Last season’s league champs open up the season ready for action.
file photo by Kevin Fleming
The TJ Spartans wrestlers opened up the season ready to rumble towards another league title, and a possible few state placers. Beginning the long seasonal haul with a 5th place out of 11 teams this past weekend at Mountain Vista’s Survivor Series, the team – as a whole – has seen better days. Though, for the opening duals tournaments, the Spartan’s looked even stronger on an individual level, coming home with five individual top three finishes: Thomas Currington with a devastating sweep brought home first place honors, Cody DeLaBarre last season’s state placer took second, Peter Taylor took second, Alec Groditski took second, and Guillermo Estrada brought back third place honors.
The team motto for the 2009-2010 season, “No Place to Hide,” serves as a warning to any opponent looking to face the Spartans: there will be nowhere for them to run, there will be no escape from this year’s wrestling squad. Head Coach Mike Laurita had only this to say, “We are expecting to be league champs like we do every year. On an individual level, I expect every match to be one of two things: a hard-fought battle that goes to the last second, or an absolute blow-out for our side.”
Senior varsity wrestler Peter Taylor shared his opinion on the tourney: “We should have wrestled much better, but for having a very young team right now I know that we all did our best.” Having only five returning varsity wrestlers on the team this year, this will truly be a season defined by learning experiences. “We thought we would be better than we actually were, but we just have a lot to learn and this season will provide enough for that,” Taylor predicts.
The team we saw last year was hungry, but the team we look at this year is ravenous. Looking to not only be competitive at regional’s, every member of varsity looks to make the drive to state and, furthermore, place at state. With state-placers briefly gracing our halls in the past, this could be the year when Thomas Jefferson High School really makes a run at state.
The senior leadership on the team is looked at as being one of the main driving forces towards achieving that goal. “With the amount of senior leadership we have returning this year I am hoping they can mentor the younger wrestlers. Enough, at least, so that we can have a strong program heading into the future,” Laurita said. The season is only beginning, but the Spartan wrestling is certainly in it to win it.
