The SoBoCo Eagles wrestling team will enter into its second season with two returning state qualifiers and a handful of young talent.

The Eagles return Blake Schmidt, who was 38-5 last year and placed sixth at the state tournament. Heavyweight Dom Lawrence also qualified for the state tourney in his first year.

“The good thing about it being our second year as a wrestling team is that all of these guys now have experience,” said coach Trent Tracy, watching his 19 wrestlers warm up for Monday’s practice.

“On the bad side, we have some guys who wrestled for us last year who found out what it was like and are not back out for the team this season.”

But Tracy sees the Eagles as being even more competitive than last season – albeit with a beefed up schedule that includes the Hickman Tournament, the Odessa Tournament and a quad match at Blair Oaks against the Falcons, Knob Noster and Palmyra.

~ There’s more to this story in today’s Journal ~

By Bruce Wallace