Wrestling takes hold at Green Forest

Ryan Whetham had a successful stint as head wrestling coach at Berryville High School, where he led an established program.

Now, Whetham is building a program from scratch at Green Forest. And having a blast in doing it.

“It really is fun,” Whetham said Monday, Jan. 12. “The kids have taken to it and run with it. They’re all getting better. Each time they go out, they learn something new, something they should have done. It’s good to see them take what we’ve been doing in practice and working on. And I call those wins, even if they’re not getting their hand raised, by doing something on a Wednesday and applying it on Thursday at a dual. We just take those little wins right there and keep going.”

Whetham said the turnout for the wrestling program has been good, with more than 20 boys and several girls participating at the high school level.

Including junior high, Whetham said approximately 40 wrestlers are participating at Green Forest.

Green Forest junior Casey Jones won five of eight matches in 175-pound weight class in the recent Diamond State Invitational at Springdale Har-Ber High School, Whetham said. Whetham said junior Antony Serrano also competed well at 120 pounds.

On the girls side, Whetham said Heidy Lopez “is really starting to come along,” in the 190-pound class.

“She had a good tournament over there at Har-Ber,” Whetham said.

Primrose Paw also competed well, he said. “She didn’t win much, but her wrestling was really good,” Whetham said. “She’s getting a lot better, a lot more confident.”

The Diamond State tournament featured teams from several states. Whetham said he likes for his team to wrestle against schools from Missouri and Oklahoma because of the quality of the competition.

“I like going against those teams because it makes you better,” Whetham said.