EHS wrestling set for conference meet
After close to a threeweek sabbatical, El Dorado's wrestling team returns to the mat for its first conference meet.
EHS will take on Lake Hamilton and Russellville Thursday with the action starting at 5 p.m. at Lake Hamilton.
El Dorado had its home meet on Tuesday rescheduled to Jan. 22 due to being in COVID-19 protocols, and if there is one concern El Dorado co-head coach Cherokee Streetman has, it's getting the wrestlers back into shape after the layoff.
“Hopefully, we'll be prepared,” Streetman said. “I believe that will give us four days of practice. Any time after you have extended time off, it's going to be difficult to come back and catch a rhythm. A lot of practices will be conditioning and getting our bodies back into shape.”
The competition EHS will be facing is also very solid.
“I've actually coached against both of those teams before and they're very well- coached,” Streetman said. “I know Lake Hamilton has a great program. I think the only issue they've had is some depth issues, kind of like our new program. They just have a lot of kids, but they don't really have the full weight classes that they're usually looking for.
“Of course, we haven't seen them this year, so I don't know if that's something that they're dealing with or if they were able to fill out some weight classes, but they always run a really good program and they're very good competitors. They're really tough.
I think that they'll come in and compete against us, and they'll compete well. That's just the mentality that you have to go into it with. They're there to win, and I think that is a huge credit to their coaches.”
Streetman is anxious to see how EHS will fare against Russellville.
“Russellville is always extremely competitive in conference,” Streetman said. “They're very good. They always have a chance at winning conference tournaments when it comes down to the conference duals.
“Whenever they get to state, as long as they're healthy, they always have a chance at doing something special, so that will be really good to see where we're at as a team because they probably will have a full team.
“They're going to be prepared for us. It should be a really fun and exciting atmosphere, especially as a first conference dual. If we go out and we have a couple of winners, then we have a chance at winning maybe a conference championship as a first-year program. I think it will just be a good showing for us just to see where we're at as a team.”
El Dorado last competed Dec. 19 in North Little Rock, and Streetman said he saw growth from both the boys and girls teams.
“I think as a team we're starting to get better,” Streetman said. “We still don't have quite the experience to compete as an entire team when it comes to winning a dual and that's because of a lack of experience, but individually, you can
definitely see growth and just the willingness to get better. With the athletes getting closer and closer to individual victories, I think that's kind of pushing them to strive to get better.
“You can see growth in each of them. We wrestled Sylvan Hills in our first match, and several girls didn't wrestle very well and the match ended very quickly.
“This time when we were wrestling Sylvan Hills, we were able to hold our own for a little bit longer and go a little bit further into the match.
“What that shows is progress and being able to wrestle the duration of a match. It was really good to see that progress in all of the girls.”
Freshman Katelyn Hayden went 3-0 at North Little Rock and sophomore Dunte Maker picked up a win for the Wildcats, but one wrestler to keep an eye on is junior Calvin Huang in the 138-pound weight class.
“He wrestled really well,” Streetman said of the junior's performance. “I think that's the biggest thing is that the athletes are starting to be able to wrestle for an extended period of time. Any time you can go multiple periods, you have a chance at winning because you're not getting yourself pinned.
“That's one of the biggest things to understand in wrestling is don't get pinned and you have a shot to win.”
Streetman was also pleased that El Dorado's home meet was able to get rescheduled.
“We would love to have family, friends and the community out for support,” Streetman said.