By MICHAEL BOYLAN
Sports Editor

The Sandy Creek Patriot wrestling team is not young, but it is inexperienced.

The team has only five wrestlers returning from last season, and many of the sophomores, juniors and seniors coming out for this season are first time wrestlers. What makes some of the inexperience as wrestlers bearable is that several of the wrestlers are coming from the football team.

The starters that are returning to the team are John Hilton (103), Kerry Ruffin (119), Aaron Froehlich (125), Ryan Stanfield (130), Larry Wright (135) and Clint Thompson (189). Wright, Stanfield and Hilton are the top wrestlers on the Sandy Creek squad. Wright finished sixth in the state last year.

Some of the guys who didn't wrestle with the team last year are Mutee Patrick (112), Tray Champion (125), Bryant Clay (160), Win Smith (160), Jonathan Callahan (215) and the heavyweight will be Bill Perkins. Patrick wrestled at Flat Rock Middle School and played football this fall, as did Smith. Clay ran cross country for the Patriots and Champion wrestled his freshman and sophomore year and took last year off.

Wrestling at 171 for Sandy Creek this year will be foreign exchange student Erlan Hurstad. Hurstad is from Norway and has never wrestled before. He is a good athlete though and is very big. The one notable absence on the team is Johnny Parmer. Parmer is a senior this year and could graduate ahead of his class. He has not yet determined if he will or will not join the team this season.

Coach Damian Belvedere thinks this will be a good season for his team. “We'll be OK by the end of the year,” said Belvedere. “These kids just need to get about 20 matches or so under their belt.”

The Patriots opened up their season last week in a meet against Newnan and Jonesboro. They lost both matches by scores of 45-27 and 46-35, respectively. Four of the junior wrestlers did not make weight, forcing younger and more inexperienced wrestlers into the fray.

The Patriots hosted Northgate, Creekside and Westlake earlier this week and will host the Patriot Invitational this weekend. Friday night will be a dual meet with seven other high schools and Saturday will be an individual meet featuring the same schools. The schools that will be wrestling this weekend are Murray County, East Coweta, Newnan, Westlake, LaGrange, Holy Innocents and Tri-Cities.

The meet Friday will begin at 5 p.m. and the Saturday meet will begin at 9 a.m.

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