The Britton-Hecla wrestling squad will be the first winter sports team to kick off its 2023-24 campaign when the Braves travel to Clark for a tournament on Saturday and host a triangular on Tuesday.
Coach Josh Hawkinson welcomed 22 grapplers for preseason practices and with 11 letterwinners back the Braves are poised to make some noise this season.
“We had so many kids end up in fifth place in the region that it kind of left me really hopeful for this year,” said Hawkinson.
Britton-Hecla still has just one senior on the roster – Collin Beaner – but Hawkinson has the luxury of fielding a young but experienced squad.
“I think what I’m most pleased with is having a group of older guys in the room that are now maturing to the point where they give the younger guys something to look up to,” Hawkinson noted. “We have some seasoned guys out there wrestling for us and also have the numbers so that we can actually juggle guys around in a dual meet and be able to come close to fielding a full team.”
Other letterwinners back this year include juniors Dashel Davidson and Ceci Anderson;sophomoresConnor Glines, Tucker Hardy, Bryce Hawkinson, Bryce Heitkamp, and Dustin Stabnow; freshman Ben Suther; and eighth graders Tanner Atkinson and Colton Chapin.
Hawkinson said the focus this season is to do a few things well.
“We went back to the basics. In the past I think I’ve made the mistake of trying to show the kids every move under the sun. This year we are focusing on a handful of things and drilling them until they know them by heart. And we are emphasizing that we can’t be wrestling scared and become too conservative. We want our guys to go out there and believe in their offense and defense and wrestle their guy.”
There have been some tweaks with weight classes for the upcoming season. The bottom six weights remain the same from 106 through 138, but the upper classes will now be 144, 150, 157, 165, 175, 190, 215, and heavyweight.
The Braves will be able to fill all but three weight classes for Saturday’s tournament that will include teams from Clark-Willow Lake, Canton JV, Tiospa Zina, Groton Area, Faulkton Area, Kingsbury County, Webster Area, Doland, and Ortonville, MN.
Lincoln Kilker will be at 106, 113 is open, Tanner Atkinson at 120, Max Suther at 126, Bryce Heitkamp at 132, 138 is open, Bryce Hawkinson at 144, Colton Chapin at 150, Collin Beaner at 157, Ben Suther at 165, Connor Glines at 175, Dashel Davidson at 190, 215 is open, and Tucker Hardy at heavyweight.
Clark-Willow Lake and Redfield will be in town for the Tuesday triangular, the only home match on the Braves’ schedule this season. Hawkinson said the lineup will not change for those matches but wrestlers could be shifted around a bit depending on who is wrestling from the opposing squads.
“Clark-Willow Lake is going to be pretty salty, but we can wrestle with them depending on how we line up,” Hawkinson predicted. “You never know what Redfield will be coming with but they are a pretty big wrestling town and have a heavyweight that was second in the state last year.”
The B-H coach said that his goal for the opening matches this week is to just figure out what areas individuals need to work on.
“We’re just looking for a base line,” said Hawkinson. “We want to see what we have to work with and where we can go from here.”
