2014-15 Results and Media Coverage

Brusly, Catholic High, Live Oak headline Baton Rouge's wrestling scene this fall

By Mark Clements, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

on November 19, 2014 1:50 p.m.

 Brusly’s wrestling program made history in all sorts of ways last year, and with three state champions back from its Division III title-winning squad, the Panthers are poised for another strong push in 2014.

Senior Koby Mancuso leads Brusly back into the wrestling season, along with sophomores Austin Franklin and Kendon Lee – all of which won an individual state title in their respective weight classes.

Fellow seniors Jo’Vonte Wheeler and Donald Johnson reached the semifinals in the state tournament as well as part of the Panthers’ record-setting showing in which they set a new LHSAA mark for composite team score with a total of 343.5.

All this came after Brusly knocked off 11-time defending city champion, Catholic-Baton Rouge, with a 269-263 win in the city tournament.

“We’re going to be young,” he said. “We’ll have some growing pains early, but I think once we get everybody in the weight classes they need to be in and when we get our football players we’ll be pretty good. It doesn’t matter if we have all 14 freshmen out there, our goals are the same. We want to be competitive every match. We want to have a winning season, dual-meet wise. We want guys to get the finals every tournament. (We want to) win a city title and a state championship. That’s got to be your goals. If its not, then you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do.”

Eight wrestlers may be gone from that strong squad, but the Panthers aren’t the lone program trying to replace lost talent.

Brusly won the Division III state title in record-setting fashion last season. The Bears embark on the 2014 campaign without the contributions of seven starters from a year ago, but head coach Tommy Prochaska still feels his team will be back to title contention by season’s end. (Sam Spiegelman, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)

Prochaska named sophomores Cameron Carpenter and Sam Bourgoyne as up-and-coming talents for Catholic High, but the Bears are still in the process of piecing their squad together.   At least 15 wrestlers have still yet to join the team as they finish out their duties with the football team, which opens postseason play this Friday.   “I don’t know when we’re going to get them,” Prochaska said. “It’s hard to prepare what we’re going to do next week when we don’t have everybody. Hopefully we won’t have them for a while. You just never know.”   Prochaska added the entire Baton Rouge area was relatively unknown with so many seniors gone from squads across the region. His thoughts were echoed by Live Oak coach Chris Collier, who may have the biggest hole to fill in departed Eagle Cody Hill, who set new state records for wins in a season (76) as well as in a career (243). Hill, who won NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's Baton Rouge Wrestler of the Year, was a three-time city and state champion in his time at Live Oak, but it was also what he brought to the team off the mat that Collier said he’ll miss. “To lose someone like that is extremely tough, not only in a wrestling sense but in the attitude and the leadership that Cody brought in,” Collier said. “I feel that the guys we’ve had come in with our seniors and our juniors are doing a good job as far as stepping up. We had great leaders last year, but I think as far as a team coming together and the older guys bringing the younger guys along, it’s like having a couple extra coaches in the room. They’re doing a great job of mentoring them. We do a great job of team unity.”

Live Oak does return three finalists from a year ago, including Colt Olinde, Brody Bonura and Nick Simoneaux, who represent three of the eight upperclassmen for the Eagles. The other 32 members are either freshmen or sophomres.

Despite the lack of experience, Collier is confident his young talent will be strong enough to make some noise not only at the city level but also in the state tournament.

“For us, we’re going to test ourselves early,” Collier said. “We’re very young. But the thing is a lot of the mistakes we’ve made early on are going to be easily fixable. It’s one of those things where, as the season takes shape, we’re going to end up getting better and better and better. We’re going to be able to compete in the long-run, maybe for a city title, and we might be the dark horse for a state title, but I expect us to be in the top three again.”

Back to Top