By TYLER DRUMMOND
of The Gazette
With the season two-thirds of the way finished, the Rosholt High School Hornets wrestling team is looking strong.
Currently the Hornets are 7-11 overall and 4-0 in the Central Wisconsin Conference.
Although the Hornets are in good standing with their undefeated record in the CWC, head coach Alan Carter points out that this week will separate the pretenders from the contenders.
"This week should help to establish the pecking order in the conference," said Carter.
Tuesday, Jan. 13, as well as Thursday, Jan. 15, hold key matchups. But all conference participants are eagerly looking toward Saturday, Jan. 17, as the big day in the conference. Saturday is the multi-meet held at Rosholt High School in which everyone in the conference wrestles against everyone else, which should separate the logjam at the top of the conference.
"Weyauwega has a good solid team and they may be the team to beat," said Carter. "Anyone can beat anyone, and that's what we're hoping happens."
The Hornets are finishing up a grueling month in which the meat of their schedule takes place.
"You can basically wrap our season up between Dec. 18 and Jan. 17," said Carter.
The problem that this can create is that not all kids are as eager to participate as the majority of those days lie during the usual Christmas/winter break for students.
This has not been a problem for Rosholt however.
"The boys have been great and they've been good getting their work done," said Carter. "We don't want to make their vacation miserable and the reason they're here is because they want to do it. They're a real hard working group of guys."
This year's crop of wrestlers included a surprise for Carter, more seniors than he had originally planned.
"I knew coming into the year that we'd have about three seniors, but we did a little in-house recruiting last year," said Carter.
The recruiting proved to be beneficial as Carter has eight seniors on the roster. "I was shocked to see how many seniors we had," said Carter.
The roster includes:
In the 103-pound weight class, freshman Jaredt Simonis is the top wrestler. Following Simonis is freshman Matt Bertzyk at 112.
At the 119 class the Hornets have their "feel good" story. Senior Andy Osowski competes here in only his second season on the squad. "Last season Andy really had some troubles," said Carter. "He was coming off some health problems and he lost a lot last year." Carter also pointed out that he wouldn't have been surprised if Osowski would have been so discouraged he wouldn't have come out this year.
However Osowski worked hard over the off-season and has come into this season stronger, faster, and is poised to make a run at a state meet berth.
"It was an immense turnaround this season," said Carter. "Right now Andy is 16-6 and he's gaining a lot of well-deserved respect."
Continuing down the roster, also at 119 is sophomore Zack Castilleja.
At 125 is freshman Brian Faskell, followed by senior Jeff Jaskolski at 130. Two wrestlers are at 135, with both junior Jaime Yenter and freshman Kyle Edseth competing. At 145 is sophomore Dustin Groshek followed by both sophomore Matt Zander and senior Zack Rodriguez at 152.
At 160 is one of the better wrestlers for Rosholt in senior Devin Groshek. Starting the season Groshek was 20-1, with the one loss coming in overtime, 8-6.
After Groshek is Donny Carter, a senior, at 171. Carter is 17-4 this season and also is hoping for a state berth. Also at 171 is senior Jarrod Lepak.
At 189 is junior Nick Larson, and then senior Joe Burclaw is at 215. Senior Dean Zakrzewski tops the scales at 275 and also holds a 16-5 record this season.
Carter, who is in his fifth season as the head coach at Rosholt has taken an interesting road to his position. A wrestler through grade school, high school and college, he took a break to work for the Stevens Point Fire Department for 19 years. Following his retirement from the department, he became the coach at Rosholt.
"Wrestling has always been one of my passions," said Carter. "Whether or not we make the state tournament, I wouldn't miss that weekend for anything. It's one of the most enjoyable weekends all year."
Although Carter could accept the credit for his teams, he likes to give credit to his wrestlers. His motto "Let's go have some fun" fits his style well. "I think it helps to calm them down before tough matches if they know they just have to have fun doing what they enjoy," he said. "They wouldn't be out here if they didn't love to compete."