The Niobrara County High School wrestling team is gearing up for the 2024-2025 season
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
LUSK – The Niobrara County High School (NCHS) wrestling room won’t have a lot of bodies in it, but the few that are there have been working hard for new head coach T.J. Hodge. Familiar face Ron Nelson returns as his assistant coach and Charity Musico is team manager.
“One of the things I wanted to bring back – and we started it with the middle school kids – is the team spirit where the kids are helping each other,” Hodge said. “Ron’s training me, there’s so much that’s new and it would be very hard without his help.”
Hodge is a Glenrock native who never dreamed of coaching when he was younger. But as his kids began to get involved, he joined the Peewee football staff and discovered a love for it. It evolved into helping the youth wrestling program and when the opportunity arose, he took it.
Kaydn McCully is the only returning letterwinner with a pair of state tournament appearances under his belt. Sophomores Keen Coffman and Ron Krueger wrestled through middle school but have returned to the program. Freshman Dryce Brott is also stepping in.
“I’ve coached three of these guys since they were in USA Wrestling and the competition between them should be good,” Hodge added. “With a lot of good, young wrestlers coming, these four are a pretty solid group to become leaders the next few years.”
Junior Madison Hespe is a transfer from Newcastle and will be the only Lady Tiger wrestler this season.
“It sounds like she has quite a bit of wrestling experience, and we’re trying to find a way to get her involved and a practice partner,” Hodge said.
NCHS opens the season with the Tiger Invitational Friday morning beginning at 9 a.m. at the Tiger Gym.
