Trojan wrestling celebrates season

The Fairfield high school wrestling team celebrated their 2018-19 season with a banquet Tuesday night in the FHS commons area.

Coach Miller talked about the season and each class before handing out awards.

Coach Miller

'If you look at our award winners, those are guys that put the time in and practice and work hard and did what was asked of them and more.”

Payton Cline, sophomore

Determination award

'I put a lot of work in the offseason doing freestyle and greco roman and I think that's why they chose me. I put a lot of work in over the summer and went to a lot of camps.”

Cohyn Roach, sophomore

Most Valuable

'I came in and practiced a lot during the summer and I did some lifting and kept working at it. Being down on bottom is where I needed work and I think I improved a lot on that. Getting up and out.”

Jacob Bland

Most improved

'I spent a lot of time in the weight room over the summer and did the morning agility program and also got some mat time in before the season and improved. I'm going to keep going in the [wrestling] room and keep lifting and I need to work on finishing my take downs.”

Logan Adam, sophomore

Perseverance award

'My season was over and we were all in the wrestling room and coach Miller wrestled me for 13 minutes straight and I was just down, trying to get up and I finally did it the 101th time and sprinted away. Then I wrestled [assistant coach Jay] Pike for a long time. I plan on spending a lot more time in the room and doing a lot more lifting and trying to work on my legs since I'm long.”

Miller on the seniors

'Carter's entire family has been in wrestling for a long time and Carter did some great things while following in that tradition. In wrestling he's always been a good teammate and now joining the National Guard to serve our country, that's something you always respect.

Nickel was a kid that we grabbed out of the hallway and we kind of forced him into it and it's a great story about a kid that stuck with it and went through the grind and made himself into a pretty competitive wrestler. It takes a lot of guts to stick to such a tough sport.”

Carter Spalla

Most memorable moment

'There's not just one time, but I think about small moments with the team, working hard.”

On the mat?

'There was this kid that head-butted me in the eye and it just swelled up immediately and I couldn't see out of it for 2-3 days.”

Plans

'I'm going into the National Guard and I feel like wrestling has helped me with dedication and being physical. I'm just going through it right now and if I have an opportunity to do something I'm going to take it, I'm just waiting for the opportunity to do something great. After graduation I'll go to Advanced Individual Training and that will train me for my job in the military.”

Nickel Iseman

Most memorable moment

'It would probably be a tie between the match I had with the special needs kid from Mt. P which was pretty heart-warming for me. All of the coaches came to me after that and said ‘thank you' and then we had a tournament between all of the wrestlers in the room and I ended up in the final against Coach Miller and all of my teammates were running around cheering me on but Miller just pinned me.”

Explain how you ended up on the team

'I started wrestling in seventh grade and then quit before my sophomore year which is when Coach Pike started and he saw me in the weight room and suggested I wrestle and I went back out for my junior and senior year. They didn't draft me, they just re-drafted me.”

Happy you reenlisted?

Wrestling is not a fun sport, it's just a sport you do. I don't know why I do it, I don't particularly like it I just keep coming back to it.”

Fond memories?

'You always have fond memories. You don't have them when you are doing it, but the next day you look back and say it wasn't too bad.”

Future plans?

'I'm always going to be evaluating my options but I have a plan to try to get an electrician apprenticeship and see where that takes me.”

Miller on big sophomore class

'That's one thing that they are going to have to figure out. We definitely need that entire group, not just one of them, to lead from a vocal stand point and also being a leader by example to get their teammates to step up to the line too. Winning programs never have negative conversations, they are picking up a car load of guys to go get better.”

The program's future

We have good numbers and now it's just building that mindset of setting high expectations and goals and not just making it to state but making the platform and collecting medals.