The 2021 wrestling season was still in a questionable status at the start of the year. The dedicated athletes, coaches and parents of the Pioneer Wrestling family elected to forge ahead and keep our program growing. This was done early in the year when there was no guarantee that any other programs were going to compete this year. Our decision put us ahead of all other programs in our district this year. Some programs elected to cancel their whole seasons, others started late, our program thrived.
A recap of this season and how successful the program has become would be incomplete without some explanation of where we have been.
In 2018 we had 14 wrestlers on our roster. Six of these wrestlers were returning athletes from the previous year.
In 2019 we had 16 wrestlers on our roster, with 10 returning from 2018.
2020 our program took off with 29 wrestlers on our roster. All our wrestlers from 2019 were back with an additional 13 wrestlers. We made it through the majority of our season last year and our team competed in 507 matches. Unfortunately, we were shut down in March with our junior high season and our final tournaments of the season being cancelled.
Now we are up to 2021. Instead of settling for excuses of what we can and cannot do we went to work. Twenty wrestlers returned from last year and we filled out our roster with some new wrestlers bringing us to a total of 27.
Most of the teams in our district cancelled their seasons or were not able to host their typical meets this year. We were blessed that the school allowed us under certain guidelines to host as much wrestling as we wanted. Starting on January 23rd we were able to host the first of six meets in Big Sandy. Teams from Cut Bank, Cascade, Lincoln, Augusta, Chester, Fort Benton, Lewistown and North Montana Wrestling Club attended our meets. The Big Sandy Wrestling team participated in approximately 685 matches this year.
The success of our meets was due in large part to volunteers within the community and tremendous support from all our wrestling parents. We also have got a great coaching staff that has really stepped up to make our program even better. Scott LeFurgey, Stephen Boyce, Kallan Bahnmiller, Travis Cline and Colby Baumgarn have helped with the coaching duties in the practice room and during meets to really help these kids find success.
With the conclusion of the high school season Coach Tucker Taylor began helping us out in the wrestling room to prepare for our tournament schedule and the middle school season.
On the weekend of March 20th, we took ten of our wrestlers to Black Hills Nationals Folkstyle Tournament in Spearfish, SD. Out of 171 teams we placed 30th. Wyatt Boyce placed 4th, Davy Overbay placed 8th, Quinn Rodewald placed 4th, Brooklyn Cline placed 1st, Bailey Lefurgey placed 5th and Harley LaBuda placed 1st. Hudson Baumgarn, Hardy Baumgarn, Gabe Cline and Garrett LeFurgey also wrestled well and gained great experience.
This same weekend Darrell Sunchild traveled to the Montana State AAU Tournament in Kalispell, MT and placed 1st in the Heavyweight Division earning him a spot on the Montana Team that traveled to Iowa for the National Dual Tournament.
March 27th took us to Billings, MT and the Montana Open. This is another national tournament with wrestlers attending from Minnesota to Nevada to Washington and everywhere in between.
Eleven Pioneer wrestlers competed at the Montana Open and we finished 26th out of 160 teams. Brooklyn Cline placed 3rd, Wyatt Boyce placed 2nd, Bailey LeFurgey placed 1st, McKenzie Werks placed 1st, Quinn Rodewald placed 5th, Harley LaBuda Placed 2nd and Darrell Sunchild placed 4th. Hardy Baumgarn, Colton Bahnmiller, Garrett LeFurgey and Gabe Cline also wrestled past the first two rounds in all of their brackets.
During this same time Coach Taylor was working with Wesley Cox, Logan Witmer and Ty Terry attending junior high meets in Chouteau, Great Falls, Havre and Big Sandy.
We concluded our season this past weekend on April 9th and 10th with our middle school wrestlers attending the 406 Middle School State Tournament in Cut Bank. Forty-seven teams from across the state attended the tournament from Sidney to Eureka. Five of our seven middle school wrestlers placed 17th out of the 47 teams. Quinn Rodewald placed 1st, Harley LaBuda placed 2nd and Darrell Sunchild placed 2nd. Ty Terry fought hard in the 189 lb. weight class and Wesley Cox battling injury went deep into the consolation side of the 115 lb. bracket.
Our 2021 season may be over, but we are already preparing for next year. Practice will start this fall at the conclusion of fall sports, and we will again start preparing for wrestling in December.
The goal of the program remains the same. Continue to grow the program and build off our past success. We look forward to the fact that we have committed athletes that are now on the road to finding continued success at the junior high and high school levels. Myself, Coach Taylor, the other coaches and our parents are extremely proud of the work these kids put in and their accomplishments. We have a program that competes annually at a national level and succeeds with the limited resources we have available to us.
I want to again thank the school, my coaches, my parents and the community for their continued support. More than anything I cannot thank my wrestlers enough for their hard work and dedication. They continue to inspire me every time we step on the mat together. We extend an open invitation to anyone and everyone that wants to come be a part of our wrestling family and share in our success.
Wrestling isn’t easy
Nor should it be
For the greatest gift
This sport will ever give
Is who you become as
A result of it
