Published: January 14, 2008 04:30 pm      

Future looks bright for Ada wrestling

ADA — Any high school’s athletic future lies with the talent in its junior high programs. And if the present is any indication, Ada High’s wrestling future looks extremely bright.

The 2007-2008 junior Cougars have been among the best junior high wrestling squads in Oklahoma since last fall, compiling a sparkling 11-2 record while beating some of the state’s more high-profile programs — schools with the wrestling tradition football-crazy Ada has lacked in recent years.

“They have the rankings of the 15 best junior high teams in the state on a Website — they don’t really mean anything, it’s just for pride,” veteran Ada junior high coach Dan Pettigrew said Friday. “I didn’t send anything in (on the Ada junior high wrestlers), because I’m not good on the computer, but we beat (No. 7) Choctaw, (No. 8) Moore West and (No. 10) Catoosa at the Shawnee (Dual Team) Tournament, and we finished ahead of (No. 6) Broken Arrow and (No. 12 Shawnee).”

Ada’s only two losses all season were to top-ranked Ponca City in the semifinals of the Shawnee tournament and to fifth-ranked Lawton Central for third place, and Pettigrew said he gave five of his ninth-grade wrestlers permission to go home before those matches because they had “other things they needed to do”.

“Ponca City is really good, but I think we would have beaten Lawton Central if we had had our whole team there,” said Pettigrew, who became Ada’s junior high coach in 2001 after 10 seasons as the high school coach and who won a state championship at Madill High School in 1991.

Ada will host Harrah, Noble and Tecumseh in district duals at the Cougar Activity Center Tuesday night, and the Cougars will be among the favorites at the Midwestern Conference Tournament Friday at Plainview. Junior High State (which is open to individuals from all classes but won’t feature team competition) will be held on Feb. 1 and 2 at the state fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.

“We wrestle the same teams in our junior high district duals (the Ada varsity) will wrestle at their district tournament,” Pettigrew said. “There is an individual state tournament at the end of the year, but there’s no dual state tournament for junior high.”

Duals have been Ada’s bread and butter this year, with the Cougars unbeaten in one-on-one competition outside the Shawnee event. Pettigrew said the success of his team — which also won its own tournament last month by a staggering 100 points — is due to solid wrestlers in all classes rather than one or two dominant performers.

“We are really good in eighth and ninth grades,” Pettigrew said. “We have some very competitive kids, and the reason we’re so good in duals is we don’t have a weak leg — all 13 of our kids are pretty competitive. In our duals around here, we’ve been beating people pretty bad.”

Jamie Copeland, an eighth grader who wrestles at 78 pounds, has the best overall record (14-1) on the Ada squad, with his only loss coming in the finals of the Cougars’ own tournament, where Pettigrew’s squad placed 10 wrestlers in the finals from 13 weight classes.

“He’s just a real aggressive wrestler,” Pettigrew said of Copeland.

Pettigrew has a logjam at 102 pounds, where five of his most talented wrestlers — Drew Elliott and the twin brother combos of Jake and Jeff Todd and Jordan and Jackson Boone — are most comfortable. Jake Todd (who has been wrestling at 94 pounds) is 14-2; brother Jeff has won 10 of 15 matches while competing at both 110 and 118; Elliott (second at 118 pounds at the Ada tournament) is a ninth grader who has been splitting time between junior high and varsity tournaments; Jackson Boone is 8-2 while wrestling mostly at 110; and Jordan Boone is 9-6 while spending the season at his natural weight of 102.

“Jake (Todd) was 20-1 last year at 78 pounds ... he’s growing,” Pettigrew said. “Jackson and Jeff switch back and forth between 110 and 118. Jackson was out last year with a broken leg, and Jeff is usually giving weight to the kids he’s wrestling.

“Jordan (Boone) doesn’t have a great record, but he only lost two matches last year, and 102 is a real tough weight,” Pettigrew said. “He’s one of my better wrestlers.”

Pettigrew said that quintet needs to separate itself if this junior high squad is going to evolve into the nucleus of a high school team capable of challenging for a state title in two or three seasons.

“We have five really good kids who could wrestle at 102,” Pettigrew explained. “For Ada to be good in the future, some of them are going to have to grow and gain some weight.

“If they stay with it and they can scatter to fill the weights, Ada can be as good as anybody in our class within two years,” he predicted. “Next year they’re still going to be freshman and sophomores, but they’ll still be pretty good. Starting the next year, they should be very good for several years.”

Ada’s junior high program has flourished in recent years, and it reached its pinnacle, numbers-wise, last year under varsity coach Will Evans, who emphasized his younger wrestlers during his only year as coach of the Cougars. As a result, Pettigrew entered the 2007-2008 campaign with 46 wrestlers, including 29 at the eighth and ninth-grade level.

Evans left last spring, and Kyle Bohannon was hired to take over the high school program. Pettigrew said the change at the varsity level hasn’t affected his coaching style, but he said there are basic differences between Evans and Bohannon.

“Will was technique, technique, technique, and Kyle is more conditioning,” Pettigrew noted. “I’ve been coaching 26 years. I coach the same way I always have.

“The program was a lot better as far as participation and interest when Will left than whe he got here,” he added. “Kyle’s going to be a very good coach. He’s still learning, but he’s doing a good job. Will had coached 10 or 12 years, and Kyle is just a second-year coach and a first-year head coach. That experience makes a lot of difference.”

In addition to Copeland, Elliott, the Todds and the Boones, Ada’s other junior high competitors are Cody Mankins (an eighth grader who is 6-7 this season wrestling at 86 pounds); Chase Cummings (another ninth-grader splitting time between junior high and the varsity), who was second at 126 pounds at the Ada tournament; Conner Keith, an eighth grader who is 13-2 this season at 134 pounds; Derek Brown, a ninth-grader who is 9-4 at 142 pounds since moving in from Duncan; Chase Bowker, 7-4 while wrestling at both 142 and 152 pounds this season and now with the squad’s regular at 152; Jordan Saaty, 3-8 at 165 pounds in his first competitive season; Cale Russell, a ninth grader who has compiled a 9-3 record at 185 pounds; and heavyweights Andrew Scribner (7-6) and Cody Brimley, who was 6-1 before suffering a broken ankle that ended his season in December.

“All of my kids are real aggressive and real motivated in the sport,” Pettigrew said. “We have a lot of very good kids, and nobody really stands out right now. They’re all competitive and winning and enjoying it right now, and hopefully they will stay.”

Pettigrew said keeping his wrestlers motivated enough to continue competing at the varsity level is as critical to the continued success of the Ada program as preparing them mentally and physically for high school wrestling.

“Right now, I’m trying to keep it interesting for the kids and give them as much success as I can so they’ll stay interested in wrestling in high school,” Pettigrew explained. “To me, winning is fun, and so far this group has won a lot and really enjoyed it. I hope that means they’re going to stay with it in high school.”