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Beaufort County wrestlers compete in scrimmage
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Call it the cure for wrestling's cabin fever.
The county's four high school wrestling teams -- Beaufort, Battery Creek, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island -- gathered at Beaufort High for a scrimmage Saturday that more closely resembled a gigantic practice.
Instead of teams wrestling each other, wrestlers took the mats in groups with as many as 27 sets of wrestlers practicing moves and holds.
"The advantage of it for the kids is they get to wrestle a number of times as opposed to wrestling a couple of teams in a scrimmage," Beaufort coach Bill Damude said. "They wrestle for two hours straight. You can tell these guys are tired."
The format also helps break up the doldrums of November, where grapplers spend four weeks practicing against each other with no sight of a match until December.
"November is the toughest month of the season," Hilton Head coach Mike Newton said. "It helps break up the monotony of practice."
Getting the chance to face somebody other than a teammate whose moves and tendencies you're familiar with is also a big help to the schools at the scrimmage.
Participants spent two hours wrestling against a bunch of different types of wrestlers, body types seeing what works and what needs to be refined.
"Sometimes, you get a false sense of security working out in your own facility against your own people," Bluffton coach John Hollman said. "You get a little too used to one another. It sometimes ends up being a detriment to you."
As far as what the coaches saw from their squads Saturday, many liked the path their teams were on.
Even though he didn't have many wrestlers at the scrimmage, Battery Creek coach Chad Cox liked the fight he saw from his squad Saturday and in the first few weeks of practice.
"They're enthusiastic and they like to fight," Cox said. "It's nice to get to scrap with some other kids. We didn't have many kids here today, but that's fine. Anything we can do to get better."
Among the things that all the coaches have liked from their squads so far is demeanor. Even early on, the intensity has been there for the teams.
"Guys are going hard," Newton said. "If you bring the intensity to practice, you'll bring it to the matches."
Damude liked what he saw from his more experienced wrestlers and was especially pleased with the team's conditioning.
Hollman, like many of the other coaches, hovered around taking notes of what he saw from his guys. On the bus ride back to Bluffton, he had an assignment for all of his wrestlers.
"I'll send all my guys home with homework," Hollman said. "As far as I'm concerned, class is in session today."
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