Learning, but ready to wrestle

"Its a new season and we have 10 kids signed up to wrestle," Lyle Richardson, Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) High School head wrestling coach said, "We have a fairly fresh and young team."

He said that of the 10, only three were returning from last year and that only two had any mat time to speak of.

"We have one wrestler who played basketball last year, but decided to wrestle this year," Richardson said. "We also have some new kids move into the community that have wrestled other places and some kids have never wrestled before, but were athletic in other sports."

He said the new faces coming to the program made it easier to lay the foundation for the year to come.

"It is sort of fun, because we get to teach the kids from scratch," Richardson said, "They don't have any bad habits and we get to start from the foundation up."

He said from the practices so far, he felt he had some real athletes that have potential in wrestling.

The Miner wrestling team has the unique distinction in Carbon County School District No. 2 to have a female wrestler in Charlee Solaas.

"She wrestled in USA years ago and comes from a wrestling family," Richardson said. "So she has a little experience but it has been a couple years for her."

This is not the first time that Richardson has coached female wrestlers and finds nothing unusual about a girl wrestling.

"Girls wrestling is the fastest growing sport in the United States and the world because of the numbers," Richardson said."It is becoming more popular with the Olympics and colleges are instilling programs, so girls wrestling in high school is becoming more and more popular."

Richardson said he looks to his one senior, who is one of the two to have mat time to be the leader for the less experienced wrestlers.

"My main goal for my wrestlers is I want to see them compete their hardest every single weekend," Richardson said. "I have preached to them, I want to see you make mistakes because I want you to get out there and try. I tell them 'you are going to make mistakes because you are new, but that can all be ironed out if you are willing to try your hardest.'"

He said because the potential of what many of the new wrestlers can bring to the mat, he doesn't have any expectations for them other than for them to enjoy the sport as they give it all they have.

The first test of the Miners is on Dec. 7 at the Lusk Invitational.