Wrestling preview: Season starts Saturday

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When Rosemount wrestling coach Brett Larson looks around the school’s wrestling room, he sees 50 athletes ready to compete on the mats for the Irish this season.

Practicing with grade levels nine through 12, it’s a big group of wrestlers available to Larson and his coaches.

But Larson also knows the reality of the situation. While he’s pleased with the total number, he knows success also boils down to how those wrestlers line up due to weight classes.

“This is a year I really have a lot of unanswered questions in terms of the lineup and how we’re going to match up relative to other schools and weights,” Larson said. “We’re not really putting a lot of expectations for wins and losses. We’re going to work hard every week and try to improve and I think we’ll be a decent team.”

Rosemount had a quality group of wrestlers last season, but struggled to fill out a complete varsity lineup due to the need to fill in the requisite weight classes.

When the Irish begin this season this weekend with a team tournament at Chisago Lakes, one of the main obstacles again will be if and how Larson can fill in the lineup.

“I think we can be competitive week-in and week-out for the most part, depending on where guys fall,” Larson said. “Last year we had high expectations and it may not be that way this year. That’s OK. The first week in practice has been fun with some good intensity. We’ve got a good group of guys to work with I think. I think when it shakes out, we’ll be competitive and have quite a few guys pushing for state tournament berths. We have some high-end guys and some guys with experience and we’ll sprinkle in the newcomers and see where it falls.”

Larson will certainly look to the senior captains for leadership and points.

Paul Domeier, Chad Marx, Josh Francois and Jon Bishop all return this season as senior captains. Bishop is back after missing last season with an injury.

Domeier, Marx and Francois will fit into the middle weights, while Bishop will compete at heavyweight.

“All four of them have been really solid for us,” Larson said.

Junior Adam Jackson returns and will figure into the middle weights, while junior Steve Levine and sophomore Danny Rosa will occupy some of the lower weights.

Larson also believes there will be good competition in the first season of wrestling in the South Suburban Conference.

“I think the conference is pretty wide open after the No. 1 team,” he said, referring to perennial champion Apple Valley. “I think we’ll compete and have some good matches on a weekly basis. And that’s fun when its back and forth and good competition.”

Tags: sports, rosemount, prep, irish, wrestling