Warrior wrestlers not shying away from tougher competition

WORLAND - The Worland High School wrestling team has been facing a lot of tough competition this season, often wrestling against 4A schools or the large schools in South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho and Utah. And for WHS wrestling coach Josh Garcia he wouldn't have it any other way.

Last weekend the Warriors traveled to Green River for a dual tournament and while the scores were not in Worland's favor coach Garcia was proud of his kids and their outing.

"We did do a pretty decent job, it's a tough tournament," said coach Garcia. "We were one of only a few 3A schools there, otherwise it was mostly 4A schools. That was the most 4A schools we've wrestled since we've been going to that tournament."

During pool play the Warriors lost to Evanston 36-33, won vs. Lander 48-27, lost to Rock Springs 51-19, beat Cheyenne South 42-31 then lost to Uintah County, Utah, who won the tournament, 47-33. Looking at the scores it might seem discouraging, but wrestling the larger schools often brings tougher competition and that's what coach Garcia is looking for.

"It's one of things that we want to keep doing. We want to have a tough schedule and wrestle the toughest competition we can find," said coach Garcia. "Our kids have the tendency to think we're not very good but we're wrestling tough competition. That's what we're looking for and this early on that's what I want to strive for, for this program. We want to find the best teams that will give us solid matches and good competition because that's how our kids learn the most."

The Warriors sent one wrestler, Travis Tatkenhorst, to the tournament's best of the best and were close to sending two more in Alex Beck and Morgan Tigner.

"I thought our kids did a tremendous job all tournament of battling. Morgan Tigner was one match away from being in the best of the best. Alex Beck was two matches away from making the best of the best. Travis Tatkenhorst made the championship of the best of the best and lost to the Gunner Bartlett kid from Cheyenne East, who won the top of the Rockies tournament in Colorado."

With some wrestlers, like freshman Domanic Hartley, out with injury coach Garcia liked how his junior varsity guys were not afraid of the moment and stepped up to help the team.

"I'm extremely proud of the kids who are willing to fill a spot. That's the mindset we like to see and we'll continue to build off of that," said coach Garcia. "Overall, I was extremely happy with the entire team. We had kids step up and everyone met the challenge of wrestling tougher competition."

Perhaps the most impressive takeaway from the Green River tournament is the team's willingness and focus in practice this week as they ready for another mostly 4A tournament in Lander.

"They're really eager to work on things they need to fix. I like that part because sometimes you have a kid who wins everything that thinks they don't have to wrestle because they won a tournament. That's our ultimate goal," said coach Garcia. "It's nice to have those confidence builder tournaments to a certain point. For us and our program if we're wrestling better competition it shows there's always work to do, because there will be times that a kid doesn't think he needs to fix something because it worked in the last tournament. Without realizing that that move worked because the kid was 0-59, so of course it worked against him.

Coach Garcia added, "That's our perspective on how we want to run our program. This week we will see more 4A teams so we're going to continue to work hard and continue to build. The public looks at the scores and I'm not worried about the scores at this point. Everything we do is building toward regionals and state. Everything before that is basically practice, so if we can find the best competition and learn and grown we will get better."

This week the Warriors travel to Lander for a two-day tournament on Friday and Saturday.