With one returning state champion, the first to ever be coming back after winning a state title, the Nation Ford wrestling program has a lot of hope in looking towards this year’s season.
The Falcons have 35 wrestlers between varsity and JV squads. Back this year is former head coach Dan Snell, who took over for Bret Peltier who stepped down after last season ended. Snell coached from 2016 to 2018. Snell, who has been coaching the middle school program, agreed to take the varsity program back over for one season as to help make sure they didn’t lose any momentum.
“We are young, but we have a good upper level core,” Snell said. “We might struggle a little big down low because the guys are young, but once we get to the middle to top part of our lineup, we are pretty solid.”
Returning this season for Nation Ford is Danny Gilstorf, who won a state title at 132-pounds last season. He is the first of the three state champions that Nation Ford has had to ever be able to come back to the school having not graduated. Derek Van Sandwyk, who placed fourth at 190-pounds, is also returning for the Falcons.
“We have a good core of seniors to build around,” Snell said.
Snell said the expectations for this season is to have growth from his younger guys and to max out the potential for his older guys.
“We are going to take some growth lumps,” he said. “Where we are strong, we are going to be competitive. But we are going to have a lot of growing lessons from this year.”
Nation Ford comes into the season ranked 13th in pre-season rankings. Snell said he feels his team is a better individual tournament team, than a dual team.
“There is going to be some teams that are tough to compete with because of the holes we have,” he said.
Nation Ford starts their dual schedule this coming week at home on Dec. 4 against Weddington and York. They will be participating in several tournaments on the weekends such as the Falcon Fury at Fountain Inn on Dec. 7, the Kingsley Classic at Fort Mill on Dec. 14, the Demon Holiday Classic at Lugoff-Elgin on Dec. 21 and the Cavalier Classic at Dorman on Dec 28.
The Falcons will start their Region 3-5A schedule in 2025 after school returns. Snell knows things are going to be tough for Nation Ford once region competition rolls around.
“Indian Land and Fort Mill are going to be tough,” Snell said. “There is no weak team in the region. It is going to be a battle to get in (the playoffs).”
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
