KENNEBUNK — Whenever you see a successful high school wrestling team, you will most likely find a strong youth program working as a feeder system down below.
Kennebunk High School head coach Steve Young and assistant coach Mike Dumas knew they would need to lay a foundation in order to eventually find success at the varsity level — and that’s why they put in the work as not only high school coaches, but as leaders at the youth and middle school levels.
All of that hard work is paying off this year as the Rams are off to a 7-0 start with a team title at the York Sullivan Duals and a second-place finish at Gardiner last weekend.
A key reason for the Rams’ success so far this season is a big increase in numbers.
“Since I’ve become head coach this is definitely the fullest team we’ve had and it’s nice. You can definitely tell the difference between having nine kids like we did last year and then having 23 this year,” said Young.
Along with a lot of new faces, Young has seen a different mindset in the wrestling room this season.
“It’s just the whole mentality in practice. You have more kids to roll around with. Different kids are pushing kids to get better and challenging for spots, where with nine kids you pretty much know you’re going to have the spot and you don’t really have to work that hard to keep it,” Young said. “Now, these kids have to work harder to keep their spots and you can just tell even the practice room is better. Match days and tournament days are better. These kids are more involved.”
Dumas echoed that sentiment.
“It’s huge for a few reasons,” said Dumas of the bigger roster. “As far as being competitive goes, I mean it goes a long ways if you can fill a full team. Last year we had nine kids and we could win head-to-head matches, but because of the forfeits, we would still lose. But also having this big of a team, we have a bunch of good kids who can drill and help each other get better.”
Dumas has seen a different level of focus and intensity from this group of Rams.
“I see a little bit more dedication to the sport out of this group than we’ve had in the past. They start seeing themselves more as wrestlers and not necessarily football players that are just wrestling or whatever it is,” said Dumas.
Leading the way for the Rams is returning state champion Alden Shields along with senior Chase Lamontagne and junior Sean Radel.
Lamontagne and Radel are thrilled to have a lot more teammates this season.
“In my whole career we’ve never had a full team. We had nine kids last year, so it definitely helps a lot,” said Lamontagne. “We had a strong team last year even though we had a small (lineup), but we lost dual meets because of the absence of people. Now, since we have a full team we have a full, good lineup and that makes us pretty strong and helps us a lot.”
“It’s a lot better this year. A lot more kids are here pushing each other and we’ve already seen what we’re capable of placing second as a team (at Gardiner) and winning the York duals, so that was really big and there’s been a lot more interest around school,” Radel said.
The Rams will be counting on Lamontagne, Radel and Shields, but they also have a strong group of freshman — led by David York, Trevor Fecko, Garrett Dickinson and Eli Soule — that could make some noise this season.
Young has been waiting for this freshman group to get to the high school level and team up with his upperclassmen.
“Mike and I have been doing youth for a long time as well and Alden, David and Trevor, all these guys were on the youth team when we first took over and we knew it was a matter of time before we got them all on the same team and get them ready to go and have a solid varsity team,” Young said. “It’s finally coming together. We had a few other kids who were kind of surprises to join the team this year that have fit into the puzzle pretty nicely and really helped us out as a team as a whole.”
Kennebunk assistant coach Madison Hanson, who joined Young’s staff in 2015, believes the Rams have a chance to do some special things over the next few years.
“I know Steve and Mike have been working at it a long time and they’ve been talking about this year being the year that we get Davey York and Trevor Fecko and those big names. It’s exciting to see what’s going to happen the next couple years. I think we’ll have a lot of success,” said Hanson.
Radel is confident this year’s Kennebunk squad can do some damage.
“At the beginning of the year we were just excited to have a full lineup and now we’re looking at trying to win regionals, trying to place as a team at states, so our goals are definitely getting higher each day,” said Radel.
— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 780-9017. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.