Most of the Cleveland High School wrestlers are familiar, but many of them are showing up in lower weight classes than in the Blue Raiders’ pre-Christmas lineup.
Cleveland pretty much dropped a weight class from 132 pounds down for Saturday’s Soddy-Daisy Showdown, opening a spot at 132 pounds for Chris Debien, who is coming off summer surgery to repair a torn ACL.
“We’re not sure if everybody will remain where he is right now. I think we have everybody pretty much in the lineup that’s going to be in the lineup. I’m just not sure yet about who’s going to be where,” Cleveland coach Jake Yost said. “We’re still working through it.”
Soddy-Daisy’s Tucker Russo, left, drives Cleveland’s Ezra Taylor into the mat in their championship 145-lb class Soddy-Daisy Invitational wrestling bout Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015, at Soddy-Daisy High School in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn. Taylor went on to win the bout to take first place in his class.Joining Debien in a 2014-15 season debut for the Blue Raiders was heavyweight Koran Kennedy. They combined to contribute 60 points to Cleveland’s first-place 199-point total and were among seven Cleveland semifinal winners as the Blue Raiders broke away from Soddy-Daisy and Wilson Central.
“We took five or six days off during Christmas break, and I thought we were knocking off a little bit of rust from that break,” Yost said. “Some of the younger guys, though, didn’t respond as well to that break as I would have liked. In the thick of it we lost by one or two in some matches, but maybe we as a coaching staff haven’t emphasized some situations as much as we should.”