By Seth Slover
Staff Writer
When an individual or a group desires to excel at something, goals have to be in place and the bar has to be set high from the start. With a new season recently underway, the Coppell wrestling team has its expectations set as high as ever.
“We have two goals this season, as always,” coach Chip Lowery said. “We want to win district and qualify as many kids as we can for all-state.”
Thus far, it seems as though the team is in line to achieve a great deal of success, as boys varsity, girls varsity and junior varsity all took first place at the recent Round-Up tournament.
It is clear that the team has talent, even after losing numerous strong contributors from last season.
“We graduated some good wrestlers and some good captains, but we are experienced in all weight classes, which is really important,” Lowery said.
This year’s boys captains are seniors Kaleb Richardson, Dylan Stoffregen and Sam Rice. The girls team captain is senior Samantha Tudor.
“Our senior leaders and captains this year are all really good. Both the guys’ and girls’ teams have a great shot to have a great year,” junior Stephanie Martinez said. “Everyone has worked so hard and now that the season is here, we can show that our hard work has been worth it.”
With a total of 120 wrestlers (boys and girls) in the program, everyone truly will have an opportunity to improve, compete and win. There will be 14 boy starters and 10 girl starters at each meet.
“Personally, I’m excited to see guys who have grown and developed from young underclassmen to experienced wrestlers,” junior Mark de la Chapelle said. “It’s awesome to see how guys are moving up and are willing to contribute. Everyone is looking forward to finding out just how good we could be. With individual wrestlers like Kaleb Richardson and Sam Rice leading us, we have lots of potential.
With a great deal of talent and potential often comes pressure.
“I don’t think many people feel pressure, it’s more just that we know how good we are capable of being with so many good wrestlers,” Rodriguez said. “Since we know our potential, we just want to push ourselves to be the best we can be.”
The next opportunity for fans to come watch the wrestling team will be at the Santa Slam Tournament on Dec. 16-17 in the large gym at Coppell High School.
“Santa Slam is a huge tournament and would be pretty fun to come out and watch, de la Chapelle said. “It’s generally a tournament that is a good teller early in the season of how good people will be. With 20 schools participating, there will be a bunch of good rivalries.”
As a big tournament right here in Coppell, this will be a fantastic chance for Coppell to compete and for fans to come cheer.
