High school wrestlers from five states will descend on the greater Chattanooga area today for three weekend tournaments - the well-established Bradley Central and McCallie invitationals and Chattanooga Christian's blossoming Chargers Invitational.
The sixth annual CCS tournament features 19 teams, most of which are Class A/AA-type competitors, and is a one-day tournament. Competition is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Saturday on three mats.
"Every year we've run it pretty quick, so the finals aren't usually too late," Chargers coach Josh Craft said. "A totally complete guess would be for the finals to start around 4."
Teams in the field include defending champion East Hamilton, the host Chargers, Boyd-Buchanan, Brainerd, Christian Academy of Knoxville, East Ridge, Harpeth, Knoxville Grace Christian, Knoxville Catholic, Fulton, McMinn County, Mount Zion (Ga.), Sale Creek, Shelbyville, Signal Mountain, Sequatchie County, Tyner and Whitwell. Admission costs $7 per person.
The McCallie and Bradley events are two of the oldest continuing tournaments in the state. While Bradley's is closing in on its 25th year, the McCallie Invitational began in 1981 with the Blue Tornado winning eight of the championships.
Bradley won a race for the 2015 team title in its invitational after a stiff challenge from Father Ryan, which went on to secure the Division II-AA state title.
Ryan elected not to return this year, but the field includes Alexander (Ga.), Athens (Ala.), Bearden, Blackman, Central, Commerce (Ga.), Etowah (Ga.), Gilmer (Ga.), Hardin Valley, Heritage, Hixson, Jefferson County, Knoxville Halls, Mount Juliet, Mountain View (Ga.), Gwinnett (Ga.), Ooltewah, Sevier County, Siegel, Smyrna, Southside (Ala.), Stewarts Creek and Union County.
The Bears hope to begin by 4:30 this afternoon and are planning on Saturday's medals matches beginning between 3 and 4 p.m.
Notre Dame, long a Bradley tournament participant, has switched allegiances and will be part of the 31-team field at McCallie. It is a field that has competitors coming from as far away as South Carolina (Hillcrest) and Florida (Newsome). Defending champion Woodland is among a Georgia contingent that includes Carrollton, Cass, Chattooga, Dalton, Heritage, LaFayette, Lambert, Marist, Northwest Whitfield, Peachtree Ridge, Ridgeland, Ringgold, Sonoraville, Southwest Whitfield, South Forsyth, Union Grove and West Laurens. From Alabama are Buckhorn, Hewitt-Trussville, Oak Mountain, Scottsboro and Sparkman; and Tennessee, in addition to McCallie and Notre Dame, is represented by Alcoa, Cane Ridge, Cleveland, Red Bank, Soddy-Daisy and William Blount.
The tournament, being run on six mats, begins at 5:30 this evening. Saturday wrestling starts at 9:30 a.m. and tournament officials hope to start the championship finals at 3:30 p.m. Price of admission is $10 and $5 respectively for adult and student day passes, and tickets for only the finals are $5.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.