Sequatchie County began its foray into high school wrestling in the best of environments last week.

The Indians opened the season against neighboring Whitwell and, with the student body watching, won 48-12.

"The atmosphere was unbelievable," coach Nick Mullins said. "When you think about it, 75 percent of the folks there had never seen a wrestling meet. People had heard of Soddy-Daisy and some of the other programs around here, but they had never seen a match. The kids did well and it was fun being a part of it."

Senior Derek Ambrun got Sequatchie's first pin.

"That was cool because he has grown up in Dunlap and has always wanted to wrestle," Mullins said.

Mullins, who wrestled in high school in Virginia before playing football at Virginia Tech, started his day at 5 a.m. He said nerves and anticipation had him throwing up early.

"The day wasn't as nerve-racking as I thought it was going to be. We didn't know how the students were going to respond," he said. "But my advice to another first-year coach would be to have his first meet in front of his student body. The kids were really hollering. They were into it. We had faculty members who had never seen a meet that got into it."

Coaching moves

Promotions brought about a couple of the coaching changes in wrestling this year. Eric Phillips moved up at Cleveland when Heath Eslinger was named head coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and Tom Moss moved from an assistant's role to head coach at Sale Creek after Danny Gilbert accepted an assistant principal's position at Soddy-Daisy.

Josh Craft, a local referee and son of veteran referee Mike Craft, has taken the head coaching position at Chattanooga Christian. Ryan Cooper is heading up the program at East Hamilton.

Chig Martin is working as an assistant coach to Ben Reichel at Red Bank, and Charlie Goss may be retired from teaching, but he still is heavy in wrestling. He'll work again this year as Brad Jackson's assistant at East Ridge. Charles Hammond, a former head football coach at Dade County several years ago and an assistant at Chattooga, replaces Keith Mariakis as the coach at Ridgeland.

With Cooper moving to East Hamilton, Andy Walden has taken an assistant's job at Ooltewah.

"He's so mature. The seniors now were freshmen when he was here, so they know him. He's handling things well," Ooltewah coach Wendell Weathers said. "He was one of the guys who were here when our program took a turn for the better."

Who's 'Turbo'?

Almost every area coach, when asked about impact freshmen, listed "Turbo."

That's Darren "Turbo" Smith, who's expected to wrestle at 130 or 135 pounds for Soddy-Daisy.

"He was untouchable in middle school, which doesn't mean a whole lot at the high school level, but he has been phenomenal in freestyle. Rabbit Turner has done a lot for him," Trojans coach Steve Henry said.

Smith finished second in the freestyle nationals last summer.

The Trojans have another freshman drawing early praise from Henry: 112-pound Jacob Stevens. They also added two transfers in Jonathan Taylor, the state's 140-pound champion last year at Red Bank, and his brother Blaike Henry, a fifth-place state medalist from McCallie at 160 pounds.

Shorter adding wrestling

Shorter College has announced that it will begin a wrestling program for the 2010-11 season. The Rome school will have the only four-year varsity wrestling program in Georgia.

"I'm glad. We need it," Heritage coach Kenny Hill said. "It can only be good for the sport. It's a four-year school in Georgia with wrestling. I'm all for it."

The Hawks will compete in the NAIA Mid-South Conference with Campbellsville, Cumberland University, University of the Cumberlands, Lindsey Wilson and West Virginia Tech. The school hasn't yet hired a coach.

"It is great for wrestling and it is great for the kids in Georgia to have another opportunity to compete at the collegiate level," said UTC coach Eslinger. "I'm sure we'll be recruiting some of the same kids, but this is about providing wrestlers with opportunities they deserve."

He said that new NCAA guidelines for tournament entry have made it tougher to schedule NAIA programs, "but we'll do whatever we can to help them get started."

Ready to return

It couldn't be helped that Baylor's Cole Hayes missed the state championships last year. An odds-on favorite to win the Division II 135-pound title for his second state championship, Hayes was diagnosed with mononucleosis and complications kept him sidelined. He is ready to go this year and signed a scholarship with UTC earlier this month.

Soddy-Daisy's Campbell Lewis, a state champ last year at 125, will be sidelined until late January while recovering from shoulder surgery.

Among the missing this year are McCallie's Hayden Cronan (189), who decided against wrestling, and Prescott Stone (145), who has a 50-50 chance to return before season's end. He had surgery on his foot and ankle after a water skiing accident this past summer. Daniel McClure (125) still was undecided about wrestling as of Thanksgiving, according to McCallie coach Mike Newman.