We did New Year’s the Irish way

No, not with that stuff in a bottle, but Sherry and I observed an Emerald Isle custom supposed to guarantee a good year.

    Being a quarter-Irish, I knew that at 12:01 a.m. Jan 1st, the old country folks throw open their front doors to let the departing year out and the new one come on in. That’s what we did and I can already see 2023 starting out favorably for Bulldawg sports.

     A little history lesson... it was a cold night back in 2001 when Bulldawg assistant coach Reb Brock was tasked with taking his newly-formed Bulldawg wrestling team to the old junior high gym for its first meet against outside competition.

     It was one of my first assignments for the Leader-Press and when photojournalist David Landmann and I got there, we were floored. 

     Why? Simply because the first three matches on that night›s card were between...girls. 

     Of course I knew about Title IX and all that, but I didn’t expect to see this, even though the distaff side had been highly successful in basketball and softball. But, wrestling?

     Fast forward back to today. It›s 2023...one of the wrestlers on that long ago team, Ryan Robbins, is now the head coach and he has built the program into a formidable outfit, including two young women due for special praise.

     Recently, the latest state rankings came out and two names jump right out. Holding down the No. 11 slot in the girls 120-pound weight class is Janel Golderos, while teammate Vera Hathaway is 16th in the 145’s. Due to archive unavailability, we can’t look back to see previous results, but...Coach Robbins, what do you say?

     "They've both worked really hard this year." 

     I don't think there›s any question about that.

     If you want to see these Lady Dawgs and the other Bulldawg grapplers in action, their next home meet is Jan. 18 at the high school.

     Don›t expect to see hair pulling, jumps off high ropes, or crashing through tables. This is not the WWE.

    This is wrestling.

    Go Dawgs!