Even with the loss of 12 seniors, Floyd Central wrestling coach Brandon Sisson said he expects the Highlanders to reach goals of winning their sixth straight Hoosier Hills Conference championship and winning the sectional, in which they finished second to Jeffersonville a season ago.

“I feel like we’re always in the hunt for both of those,” Sisson said. “Our team goals are pretty much the same every year. We always want to win the sectional, the regional and the Hoosier Hills Conference.”

Sisson has good reasons for his optimism. Of Floyd’s record nine semistate qualifiers last season, three return this season — Ben Moberly, Aaron Witt and Logan Kelly.

Moberly won the Jeffersonville Regional last year and went 37-10 at 145 pounds. Witt (125) and Kelly (103) were third at the regional and both had more than 25 wins.

“I think we have three or four kids that can qualify for state this year,” Sisson said. The Highlanders had no state qualifiers last year for the first time in 27 years.

The Highlanders also return 112-pound sophomore Zach Thomas, who finished third in the sectional, sophomore 119-pounder Nolan Vanhook, who was fourth in the sectional, and senior Reed Emerson, who was fifth in the sectional.

“We have a lot of guys who got some varsity experience last year,” said Sisson, the Highlanders’ second-year head coach. “We’ll have to see how these young guys fit into the lineup, but I have pretty good expectations.”



NEW ALBANY

New Albany doesn’t figure to compete for the Hoosier Hills Conference and sectional crowns, but the Bulldogs do have several sectional and state finals contenders.

Senior Tim Martin, who is ranked sixth in the state at 140 pounds, leads the Bulldogs. Martin qualified for the state meet as a junior, going 38-7 last season. During the summer, Martin won the USA Wrestling state championship at 135 pounds and competed at the national finals in Fargo, N.D.

“I think he’s grown from that experience,” New Albany coach Eric Burress said. “I think placing at the state tournament is a realistic goal for him.”

Two other seniors should also be competitive. Heavyweight Taylor Hoke was a semistate qualifier last season, and Larry Rickman was a regional qualifier. Burress said he expects both to take another step this year.

“That’s our goal, to have each wrestler go a notch higher than they did last year, always moving in the right direction,” Burress said.

New Albany should also get some help from its younger wrestlers. Freshmen Keenan Ward and Brennan Banet were each successful in middle school.

“They’re going to learn a lot,” Burress said of all of his young wrestlers. “It’s going to be fun to see how much they grow from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”



PROVIDENCE

Semistate qualifier Jacob Golembeski returns as a senior for what is otherwise a very young team.

Golembeski went 26-8 at 160 pounds as a junior and assistant coach Patrick Fleming said he expects more out of the multisport star in 2009-10.

“I think he has a lot of potential,” said Fleming, who will take over for Phil Cook as the head coach at Providence at the end of this season. “I think he’ll have a really productive year.”

Otherwise, the Pioneers are unproven, but Fleming likes his young wrestlers, especially the talented sophomore class.

“They’re fairly inexperienced, but I think with their raw talent they could prove to be really good wrestlers in the next couple of years,” he said.



CHRISTIAN ACADEMY OF INDIANA

In just its second season, Christian Academy went 7-6 as a team and placed five wrestlers in the top six at the Jeffersonville Sectional in 2008-09.

This year, CAI coach Mike Brown believes the Warriors can have their first four regional wrestlers.

Brown said he believes that Corey Neel, Caleb Delbridge, Levi Speth and Ethan Banet — all juniors who have wrestled in all three of the program’s seasons — can at least finish in the top four and get out of the sectional.

“I think all four have an equal chance,” Brown said. “We’ve progressively gotten a little better. We’re hoping that this year is the first we take one or two kids (to the regional).”

Brown, who was an assistant coach at Jeffersonville, and CAI assistant David Neel, who came from Floyd Central, have every intention of turning the Christian Academy program into a championship program.

“As a team, we’re improving both individual-wise and team-wise,” Brown said. “When we came (to CAI), both Coach Neel and I were coming from serious programs and we had no other plan for this program than to be a serious program.”

With 14 wrestlers, the Warriors will still not fill out a complete team in 2009-10. But they have been able to add two or three wrestlers in each of their first three years.

“We’re still not an experience level that we’re going to compete with Jeff and Floyd and New Albany, but we’ve been successful against schools our size,” Brown said. “We’re building up toward (being successful in) the tournament series.”