Looking for leadership

[cewrestlingfan]

Looking for leadership

With no seniors, East wrestling coach Cooper waiting for juniors to step up

BY BRIAN BENNETT bbennett@therepublic.com

 

 

 

    Columbus East wrestling coach Chris Cooper finds himself searching high and low for senior leadership.

    He?ll have to wait another season to get it.

    In what Cooper calls one of his strangest years as a coach, the Olympians boast a number of experienced wrestlers with solid résumés.

    But none of them are in 12th grade, leaving a void when it comes to the guidance he?s looking for from his top performers.

    ?We?re definitely still searching for leadership,? Cooper said. ?Seniors naturally fall into that, and we don?t have any seniors.

    ?There?s nobody in front of (the juniors). They have to be the leaders.?

    While Cooper said the work on the mat has impressed him, he?s still looking for more improvement, and that key word leadership, outside of it.

    ?During practice, they do a good job,? he said. ?But it?s just those little extra things that help bond your team that they need to learn how to do.?

Finding their way

    The O?s are still learning about themselves after a beefed up early season schedule has seen them face off against a number of ranked opponents thus far at invitationals.

    ?I still don?t know how good our team is,? Cooper said. ?At no point have we had our best 14 guys in there. ?I still think we?re trying to find our way.? Cooper?s team returns to action on Saturday when it hosts the Columbus East Invitational.

    On that day, they?ll still be without Ashton Brierly and Jake Carlile, both semistate qualifiers last year as sophomores, who will miss the remainder of the season.

    But Cooper has been impressed with the way some of his more inexperienced wrestlers have stepped in, while two junior returnees have really stood out to him early in the year.

    Baron Rieker, who went to semistate last year at 112, is developing the kind of mentality that makes for special performers.

    ?He?s very confident in the way he approaches each match,? Cooper said. ?He steps on the mat, and he knows he?s going to win.?

    Meanwhile, Caleb Ogle, who is 14-5 at 145 pounds, has shown the improvement Cooper wants to see.

    ?Last year at (the Hoosier Hills Conference dual meet), he was 0-7, Cooper said. ?This year, 7-1.

    ?That?s just a big turnaround.?

    Ogle said he understands the work that has made him a better wrestler, and he?s trying to get that across to the newcomers.

    ?I just try to go really hard in practice and show them that it?s not OK to slack off,? he said. ?We?re getting a whole lot better than where we started.?