The 18th annual Yellow Jacket Classic is scheduled Saturday, but instead of hosting the wrestling tournament this year, Lookout Valley coach Bill Ward moved it to Central.
Ward not only is without his tournament but also without a team, which he hopes is for no more than a year.
“We actually had six bodies, but at no time during the first weeks of practice did we have more than two at one time,” Ward said. “Economically, it just wasn’t feasible to try and run a program with only two wrestlers. I knew it was coming. I was out recruiting in the halls. We just have a shortage of male students this year.”
Lookout Valley isn’t the only program struggling to get established or remain a solid member of the wrestling community. Neither Brainerd nor Boyd-Buchanan has fielded a full team in years, and new programs Signal Mountain and Chattanooga Christian had just four matches in their dual meet less than two weeks ago.
“There is a lot of pride here, and I really want to capitalize on that,” first-year Signal Mountain coach Johnny Lennon said. “But wrestling is the hardest sport, and that’s why so few people do it.”