Golden Bears enjoy yet another banner season with third at state
Riley Greathouse battled his way to a win at state to help add points to Waynedale’s third-place team finish.
Another year, another grand showing for the Waynedale Golden Bears at the Division III state tournament.
With a nice contingent of competitors in tow, head coach Louie Stanley and his crew marched into Columbus and emerged with a third-place showing.
Waynedale finished behind Graham Local and Delta — a finish that ties them for the second-best ever at state — and had six of its eight wrestlers place, showcasing the strength of this program, which according to Stanley continues to be not the work done at state, but all the effort put in long before the season even begins.
“These guys have bought into everything we have said. They’ve worked hard. They watch film at lunchtime and do everything it takes to be as good as they are,” Stanley said. “It doesn’t come easy. Nothing worthwhile ever does. It’s attitude and effort.
“Are you willing to work hard when nobody else is watching? Will you work when nobody asks you to? Do you work when you don’t feel like working? That’s what champions do, and that’s the attitude our guys have taken, and it equates to everything in real life.”
He said talking about both individual and team goals begins well before the season starts, and the goals this year were huge with a relatively young but experienced team taking to the mat.
More importantly, Stanley said it isn’t just the varsity kids that are taking these messages to heart. It is middle school and youth wrestling. He said gaining insight and understanding as to what the goals are and how they can best achieve them needs to become a mindset at an early age.
He said another component of success is watching and identifying what other successful programs are doing and how they are doing it.
All of that paid dividends again this year, producing a great weekend of wrestling to cap off the season.
For the Golden Bears, Robert McCrork (190 pounds) fought his way to second place. Isaak Skelly (120 pounds) and Dalton Oberly (150) both finished third, Brock Beckler (113) placed sixth, and Sebastian Schmeltzer (132) and Caden Schmeltzer (138) both finished seventh, all of them earning All-Ohio accolades to cap off a fantastic season. Riley Greathouse (144) went 1-2 at state while Stephen Patterson (126) went 0-2, but both will return next season to try to improve those standings.
“Overall, it was a great team effort. We had a couple of heartbreaking losses by some upperclassmen, but the guys fought back and wrestled extremely well,” Stanley said. “We got some bonus points that really helped us settle into a third-place finish. Obviously, with Graham coming down, it kind of rained on everybody’s parade. It was nice to be able to compete as a top three.”
Rain or not, it turned out to be a terrific trek to state for the Golden Bears.
Stanley said these types of performances and results continue to build momentum and said he owes so much to a coaching staff that has been every bit as dedicated as his wrestlers.
“I’m blessed with the best coaching staff a guy could ever ask for,” Stanley said. “From the varsity staff down through the middle school and youth and all of the volunteers, we’re very fortunate at Waynedale to have a quality group that cares and wants to give back. Our kids believe in our coaches because they know most of them have been through this whole thing. My coaches do so much behind the scene it’s ridiculous.”
It all adds up to one big family, and once again the state tournament served as a sort of family reunion for the small-school juggernaut.