The McIntosh Chiefs have had a strong wrestling program for

the past several years but Coach Marty Hutsell does not want to

oversell his team this year. The Chiefs were ranked third in the state

in the pre-season polls but Coach Hutsell can't see how. State

Champions and All-Americans,Andy Kan and Mike Munn have

graduated , along with seven other members of last years team,and

moved on to the world of collegiate wrestling. The Chiefs are left

young, only five seniors on the team, inexperienced and healing from

several injuries.

"Our best team isn't on the floor yet," explains Coach

Hutsell. "We're missing senior Joe Giovinco for another week

and sophomores Rob Sutor and Eddie Smith will probably be back

this weekend." Coach Hutsell feels his program is in a rebuilding

process and thinks that it will take between three and five years to

get his numbers back up. The Chiefs aren't exactly weak though

either. Seniors Matt Waters, Lukas Smith and Josh Rickards return

to the team. Waters was third in the state in the heavyweight

division, while Smith was fifth in the state in the 189 grouping. Rickards

has been a varsity starter for four years and brings experience and

leadership to the team.

The Chiefs have won 40 dual meets in a row, including

last Tuesday's wins over East Coweta,81-6,Northgate,69-9

and Stockbridge,58-25. "It's hard to keep a streak like that

going," admits Coach Hutsell, who has led the Chiefs to a regional

championship the past three years. The fiercest competition in the

region will be the Fayette County Tigers, as Troup County dropped to

region AAA. The Chiefs travel to Woodward Academy on

Wednesday to face a much improved Woodward squad.

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