This season begins a new era of Tyrone wrestling as Bellwood native and Tyrone resident Mike Cherry takes over as the head coach of the varsity wrestling squad.

“My gameplan for this year is to stick to the fundamentals,” said Coach Cherry, “The years of experience that our kids have have varies a lot. Practice and drill fundamental moves a lot, focus on good execution as well as really being well conditioned.”

“It’s a good coaching change,” said sophomore returning letter winner Corey Hunter, “hopefully it will help get our numbers up so we can have a better dual meet record.”

Cherry takes over over after a decade of leadership by Coach Blair Packer, who was not re-elected to be the head coach position by the TASD School Board.

“We opened the coaching positions because the numbers were down and we felt it was time to let the coaching staff go,” said school board member and Athletic Committee Chairperson Brian Bressler, “This decision had nothing to do with anything Blair did as a coach.”

During the off-season, State College’s Chad Dubin was initially hired as the head coach of the varsity team.  However, after rethinking the job, Dubin decided to resign the position before he began.

The board quickly reopened the position and Coach Cherry and his staff took over.

“I wrestled at Bellwood from 2nd-12th grade, lettered three years in junior high and three  years in senior high,” said Cherry, “I also wrestled freestyle in the off-season and was a member of the Pennsylvania Junior freestyle team.”

The rest of the coaching staff is also new this season.  All the assistant coaches are Tyrone High School graduates and former Tyrone wrestlers.

The varsity assistant coach will be Bill Dixon.  The head junior high coach is Terry Albright and the assistant junior high coach is Jarred Beckwith, who just graduated from Tyrone last year.

“It’s all about the fun in sports,”  said junior high coach Terry Albright, “You have fun when you’re with your team and your friends.”

“I think that it was a better change to the team because more wrestlers came out,” said sophomore Devon Brown, “My goal is to win a district title this year.”

Returning letter man and a senior Ty Snyder will be leading the team this year and will be hoping to be a place winner at states.

At 106 starters will be either Mike Cherry or Devon Brown, at 113 is an open spot, 120 is also open.

At 126 is Corey Hunter, and at 130 is Aaron Lewis or Timmy Long.

Next would be 138 to Sage Dixon.  145 is a toss up between Erik Walk, Lance Loose, and Jarrod Ulrich.

The 155 spot belongs to Ty Snyder and the 165 spot has Phoenix Pharias’ name on it.

170 and 185 is open as of right now right now as the team waits for undecided wrestlers.

The 195 spot is taken by John Chronister, 210 is undecided and last but not least will be Stevie “Smack-down” Colyer at heavyweight.

The first match of the season is Wednesday, December 10th at 7:00 at home vs. Huntingdon.