The tough part about the single-elimination state tournament, in any high school sport, is that it ends on a losing note for all but a small handful of state champion teams.
It can be even a bit more painful if a team loses its final contest by a one-sided score that does not reflect the quality of its entire season.
The Fruitport wrestling team had that experience earlier this week.
The Trojans, who won a Division 2 district championship on Feb. 8 in dramatic fashion, ran into a very strong Plainwell team on Wednesday in the first round of team regionals and fell 75-3.
It was a hard way to put a cap on an otherwise very successful season.
[1]Fruitport finished with a dual record of 14-6, which was a significant improvement from its 12-11 record in 2021-22.
The Trojans had some impressive dual wins in the regular season – a 37-36 thriller over archrival Spring Lake, a 48-30 win over a very good Holland team, and a 47-24 victory over traditional power Alma.
They finished third in the very tough O-K Blue conference (including the conference tournament), and third at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Tournament.
They had four wrestlers capture individual city championships – Nash Cooper, Roan Cooper, Hunter Leonard and Caleb O’Neal.
Roan Cooper captured his 100th career victory in the city tournament finals at Montague High School, while his brother Nash got his 100th win exactly one week later in another tournament at Montague.
O’Neal was the third team member to reach the 100-career victory mark this season.
[2]Fruitport had five wrestlers earn more than 30 victories this season, an unusually high number – Nash Cooper (42-4), Leonard (40-5), O’Neal (37-8), Roan Cooper (36-10) and Davis Johnson (34-12).
Of course the highlight of the season was the Division 2 district championship match against Fremont at Fruitport High School on Feb. 8.
The Trojans trailed by five points with one match left and needed a six-point pin to secure the victory and the title.
Leonard got the job done, pinning Fremont’s Beckett Newell in the second period to clinch a dramatic 36-35 victory and the district championship.
“We call that a good program win,” said Fruitport head coach Chad Johnson. “You can build your program off from something like that. We were home with a nice crowd, it was a great environment, all the school administrators were there, and the youth program kids and middle school kids were there to see it.
“That was the type of match that the younger kids see and will really want to be part of it.”
[3]All in all, it was a good year for the Trojans, despite how it ended.
“I think it all starts with the offseason work we put in,” Johnson said. “We got back to the wrestling room about a week after last year’s state tournament and we kept wrestling all summer in different types of tournaments as a team. We were competing all year long. I think that had a big impact on the season and the closeness and camaraderie of the kids.”
Johnson gives a lot of credit to three assistant coaches who focused on different parts of the team this season, allowing more one-on-one interaction and instruction between coaches and wrestlers.
Rick Sykes worked with the lighter weight wrestlers, Levi Six focused on the middle weights and Garrett Kelly worked with the heavier weights.
“They were more specialty coaches,” Johnson said. “Obviously the lighter guys don’t hit the same moves as the heavier guys, and having those coaches helping out allowed us to focus more on the individuals.”
The wrestling season isn’t quite over for Fruitport. Leonard, O’Neal, Nash Cooper and Roan Cooper – all seniors – finished in the final four of their weight classes in last weekend’s individual districts and will compete this Saturday at individual regionals.
[4]They will each be pushing for at least another fop four finish, which would send them to the individual state finals at Detroit’s Ford Field on March 3-4.
The reality, however, is that those four seniors will be done soon, and their varsity careers will be over. The team’s other three seniors – Trace Pider, Andrew Fielstra and Kaiden Bell – wrapped up their careers in the team loss on Wednesday.
Coach Johnson said all seven will be sorely missed.
“My first year with the program was four years ago, so I came in with these seniors, and the bond that we have formed with them has been pretty sincere and pretty deep,” he said. “It’s hard when the time comes to say goodbye. We hope that we have made an impact with them and helped them to become better men.”
The good news is that the future is bright for the Trojans. While the seven outgoing seniors were very good, there will be lot of experienced wrestlers returning next season to try to push the team to even more success.
One underclassman with a very bright future is Davis Johnson, who won 34 matches this year as a freshman.
“The seniors have definitely led the way, but we’re expecting some younger guys to step up in a big way next season,” Johnson said.
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