Justin Shine knows he has some big shoes to fill this year.
He's taking the reins of the Douglas High wrestling program from Lamont McCann, who had to step back this year due to job constraints after rebuilding the Tiger tradition and winning two Sierra League titles in four years at the helm.
Shine, though, comes in with plenty of credentials of his own. He was a standout wrestler for Carson High School before going on to become an assistant coach for the Senators for several years under head coach Tyson Thivierge.
"I'm just excited to be here," Shine said. "I took a year away from coaching and when I called Carson up heading into this season, they were already pretty well set for coaches.
"Unbeknownst to me, (Douglas athletic director) Jeff Evans was looking to fill Lamont's spot. He had called up to Carson looking for interested candidates. We got in touch and it went from there."
So Shine enters his first year as a head coach with roster loaded with upperclassmen and, more importantly, plenty of varsity experience.
"All we have is pretty much good, quality kids," Shine said. "We have three freshmen and three sophomores in the program but everyone else is juniors and seniors. We should be able to almost fill a whole lineup. I don't think we're going to have a 103-pounder, and we might struggle a bit to fill the 215 spot, but we'll shuffle some people around and see what we can do.
"We're going to be pretty solid from about the 119s to about the 60s and then we'll have some real strong guys in the upper weights. It should be good."
The Tigers will be facing a tough league slate, with the regular cast of characters vying for the league title. Fallon and Damonte Ranch are expected to be near the top and Galena and Manogue could be dark horses in the race. But there is one date Shine said he circled on the calendar from the moment he got hired.
"We need to beat Carson," he said. "They are the team to beat if we want to win this league. I'm from Carson, that's the biggest match in my book. I know it's the biggest match for these kids."
The Tigers have a healthy list of returners from last year's league runner-up squad.
Senior Wes Peterson is the team's only returning state qualifier. He went 35-16 last season in the 125-pound weight bracket and was the Northern 4A Regional runner-up in the class.
Junior Dillon Spates led the team in takedowns last year with 63 and went 37-10 on the year with a fourth-place finish at regionals in the 112-pound class and a fourth-place finish at the prestigious Sierra Nevada Classic last December. He is 72-20 in his career.
Senior Michael Sepulveda spent last year in the 130-pound class, posting a 40-12 record with a team-leading 70 near falls. He is positioned for a big year as most of the weight classes immediately above him last year were largely senior-laden and he dominated his class for most of the season.
A wild card for the Tigers will be senior Cody Spates, who went 20-3 with 17 pins in 2007-08 but missed all of last season with a knee injury.
Other key returners will be junior Zach Falanga, who posted a 30-15 record in the 189-pound class last year and junior Patrick Miller (the team's likely heavyweight) and junior Daniel Lundergreen, who saw limited action at the varsity level.
"I just want us to wrestle tough," Shine said. "I want other teams to know when they go up against us that they are going up against your typical Douglas team.
"I'm expecting big things from the Spates brothers and Sepulveda and Falanga are each in line for big seasons."
Junior Kyle Matthews is expected to slide in at the 160 spot and senior Harlan Paiz looks to be the early front-runner for the 152 spot.
"We're looking for those guys to step up and fill a huge role for us," Shine said.
Other wrestlers for the Tigers this season include senior Mark Pieters, junior Ryan Paiz, sophomores Caymen Hoshizaki, Austin Martin and Mark Wright and freshmen Alexis Palma, Branden Harris and Kyle Daymen.
Douglas opens its season Saturday at the Carson City Duals.
