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Carpenter Leads
2007-2008 CHS Wrestlers
“My goal for the year is to finish as well as we
can, get as many people winning as we can, and
wrestle at as high a level as we can.” Centralia
High School wrestling Coach Dick Carpenter
explains his goal for the season. Carpenter, who
has been wrestling coach since 1967, begins his
40th year as head coach.
Coach Carpenter has seen it all in his years as
wrestling coach. He has seen a lot of change in
the program since the beginning. “When we first
started out, we wrestled mainly teams in the
conference, a few outside schools. Then, the
conference changed around, and we started going
to outside schools. Consequently, our
competition got a lot tougher. Without having a
program at the junior high level, it’s sometimes
very hard for young kids to come in and
participate in wrestling. It’s a very demanding
sport. It sort of gets to be a personal thing.
When each individual steps on the mat, he has a
job to do, and that’s to win. If they don’t, it
lets the team down in a way. The other team
sports that you have; football, basketball,
baseball, even track except for your field
events, you’ve got somebody that can pick you up
and carry you on through. You might miss a block
in football or miss a basket in basketball and
somebody may rebound or come up with it. In
wrestling, if you get beat, that’s six points
against your team. It’s a pride thing. ‘Can I do
this without getting beat?’ Some guys can do it,
some can’t.”
Becoming a successful high school wrestler is
not an easy thing to do. Coach Carpenter
explained that in order to thrive in the sport,
a lot of dedication is required. He said that it
is not often that someone comes into their first
year in the sport and wins more than half of
their matches and, if they do, they are more
than likely an exceptional athlete.
While this year’s version of the wrestling squad
is rather inexperienced, there are five
returning seniors on the squad who are expected
to make a large impact on the team. Jordan Lynch
leads the squad in the 275 pound division.
Virgil Rorie and Matt Niermann are the 215
pounders at the varsity level. Garrett Litteken
and Kyle Pender are the final two seniors to
round out the squad.
As
stated above, the goal for the year remains the
same as it is in most years for Coach Carpenter.
“We set that every year because it doesn’t do
any good to say ‘well we just want to have an
average season.’ If you want to have an average
season then that’s what you’re going to have.
Right now, we’re 2-3. We got beat last week by
two teams, Murphysboro and O’Fallon. We should
have possibly beat Murphysboro, but we just
didn’t have the people in the right spots at
that time. O’Fallon is always a challenge to us,
particularly early in the year. Two nights
before that we went down to Pinckneyville and we
beat them and Effingham and we got beat by
Highland. You really have to come together; you
have to have all your people in the right spots.
Right now, we’re still looking for people to put
in those spots.”
Click on coaches
below to read Stile's interviews.
Annies' Head Basketball Coach Roger Stieg
Orphans' Head Basketball Coach Lee Bennett
Cross Country Coach JJ DeMattei
Annies' Tennis Coach Ryan Blaha
Golf Coach
John Sallee
Football Coach Phil
Watson
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