Young grapplers compete in Superior

It was a big time for little guys in Superior Saturday when hundreds of boys and girls gathered for a day of battle on the wrestling mats.

It was the first Little Guy Wrestling match of the season with nearly 275 grapplers from Plains, Hot Springs, Thompson Falls, Mission, and Superior, the host of the mixer, getting the chance to show their meddle. The competition ran from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. with four to six matches going on simultaneously. For many, it was their first time to face off with an opponent, at times drawing tears. One Superior beginner was crying even as he pinned his Thompson Falls opponent.

Coaches didn't keep track of the number of wins and losses or statistics, but the three Sanders County team coaches were pleased with their kids' accomplishments on the mat. "Overall the kids wrestled really tough today. For most of my wrestlers this is their first year. Most of the Savage wrestlers came out very aggressive and were rewarded with several pins," said Andrew Leichtnam, head coach for the 25 Hot Springs wrestlers.

Leichtnam has been coaching Little Guy Wrestling for eight years, assisted by Jim Lawson since the start. This year, David Chapman and John Waterbury, who wrestled for the Plains-Hot Springs Savage Horsemen team this season, helped train the Hot Springs wrestlers, which ranged from 6-14 years old and included four girls.

Hot Springs has only one junior wrestler, eighth-grader Andrew Waterbury, John's younger brother, who won both his matches in close decisions and has been a Little Guy Wrestler for five years. John placed third at state this year. Leichtnam's son, Aaron Leichtnam, and Brayden Graham, wrestling in the novice class, both had two victories and only one loss. Middle wrestler Noble Barber went 3-1.

Superior had the largest group of wrestlers with 75. In Sanders County, the Plains Horsemen, coached by Jesse Jermyn, had the most competitors at 63 from age 5-14 and included five girls this year. Thompson Falls, coached by Michael Thilmony for the last 12 years, had 41 wrestlers from 5-14 years old, including a dozen girls. Mission had 61 kids on the team. High school wrestlers helped referee the matches.

Little Guy Wrestling was divided into four groups - beginners, novice, middle, and junior high. Times for the junior high wrestlers were two minutes for the first period and one minute each for periods two and three. For the novice and beginners, the three periods were one minute apiece. The remaining rules were the same as high school rules, said Charlie Crabb of Superior. The middles and juniors were first on the mats, followed by novice grapplers and beginners in the afternoon.

"It's organized chaos but it works," said Crabb, who also coaches Superior High School wrestlers. Superior will also host the March 4 Valley Tournament, which will include three additional teams. Crabb said his high school wrestlers, who were state champions this year, all participated in the Little Guy Wrestling program when they were tikes. Crabb believes it helped them a lot when they got to the high school level.

Thompson Falls High School wrestlers Eli Ratliff and Max Hannum helped referee on Saturday. Ratliff, Hannum and fellow wrestler Brock Ryan have been helping coach the Little Guy wrestlers. The Blue Hawks had five Little Guy Wrestlers in the middle class and three in the juniors, along with 13 in the novice class. Ian Taylor, who assisted Thilmony with the high school wrestling program, also helped with the Little Guy Wrestling.

Plains had 16 boys and girls in the novice class from 70 pounds to 124 pounds and seven in the junior class from the 100-pound weight class to the 205 class. Jermyn said the goal was to have the wrestlers compete in at least three matches. Most of them were more nervous in the first match. Kylar Bannout, one of 11 in the middle class, said she was nervous in her first match, which she lost, but she was more comfortable in her next two. Wrestling in the 100-pound weight class, she won her second match in a 4-2 decision and by pin in her final face off. Bannout's mother, Keaton, is one of the assistant coaches, along with Michael Chenoweth, Kyle Brown, John Thurston, and Beau French. Jermyn said the Plains team participated in around 200 matches for the day. Plains High School wrestlers Mason Elliott, Brenden Vanderwall, Lily MacDonald, Levi Blood, and Drew Carey are helping to train their team of Little Guy Wrestlers.

"They did a great job. They had only one week of practice," said Jermyn, who took several high school wrestlers to the state competition a week earlier. "At this point, it's not about the win. It's about the moves we teach them," he said. "They can win with a bad technique, but we want them to wrestle with the good fundamentals we teach them," he added.

Beginner wrestlers made up the biggest portion of the competition, taking almost two hours to finish. Superior had the largest batch of beginners with 34, followed by Thompson Falls with 30 - including 10 girls - from 50 pounds to 110. Plains had 24 beginners and three in the "pee wee" class. Hot Springs had 15 beginners. "All groups wrestled well today, although the beginners found the most success," said Leichtnam, who added that the beginners won 25 of their 33 matches.

Middles and juniors only are scheduled to compete in St. Ignatius on Friday at 4 p.m. On Saturday, beginners and novice classes compete at St. Ignatius starting at 9 a.m. On Tuesday, Feb. 28, middles and juniors wrestle at the Arlee High School gymnasium starting from 6-8 p.m. Beginners and novice wrestlers compete at the Arlee School gym from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, March 2.