Clinton wrestlers welcome new coach
The Clinton Dragons are starting up their wrestling season under their new head coach, Josh Cate.
This is Cate’s first year at Clinton High School and his first full year as a head coach.
“We only have a couple of returning wrestlers from last year, so there’s not going to be a lot of change that the kids have to adjust to,” he said. “Everyone’s pretty much brand new and a blank slate. I think that’s a positive. The few kids I do have returning have been extremely open to my way of coaching. The increase in their ability has shot up even between the first match and the second.”
Cate also talked about getting them to buy in and how his coaching style is helping them to do just that.
“It takes time,” he said. “We have to see some success to get them to buy in, and I think my style of coaching definitely helps with that. I’m not a hard-nosed guy that runs people into the ground and has high expectations of them.
“We’re going to make small goals and try to meet those goals, and that helps these kids stay confident even if they’re not seeing outright wins.
“Last year they had six wrestlers, and we have 13 this year,” Cate said. “That’s a big step up for us in recruiting. We have a few kids with experience, so that’s good. The biggest thing, though, is we only have one senior and one junior. The rest of the team are freshmen and sophomores, so if we can get them to stick around and keep our recruiting up, in the next three years or so, we’re going to be a team to look out for.”
Cate walked through some of the standouts on the small team.
“We have Jayden Lake, Riley Webb, and Lucas Kendall all returning. We have a freshman, Caleb Kendell, who wrestled in middle school. Lukas Kendall is definitely the standout, and also the captain. He’s a sophomore and I think by the time he’s a senior, he’s definitely going to be someone to watch out for on the mat. He’s already doing great, but as he begins to understand why he’s doing things the way he is instead of just learning the techniques, it will propel him upward very quickly.
“Riley Silk seems to have some natural ability, and I think if he really cracks down and takes it seriously, he’ll make some big strides in a short period. He’s probably my rookie of the year, I guess you could say.”
Of course, with COVID still raging across the U.S., there’s the question of what a wrestling season looks like, and Cate said that, as far as the sport itself goes, there are questions.
“There’s really nothing I know of that we can do,” he said. “We can have the kids be safe off the mat and make wise decisions as far as that goes, but when we’re wrestling, it’s face-to-face contact and there’s nothing that can be done about that. Obviously if anyone isn’t feeling good, stay away, but nothing specific that I’m doing.”
According to Cate, he mostly wants achievable goals for the team this year and to try to retain as many players as possible.
“I guess I just really want to drive home that we’re a new team, and we’ve got new ideas about coaching.” he said. “We’re really looking to grow this program and it should happen in a quick fashion as long as we can get these kids on the mat. I plan on unveiling a new uniform for next year as an alternative to the wrestling singlet, too, and I think that that will help kids to get on the mat. It’s a big deal for these kids to wear the singlet. They do not want to wear it. It’s approved by the TSSAA, shorts and a compression shirt, and I think that’ll help kids not be so worried about people seeing them in a tight outfit. Coach Keith has really helped me get some more kids out, and I think next year, when the football players see the result of the conditioning, it’ll really help to facilitate the transfer of kids back and forth between football and wrestling.
“I would say the goals for the season are to keep everybody on the team whether it be grades, COVID, loss of interest, whatever,” Cate said. “I know it’s been a problem in the past. Keeping the team together the whole season is my number one priority. Number two is to show them that the things they’re doing in practice will help them achieve their smaller goals and spread over into their real life and everything else. It’s not much to do with wins and losses.”