Rebel Jays ready to hit the mat with full squad

Optimism was high last week for the Wabeno-Laona-Three Lakes varsity wrestling team as 21 grapplers participated in practice sessions to prepare for the new season which begins next Friday. More than a dozen team members are returning letter winners, hoping to use their experience to extend a long-standing tradition of sending Rebel Jays to state championship matches in Madison at the close of the season.     

Sophomore Reegan Roy was a state qualifier last season and walked away with a WIAA Division 3 top-five medal in his 106-pound weight class. Racking up nearly 50 wins in his freshman year, Roy is looking to improve on a first-year resumé where he finished second in regional and sectional championship competitions before ultimately placing fourth in Madison.  

While the Rebel Jays lost another state qualifier, Brady Shepard, to graduation, they still have three wrestlers who advanced to sectional matches last season as Jayse Demerath, Levi Newman, and Hayden Demerath, all from Wabeno High School, return following a year in which they earned 77 match wins.

Other notable wrestlers returning to the mat this season include Laona sophomore Brody Hoffman, who at 157 pounds finished last year with 25 wins, and Three Lakes senior Noah Kincaid who won 18 matches in the 150-pound weight class. Sawyer Christianson, Nolan Milham, Michael Milligan, Worawat Thawonwan, Max Clark, and Jedidiah Sarratt return to the team from Wabeno High School, and sophomore Naaman Stanley joins Hoffman representing Laona High School.      

The coaching team of Seth Senter and Colin Schubert return for a fifth year leading the co-op arrangement between the three high schools, and each has state championship experience as a high school wrestler with Senter qualifying three times, while Schubert was a Division 2 state champion in 2013. Both coaches shared enthusiasm following the early practices. 

“Not only do we have a lot of returning letter winners,” Senter said, “but a lot of these kids worked hard in the off-season building strength and wrestling in summer camps.”

Schubert agreed and added, “We seem to be getting better each year and this season we are confident that our collective experience will help produce new opportunities for our kids to compete in Madison.”  Senter and Schubert are joined in the coach’s corner by long-time assistants John Fink and Dan Moravec and the most recent addition of Paul Lewis and John Twardoski. The coaching staff brings several decades of wrestling and coaching experience to the team.

In addition to the returning varsity wrestlers, the coaches have expressed high hopes for some of the younger members of the team including Wabeno freshmen Ryker Schingeck and Cameron Tilton, each coming to the program with extensive experience. Schingeck earned several first-place finishes in his middle school years and had competed in more than a dozen nonschool events just before joining the varsity team, while Tilton has enjoyed similar levels of success in seven years of youth wrestling.

“With the right guidance from the coaching staff, these kids have unlimited potential,” Senter commented.  “In fact, we have several wrestlers who will benefit from the long history of our coaching team, whether they are seasoned on the mat or new to the sport.” 

“Our wrestling program continues to improve,” coach Schubert added, “The wide variety of age and skill levels is growing, which is great in the long run for the program and for our three high schools.”

The Rebel Jays will open the season next Friday, December 6, at an invitational event at Oconto High School, followed by a Saturday tournament the next morning at Antigo High School. The Oconto matches begin at 4 p.m. while action in Antigo begins at 9:30 a.m.