The area's young teams and wrestlers experienced a lot of growing pains in December.
Through those pains, however, has come growth.
Now, as we flip the calendar to 2014, it will be interesting to see who builds on the lessons learned and realizes some of the vast potential visible across the 17-team area.
A few holiday highlights:
- Hamburg turned in a fine performance at the 25-team Conestoga Valley Holiday Classic, finishing second in the team standings behind champion Spring Grove. Cody Miller (182) won a title for the Hawks, who had three finalists among eight placewinners.
- Tri-Valley placed six at the ultra-competitive, 28-team Bethlehem Holiday Classic. Huge Class AAA schools and other wrestling powers made up nearly the entire field.
Kudos to Caleb Bordner for winning six straight consolation bouts to place third at 120.
The Dawgs' other standouts suffered some losses, too, but facing and getting used to that kind of competition will help those wrestlers break through to the next level. It will also expose areas of weakness that can be addressed in the practice room before the important tournaments in February and March.
That's why the Dawgs opened the season at the Williamsport Top Hat Tournament and why they'll head to the Bedford tournament Jan. 24-25.
Tri-Valley's willing to sacrifice some losses now to prepare to earn more wins during the postseason.
After six weeks in the practice room and some matches under their belt, it's time for the cream to start to rise to the top. It's time to put the technique and training together and get more production on the mat.
The guys who are doing the work and learning from their mistakes will emerge in the coming weeks.
Rankings return
Compiling the individual rankings at right is an inexact science at best.
Especially this early in the season.
Look them over, discuss and disagree if you want. The disparity in number of matches and level of competition is so vast at this point it's difficult to separate the wrestlers.
Once division teams start going head-to-head, and after the Schuylkill League gathers Jan. 17-18 at Jim Thorpe for the league tournament, we'll have a much better idea how to rank the guys. Expect significant movement.
Still, a lot of people take these rankings much too seriously. They're basically a conversation starter, where fans can debate who should be ranked where. Everybody's entitled to their opinion, but remember, these rankings are only on paper. The real rankings will be determined on the mat at districts, regionals and states.
Back to action
After a few days off for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, it's time to move into the heart of the league schedule.
Before that, Saturday offers some excellent opportunities to see some wrestling close to home.
- Shamokin is scheduled to compete in Blue Mountain's AM Gauntlet Tournament starting at 8 a.m.
- Tamaqua heads to Hamburg for the Hawk Mountain Duals.
- And Halifax, North Schuylkill, Tri-Valley and Williams Valley will be at Panther Valley for the 15-team Anthracite Duals.
The event will have six rounds of action, with most teams wrestling five times.
The pools and seeds are as follows: Pool A - No. 1 Father Judge, No. 8 Tri-Valley and No. 9 Milton; Pool B - No. 2 Penns Valley, No. 7 Panther Valley, No. 10 Lehighton and No. 15 Williams Valley; Pool C - No. 3 North Schuylkill, No. 6 Midd-West, No. 11 Palmerton and No. 14 Halifax; and Pool D - No. 4 Williamson, No. 5 Pius X, No. 12 Abington Heights and No. 13 Wilson Area.
Other big meets:
- Tuesday - Schuylkill Valley at Hamburg;
- Wednesday - Panther Valley at Tri-Valley, Pottsville at Pine Grove and Juniata at Upper Dauphin.
Wrestlers of the Week
Too many holiday tournaments and too many excellent performances to limit this award to just one person.
So Pottsville's Luke Gardner, Hamburg's Miller, Panther Valley's Len Ogozalek and Pine Grove's Guy Zimmerman share the honor.
All won holiday tournament titles - Gardner (12-1) at Christmas City, Miller (9-1) at Conestoga Valley, Ogozalek (13-2) at Damascus, Md. and Zimmerman (12-1) at Governor Mifflin.
(Lipsky is the wrestling beat writer for The Republican-Herald)