A word that will come up a lot when talking to coach Larry Allred or the wrestlers on the Camp Verde High School wrestling team is “grateful.”
Last year’s wrestling season ended just before the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting events down. For much of the last year, there’s been an uncertainty about whether a season would take place in 2021. On Friday, Jan. 8, the Arizona Interscholastic Association executive board voted to cancel the winter sports season. Four days later, that decision was changed.
This season will be abbreviated. A wrestler would normally compete in 50 to 60 matches in a season. The Cowboys wrestlers will have 14 matches this year. Because of that, the Camp Verde team is ready to take full advantage of the opportunity that it has been presented with.
“I’m excited,” senior Dade Woodard said. “Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a senior season. I was a little worried. Hearing that they were able to find a way to give us some sort of a season, even if it’s shortened and maybe not as good of a senior season as I’d like, I’m grateful that I’m going to be able to have one.”
Woodard is the top returning wrestler for the Cowboys. He is looking to improve upon his junior season, when he finished sixth at the state meet.
Another senior that Allred has high hopes for is Joseph Tinghitella. While Tinghitella is new to the Cowboys team, he’s not new to wrestling, having moved from Tucson, where he wrestled at Canyon del Oro High School. While he’s still relatively new to the team, the Cowboys have left a big impression on Tinghitella.
“I’m hoping that we can have a great time this year, improve and grow closer together,” he said. “It’s really like a family in here. I feel like we’ve gotten a lot closer together in these past few months than any team I’ve ever been on.”
The ongoing pandemic has created some changes in wrestling practices. Allred has to check the temperatures of his wrestlers at the beginning of every practice. Until the official practice season began, coaches were not permitted to do hands-on drills with the wrestlers on the team and the wrestlers had to work with only one partner.
And while there won’t be as many matches, the compacted schedule means that there will be less time between meets. That will mean some long trips for short meets.
“There are no tournaments whatsoever except for maybe sectionals and state,” Allred said. “We get to wrestle once a day. We’re going to drive all the way to Page one Wednesday night [Feb. 3] to wrestle one time, we each get to wrestle one time, then turn around and come back.”
“I’m totally looking forward to it,” Tinghitella said. “The more matches the better. Just to have the chance to compete, I’m grateful. No matter how it ends up happening.”
The Cowboys will not get to ease into their season. They’ll open things up with three home meets in the first week: Wednesday, Jan. 20, against Morenci at 4 p.m., Friday, Jan. 22, against Holbrook at 5 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 23, against Wickenburg at 11 a.m.
The meets will not be as well attended as in the past. The AIA is allowing only up to two guardians for each wrestler at each home meet and even then, only if the host county and district permit it.
Still, the schedule is on balance a positive change for the Cowboys. Last season, all of their meets were on the road. This year, Camp Verde will host seven meets.
Overall, the Cowboys will field a smaller team than they had last year. A season ago, Camp Verde had 24 wrestlers. This year, the Cowboys have 18. That drop, though, is minor compared to what other schools are facing. Allred noted that he’s called coaches trying to set meets up only to find out that those teams have only six or seven wrestlers.
And that’s not something that the Camp Verde team takes lightly. The season is definitely going to be unique and unlike what anyone would have envisioned a year ago. But given that other wrestling teams throughout the state and country aren’t getting to have a season, the Cowboys are savoring that time that they do get to spend in the Camp Verde wrestling room.
“We’re looking really strong,” Tinghitella said. “We’re getting better and better every day. We’re thankful to be in here and able to practice when a lot of other teams aren’t.”
“To be honest, it’s pretty obvious that we’re lucky to be wrestling,” Allred said. “It looked iffy for a long time. They’re going to let us get on the mat and we’re grateful for that.”
