The Douglas wrestling team has been rolling through its league schedule and it will get the chance to show off the talent is has this weekend as the school hosts its first tournament in two years.
Last year's Carson Valley Lions' Invitational was wiped out by a series of snow storms, but about 15 teams are expected to descend on Douglas High Saturday for the tournament.
"The team has been wrestling very strong and they're very eager to show off what they have going this year," Douglas coach Lamont McCann said. "They want to produce and show the town what they can do."
The slate of teams scheduled to compete includes a smattering of schools from California and Northern Nevada.
"We're looking forward to the group of schools that will be here," McCann said. "It should be a great tournament."
Douglas has a 12-2-1 record overall this year in dual meets and sports a 4-0 record in Sierra League action, including a season-opening win over rival Carson. The Tigers are in the driver's seat to take the league title.
Douglas is coming off a strong performance at the prestigious Sierra Nevada Classic, in which the team took 11th in the 95-team field and 189-pounder Shane Miller took the individual title in his weight class. Miller's victory marked the first for a Tiger at the tournament since 1980 and 1981 when McCann won.
While Miller is Douglas' strongest wrestler this season, boasting a 32-0 record so far, the Tigers are solid throughout their lineup.
"Our kids are all very good," McCann said. "All the way through. We're a little bit weaker in the low middleweights but overall we're strong. Carson and Fallon have a number of very solid guys, but we are above average at every spot."
Among Douglas' other top wrestlers are Matt Castro, Jake Williams, Ryan Pruitt, Nico Barker, Garrett Hekhuis, Tony Ferris, Sean Molina, Ryan Olsen, Bryan Kaplan, Justin Freeman, Nick Ceglia, Lake Terrell and Cameron Ames.
"We're still shuffling things around a bit, seeing where the best fits are. We've set some very high expectations for this team and they are working very hard to acheive those.
"Our top goal is to win zone, and we needed to keep working hard to get in a position to do so."
Wrestling starts at 9 a.m. Saturday at the high school. The championship round starts at 5 p.m. with first- and second-place matches under the spotlight.
McCann said he wanted to make sure the youth wrestling population felt welcome at the tournament as well.
"We want all those Douglas Wildcats to come down and see what we are all about," McCann said. "They are the future of our program. We want them to start seeing the way we do things now."
WILDCATS
Speaking of the Douglas Wildcats, the youth wrestling club will be hosting its first tournament of the year at the Douglas High gym on Sunday starting at 9 a.m.
Approximately 1,200 wrestlers and spectators are expected for the tournament.
The Wildcat wrestling club has been in existence for 12 years and has ushered through about 700 wrestlers with 150 placing in the top three of the state competition.
The club plans to attend 11 local tournaments from Gardnerville to Spanish Springs and three different tournaments for Greco-Roman style, Freestyle and Folkstyle wrestling this season.
Some wrestlers are also expected to represent the club in Oregon for a regional tournament and at the national level as well.
For more information, contact John Grant at 720-2311 or Don Johnson at 720-6599.
n Joey Crandall can be reached at jcrandall@recordcourier.com or at (775) 782-5121, ext. 212.
