Wrestling grows steadily in state

SPRINGDALE — The growth of wrestling in Arkansas is coming slowly, much like the change of the perception of the sport, Arkansas Wrestling Association president Greg Hatcher said.

But Hatcher, who was instrumental in getting the sport sanctioned by the Arkansas Activities Association, is pretty pleased with both as wrestling begins its third year as a sanctioned sport by the AAA, the governing body for high school sports in Arkansas.

“It’s taken a step forward every year,” Hatcher said. “Every year we add another program or two. The main thing is rosters are up everywhere and we’ve got more kids wrestling.”

Wrestling is beginning its third year as a sanctioned sport and there are currently around 55 schools in Arkansas that have awrestling team, but many of those are Class 6A and 7A schools.

Class 4A Gentry, the defending Class 1A-5A state champion, is one of the few smaller schools in the northwest section of the state that has a wrestlingteam. But Gentry head football coach and athletic director Brian Little is a supporter of the sport and the program.

“I certainly believe it’s an enhancement to our overall program,” Little said. “It provides opportunities to kids and ultimately that’s one of the things we’re about, is creating extracurricular opportunities.”

However, other small schools have not been as accepting of the sport.

Bentonville wrestling coach Bill Desler, who guided the Tigers to the first large school state title two years ago, said he’s seen the resistance firsthand.

“I talked to a guy from Gravette and he said as long as he’s on the school board they won’t have it there because he thinks it takes away from football,” Desler said. “I couldn’t get him to understand that itonly helps.”

Little agreed.

“We have several football players involved and it helps on several levels,” Little said. “There’s the toughness aspect and if you go from one sport to another you maintain that edge.

“Also wrestling affordsour kids unlike maybe football or basketball. You don’t have to be that big, strong fast guy,” Little added. “At their weight division, he or she has an opportunity to compete.”

However, Little also understands some of the reluctance as an athletic director and even also as a football coach, particularly at smaller schools.

“There are certainly issues with having too many offerings,” Little said. “There’s some merit to stretching things too thinly and depleting your pool of athletes. You want to have as many opportunities for your kids, but you have to weigh out whether or not adding another opportunity is watering down the programs you have.

“It’s a fine line and those are things to consider, Little added. “But, boy, I tell you what: I’m certainlyglad we added it to our program.”

Springdale Har-Ber coach Nika West served as an assistant football and wrestling coach at Gentry for 2007-09. West said Gentry definitely embraced wrestling and that’s also been the case in his first year at Har-Ber.

“Oh yeah, the coaches here were like ‘Who do you need and we’ll try to get him out there for you.’” West said.

It’s also grown in numbers at Har-Ber, going from 39 last year to 70 this year, West said.

West has also seen the quality of Arkansas wrestling improve steadily.

“Some teams are startingto have success out of state, and anytime you have that you know we’re making progress.”

Rogers Heritage coach Doug Freeman, who is in his first year at Heritage after spending several years coaching in Missouri, said he saw Arkansas’ progress watching Heritage the past two years at a tournamentin Springfield, Mo. Freeman was coaching at Republic, Mo., at the time.

“I really noticed it last year ... they went from 20th the year before to fifth,” Freeman said. “I was like ‘wow.’ It wasn’t with that one kid, a superstar, either. It was just solid wrestling, just getting better and kids working hard.”