ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Coach Tim King will lead the new wrestling program in Lynn.
By MIKE ALONGI
It’s been about 40 years since the last high school wrestling meet for a Lynn high school team, with the last program ending at Lynn English in the early 1970s. But now, thanks to a host of efforts from people all over Lynn, high school wrestling is back in the city.
The newest incarnation will be a cooperative squad made up of wrestlers from Lynn Tech, English and Classical, with Tech serving as the host school. Tech athletic director Joe Skeadas is glad that there is another wrestling program after all these years.
“I think it’s great for the kids,” he said. “It’s just another great outlet for them after school, and I’m glad that we were able to bring it back. The foundation is being built now and I’m sure we’re going to see plenty of growth over the next few years.”
One of the challenges that comes with restarting a once-defunct program is the dearth of participants at the program’s outset. But new coach Tim King says that’s not really a problem at all.
“Of course, we have a good portion of kids who have never wrestled before or have very little experience,” he said. “But we also have a group of kids who participated in the middle school program at Marshall (Middle School) last year, and even a couple transfer students who are interested in competing. So it’s a nice mix of people, and some of the more experienced kids can help out the new kids and help make us better.”
King is happy to be the first coach of the new wrestling program, despite the challenges.
“I’m very excited to be in this position,” he said. “Obviously there are plenty of challenges when you’re the first coach of a new program, and I’ve never been in a position like this before, but I think it’s an intriguing challenge.”
“The focus for us at this point is mainly just teaching, getting the kids to avoid bad habits and learn the correct technique,” King said. “Once we start actually getting into meets and going up against other people, that’s when we’ll probably be able to transition more to the coaching aspect of things.”
But King has noticed that above all, his team is full of kids who are excited about wrestling at the high school level.
“We have a group full of kids who are just excited about competing,” said King. “They’re all working extremely hard, listening to everything we teach them and they’re learning really fast. To be honest, I was a little surprised at first when I saw just how very dedicated all the kids are to wrestling.”
The team has been practicing since just after Thanksgiving, and their first meet is set for Thursday afternoon against Shawsheen Tech. It is a home match that will take place in the Lynn Tech gym, the only home match the team will have this year.
“We’re all very excited to get the season going,” said King. “It’s going to be a great experience for all of our wrestlers against a great team in Shawsheen.”
Weigh-ins begin at 4 p.m. on Thursday and the meet will begin at 5 p.m.