Selma hosts school’s first wrestling meet
Published 8:37 pm Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Selma High School’s Bryan Hurt wrestles Jeff Davis High School’s Marquell Felder Wednesday at Selma High School. The wrestling meet was the first held at Selma High School. The Saints lost the team scoring portion of the meet 48-6.–Alaina Denean
It was a historic day at Selma High School Wednesday, as the Saints held their first ever home wrestling meet with matches against Jeff Davis High School.
The final team results were lopsided in favor of the much more experienced Volunteers, but that didn’t damper the mood of Selma or head wrestling coach Robert Wilkerson.
“It’s history,” Wilkerson said. “It was a good day. The kids put in a lot of work for today. We’ve been selling hot dogs and hamburgers trying to do what we needed to do for this to try to make it a big event.”
Selma lost the overall team event 48-6, but Wilkerson knew his team would probably take some lumps this season in the first year of the program. He told his team together they are laying the foundation for a wrestling program with loads of potential.
The crowd at Selma Wednesday wasn’t large, but dozens came out to witness the Saints’ first home wresting meet. Wilkerson said he hopes the crowd keeps growing with each home meet, as fans start to realize how wrestling works.
“A lot goes into wrestling,” Wilkerson said. “It’s not just about slamming people and all of that stuff. It’s about getting points, just like any other sport.”
Ryan Hurt provided Selma’s only points of the day, beating D’ Angelo Simpson 6-2. Other Selma wrestlers that took part in Wednesday’s meet were Kendarious Smitherman, Jonathan Huynh, Justin Harris, Dalvin Mitchell, Alex Perkins and Bryan Hurt. Keltrel Blevins, who one of two females on the Saints’ team, also took part in a match, losing to Gabriel Thomas.
“There’s actually two female wrestlers on the team, but only one wrestled today,” Wilkerson said. “There is actually a female division, and we are working to get them some more matches.”
Overall, Wilkerson said his team has learned a lot in matches this season as the Saints get the program underway.
“Hopefully, this match will get more kids interested that came today and get them interested in coming out next year,” Wilkerson said.
Selma will host another meet next Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. Jeff Davis, Brookwood and Lee High School will take part in that match.
