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.