Some young wrestlers are keeping their sport alive at Foothills Composite High School, in wait for a pack of ocelots ready to pounce on the mat at the Okotoks school in the future.
The Falcons wrestling team is still breathing thanks to a trio of wrestlers with second-year wrestler Jordan Alsip the veteran. She leads rookie wrestlers Jake Bernier-Palmer and Raegan Green.
“I think I am better wrestler than last year — I can feel what I learned from last year kicking in, things are coming to me more naturally,” said Alsip, who qualified for provincials last year where she finished 2-2 at 70kg. “It’s been really cool working with the new wrestlers, because I have to go back to basics and I can work on the foundation for wrestling.”
She’s said she is fitter than last year — not having to cut weight to get down to 70kg.
“I think I can do better this year,” Alsip said.
Alsip is coming off a strong performance at the Sir Winston Churchill Bulldogs tournament in Calgary on Feb. 8 where she finished fourth at 70kg.
“Jordan was the most dominant and aggressive we have seen her all year,” said Falcons wrestling coach Ashlynne Scovoranski. “She wrestled hard to the end of every match.”
The rookie Falcon coach knows what a tough division Alsip is in. That was Scovoranski’s class when she won a silver medal at high school provincials at the Comp in 2012 as a Highwood Mustang.
“Jordan’s got good shots, good defence and is great on the ground. It’s just a matter of being consistent,” Scovoranski said.
Bernier-Palmer wrestled a bit while growing up in Ontario, but hasn’t hit the mat since moving to Okotoks three years ago.
“It was something to do — it’s unique to other sports,” the Grade 10 Bernier-Palmer said. “I feel like I have done well. There’s a lot of work, it’s tiring, constant motion.”
He’s held his own in this his first year, winning a match in Lethbridge.
He said he’s improved under the guidance of veteran wrestling coach Doug Watkins and new Falcons coach Ashlynne Scovoranski.
“There’s a lot of good coaching going on and a very good environment here,” Bernier-Palmer said. “I would like to do well at (rural provincials) finish in the top five and then go to provincials.”
He said even though he has the coaching, the end result is up to him — there’s no one else on the mat to help.
“There’s a lot of accountability on yourself in this sport,” he said.
Scovoranski said Bernier-Palmer has the right attitude for the sport.
“He's in it for the love of the sport,” she said. “Win or lose, when he comes off the mat he is smiling.
“He’s coachable. He has great defence and is good at noticing opportunity. He just needs to be more aggressive – which is typical for a new wrestler.”
He finished 0-3 at the Churchill tournament in what Scovoranski called a “very competitive weight class.
The Grade 11 student Green wrestled for a bit in Grade 7 at Oilfields in Black Diamond, before helping Watkins and Scovoranski weld together a team at Foothills.
The 37kg Green took home a silver medal in her opening tournament in Lethbridge earlier this season.
But she is still learning.
“I love the fact that it is a contact sport,” Green said. “It really lowers my stress level. She (Scovoranski) has made me realize that I am tougher than I look and that I can do better.”
Scovoranski said the affable Green has to become meaner.
“When she’s aggressive, she’s incredible on the mat,” Scovoranski said. “It’s just a matter of her noticing the opportunities more consistently.”
Green won a bronze at Churchill.
The wrestlers are preparing for rural provincials Feb. 27-28 in Lethbridge.
Scovoranski said if the wrestlers continue to improve on their current pace all three could crack the top five to qualify for provincials on March 13-14 in Calgary.
Meanwhile, the future is coming for Foothills Comp wrestling. Scovoranski, is helping coach the Okotoks Junior High Ocelots wrestling team with school principal Tracey McKinnon.
“There are close to 15 of them,” Scovoranski said. “I have told them all they are already so good — don’t quit when you get to high school.
“We need those bodies.”
