Teurlings packs balanced punch for parish duals
By Kevin Foote; 11:09 p.m. CST January 7, 2014
His first reaction to the question was to just laugh.
His second was to give credit to the opponent.
But the more Teurlings Catholic wrestling coach Kent Masson thought about it, the better it sounded.
Masson’s Rebels took last year’s bid to the final match of the dual between Teurlings and powerhouse Comeaux, only to fall short and watch the Spartans celebrate their 12th straight parish dual wrestling championship.
Teurlings brings another deep squad to Carencro High this weekend for another attempt to halt Comeaux’s impressive run.
“I have the utmost respect for Keith Bergeron and his staff and the job they do with that program,” Masson said. “I think we’ve got a shot. It would be nice to see our team taking a picture with the one finger in the air, rather than Comeaux with rings on three toes. That would give us a big boost in confidence.”
It’s certainly a concept that doesn’t take much of an imagination to believe. Masson’s Rebels had 10 starters back. Neither team sports the heavy-hitters than have stood out for them in recent years.
“This is a balanced team,” Masson said. “From 106 through 170, really everybody is pretty much the same across the board. We’ve got a question mark at 220 and we’re pretty good at 285.”
Don’t be fooled by that talk of balance, however. There’s plenty of achievement in that group. Brock Bonin is 20-1 on the season as a defending Division II state champion moving up to 120 pounds.
At 138, Jacob Rees “has stepped up big for us and is really coming along.”
Also catching Masson’s eye of late is Dakota Hebert at 145. “He has been wrestling lights out the last few weeks,” Masson said. “He’s been competitive in every match.”
At 126, Tristan Lee was a Division II state runner-up last season and has his hands full in arguably the toughest weight division in the state this season. “He’s in a really tough weight class,” Masson said. “He’s got some quality wins and some quality losses. His losses are close losses – by one, two, three points – to quality opponents.”
Brennan Trosclair is another threat for the Rebels at 152 pounds. “He’s a little underweight, but he can handle it,” Masson said. “He’s been wrestling extremely well.”
At 285, junior Travis Santiago is off to a tremendous start at 20-2 and should be one of the Rebels’ top candidates to earn Outstanding Wrestler honors in his weight division.
While there’s some comfort in this year’s balanced approach, there’s also some drawbacks. If everyone is basically the same, it’s hard for any one individual to step up as a leader.]
“It’s very difficult to ask a kid who doesn’t really have those skills to just start being a (vocal) leader,” Masson said. “Others are just trying to lead by example and don’t really know how to do that either. This (senior) class is just different. We just don’t have those kind of personalities. Hopefully, the juniors can start to take up that role.”