The summer for the Greyhounds wrestling programs has been filled with the hosting of two camps, taking part in a dual tournament and other workouts.
It came to conclusion last week with Jones County returning a favor of sorts with a group of 15 in total going to Pennsylvania for a camp of Lock Haven University where former JCHS state champion wrestler Nate Carr is an assistant coach. Carr was in Gray earlier this summer for a camp hosted by the Greyhounds.
“We’ve asked more of them than we have before,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “We’ve got guys who have been at camp, we’ve hosted two camps, had a duals tournament. We have guys that have wrestled 30 matches, which we hope can springboard to where we want to be next season.”
The time in Pennsylvania included eating authentic cheesesteak and a team photo of the famed “Rocky Steps” in Philadelphia. Of course, there was more to the venture than that for the Greyhounds, who saw all wrestlers that took the mat come home with a win from a span of two to three days that entailed anywhere from 10 to 15 matches per wrestler.
The competition was fierce, too, as some opponents also wrestled this past week at the USA Wrestling Junior and 16U National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.
“That was big, wrestling some of the best competition in the country,” Gillhouse said. “We also saw some things that we need to work on.”
The Greyhounds feel that the time away from the mat at Lock Haven should pay off, too.
“It’s big just to spend time away. The guys have to rely on each other. You don’t really have any other option,” Gillhouse said. “Something we talk about a lot as a coaching staff is that the goal is also to help guys develop into good men, fathers, employees and be good citizens. These guys are going to have stories (from this week) that they’ll be able to tell for the rest of their lives.”
