Fort Mill wrestling head coach Chris Brock is doing what he can to keep the wrestling on the mat this season.
Brock has canceled both his youth and middle school programs this year and has only about 20 wrestlers on the varsity roster in trying to keep the coronavirus out of his wrestling room. He has also cut the program in about half to reduce the chance of the virus getting to his team.
“Our biggest opponent is COVID,” he said.
Fort Mill is scheduled to open the wrestling season Wednesday, Dec. 16 at Chapin in a tri-match with Midland Valley. From there they host the Milltown Duals, which is really a quad-match, Dec. 19 and then head to the Wildcat Duals, which is also a quad-match, Dec. 22.
The Jackets only have two home dates for matches. The first being the Milltown Duals Dec. 19 and then the Region 3-5A tournament Jan. 30. Everything else is on the road.
Fort Mill has eight wrestlers back from last year including female state champion Bella Hoffman and state runner-up Joshua Sturgeon and state qualifier Sebastian Colon. One key spot they are missing is at the heavyweight position.
“We are thin up top with big guys,” Brock said. “We have a lot of young kids.”
Brock said there will be about five freshmen or sophomores in his starting lineup, but still feels good about how they will perform this year.
“We will be competitive,” he said. “We have the ability to score 30 to 36 points in most matches, which is what you will need to win.”
Brock said his biggest goal for this season is to make sure those seniors on the team have every opportunity they can to be on the mat. The Jackets have seven seniors on their roster this season.
Fort Mill will open their Region 3-5A schedule Jan. 4 at Gaffney and Boiling Springs tri-match. They will also be facing York as part of a quad-match and Indian Land as part of a tri-match. Their only head-to-head duals scheduled are at Clover Jan. 19 and then at Nation Ford Jan. 26.
The state dual playoffs will be Feb. 13-20 and the Upper State individual tournament, which will be at Nation Ford, is scheduled for Feb. 26-27 and the individual state tournament is scheduled for March 5-6.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
