By Kary Booher (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
There’s an old saying that what’s old is new again. And, for the Kickapoo High School wrestling team, it’s actually pretty cool.
You see, the Chiefs will be moving into a remodeled wrestling room this winter. It’s a place they haven’t used in several years.
“Our gym got new bleachers and it created a large space behind the bleachers upstairs that we are converting into a new wrestling room,” Kickapoo coach Billy Buckley said. “This is actually the area that use to be the wrestling room years ago. We are just moving back now that the area has been redone. It will give us two full mats for a practice area and almost triples our old room. So, we are excited about that.”
Buckley is in his 18th season as Kickapoo’s wrestling coach and was excited about this year’s roster even before the remodel. After all, nearly 50 students will be on the roster, including 10 returning starters – including one state qualifier.
But there are a lot of new faces as well.
The roster includes: freshman David Duer (106), junior two-year starter Mitchell Lambert (113), sophomore Tobias Collins (120), junior Quinton Papa (132), sophomore Harrison Holt (145), senior Garret Greve (152), junior Tai Koyama (160), sophomore Jackson Williams and junior Josh Tofflemire (170), senior Corey Choates (220) and senior David Kwon and junior Jaxson Glenn (285).
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Lambert is a two-year starter. Collins was a runner-up in the Ozark Conference Tournament last year. Greve is a three-year starter while Papa, Koyama and Choates are two-year starters. Holt has starting experience, too.
Three have been close to qualifying for the state tournament: Koyama, Choates and Collins.
“All three had great seasons last year and look to improve and get over the hump this year,” Buckley said. “We look for these guys to have great seasons for us.”
A motivator is last year’s district tournament. Kickapoo didn’t qualify a wrestler for state.
“Our district results from last year I’m sure are still in the minds of some of our kids,” Buckley said. “What that felt like, they know what they need to do not to feel that this year.”
A large freshman class also piques Buckley’s interest. The feeder program at Cherokee Middle School is playing a larger role.
“With the successful (at Cherokee), we have consistently had more and more numbers,” Buckley said. “We have a lot of freshman coming in that have had a lot of success at the middle school level and during the youth seasons. We are looking forward to getting them in the room and having many of them push for starting spots.”
Girls wrestling
Kickapoo qualified Mia Daugherty for the state tournament last February, marking the first girl in program history to accomplish the feat.
Buckley has been recruiting the hallways for more.
“We are looking to have 10-12 girls on our team this year. Last year we had just 2 and they did a great job,” Buckley said, “and we are hoping we can just start growing our girls team, one year at a time.”
