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Red Raider wrestlers enter playoffs as top-rated team
By C.R. Cumbee
Staff Writer
Bamberg—For the first time in school history, the Bamberg-Ehrhardt wrestling team will enter the playoffs as the top seed. The Red Raiders, who are 26-19 overall, have maneuvered their way through a tough regular season schedule and are looking to repeat as the Class A champions.
“The kids don’t realize the value of that seeding and what it means, but I think they’re confident right now. We had a good showing this past weekend and won the Stratford Invitational Tournament and that should be a big boost for us going into the postseason,” head coach Cody Slaughter said.
Bamberg-Ehrhardt will host the first three rounds of the state tournament, which will be an all day event beginning at 11 a.m. on Feb. 4. The Red Raiders will have a first round bye before taking on the winner of Lewisville and St. Joseph’s.
“Wrestling at home is definitely going to help. We had to go to Chesterfield two years ago for the state championship and it came down to the last match. Their crowd was loud and intense and helped them come out on top. We want the community to come out and get behind us and give us the advantage this year,” Slaughter said.
With the long and grueling season taking its toll on most squads, the Red Raiders have managed to stay injury free and enter the playoffs at close to 100 percent.
“Being healthy is the most important thing you look at during this point in the season. We have all our guys available to go out there, and their bodies are probably tired because some of them have wrestled up to 65 matches already. They’ve spent a lot of time on the mat, but we’ve eased up on them lately and given them time to rest. Hopefully we can go back out there and do what we did last year,” Slaughter said.
Bamberg-Ehrhardt has several wrestlers that enter the tournament as the best in their respective weight classes.
Senior Lane Walling (138 pounds), junior Player Long (145) and junior Malcolm Jones (113) will be favored in each of their matches.
Juniors Lan Hiers (126) and Mark Moody (170) are currently ranked second in each of their divisions.
All five will be expected to set the tone this weekend and earn as many team points as possible.
“Obviously we count on some of these guys to score big points, get bonus points and pins and things like that. The farther you go in the playoffs, the more important it is to get those extra points. You have to make up for the younger guys that may lose or get pinned so we’ll rely on the older guys to pull through,” Slaughter said.
If the Red Raiders are one of the last two teams standing, they will compete in the state finals Feb. 11 at Dreher High School.
Contact C.R. at crcumbee2007@hotmail.com.
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