Regionals will start 2 p.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday with individual finals expected to start at 6 p.m. Saturday. Live results can be found on www.trackwrestling.com.

Pittsburg, defending Class 4A regional champions, will defend its title against Anderson County, Chanute, Coffeyville, Columbus, Fort Scott, Frontenac, Independence, Iola, Labette County, Louisburg,
Osawatomie, Paola, Parsons and Prairie View.

“Prairie View always has a solid team,” Rieck said. “They’ll come in with a good, tough group of farm kids. Fort Scott, Chanute, always top-notch. But then schools like Coffeyville, Columbus, a few others, they all have individuals, two or three solid kids that’ll throw a wrinkle in anybody’s gameplan as far as the team goes.

“There’s going to be some great final matches, some outstanding semifinals and those blood rounds on the back side to get into the state tournament. The consolation semis will be something fun to watch. There’ll be some top-notch kids wrestling.”

Pittsburg graduated two state champions in Aaron Seybold and Broc Bennett, plus four other key seniors, from its regional championship and fourth-place state finisher team.

“It’s amazing the difference from November to now,” Rieck said. “But you know, it’s still about how hard you work. We’ll see which ones have worked hard and which ones think they’ve worked hard. There’s a difference, a big difference, and part of that difference comes down to knowing what you’re working for.

“A lot of these kids have never seen a state tournament so they have no idea what they’re working for and how hard you’ve got to work to get there. Once you get there, how hard you’ve got to work to get a medal or win the tournament. That’s a difference with this year’s group. Out of 13 weights, we have several kids who were either JV or in eighth grade last year.”

With high expectations in the wrestling room and a rigorous tournament schedule, there were some growing pains and hard knocks.

“We tried to push them hard early and they weren’t ready for it,” Rieck said. “We’ve gradually had to turn up the dial on them real slow where they don’t even realize it’s happening to get them where they need to be. Hopefully, they’re at that point. Some of them are.

“Avalos, Jones, Brett Cobb, they’ve pushed themselves hard but they’ve all been to the state tournament and know what it takes. They’ve tried to push guys around them to work out with them and some have responded. Some have backed off and some have quit because this sport is unique and not for everybody. The guys we’ve got left, they’re doing good.”

Pittsburg did return defending regional champions Avalos and Levi Kester (106), as well as two-time state medalist Jones and two-time state qualifier Brett Cobb (132), to form their veteran core.
Avalos and Jones have been in the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association rankings all season with Avalos No. 2 and Jones No. 4 entering Friday at their respective individual weights.

“All year long, man, they’ve been even keel,” Rieck said. “They haven’t slid all year long. They just keep doing their thing and, you know, just being the typical seniors we’re used to having. A lot of mat time under their belt for the last three-four years and they’re looking to win a state title for themselves.”

“I’m excited,” Avalos said. “We’ve been working all this year for regionals. I’m ready for that. We’ve been improving as a team and I’ve been improving myself as an individual trying to place at the state tournament.”

“I’m looking forward to it because I’ve wrestled most of the guys that are going to be there and I’ve beat most of them,” Jones said.
Every year, wrestlers emerge from beyond the usual suspects of returning state qualifiers and state-ranked grapplers to make noise at regionals.

“I could see Joey Wools at 120, he’s a sophomore and Will Mengarelli at 170, he’s a freshman,” Rieck said. “I could see big things out of both of those kids this weekend. They’re wrestling really well at practice right now. They’re pushing themselves and that’s what you look for out of kids who are new in the program. Those two boys are doing it right now and it’s good to see because they’re young.”
Pittsburg gained a taste of wrestling at regionals closer to home last year, winning its title in Fort Scott. Now, it will be even more of a home-mat advantage Friday and Saturday for the defending champions.

“It’s a big deal for the guys to be able to sleep in their own bed, you know, and not be on the road,” Rieck said. “They did perform well last year. That was more of a veteran group but still not being on the road and not sleeping in a hotel makes a big difference. Plus, being at home, hopefully they want to perform at a high level and higher than they’ve performed all year because their friends and family are here and they don’t want to let them down. It does add a new little quirk to the regional this year.”


CLASS 4A WRESTLING REGIONAL (Feb. 15-16)
at Pittsburg High School

Anderson County, Chanute, Coffeyville, Columbus, Fort Scott, Frontenac, Independence, Iola, Labette County, Louisburg, Osawatomie, Paola, Parsons, Pittsburg, Prairie View.

State-ranked teams
4. Fort Scott, 6. Chanute.

State-ranked individuals
113 pounds — 4. Jeremiah Jones, Pittsburg. 120 — 2. Tyler Sharp, Fort Scott. 126 — 4. Adam Cole, Chanute; 6. Jerad Heckman, Fort Scott. 132 — 5. Chase Cole, Chanute. 138 — 2. Victor Hughes, Fort Scott. 145 — 3. Jacob Durossette, Fort Scott; 4. Jared Fiscus, Chanute; 6. William Holland, Prairie View. 152 — 3. Taylor Watkins, Columbus. 170 — 4. Alex Son, Chanute. 182 — 2. Jake Bradley, Prairie View. 195 — 3. Gavin Houser, Columbus; 4. John Metcalf, Fort Scott. 220 — 2. Gershom Avalos, Pittsburg. 285 — 3. Joe Pomatto, Paola; 4. Matt Kellerman, Prairie View.