Berlin Wrestling

[old school]

Are you kidding me....Berlin only had three wrestlers go out on the mat against North Star. Should they even have a team this year? I've heard they have big numbers in the elem and Jr high programs. If not I see Berlin dropping the program in a few years.

[RidgeDad]

I think last year they had 5 take the mat, but don't quote me on that.

There are some pretty good elementary and Jr. High kids coming up from Berlin. I sure hope they can turn this around. I really don't know how many younger kids they have now though, but a few years ago it was a respectable number for a small school. Can anyone from up over White Horse explain what may be happening there? Is it the coaches, lack of interest, or what?

[NS grad]

Only four of 14 matches were wrestled by Berlin against North Star. I believe Berlin even has a co-op arrangement with Rockwood and Shanksville so they can draw kids from there and only got a handful of kids to come out. I don't see how they justify the travel expenses for away matches. With North Star being somewhat down this year, this will be the worst year for wrestling in Somerset County in quite some time, perhaps ever, as far as team success is concerned. There are a few individuals who could make some noise in the postseason, but that's a long ways off. Kudos to Shade, at least they are getting the kids to come out. Go Bedford. We'll be rooting for you this year.

[x3ncroyle1236x3]

last year berlin even had a kid from rockwood on their roster due to lack of sports rockwood offers... but really..... 3 kids?!?!?!

[brlnsoccerchick19]

I won't really pretend to know what's going on with the wrestling program, but here's my best guess: Rick Lorson retiring when his youngest son graduated probably had a great deal to do with it. When he decided to leave the program, I believe most (if not all) of his coaching staff went with him. Trying to start keep a program at the success level that it had been with new coaches who were totally inexperienced at managing a high school program couldn't be an easy task. Sure, they can draw kids from Rockwood and Shanksville, but if people are skeptical as to how a new coach and his staff are going to work a group of kids, they aren't going to be very interested in joining the them when the basketball team has been at least decent as of late. This is just my $.02, but if I was a parent of a kid from Rockwood or Shanksville who wanted to wrestle and the only option was at Berlin, I probably wouldn't let them do it. I'd feel that it would be a waste of my money in paying for the kid to be on the team. Despite that, I really hope the staff can work with the kids that they have to make them quality wrestlers and use them as an example to draw kids in again.