Published: November 26, 2008 09:18 pm         

Goshen wrestling team blending youth with experience

The 46th season of Goshen High School wrestling begins Friday and Saturday with “Super Duals” at Lafayette Harrison.

Jim Pickard is in his 17th season as head coach at GHS, guiding the Redskins to a record of 214-87.

Returning letterwinners for 2008-09 are senior Josue Hernandez; juniors Chris Figueroa, Nick Lewallen, J.B. Singer, Andrew Stegelmann and Zack Worcel; and sophomore Troy Pickard.

“With only one senior returning, we are technically a young team,” said Pickard. “Lack of experience is not an issue and these juniors need to step up and perform like lettermen.

Worcel had a 22-12 record last season and was a regional qualifier. Lewallen was 16-14, Singer 14-13, both Stegelmann and Pickard 16-15.

Chief graduation losses were state qualifiers Kyle Edlund and Braden Barkes, along with Michael Hussey.

Pickard’s assistant coaches are Jesse Diaz, Greg Mueller, Brian Goss, Shannon Hunter, Scott Claybaugh and Gerardo Quiroz.

The Redskins were 12-6 last season, 4-3 in the Northern Lakes Conference.

“As always, we hope to be a competitive team,” said Pickard. “To have five wrestlers returning with winning records is good, but we need to see more positive numbers in the win column.

“We have no 112-pound wrestler at the present time and there are no backups in some weights while at other spots we are five or six deep.”

The probable Redskin lineup for the Harrison tournament includes freshman Austin Maynard at 103, Worcel at 119, Hernandez at 125, junior Humberto Chavarria at 130, freshman Trey Rogers at 135, freshman Ryan Ntende or sophomore Sebastian Heintzelman at 140, Troy Pickard at 145, Stegelmann at 152, Lewallen at 160, junior Francisco Garcia at 171, Singer at 189, Figueroa at 215 and junior Jacob Clark at 285.

Luis Ramirez (140) is another senior on the team while juniors are Brian Celis (145-52), Joseph Cole (130), Joey Eichert (189), Kevin Moist (160), Kegan Shriver (171) and Gage Wiles (189).

Sophomores are Eric Camarillo (135), Jeremy Cox (119-25), Zach Daniels (152), Brandon Dillenbeck (215), Nick Hanna (140), Shawn Moist (215) and Javier Valdez (160).

Freshmen are Phillip Brown (130), Ron Callahan (215), Brandon Daniels (171), Alex Davis (145), Micah Dillenbeck (112), Zack Eldridge (189), Brett Fein (145), Isaias Faustino (215), Michael Ntende (152) and Richie Sleppy (119-125).

“The Harrison event gives us an early test with matches against some quality opponents,” said Pickard. “We just hope to be competitive. We can compete with teams in this area, but need to take the next step.

“We have clear leaders at some weights and there is a lot of competition at others. Those top five returning lettermen need to win about three-fourths of their matches and then we need some of the younger wrestlers to step up.”

Joe Springer was the first GHS wrestling coach in 1963-64. He was followed by John Hemphill and Bill Doba.

John Dechant had a 204-63-4 record in 20 seasons as Redskin coach. Mark Fioritto was coach in 1992-93 before Pickard took over the following year.



Redskin schedule

Nov. 28-29 — Laf. Harrison SD

Dec. 4 — Plymouth T

Dec. 9 — Memorial T

Dec. 11 — Wawasee H

Dec. 13 — Goshen JV Invit.

Dec. 16 — NorthWood T

Dec. 18 — Northridge T

Dec. 20 — Hobart Super Duals

Dec. 23 — Bremen T

Dec. 30-31 — Mishawaka Invit.

Jan. 8 — Concord H

Jan. 15 — Warsaw H

Jan. 17 — Goshen Invitational

Jan. 24 — NLC at Northridge

Jan. 31 — Sectional at Memorial

Feb. 7 — Regional at Goshen

Feb. 14 — Semistate at Fort Wayne

Feb. 20-21 — State at Conseco