The Salmon Arm Secondary wrestling team kicked off their 2014/15 season last Saturday at the Jackson Campus gym.
The team is expanding and has formed a community club, the Shuswap Area Sockeyes, so that they can now encompass participants from other schools.
Coach Derek Gesce has started a program at Shuswap Middle School, who had wrestlers in a tournament for the first time ever. Rob Ellis, the principal at North Shuswap Elementary School who has coached for years in various elementary schools in this district, had six wrestlers entered in the middle school division.
Other divisions included a Novice Division and an Experienced/Elite Division.
In all, there were 53 entrants, 37 of whom came from the Shuwsap school district. The remainder came from Kamloops, West Kelowna, and Slocan.
Coaches Ray Munsie and Richard Sweet say these numbers indicate the domination that the club and high school team now exerts over the zone.
SAS’s team has been the zone champions in both the boys and girls divisions for three years, and they are growing and getting stronger.
In all, there were over 100 matches that took place on two mats in the Jackson gymon Saturday.
Students in grades six, seven, and eight at Shuswap Middle School or Carlin are still welcome to join this team, as are students from Salmon arm Secondary.
Munsie and Sweet say that if you want to be a member of a championship team and if you are willing to work hard, “We’d love to have you.”