The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling team was young when the season began with but two seniors in the starting 10. The team that enters 2010 is even younger now with both of those seniors finished for the season.
After Cody Cleveland was forced into knee surgery in late December, Joey Knox is now facing shoulder surgery in mid-February to repair a torn labrum.
“I don’t know that it was one particular match (when Knox was injured). I think it may have been over a period of time,” Mocs assistant coach Rocco Mansueto said.
All is not lost, though, despite the team’s prevalent youthfulness — two juniors, four sophomores, three redshirt freshmen and a true freshman — because the youngsters may be bright-eyed but they’re no longer wide-eyed.
“We have an exceptionally young team but you can see the excitement, and we have expectations even though they’re young,” Mansueto said. “We have had a grinder of a schedule which has been especially good for the young guys. A great schedule? Some would say yes and some would say no, but they’re only going to get better with time, which is awesome.”
The coaching staff is undecided about how deep into their stockpile they’re going to go to fill Cleveland’s 141-pound slot and Knox’s position at 157. Coach Heath Eslinger listed three possibilities for each class. The choices are Ben Johnson, Seth Seneca and Chanse Hayes at 141 and Bond Davis, Kelly Felix and Josh Condon at 157.
Both Cleveland and Knox are in the practice room although each is pretty much limited to giving pointers. Eslinger indicated that UTC would likely apply to the Southern Conference and the NCAA for hardship years for both. With Cleveland out, the Mocs had looked to Knox.
“Any time you lose a two-time qualifier it hurts,z but we’re committed to training every guy in the room. We feel we have guys that can step up so we’re full steam ahead and looking toward the postseason,” Eslinger said. “Where we hurt is for Joey more than us. He’s worked all his life and now he isn’t going to get to wrestle his final semester. We have other guys who can wrestle but he can’t go purchase a new shoulder in the next three months.”
Eslinger showed the team a move entitled “Facing the Giant” that was financed by a church in Cartersville, Ga.
“They had a budget of something like $70,000 and the movie made it to the big screen. The gist of it is that your actions always follow your beliefs,” Eslinger said. “Our guys are capable physically and mentally but I’m not sure they believe. We have to get them to believe.”
With that he added that he didn’t want youthfulness to be an excuse. He said earlier this year that the Mocs were perfectly capable of having a 10-2 and being ranked in the top 20 instead of being
7-5 and nowhere near the top 20.
“We’re a team,” he said. “We have some guys who don’t have all that much experience but Central Michigan sure didn’t apologize to us.”
Central Michigan, ranked No. 13 when the teams wrestled on Nov. 15, thumped UTC 32-6.
New team leaders have emerged and Eslinger pointed to Bucky Johnson (125), Josh Statum (133) and Jason McCroskey (184).
“They’re setting the pace academically, athletically and socially,” he said. “Dean Pavlou (149) has set himself apart and Jake Young has done well for a freshman. He got off to such a great start.
“Everybody is dealing with the schedule and the injuries. They aren’t setbacks, though. Setbacks are when we don’t do the right thinks socially and academically and we don’t work hard. A kid getting hurt is just bad luck and that is part of life.”
Eslinger also mentioned former Ooltewah wrestler Cody Hood and Alex Sprayberry of Marietta, Ga., saying they were two of the hardest workers in the practice room.
“You can build championships around attitudes like they have,” he said.
There are two additions to the Mocs roster. Alex Eggers, a 2009 summer signee from Osceola, Fla., who is a likely 133-pounder, is enrolled for school this semester and Robert Prigmore, a redshirt freshman 197-pounder from Texas, has transferred from Lehigh.