While the biggest wrestling event in Cleveland is in jeopardy of being postponed, Heritage High in Catoosa County got permission to practice Tuesday afternoon.
Cleveland High, ranked fifth in the Tennessee prep coaches’ poll, is supposed to host top-ranked Bradley Central on Thursday.
“Our match with Bradley is a social event,” Blue Raiders coach Eric Phillips said. “I’m looking at a calendar now, but that’s too big of a draw to have it [when people cannot come]. That meet funds my season.”
Heritage probably wouldn’t have been practicing if not for the fact that the Generals are scheduled to leave Thursday for the Georgia state duals in Macon.
“I called my principal [Ronnie Bradford], and my athletic director [Ernie Ellis] called me and said we could have practice at 3:30,” Heritage coach Kenny Hill said. “He said to tell [the wrestlers] that the practice wasn’t mandatory and if they couldn’t make it not to worry about it.”
Heritage earned the trip last weekend with a victory over LaFayette in the Area 7-AAA duals.
The Cleveland-Bradley meet draws interest across the state. Phillips said the meet at Cleveland two years ago drew 2,000 fans. At $5 per person, such a meet could bring more than $10,000.
Defending state champion Bradley is unbeaten while Cleveland is 12-3 with all three losses coming to Soddy-Daisy.
Bradley’s meet against Walker Valley scheduled for Tuesday was postponed, as was the rest of the area high school schedule.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Walker Valley coach Alan Morris said. “We have talked about Saturday, but we’ll probably wait and decide once we see when we’re able to get back in school.”
Very few schools in the area are practicing. A rule in Hamilton County prohibits practices if schools are closed for inclement weather. While the rules may be more flexible in other counties, few were even trying because of the poor road conditions.
“We had meets Thursday, Friday and Saturday so we haven’t practiced since last Wednesday, but we have a young team and some of them are probably struggling with weight management,” Morris said. “I have told them to eat moderately and to eat healthy and try to get in a workout. Being a little overweight is one thing. Being overweight a lot is another.”
Two-time state champion Campbell Lewis of Soddy-Daisy has become a veteran of the annual weight-loss and weight-maintenance battles.
“I just got up a little while ago,” he said about lunchtime Tuesday. “I was out last night playing in the snow, but I had breakfast — a cup of coffee, a whole wheat bagel and a couple of egg whites — and I’ll probably go run two or three miles shortly.”
Lewis said he is to the point where he can eat what he wants. He even had a sandwich with fat-free peanut butter Monday.
“The difference is I don’t gorge. I eat till I’m not hungry,” he said. “It’s a matter of keeping my metabolism up. We have a treadmill, so I might run inside.”
His coach, Steve Henry, hasn’t opened the Trojans’ wrestling facility, and he is one of the few area coaches who welcomed the break.
The Trojans wrestled second-ranked Baylor and Cleveland last week and then had to set up for and participate in their grueling one-day tournament Saturday before breaking everything down on Sunday.
“There were times in the past when I might have opened the wrestling gym and even gone and picked up kids,” Henry said. “This weather now is another situation. I have to lock up the gym and make sure nobody gets in. Right now we need the rest.”
Cleveland had a Sunday practice, but Phillips didn’t see the wrestlers Monday and didn’t think he would on Tuesday.
“I e-mailed them yesterday and told them to try and get on treadmills or jump rope. There isn’t a lot you can tell them,” he said.
Phillips has his team in a routine that’s been interrupted by the school closings. That routine includes morning and afternoon workouts and normally five small meals per day.
“I open the Jones building at 6 a.m., and those that need a workout will come in and jump rope or run or work out before school,” he said. “Then we have practice after school, and several will then go to the Y after that.”
Much of that activity obviously has been curtailed at Cleveland and elsewhere.
“I hope they’re out building snowmen or having snowball fights — something to burn some calories,” Phillips said.