Low numbers have held back the Shawano Community High School wrestling team over the years, but head coach Mike Homan isn’t letting that slow his drive.
The Hawks return five sectional qualifiers from a season ago and look forward to becoming better individually.
“I would like a full team, and I want everyone who is interested in wrestling to come out, but basically we’re going to take who shows up and who wants to go to work and go to battle with those kids and do our best to get them prepared to move on in their wrestling career,” Homan said.
Shawano has two seniors on the roster: Wyatt Welch, who wrestled in the 106-pound weight class a season ago, and heavyweight Damon Braatz.
Changes to the Bay Conference and WIAA realignment, moving the Hawks from Division 1 to Division 2, might make conference competition a little easier, but postseason competition could become much more difficult.
“I think Division 2 makes our sectional a little bit harder,” Braatz said. “Teams like Freedom, Oconto Falls, Luxemburg-Casco. But with some of those teams leaving the conference, I think it will make us a little more competitive in the conference standings this year.”
Building depth behind Welch, a second-team all-conference selection, and Braatz, a senior captain, will be important, especially with many underclassmen on the roster. Juniors Austin Oreskovic and Jacob Sacket, and sophomores Danny Darling and Jarrett Laatsch could play key roles.
“We have an opportunity to make the youth a lot better,” Oreskovic said.
Shawano went 5-8 overall and 2-6 in conference duals in 2014-15. According to Homan, the team showed flashes of strong performances, but would go into matches mentally unprepared on other nights.
“I think we have a lot of room to be consistent in everything we do, and that’s practice habits as well,” Homan said. “If we can consistently put together our best effort, and then bring that to the mat on Thursday nights and Saturdays, then I think we are going to be alright.”
The advances were even seen throughout the course of last season, from regular season to the WIAA regional.
“There were three different individuals at our regional tournament that beat kids that had previously beaten them two or three weeks before,” Homan said. “Just being able to step out there and not just beat those kids, but pretty handily beat them, I think that showed that we were working to that next level. I’m excited about where we can take that.”
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