The McClain High School coed wrestling team will start their regular season on December 2 at the American Legion Post 81 Invitational.
The wrestling team is coached by eighth year head coach Shane Paul and will feature three seniors and two juniors.
Paul will have 20 athletes on the team this season and is looking forward to the added numbers for the wrestling program.
“Success is the main contributor to the number of kids that we have coming out for the team. If you don’t win nobody wants to be involved, that is the facts of it,” Paul said.
McClain wrestling will have 15 freshman and sophomore athletes this season, “We are a really young team. But, I think we will be very competitive. We have a lot of young kids that have been with me since the second grade in my youth program. They may be young but they have a lot of wrestling experience.”
Paul has built the program form the ground up in his eight years, “There was no youth program here and I felt that was something we needed to do. That was the foundation and now these kids are working their way up into the program.”
With the talent pipeline that Paul has created in the area he feels he has a unique advantage over some of his contemporaries.
“The most important part of the youth program is that it allows me the opportunity to build lasting relationships with the kids. If you have a good relationship with the kids in your program it is going to help your program,” Paul said.
The McClain coach expects senior Keegan Rawlins to have a big year after racking up 109 victories over his first three seasons.
“Keegan is going to be our 152 pound wrestler. 100 victories is a plateau that wrestlers strive to reach, he is on track for 150. Without question he is our toughest wrestler and we are expecting big things out of him,” said Paul.
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
