The wrestling season is beginning, and people are excited. The boy’s wrestling team has been wrestling for the past few years. The boys who are on the wrestling team are Karter Brown (8), Tristen Calvin (8), Ben Glass (8), Bryce McKinney (8), Cain Richard (7), Zackery Shiring (8), Mellies Stettler (8), Logan Taylor (7), Ethan Wynn (8), and Carson Young (7), also including Jesse Shanor and Kaleb Beadle from Rochester, and Zack Linta and Colten Bailey from New Brighton.
Logan Taylor said he has been wrestling for about 6 years now. It is different this year than last year because the team has to ride the buses, and it is more of a team sport.
If you’re a seventh or eighth grader and you are in wrestling, you get to ride the buses to the matches and spend time with your teammates.
“I like wrestling because it is fun, and I hope I will win a bunch of matches,” Taylor added.
I have asked Coach Pierro what his inspiration behind coaching is and this was his response, “I’m a big fan of the Freedom community. I was introduced to the Freedom community by my wife, a Freedom graduate, when we moved into the area from Columbus, OH, about 12 years ago. At that time, my wife convinced me to begin coaching our son with the Lil’ Bulldogs and Freedom Youth Wrestling. I’ve always been inspired by the pride and tradition of the Freedom community, it reminds me of my home in Steubenville. Many of the kids on the Junior High and some on the High School team I had the opportunity to coach in youth. I was humbled by the opportunity to continue coaching them. It’s inspiring and just plain cool to see them develop as young men and wrestlers. More importantly, it’s an honor to teach them skills through wrestling they can take in all life aspects to become successful.”
Coach Pierro has been coaching for about 7 years now and noted that the team has some big goals this year, especially coming off of a season where they sent 4 wrestlers to the State Tournaments last year.
“I think we can send 3-4 again this year with some high expectations for our 8th graders Zach Shiring and Karter Brown. As a team, we want to get 1% better every day. So far, we have been meeting those goals,” Pierro said.
Coach Pierro wants to coach because, “I wrestled and played High School football at Steubenville Catholic Central in Steubenville, OH with the opportunity to play both in college. Ultimately, I chose to wrestle at Capital University in Columbus, OH. As both a high school and college athlete, my life was significantly challenged and impacted in many positive ways by my coaches. To have that same impact on others is important to me. I quickly learned that coaching is cool! It’s fun to be a part of and to lead a team. It’s even cooler to teach skills and see them applied successfully.”
The wrestling season is going pretty well so far, and Coach Pierro is excited for the season and has big hopes for Zach Shiring and Karter Brown. Wish the team good luck for their matches, and let’s hope for wins.
