from: https://heraldcourier.com/sports/wrestling-season-opens-with-border-duals/article_f4a1d632-71dc-11ed-b2aa-0f98fd4a4ecb.html

BRIAN WOODSON BRISTOL HERALD COURIER Dec 1, 2022

very sports season has to start somewhere.

For 10 high school wrestling programs, that will be at Viking Hall on Saturday for the Border Duals, hosted by Tennessee High School.

Enough with practice. Coach Josh Shuler and the Vikings are ready to rumble.

“They have only been wrestling each other in practice and they are to that point where they are just ready to go and wrestle another team,” said Shuler, in his second season with the Tennessee High program. “You can go too far with it and they get to where it is almost kind of monotonous and they have been doing nothing but practice.

“I think we actually are at a really good point now where we have had just enough practice that it is time to go and get ready with another team and the kids are pretty excited about this weekend.”

Tennessee High will be joined by fellow Volunteer State entrants Dobyns-Bennett, Daniel Boone, Morristown West, Heritage, Elizabethton and David Crockett. Pulaski County, Richlands and John Battle will represent Virginia.

“It is a good solid group,” Shuler said. “It is going to be some good wrestling on Saturday.”

While some of the teams have had preseason scrimmages, Shuler said this will be the first “big” meet of the season when much will be learned about what lies ahead for each team.

“Everybody is going to be in the same boat on what they are learning. Me, in particular, we have a very young team. We are almost entirely freshmen and sophomores so we know we have got to work on a lot,” said Shuler, whose male roster of 23 includes just one senior and four juniors. “We have to cover all the basics, but this weekend will really tell us what we need to work on, what we did good, what we did bad, where we need improvement.

“It is also a good gauge for how in shape are you. You get to see, is conditioning something we need to work on, you get to see what techniques that you might need to work on. Do you need to improve on your take-downs, on your top game, on your bottom game, so it kind of gives you a gauge of where your practices need to go for the next couple of weeks and gives you an idea of where your weaknesses are.”

There will actually be three different wrestling meets taking place at once on Saturday, including the high school boys duals, an individual girls tournament and another duals tournament involving 10 middle school teams. The wrestling begins at 9 a.m. and is expected to last much of the day. Admission is $10.

Shuler said the headliner to watch is Dobyns-Bennett sophomore Max Norman, who is already a state champion at the high school level, and is even accomplished against college athletes.

“The kid had a phenomenal freshman year, won a state title as a freshman and then just had a huge offseason,” Shuler said. “He is in the national spotlight. He just competed at the King Open, which is a collegiate tournament, and won. He beat a very good college wrestler in the finals. Max Norman is definitely your top guy to look at from this weekend as far as when you are looking at all the teams. He is the big dog this weekend.”

Tennessee High lost a trio of state qualifiers from last season, including Perry Roller, who finished fourth in the state and is now wrestling at Ferrum, along with Sam Weddington and Kevin Ankers. Shuler got busy recruiting and his efforts paid off, with expectations to fill all 14 weight classes with youth and potential.

“It is a good thing. We are very young, a lot of freshmen and sophomores, but mixed into there is a lot of good experience,” Shuler said. “We have got some kids who have wrestled through middle school, who wrestled through youth so this weekend will actually help me answer a lot of questions.

“We will find out where we stand because everybody keeps asking me how do you think you are going to be this year and it is really hard to tell. I think we have talent, we are just so young, I don’t know until we get out there and compete.”

Tennessee High will be led by Aiden Fennell, along with juniors Ryan Phipps and Kade Bible.

“[Aiden] has come a long way, he has worked really hard. He put on a lot of muscle and weight in the offseason and he has bumped up a couple of weight classes and he had a real good showing at our preseason event,” Shuler said. “He has looked so far. He is a great kid. He has worked really hard so I am excited to see what he can do. He is our lone senior so I would like to see him have a good year because he has put in a lot of hard work.”

Among the youngsters Shuler is especially excited for the potential of sophomore Eli Moore, who, like many of the Vikings, has participated in various youth wrestling clubs across the region, in addition competing at the middle school level.

“He has put in a lot of time. He actually trains at one of the more elite clubs around here. The young man works year round and never stops, it is wrestling all year long,” Shuler said. “He has done martial arts his entire life and got into wrestling. He has a really good Jujutsu background, he has a karate background and he is becoming a really, really tough wrestler and he has got a bright future.”

Tennessee High also has one female wrestler, Kayleigh Carroll, who will compete in the girls event on Saturday.

“She is a lot like Eli, she works in the offseason,” Shuler said. “She would have had a good year last year, but spent a good amount of the year with a calf injury. We are hoping she can stay healthy this year because she should have a good year.”

Shuler is anxious to see how the youth will develop as the season progresses, and it all starts on Saturday at the Border Duals.

“We have a good mix. We have got some of those freshmen in there that even though they are freshmen they have got a good amount of experience,” he said. “We had one preseason event where I got to kind of see what they look like and I was pleased with what I saw, especially with such a young group. We find out for real this weekend.”

bwoodson@bristolnews.com — Twitter: BHCWoodson (276) 645-2543