Bulldog wrestling program faces rebuilding year next fall

By all measurable accounts Ron Panucci’s first year at the helm of the Crestview wrestling program was successful.

The Bulldogs sent a school record four wrestlers to state. And Tanner Vigren became the most winning wrestler in school history, although some of the wins came before he arrived in Crestview prior to his junior year.

“Having four guys go to state was a record,” Panucci said. “Crestview had never sent that many wrestlers beyond the regional so that was great.”

Joining Vigren at the state meet were Aaron Dean, Clint Lukert and Justin Mitchell.

Mitchell is the only one of the state quartet that will return next year as Vigren, Lukert and Dean will graduate this spring.

That means Mitchell, who served as a captain this year as a junior, will need to carry even more responsibility next year.

“Justin Mitchell is the program next year,” Panucci said. “There are some promising young guys next year that hung in there this year and learned a lot and they are going to come back strong. But Justin Mitchell, he should take it all next year.

“He should not only go to state next year, he should win it or place very high. He’s got that much ability and he’s getting better as a wrestler.”

Panucci does see potential in several of the kids in the program.

“I’ve got two sophomores; Michael Copeland in the higher weight classes and A.J. Locke in the lower weight classes that I’m very excited about,” he said. “They have lots of growth potential and are very hard workers.

“I’ve got another junior coming back, who it was his first year this year, but he’s the best first-year wrestler I’ve seen and that’s Michael West (125-130 pound weight classes). A freshmen, Adrian Johnson shows a lot of promise and there are a couple of younger guys that didn’t accomplish much this year, but they hung in there tough and they worked hard and showed some improvement.”

Panucci has mixed emotions about the 2009-10 season, as well as the future seasons for the wrestling program.

“I’m very happy with the individual accomplishments, but I’m very disappointed with the team accomplishments,” he said. “There are 14 weight classes and I don’t understand why it is so hard in a school of almost 2,000 kids, to find 14 hard core, dedicated athletes. It was very surprising and very disappointing.

“The enthusiasm doesn’t seem to be spreading through the whole student body. I’m hopeful that I can find some new enthusiasm with the incoming freshmen that are coming up from middle schools, because we are most definitely in a rebuilding mode now after losing four seniors, all of which did well in regional and three of them went on to state.”

Panucci is hoping to generate some enthusiasm for wrestling May 15 when the Bulldogs host a wrestling clinic led by former Olympic wrestling coach Rob Hermann.

“The clinic is going to be partially for fundraising, but it’s also going to be so the kids in this area can get exposed to an Olympic coach,” he said. “It’s going to expose kids of all ages to quality wrestling.”

In the meantime the Bulldog wrestlers are getting back to work hitting the weights as part of their off season conditioning program.

“More times than not these matches come down to strength,” Panucci said. “If they are not concentrating on strength training they are doing themselves a disservice so we are starting this month.

“We are going to hit it hard, we are going to hit it consistently and we are going to come into next season a lot a stronger than we’ve come into previous seasons. I don’t plan for strength to be a problem next year.”