The Hill Country is always going to be known for its basketball, but wrestling is finding its place in the area as well.
Wrestling continues to grow in Mississippi as more schools begin to field teams. Northeast Mississippi is no exception.
“It’s light years ahead of where it was,” said Brian Fox, the co-founder and former president of the Mississippi Wrestling Foundation. “I knew Mississippians would like wrestling because they already wrestle in the backyard or in the living room. We were at two schools in 2020 in the middle of COVID, and now I think we’re at 40 or 41. … It’s kind of like a start-up, but it’s crossed the threshold there where I think the momentum is too strong, and it’s naturally going to grow from here.”
The Mississippi High School Activities Association handbook’s list of schools in the Northern Division for wrestling includes Tupelo, Oxford, Saltillo, North Pontotoc and South Pontotoc. Starkville and MSMS are also now fielding teams. It’s a good start for a growing sport, and it ensures that local wrestlers don’t have to travel too far to compete.
“That’s changed the game so much because the first year, there were 10 schools in the whole state,” Fox said. “… (Before) you had to go a ways, you had to travel. It really was a lot more work. You can almost have a normal season, a normal amount of travel. We have regions now; we never had regions before.”
The appeal of wrestling as a high school sport is that it’s easy to participate in as well as maintain. Both boys and girls can compete, and a wide variety of weight classes means that athletes are always participating in a fair fight.
“Wrestling is great for all kids – not everybody can run a 4.4 40, not every kid is 6-foot-7 and can slam dunk a basketball,” Tupelo wrestling coach Grady Hurley said. “Wrestling, it’s made for all sizes and body shapes and body types. If you’re 106 pounds, you’re going to wrestle a 106-pounder, 113 wrestling a 113. You’re out there in the middle of that 40-by-40 mat by yourself.”
Additionally, wrestling doesn’t come with a ton of equipment and upkeep.
“I’m thinking a lot of these smaller schools are going to start adding (wrestling) soon once they realize that the only cost is having the wrestling mat, and it’ll last for 10 to 20 years,” Fox said. “After that, it’s super affordable. You don’t have to have 15 kids, you can have one, and it’s for boys and girls, so I think it’s just going to keep growing.”
One of the next steps for wrestling is to have an official state championship meet. The MHSAA handbook reads, “When 50 percent or more of the member schools enter competition, a plan will be devised to determine a state championship.”
There’s still a statewide meet, however. Three area teams placed in the top five last year: Tupelo (third), Oxford (fourth) and North Pontotoc (fifth). Caeden Hill won a state title last year for Tupelo in the heavyweight class and is looking to repeat this year.
“We’ve had success, we’ve had state champions, state placers,” Hurley said. “Last year, Caeden Hill, he won the heavyweight championship, state champion, and he’s a senior this year. He’s preseason number one. … He’s on his path probably to repeat and go back-to-back state championships in the heavyweight division.”
Even outside of the wins and losses, the nature of wrestling lends itself to some valuable life lessons.
“You’ve got your coaches and your teammates, but we’re not on the mat with you, so you face a lot of adversity when you’re wrestling,” Hurley said. “Learning how to deal with adversity at a young age and learning how to overcome adversity, how to cope with it, how to deal with it, how to learn how to deal with success and failure, all of those things, when you go through all of those circumstances and you learn from them, really sets you up for success later in life.”
Another step for wrestling to take is to create feeder programs so that kids are introduced to the sport before they reach high school.
“They start to create a peewee league, like a rec league,” Fox said. “All their little siblings and all the little kids start getting into it. I think once we start developing youth wrestling, I think it’s going to change the scene in high school.”
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