VVHS Wrestling Places Fourth In Early Tournament

By BOB SNELL

The Progress

After not being able to wrestle at all during the 2020-21 school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virgin Valley High School head coach Skyler Woods is eager to get his team back on the mat.

The Bulldogs returned to competition on Saturday in Boulder City participating in the annual Boulder City Duals at Boulder City High School.

Virgin Valley went 3-1 in head-to-head duals and finished in fourth place.
“We’re just excited to go out and compete again,” Woods said. “We had nowhere to go last year. We weren’t allowed to go into our wrestling room and no one else would let us come and work out because of the pandemic. Missing last year had its effect on us.”

The Bulldogs got off to a late start this season because the VVHS football team reached the state 3A football championship game.

“We had about ten kids that had been coming out before football ended,” Woods said. “Now, we have 27 kids out. We’re working to get the kids from football shape into wrestling shape. It’s going to be a little bit of a process to get kids into the right weight classes.”

But despite the slow start, the Bulldogs are trending in the right direction. “We’ve got good leadership guys to help get the guys going in the right direction,” Woods said. “Making sure we go out and compete the right way. This is what we want to see.”

To show the difference two years makes, Cutler Crandall wrestled at 120 and Martin Jordan at 130 as sophomores. Now, both are wrestling from 170 to 182 as seniors.

Finding people to wrestle at the lower weights has been a challenge. “Our M.O. has always been having successful guys at the lower weights,” Woods said. “Right now, we’re looking for guys at 106, 113, 120 and 126.”

Besides Crandall and Martin, the Bulldogs are counting on Jaxon Baird (132), Gavin Baird (132), Sam Woods (132-138), Jacob Dominguez (170-182) and Jaren Hafen (190-220) for successful seasons.

At Saturday’s Boulder City Duals, the Bulldogs had to vacate five weight classes before each dual. Meaning, they were giving away 30 points to their opponent before stepping onto the mat to wrestle.

Virgin Valley defeated Boulder City’s junior varsity, lost to Silverado, then defeated Moapa Valley and Basic to reach the third-place match against Boulder City. The Eagles prevailed 42-24.
“Not bad considering we gave them thirty points,” Woods said. “It was a similar situation with Silverado.”

Three VVHS wrestlers went 5-0 on the day: Gavin Baird at 132, Cutler Crandall at 182 and Jaren Hafen at 220.
“I thought our guys battled hard,” Woods said. “We saw lots of things to build on.”

Virgin Valley will wrestle Bishop Gorman and Chaparral Wednesday in Las Vegas at Bishop Gorman High School. The first home match for the Bulldogs will be December 9 against Chaparral.