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These days, there is plenty on T.V. to make your mouth water with ads about what you might see on the table at Thanksgiving. Often, the food looks so good you can almost taste it.
The Hannibal wrestling team knows the feeling. Only, instead of food, they can almost taste a State Championship.
“This group of seniors has had some pretty big goals they’ve wanted to achieve,” Hannibal head coach Derek Greening said.
Success for the pirates is not an unfamiliar friend. Last season, Hannibal had five wrestlers qualify for the State tournament. But, with the exception of Jake Stamp, they still fell short of the ultimate prize of the top spot on that podium at the Mizzou Arena. That has left Greening with a core group of wrestlers who have an intense desire to make good on their self-imposed expectations.
Take, for example, the case of Bryant Ruby. The 125-pounder made it all the way to the final round of the tournament, only to run up against Bradley Wisdom, an eventual three-time State Champion from Farmington who now starts for the Missouri Tigers squad.
“Bryant is a tremendous wrestler,” Greening said. “He’s good in all positions. ... He just has to believe in himself, work as hard as he has and prepare himself just like every year. But he has all of the tools.”
Ruby wasn’t the only Pirate who came ever-so-close to the title. Both Jacob Janes and Philip Perry took third place in the tournament, with only one loss marring their records. Also looking for an improved State record is Kyle Wessel, who won his first match of last season’s tournament, but suffered back-to-back losses to knock him out of medal contention.
Their determination, Greening said, has been a catalyst for improvement within the practice room and has produced improvement in the short time since practice began.
“Those guys are great leaders,” Greening said. “In practice, all of the time, those guys are going over and helping other kids, talking to them about how to do this or how to do that. There are times that I will pair them with a younger kid so that they can help them learn. ... When the coaches are busy and somebody needs help, they jump right in there and help refine some of the basic moves we are trying to teach.”
Last season’s State qualifiers are not the only ones who have big ambition coming into this season. Greening said there will be several more wrestlers within the Pirate ranks who have every possibility of having a breakout season, including Quinton Jones and Jake Borgmeyer.
One thing that should help the Pirates as an entire team this season is numbers. Barring injury and sickness, Greening said he believes the Pirates will be able to field a wrestler at every weight, save the 103 and heavyweight spots. Last season, the Pirates celebrated individual success because team victories were almost mathematically impossible because of the number of forfeits Hannibal was forced to submit.
That full slate of wrestlers will get plenty of work to test itself with a schedule that Greening admitting was purposely more difficult than in past seasons. He said that is mostly because of the addition of two tournaments, both of which will be early in the schedule. Greening added trips to both the Neosho Tournament and the Toshiba Classic in Kansas City, both with the intent of simulating State-like conditions.
“We are going to wrestle a lot of the southern schools that we don’t usually see until the State tournament [at Neosho],” Greening said. “[At the Toshiba Classic], there are going to be close the 32 teams with 10 different states represented. 10 to 12 of those schools won their own State title. So that’s a really big tournament there. ... We’re trying to get them to wrestle some pretty tough matches all year, so that when it comes to State, they have those tough matches under their belts and they can hopefully achieve those goals they’ve set out to achieve.”
But for as much as the Pirates will be tested by their competition, Greening said the season, itself, will be as much of an opponent to his wrestlers.
“It’s a long season and a grueling season,” Greening said. “We work hard. They are going to have to stay focused and continue to work hard. They have to back each other like a family and stay in each other’s corners and when one gets tired, bring him back and help him get going.”
These days, there is plenty on T.V. to make your mouth water with ads about what you might see on the table at Thanksgiving. Often, the food looks so good you can almost taste it.
The Hannibal wrestling team knows the feeling. Only, instead of food, they can almost taste a State Championship.
“This group of seniors has had some pretty big goals they’ve wanted to achieve,” Hannibal head coach Derek Greening said.
Success for the pirates is not an unfamiliar friend. Last season, Hannibal had five wrestlers qualify for the State tournament. But, with the exception of Jake Stamp, they still fell short of the ultimate prize of the top spot on that podium at the Mizzou Arena. That has left Greening with a core group of wrestlers who have an intense desire to make good on their self-imposed expectations.
Take, for example, the case of Bryant Ruby. The 125-pounder made it all the way to the final round of the tournament, only to run up against Bradley Wisdom, an eventual three-time State Champion from Farmington who now starts for the Missouri Tigers squad.
“Bryant is a tremendous wrestler,” Greening said. “He’s good in all positions. ... He just has to believe in himself, work as hard as he has and prepare himself just like every year. But he has all of the tools.”
Ruby wasn’t the only Pirate who came ever-so-close to the title. Both Jacob Janes and Philip Perry took third place in the tournament, with only one loss marring their records. Also looking for an improved State record is Kyle Wessel, who won his first match of last season’s tournament, but suffered back-to-back losses to knock him out of medal contention.
Their determination, Greening said, has been a catalyst for improvement within the practice room and has produced improvement in the short time since practice began.
“Those guys are great leaders,” Greening said. “In practice, all of the time, those guys are going over and helping other kids, talking to them about how to do this or how to do that. There are times that I will pair them with a younger kid so that they can help them learn. ... When the coaches are busy and somebody needs help, they jump right in there and help refine some of the basic moves we are trying to teach.”
Last season’s State qualifiers are not the only ones who have big ambition coming into this season. Greening said there will be several more wrestlers within the Pirate ranks who have every possibility of having a breakout season, including Quinton Jones and Jake Borgmeyer.
One thing that should help the Pirates as an entire team this season is numbers. Barring injury and sickness, Greening said he believes the Pirates will be able to field a wrestler at every weight, save the 103 and heavyweight spots. Last season, the Pirates celebrated individual success because team victories were almost mathematically impossible because of the number of forfeits Hannibal was forced to submit.
That full slate of wrestlers will get plenty of work to test itself with a schedule that Greening admitting was purposely more difficult than in past seasons. He said that is mostly because of the addition of two tournaments, both of which will be early in the schedule. Greening added trips to both the Neosho Tournament and the Toshiba Classic in Kansas City, both with the intent of simulating State-like conditions.
“We are going to wrestle a lot of the southern schools that we don’t usually see until the State tournament [at Neosho],” Greening said. “[At the Toshiba Classic], there are going to be close the 32 teams with 10 different states represented. 10 to 12 of those schools won their own State title. So that’s a really big tournament there. ... We’re trying to get them to wrestle some pretty tough matches all year, so that when it comes to State, they have those tough matches under their belts and they can hopefully achieve those goals they’ve set out to achieve.”
But for as much as the Pirates will be tested by their competition, Greening said the season, itself, will be as much of an opponent to his wrestlers.
“It’s a long season and a grueling season,” Greening said. “We work hard. They are going to have to stay focused and continue to work hard. They have to back each other like a family and stay in each other’s corners and when one gets tired, bring him back and help him get going.”
