Years before they were a dominate program, Fort Mill High used to practice in the school’s cafeteria, which they affectionately renamed the “wrestle-teria.”
This year they are back in the cafeteria practicing to start the season in defense of their 5A state title under first year head coach Adam Marullo, who took over for Chris Brock who stepped down after last year’s state championship.
Marullo said the wrestlers’ attitudes have been great despite being displaced from their wrestling room because of a water pipe breaking in the school that ruined the wrestling room floor and the school’s two main gyms.
“The kids have been awesome,” Marullo said. “I told them it didn’t matter if we had to practice in a corn field.”
The team opens the season Monday, Nov. 27 at South Pointe with a team dual. They are hopeful they will be able to get back into the gym sometime in January. The team will host their annual Kingsley Classic individual tournament at Nation Ford High Dec. 8-9.
“We have moved some of our home dates to be away dates now,” Marullo said. “The dates in January we haven’t rescheduled yet. We didn’t have a whole lot of home duals anyway.”
The team looks like they haven’t missed a beat this year despite the issue of not having a weight room, which was also ruined by the broken pipe, or a wrestling room.
“We are looking strong,” Marullo said. “We have a lot of young guys that have stepped up and did a lot of work in the off season. We are coming along. I feel pretty good about where we are at now. We have to find alternative ways to work out our strength and conditioning. We have gotten creative in some of the things we are doing. You have to continue to work on strength and conditioning, you just have to get creative in how you do it.”
One issue to start for Fort Mill is the loss of Aidan Eubanks for about a month with a broken hand. Besides that, everyone else is healthy. Certain wrestlers to look to have a good season includes Jacob Nally (113), Logan Shope (132), and Tucker Gibson (126).
“We have a bunch of seniors that have done a great job,” Marullo said. “These guys have been working and wrestling the whole off-season, training and getting better.”
Marullo knows that as defending state champs, Fort Mill has a target on their backs.
“I feel like that pressure has helped us,” he said. “It has helped us in the way we are training and preparing. It has helped us in how our guys are performing under the pressure. The pressure has elevated them.”
Fort Mill will dress 20 for varsity, but has 35 wrestlers that are considered varsity. Marullo said the success of winning a state title has helped to increase the number of wrestlers the team has.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
