BENTONVILLE -- When Bill Desler uses "new" as he refers to this year's Bentonville wrestling team, it's not just the different faces he sees on the roster.
He also uses to new to express the atmosphere he has felt during the Tigers' workouts as they prepare for the upcoming season.
Bentonville Tigers 2014-15 Wrestling Schedule
Date^Opponent
Dec. 2^Springdale High/Springdale Har-Ber Dual
Dec. 5-6^at Border Wars Dual Tournament, Jay, Okla.
Dec. 12-13^NWA Dual Tournament at Har-Ber
Dec. 16^McDonald County, Mo. Dual
Jan. 2-3^at Springfield (Mo.) Kinloch Holiday Classic
Jan. 10^at Monett (Mo.) Invitational
Jan. 13^Rogers High/Rogers Heritage Dual
Jan. 17^at Republic (Mo.) Invitational
Jan. 20^FS Northside/FS Southside Dual
Jan. 23-24^at Greenbrier Invitational
Jan. 30-31^at Seneca (Mo.) Tournament
Feb. 3^at Van Buren/Greenwood Dual
Feb. 5^Seneca, Mo./Carthage, Mo. Dual
Feb. 6-7^Dual State Championships, Van Buren
Feb. 10^Fayetteville Dual
Feb. 13-14^Big West Championships, Greenwood
Feb. 20-21^Class 7A/6A State Championship, Little Rock
"We've actually talked about this: how we've seen a different attitude than we have in the past," Desler said. "The complaining is not there.
"We had kids who were standout wrestlers, but they would complain all the time 'why do we have to practice? I'm tired; let's stop' and we can't. That has changed. I think the attitude of the kids is much better."
Bentonville enters the season with plenty of holes to fill, but that doesn't mean the cupboard is totally bare. The Tigers return two state champions in Ryan Flynn at 132 pounds and Aaron Grigsby at 126, as well as state runnerups Xavier Domineack at 220 and Luke Brandon at 120.
Flynn, Grigsby and Brandon will likely move up in weight class since they have grown from last year, while other returning wrestlers such as Bobby Hill and Dawson Scantling are expected to see an expanded workload this year. Meanwhile, Desler will search for others to fill the voids in the remaining weight classes.
"It seems like the middle part is where it hurt the most, and it's being tough to fill those spots," Desler said. "In years past, it was hard to fill the small guys, but this year we have a lot of them. It's the middleweights where we're trying to fill, and most of those guys are in football."
"The biggest shoes to fill will depend on what we will have at heavyweight. Xavier wants to wrestle heavyweight, but he's a little light right now. If he goes 220, then that's big shoes to fill because we don't have very many kids there."
Where Bentonville will need youngsters, particularly freshmen, to emerge quickly will be in the smaller weight classes. High expectations have already been placed on Cass Jones, who could become a state medalist by the end of the season, and the Tigers are high on a couple of other wrestlers to come through.
In the meantime, it will still be the upperclassmen who will have to shoulder a bigger burden if Bentonville wants to build on its recent success, which includes a 2012 state championship and a state runnerup finish last year.
"Leadership and team dynamics will be a key," assistant coach Steve Grisby said. "Every year, when you have a good team, you have to deal with high-level wrestlers that are a little over-competitive with each other, which is good in some sense but hurts the team in another sense.
"We don't have a lot of that going on. They're very supportive of each other. It's clear-cut who the leaders are and who the followers are."
Sports on 12/01/2014