Little guy wrestling ends; four competitors place

SUPERIOR – The 2013-2014 wrestling season officially ended for the school year after the Superior Little Guy Wrestlers came back with a number of placers from the Western Montana Championship in Kalispell.

Cade Parkin took first place in the 224-pound middle school class. Wyatt Hawthorn, 109-pound beginner’s class, took second. In the middle school competition, Caleb Ververis, 140-pound class, took third and Jack Mitchell, 95-pound class, got fourth.

In wrestling, the top four competitors place in a match.

According to Coach Charlie Crabb, there were more kids on the team who were just shy of placing. For a number of the wrestlers, one more victory would have cemented their spot in the competition. Crabb said all the wrestlers on the team did well overall.

Of the 30 kids on the team, approximately 20 qualified for the championship. Crabb said the kids joined approximately 500 kids from other schools. He knew the other wrestlers would be good as all of them had to make it through two qualifying rounds to reach the championship.

The coach was happy with the team’s performances across the board. He was glad for the victories they had, but was not disappointed by the defeats either.

“We had some real tough matches,” Crabb said. “All of our matches could have gone either way, that we lost.”

He was impressed with the endurance of the kids on the team this year. He said the six weeks of the Little Guy Wrestling season were tough on them, yet they kept at it and fought through to cement their victories. Crabb said the kids did what the coaches told them to do and did the best they could.

“That’s about all we can ask them to do and expect them to do,” Crabb said.

The coach felt the kids all had a good time in the program. He said the kids were very skilled, given their performances and what was asked of them in the competitions.

“Wrestling is not an easy sport by any stretch of the imagination,” Crabb said.

The eighth grade Little Guy Wrestlers feed directly into the high school program. Crabb, as head coach of the Superior High School wrestling team, said there were a few wrestlers he was hoping would go out for the high school team for the 2014-2015 season.

“We’ve got some pretty good wrestlers coming up, so I think we’ll get some of those kids to be high school wrestlers and it will be a good deal,” Crabb said.

The program started with approximately 35 first through eighth graders. Crabb expected approximately half of the eighth graders would continue into the high school team. With the younger kids, he expected only a few would continue on beyond Little Guy Wrestling.

This was an expected outcome and Crabb felt it was essentially the point of the program.

“Kids have the opportunity to do everything, which is a good thing,” Crabb said. “We like the kids to be involved in as many sports as possible.”

There will be no more wrestling programs until the next season starts in the winter. Crabb said the next youth league would be baseball, after the schools gets back from spring break.

“We’re done for the year, so we’ll take a break until next year,” Crabb said.