December 2007: Sugar House Journal

Rams Wrestle in a New Season
by Sarah Thomas

In his second season at Highland High School, head wrestling coach Ted Sierer says he expects good things from his young squad this year. “[Highland] always
has good wrestlers, but they’ve never accomplished what they’re capable of,” he said. “The team has a common goal: improve over how we fi nished last year, third in region and ninth in state.”

Although the team is fairly young, Sierer said the backbone of the team has returned for another year. Senior Mike Phetvixay earned a fourth place fi nish in
state last winter, and has spent the offseason working to get better. During the spring, Pahetzixay wrestled for a club team and was put in a position to qualify for a
national tournament in Fargo, ND.

“He qualified and then went back there and won a match,” Sierer said. “That level of success is new to Highland [wrestling], we have high hopes for him this year.”

In addition to Phetvixay, senior David Lawrence and junior Montana Gardner make up the rest of the “backbone” Sierer referred to; both of those boys placed sixth in state last season.

For wrestling teams, there are two parts to every season. The regular season, which they are in now, is used to gain experience and prepare for the tournaments later in the year. Teams compete against region teams as well as in tournaments and meets with schools outside of Region 6. The second part of the season adds more pressure to the athletes, as it includes the region and state tournaments. The region tournament is Feb. 6 and 7, and will be held at East High School this season.

“Wrestling is unique in that both varsity and JV athletes have the opportunity to qualify for state,” Sierer said. The following week, the state tournament will be held at UVSC.

The Highland wrestlers opened their season with a Quad Meet on Nov. 27. Sierer said his team “didn’t do very well. Our inexperience showed a lot, but it gave us a chance to iron out some of the kinks.”