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March 29, 2024 7:46 am
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A Strong Growing Year For Pirate Wrestling

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

PHOTO BY VERNON ROBISON/Moapa Valley Progress.

The Moapa Valley High School Wrestling program is bracing for another season of action on the mat. The team has been practicing for the past two weeks and is ready to start competition right away.
“We are excited for the season to get started,” said head coach Tyson Houston. “It should be a good year.”

After graduating some key seniors last year, the team is going to be a little short on experience this season. Fourteen boys came out to practice at the beginning of the season. Only two of them are seniors.
“This will be a good growing year for us,” Houston said. “But I think we will do well.”

Returning as a senior this year is Jorge Cervantes at the 120 lb weight class. Cervantes made it into the State competition during his sophomore year. But last year he went 1-3 in the Regional Meet just falling short of qualifying for the state match.

The other returning senior is Austin Tafoya who is wrestling in the 113 weight class. Tafoya had a similar story last season. He faced some tough competition in the lower weights in last year’s Regional Meet and also ended up falling short of qualifying for state.

But both of these athletes are returning this season with much more training and work behind them; and a whole lot more focus.
“They both came in and worked out through the summer and trained hard during the off season,” Houston said. “And they attended some camps that have given them quite a bit of experience. We will be excited to see what they can do on the matt this year.”

Also returning this season are juniors Hayden Redd and Cropper Henrie, both of whom were contenders at State last year.

Another junior, Russell Bodily, has returned to the Pirate program after being abroad for a couple of years with his family in Germany. Russell continued to wrestle during his absence, though. He qualified to attend a European championship meet last year, Houston said.

Other juniors returning are Jackson Mills and Ryan McMurray, both of whom are training hard to be tough contenders.

This year’s team will be facing some stiff competition. Rival teams Boulder City and Virgin Valley have both been ranked in the top three this season. The Pirates will be facing the Boulder City Eagles early this season, with their first meeting being on Saturday.

The Pirates are currently ranked 8th in their league. But Houston thinks that is something that the Pirates will build upon.
“Our whole goal right now is to change that ranking,” Houston said. “I think that we can do some jumping up in the rankings early on.”

While experience may be thin on the matt for the Pirates, there is plenty of knowledge coming from the coaching staff. Assistant coaches include Ryan Anderson and Steve Katich. All three coaches are MVHS alumni. And all three were state championship competitors while in high school.

Houston has his eye on the long game for the MVHS program. For many years, Houston has also overseen the local youth wrestling program for elementary through middle school age kids. That program has grown exponentially in recent years, both in numbers and in success. It is developing into a solid pipeline for the MVHS program. This year there are 47 wrestlers enrolled in the youth program and many are 7th and 8th graders, Houston said.

“The kids who have stuck in that program through middle school are showing a lot of talent,” Houston said. “They are going to be a force to be reckoned with when they get to high school. So the next few years will be exciting.”

For this year, the team is actually still looking for athletes to fill in some key missing spots in the lineup. These include the 106, 132, 138 and 145 weight classes.
“We would still welcome anyone who wants to come out and wrestle,” Houston said.

“Our goal is to build up the Pirate wrestling program to its former glory,” Houston concluded. “We want to make it great again; a force to be reckoned with in the state.”

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1 thought on “A Strong Growing Year For Pirate Wrestling”

  1. The information on Russell Bodily is inaccurate. He not only “qualified to attend” the 2017/2018 European Championship meet, but in fact, earned the championship in the 138 weight class. The young man worked hard and earned this title. The European championship is similar to winning a state championship. You can fact check at stripes.com

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