By John Edwards, Head Wrestling Coach

The Liberty Warrior wrestling team began with a tremendous start. For the first time in our program’s history, we had 26 Upper School wrestlers and were able to fill every weight class (15) for varsity competition. 

We opened our season with a victory against longtime rival Southwest Christian. Then we went on to compete against several 5A public schools at tournaments and individual meets. We were able to scratch out victories against Richland and Carter-Riverside and gain great experience at the hands of Flower Mound, Keller Fossil Ridge, Frisco Centennial, Frisco, and MacArthur. 

Most recently we traveled to our first out of state tournament, competing at the Southern States Private School Tournament on Dec. 11 in Shreveport, La. We had a great day in Shreveport and walked away with our program’s first ever first place finish at a tournament. 

Several of our wrestlers are having great seasons. Four-year varsity wrestler, defending TAPPS state champion, and senior captain Peter Hammer is undefeated, standing on an 18-0 record at the 130-pound weight class. Freshman Gage Reesor is 13-2 at the 103-pound weight class. Junior Jett Milner is currently 8-2 after joining our squad at the end of football season. Senior captain Sam Lynch-Childers is 13-6 at the 171-pound weight class. Josh Taylor, Bryan Gray, Austin Mann, Max Merriman, Ryan Leaverton, Aaron Deaver, Lucas Kay, Hayden Erwin, Micah Stateson, Jordan Sharp, A.J. Seely, and Daniel Elsom fill out our varsity roster. 

Additionally, we have Matt Thompson, Mason Webb, Matthew Medlock, Conner Devlin, Titius McLaughlin, Ian Harrington, Brandon Allison, Nick Byars, Matt Murillo, and Evan Key gaining valuable experience and earning hard-fought victories while competing in junior varsity matches and tournaments. 

Our final home match is this Tuesday, Jan. 11, in the competition gym at 6 p.m. versus Byron Nelson High School. Please come out and enjoy exciting matches while supporting the Warrior wrestlers. 

*These and other up-to-date and in-depth articles on Liberty athletics can be found in “Tracking the Warriors,” a monthly publication for members of the Warrior Club.

 Liberty’s Wrestling team competes at the TAPPS State Tournament this weekend in Austin. This season is Liberty’s third year to have a varsity wrestling team. Two years ago, Liberty came in ninth place at the State Tournament, and last year they finished fifth. This year they hope to do even better. 

“This year many of our veteran wrestlers are reaping the reward of perseverance and now have the experience that is bringing them success,” said John Edwards, head wrestling coach. 

“What is most pleasing to me about this year’s wrestling season is the number of participants we gained over last year,” said Edwards. “Last year we finished the season with nine wrestlers, and one of those nine won our first individual state championship — I believe that is why we had so many new participants this year.  

“We have 30 wrestlers on the team now, which has enabled us to compete with any school in the area, public or private,” he said. “As a matter of fact, we do most of our wrestling against large public schools.” 

Edwards went on to say that wrestling is still relatively new in Texas, which means that most of the small public schools and private schools don’t have wrestling programs, leaving Liberty no choice but to compete with the “big boys”  — the large public schools.  

“Our team is still a very young team,” Edwards said. “After this year, we will lose four seniors in Jake Milner, Paul Hammer, Brandon Karakashevich, and Matt Hall.